Hey there guys, I'm posting in here because I'm pretty desperate to find out what the problem is here...

I recently wired a pair of aux. lights to my jeep, they are wired to a relay. However, my fuse keeps blowing. And I just keep temporarily fixing them by putting in a new fuse. My grounds are tied into a factory ground point. So I don't think that's where the problem is.
30-battery
87-lights
86-switch
85-ground

Also, I wired a set of HID's to the jeep on Sunday. This required me to cut the factory bulb harness and splice the new ballasts into the factory wires. My positives are spliced to my low beams (white w/ tan on right, white/ blue on left) and the negative is to ground.
Problem being, my right HID bulb decided to go out today.

My only guess is that there's a short in the vehicle somewhere, what can I do to identify where the wires are going wrong?

 

Well what size fuse are you using? Did you ground to the best possible location? I say this because some locations have paint all around them. Which I'm sure you know to scruff the paint off.

 

I was running a 20amp for a while and those are the ones that kept blowing, the latest one I put in is a 30amp and it's still kicking so far (it's only been about 5 days)
I'm more than sure my grounds have no paint on them.

 

Hm, what wattage are the lights? 20amp fuses work well for my windshield lights.

 

aux - 55w

HID's - 35w

 

That's odd... My lights are also 55w and the 20A fuse works fine. My guess is there is a short somewhere....

 

Ok, 30 amp fuse is way too much. You will only succeed in damaging your wiring if you let this continue. An easy formula for you to remember is PIE (Power(watts)=I(current) X e(voltage). Following this formula with your stated lighting load of 90watts divided by 12volts=7.5amps of current. You shouldn't even be getting close to blowing a 20amp fuse assuming this is the only thing the fuse is supplying power to. To find a short in you lighting circuit, you will have to pull your fuse, light bulbs connected directly to power, and disconnect you ballast. You can then use an ohm meter to check each power wire to ground. Did it blow fuses before you installed HID's, does it blow right away when you turn on your lights? Most of the time with a shorted wire, the fuse will blow right away. If it does not blow right away, then it will be harder to find. Possible causes: ballast overheating, intermittent short in wiring (real hard to find), or a high resistance short. To test for a ballast problem, you can disconnect all lights except for one ballast/light. Then use a meter in series with this one ballast to monitor the current it is drawing. Let it run for awhile and see if the current draw increases after it runs a little while. Then do the same for the other and compare the two. For a high resistance short, disconnect all ballast and remove all bulbs. Then compare your ohm reading from the power wires of each to ground. See if one has less resistance than the others. Lastly, an intermittent short may be next to impossible to find. Other than visually checking all of the wiring you can get to for abrasions, there is not much you can do. Hope this helps a little.

 

There's two circuits , one for the switch to control the relay, and one for the relay to power the lights.

The switch is low amps , 3 for my lights. The switch may have a pilot light, is this connected correctly?

When the switch closes the relay, the 20 amp circuit is turned on.

1st. Disconnect the lights, and cap the wire powering the lights. If the fuse holds the wiring may be good. Connect the lights, if it blows the lights may have the short., you may want to installed one at a time to see which may cause the short.

 

the relay may be bad. 2-55 watt draw just under 10 amps , a 15 amp fuse will work for for those. try another relay , a 30 could melt something or start a FIRE.

 

I've gone through 2 relays as well

The fuse has been burning out since long before I installed the HID's