Everything worked fine until recently, started car in morning and radio didn’t work. Changed fuse and it blew, put second, stronger fuse in and still blew. When replacing fuses seemed to have a spark to it without keys in ignition. Wanted to know if there was something I should look at before I started to tearing the dash apart?
I suggest you get a wiring diagram for the vehicle before doing anything else. It will show you all the things that are tied to that fuse and are possible spots of trouble. You should never install a larger fuse than the original one. Doing that can cause you more trouble.
I’d pull the radio and poke around behind it. You may find (especially if it’s an aftermarket radio) that you have a ground wire dangling loose and touching something it shouldn’t, or perhaps some wires got pinched on a sharp metal edge and are shorting there.
I had a car with an unused ground braid from an aftermarket installation touching the hot wire on the heater fan switch and the hot wire on the lamp that illuminated the controls—was blowing both the blower fuse and the dash lights fuse. (I had just gotten the car, so who knows who botched it)
So to sum up: I’d look back there first before getting too deep.
You’re going to set your car on fire if you keep installing the wrong fuse. There is a short somewhere, and until you find it the fuses will keep blowing. Or the wire will overheat and melt the insulation. Whichever comes first.
Do you have a fire extinguisher?