Hello from Aurora, IL! Bought a Duster with an ignition issue

Mike69cuda said

How big is the added fuse for the ignition? Could it be to small?

The reason I was asking about the regular car fuses is that the ignition power feeds some of them. The radio and heater fan and turn signals are supplied by fuses, so I would think that those fuses would blow if the short was with them.

There are some things like the voltage regulator and ignition module that are not covered by a car fuse. I would suspect those, but that is just a guess.

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That’s a really good point! As I’m still learning about this car, I wasn’t sure what accessories were even on fuses, so that’s great to know. And yes, I thought the same thing that the fuse was too small, but I found out that they had a 30a fuse in there, and it’s blowing those. Seems like an awful lot of draw to do that with nothing on and the key just in the on position.

What baffles me is that I test drove the car, starting it several times, and it made it about half an hour on the highway before I got a backfire and it wouldn’t crank/start. It’s almost like whatever the issue is finally got to its breaking point.

I did just pull the ballast resistor to have a look, and it’s pretty cracked-up on the back side. I have a new one coming in tomorrow (thanks, Amazon.. $8 bucks) as this one looks like it needs to be replaced regardless of whether this is the culprit or not.