That B(loody) Fuse

[Pecky]

I have a 2010 Forester with a LED light strip on the tailgate which normally comes on automatically when the tailgate is opened. On a recent trip it stopped working and I noticed the tailgate open warning light had also stopped working so I figured it must have been the switch that was common to both. When testing the switch with the multimeter I touched something which shorted and there were no interior lights at all. I also lost remote locking, radio with GPS and reversing camera, dash lights, OAT/clock/fuel economy, and puddle lights which was unusual.

I started by checking the illumination fuses and audio fuses and they were all ok so I continued pulling fuses trying to find the right one, and testing each one with a multimeter. This wasn't successful so I went searching through the wiring diagram to see if there was a common fuse and found a 20 amp one in the engine bay fuse box labelled B which was a Backup. It was blown and after much anxiety the problems were fixed.