97 Century remote trunk release popping fuse

[jake63]

My wife's 1997 Buick Century pops the fuse when actuating the remote trunk release, but not every time, works several times before it blows. Any thoughts?

[rockfangd]

start with the harness that runs from the trunk lid. possibly a short from a chaffed wire

[jake63]

I figured it's shorting somewhere, just wondering if there's a spot where this commonly occurs on these cars to narrow my search.

[jake63]

I guess no one knows of a trouble spot on the trunk wiring, huh?

[jmoore4294]

I wouldn't imagine there to be too much chaffing on the wires in the trunk seeing as how they don't really move. I have this same problem on my Cutlass, only I've narrowed mine down to the reverse lights popping the fuse after only using the lights once or twice instead of my trunk release. I'm not much help I know, but maybe it's a wire located somewhere else that is blowing the fuse.

[ismellrealbad]

RKE module failure? does the in car trunk button do it?

[DEMonte1997]

Do the rear lights go on when you hit the unlock button on the key fob? My Regal was having serious issues with those lights shorting out and it turned out being the wire loom that holds the wiring to those lights. The loom broke where it we constantly being bent from the trunk opening and closing. That, in turn, frayed two of the four wires and then all hell broke loose. Is the trunk popping mechanism on the same harness? It was a little bewildering for a couple seconds but after you sit and look at the wires, it begins to make sense. Is anything else on that fuse?

[jmoore4294]

If it's anything like my cutlass, it'll just be the reverse lights and the trunk solenoid.

[jake63]

Thanks for the input, I'm planning on investigating it further when we finally get some decent weather and my wife isn't off somewhere.

[DEMonte1997]

Let us know how you make out. I seem to remember the trunk popping mechanism being tied to the same harness as the lights on the center taillight piece. I think it also was tied into the light inside the trunk.

[jake63]

Messed with it today. The reverse lights ARE on the same circuit, I removed the trunk light bar and didn't see any obvious issues nor did i find any with a meter. Nothing obvious at trunk solenoid either. Put reverse lights on and wiggled shit around trying to make it short and operated trunk release about 20 times, fuse is holding for now. We'll see what happens.

[jake63]

This is an old thread but I did find the problem way back when, just forgot to post. The problem was the wire for the reverse light going to the transmission was chaffed from the drivers side brake line spring covering and would short out occasionally. Was a PITA to splice but it's fixed.