Gauge fuse keeps blowing

[Warriorpluto]

I Have an 2003 vibe and the gauge fuse blows as soon as I put the key to the on position. It used to blow when I put it into drive but now it doesn't even do that anymore. I can't drive the car because the alternator won't charge nor will the transmission shift out of first gear with this fuse blown. So I jumped the fuse to see what's happening and the red and white striped wire on top of the interior fuse box started to melt a little bit. When that happened I unplugged the jumped fuse. I've checked the harness in the back of the car for the tail lights and have unplugged everything from the back of the car. Unplugged the radio, speedometer, under seat connections as well. But what I did find out is that the wire that was starting to melt goes straight to the plug on the alternator. Do you think that particular wire has a short or would it be something else causing it? I could cut the wire and run a new one to the alternator plug from the dash but it seems there's a lot of things on the gauge circuit that it controls so I'm not sure where to start.

[Warriorpluto]

I fixed it. I just unplugged the neutral safety switch

[joatmon]

welcome to genvibe and congrats on finding a really obscure cause. Do you think that the park/neutral switch is bad, or something downstream from it?

[Warriorpluto]

I'm not really sure. The red wire with the white stripe that goes on top of the interior fuse box that goes to the alternator was starting to melt so I'm not really sure which circuit is tied in with the neutral safety switch. Plus the wiring has been butchered on this car very bad. I'm in a foreign country and every fuse under the dash was jumped. I had been replacing fuses every other week since May. Seems as though it once had an alarm system on it but everything was removed but the wiring not returned back to stock. Even the wires to the fuel pump under the seat has been tampered with and the ac system converted to a manual compressor so that even stays on all the time as well as the radiator fans so no telling what's shorting or burning up slowly in the process. The whole dash harness and inside the kick panels had been taped up or cut and tampered with. Very bad car and I didn't know they did stuff like this here. But I'll sell the car now that I found the problem and get something else where the electrical system isn't tampered with. It has been a great car for three months but now it's a headache. Everytime I look up I'm chasing a wire to something lol.

[joatmon]

That sounds awful. Its a shame, and looking at internal wiring harnesses isn't something I look at when buying a used car, I just assume it hasn't been frankensteined. Years ago car wiring was pretty limited, modern cars have so much electrical and electronic stuff that the wiring harnesses are complex.

Good luck