license plate lights
 

ok so just went through a whole ordeal with my license plate lights and realized how much a pain in the butt it is to deal with replacing a fuse just for the license plate lights. long story short i had LED bulbs in them, LED bulbs went out, tried replacing them with stock bulbs which caused a spark and i assume burnt out the fuse, found the fuse box tucked in on the side of the battery and said screw it to replacing the fuse seeing as i have no sunlight left to work with. quick question though, anybody know off hand how many amps the fuse is for the license plate lights? just cant believe how much you have to go through to replace a freakin fuse :shakes head: oh and also forgot to mention, in the process of going through the fuses to try and find the license plate fuse, i took out the fuse for the horn and put it back in but now when i hit the button on my fob i notice the horn is significantly quieter than it was before, anybody have any ideas on this?

10 amp. Fuse #59 in the IPDM (next to bottom on right side, IIRC).

Reference: EXL-37 of 2009 FSM
Edit: Fuse list starts at EXL-37. Lic plate fuse is actually listed on EXL-38.

thanks alot, at least i know one of the spare that nissan supplies you with will work for it lol, now if i can just figure out what happened to the horn

The lic plate fuse supplies:
- Daytime running light relay
- Parking lamp
- Front side marker lamp
- Tail lamp
- Rear side marker lamp
- License plate lamp



Two fuses for the horn (FSM HRN-2):
#31 (15A)
#38 (10A)

Both are located in the Fuse, Fusible Link And Relay Box (AKA Battery Terminal with Fusible Link). See PG-85 for fuse locations in box.

Edit: Fuses 50 and 51 (15A) may be involved with the horn. Both are in IPDM. I think they are power for the IPDM, but, since you will already be in the IPDM, you might as well check.

make sure you look in the fuse box beside the battery, not the one in the kick panel...

the 2 fuses for the horn were fine, its just after i put them back the horn was quieter all of a sudden

There are two horns - Hi and Lo (I'm not sure if those are supposed to be adjectives for volume or tone). Each has its own fuse and relay. IIRC, the relays are in the same Fuse, Fusible... box on the front of the battery as the horn fuses. I'm guessing one of the fuses is blown or you have a bad relay. Some relays on the Z are not meant to be removed, so don't go yanking on relays willy-nilly.

did not yank on a relay, i know what a relay looks like and i was know where near pulling on any of those, i was just removing and then putting back the smaller fuses like the 10 and 15 amp ones

I didn't mean to imply that you had. Just a warning to be careful. I haven't looked up the horn relays, so I'm not sure if they are removable are not. IIRC, none of the relays in the IPDM are removable.

I'd like to Thank You for your helpful posts :tup:

Aw, shucks. Wern't nuthin'.

I like looking this stuff up. It helps me learn more about my car. Thanks to looking stuff up to answer questions, I now know 10x more than I really want to about Steering Locks. ;)

sorry if i took it that way, just a little frustrated as you can probably understand, i went out and checked that the relay was working anyway and it is working properly as when i put my finger on it i can feel the relay move on the inside of its box. i know one things for sure, i'm never putting LED bulbs in again, well maybe never lol

Man sucks to hear about your problems Mike :(

But what type of bulbs were you using or trying to use?

I've have mine on for a couple of years and have not had any issues.

I just find it crazy the stock bulb blew the fuse.

No problem. I just wanted to make sure I didn't inadvertently add to your frustration.

I just went out and checked the fuse box on my 2009 Touring and there is only the one relay that you mention. I don't know if this is because the other relay shown in the wiring diagram is located somewhere else or if dual horns is an option that I don't have.

If there is only the one relay and it is working, then the only three things I can think of are: you installed the fuse improperly, or the relay has a bad contact, or bad connection in the wiring.
Edit: Four things: the horn may be bad.

no big deal, just a little annoying cause i cant exactly drive at night without the license plate lights, as for the deal with the bulbs i actually got that mixed up, it was when i was taking out the LED that was going bad that it sparked, upon taking a closer look at it turned out one of the contact wires had gotten so brittle that it just came off when i was taking it out of the socket and it caused it to spark shortly followed by my other LED bulb going out after that happened. as for the fuses for the horn southark i made sure and put the fuse back in exactly the way it came out, at this point the only thing i can think of to fix the horn issue is to have the dealer take a look at it and hopefully it will be covered by my warranty. oh and trips i got the bulbs from iJDMtoy.com which from reading on the boards is supposed to be a good place to get high quality bulbs, but i guess i just got one out of a bad batch or something.