Technical Reasons for blown fuse

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Technical Reasons for blown fuse

4paws

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Oct 26, 2004
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The fuse that lights the instrument panek keeps on blowing.
What could be the reasons for this? Bare wire touching earth??

The last one was pretty spectacular with the fuse casing melting and the fuse bos too. The fuse didn't blow properly and I could smell the strange alkaline smell filling up the car with smoke coming from the box! (bought a box of fuses from Maplins - never again)
 
It could be a good plan to work out what other lights are on the same circuit. I suspect the front + rear parking lights would have the same fuse. So in a process of elimination, you could unplug and inspect those connectors/wires; my guess is that the small wires to the front sidelight bulb holders have chafed on something.

Another cause might be something a little offbeat like the rear light clusters not earthing properly, so that when you use the brake lights, the brake light bulbs earth through the sidelight circuit (this can result in blown fuses, though not usually in a dramatic sense!)

-Alex
 
Hi

Slightly loose electrical contacts create an arcing effect that will generate heat enough to melt the fuse box. The fuse should have blown if the source was elsewhere. As the heat generated was local, destroying the fuse box only, I would reroute the wires in question to a stand alone good quality fuse box. Then monitor the rest of the electrics. Put a new fuse in, check that everything on the car works, remove the fuse and check what now does not work. This will indicate what operates off this fuse.

Terry
 
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