My Ford minivan is giving me grief and we can't figure it out...it blows a fuse, then the odometer and dome lights, speedometer don't work. We got the right fuse isolated, but whenever we change it, it just blows immediately. We got it to work for two days, but then it just wouldn't allow it. Just blows immediately. We even disconnected the battery, changed the fuse and then reconnected but it blew again, right away.
As soon as this gets fixed, we're gonna try to sell it and get a Bug. In the meantime, I dream.
I suspect a poorly-placed wire in the dome light circuit has chafed through its insulation, providing a short to ground. There's no easy way to find it. I'd check all the domelight bulbs for a broken bulb, but you probably won't find one. You'd want to find the appropriate wires in the wire harness and follow them along, from fusebox to light module to door switch to light (YMMV), looking for bare copper. That's going to mean pulling trim and upholstery, maybe even pulling the door trim panel. Ugh.
To tell the truth, I'd trade it with that fault and let the garage deal with the hassle of finding the short.
That bug is sweet. Nice color, too.
Sounds like you've got a short somewhere in the circuit. I had a similiar problem with my old Celica.
I had bought it used and someone had put a wrong-amperage fuse (too high, like 10 in a 15 amp or something) in the horn/hazard/radio socket. I didn't think anything of it at the time.
It eventually blew so I replaced it with the same amp fuse that was in there. Then that one blew. So I put one more in there and the wiring started to smoke. I yanked the fuse out and ran for the fire extinguisher.
What had happened was that the horns were rusted out (low to the ground under the front bumper, on road-salted Vermont roads). The replacement of the wrong amperage fuse zorched all the wires in the front end of the car - cost me about $300 worth of rewiring work.
Moral of the story: 1) use the right amperage fuse, don't cheat and put a higher one in there, 2) if it blows, there's a good reason it did, 3) find the short....
LQ