I have just purchased a 1991 244, great car other than when I turn on the windshield wipers or interior light the door ajar chime goes off and fuse number 8 blows. Any ideas on where to start with this problem? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Christie

 

I would start with the wiring diagram for your year/model, and a volt meter, testing and verifying related circuits. I prefer the Volvo 'greenbook' wiring diagrams to any of the alternatives, but they are out of print.

fuse 8 appears to go to quite a few circuits, courtesy lights, clock, trunk light, electric locks, power antenna, and the radio 'memory' power. fuse 8 gets its power directly off the 'positive terminal' which is right off the battery, so its always powered.

a short circuit to ground on any of those circuits would blow this fuse. the fact that the fuse blows only when you switch on one or more of those circuits suggests the short is after that switch. but the wipers aren't on that fuse, so its quite odd that the wipers are blowing the fuse, unless someone has mucked about with the wiring.

immediately to the right of fuse 8, there's 3 terminals. two of them should have green wires on them, and notthing else. there might be more than one green wire connected to a single pin, the wiring diagram doesn't go into that level of detail.

the seat belt reminder chime also has nothing to do with fuse 8. I wonder if someone has mucked about the wiring while installing an aftermarket stereo. I've seen some ugly messes before.

 

I was just wondering the same thing about the stereo. I just bought this car Friday night and he had recently put a stereo in it. I will go through everything you mentioned. Thank you so much! Christie

 

This problem was resolved. We took the aftermarket stereo out, got to the wiring, several wires were completely bare and exposed. Rewired, replaced, no further problems, everything working as it should.