Melting Fuse

[redneck01246]

hi folks hope you have had a very merry christmas.

recently bought a 1997 ghia x v6 gal when i bought it it had no front heater although rear worked fine checked fuses an front heater fuse 25amp was missing so replaced fuse fan kicked in and all appeared well.

drove car for about 5 miles to relatives whose car it is switched engine off and saw a small plume of white smoke cheched fuses as that seemed to be the area where smoke came from and the fuse i replaced had melted not blown just melted the part that melts is not the live in from the car but the output to the motor,i have stripped the passenger side upper and lower glovebox no wiring seems to have overheated and the fan turn freely.

any ideas

thanks in advance

redneck :rolleyes:

[Topbloke]

possibly the heater motor resistor pulling to much power , ford mondeo's suffer badly from this problem, it is behind the glove box screwed into the fan intake to keep it cool !

[redneck01246]

hi and thanks,any kind of description would be appreciated

[Guest vr6galaxy]

Hit the search engine, been covers before with pictures IIRC :rolleyes: as TB satys it's mounted on the heater matrix houseing, pop the lower glove box out and there it is to your right

[redneck01246]

hi tried search engine before posting topic but no joy wire that overheats is red with black tracer which goes to a relay or resistor marked 114 is that what i am looking for or is it the red zippo lighter sized pack which is held to fan housing whith torx screw?

[Guest vr6galaxy]

Thats the one :rolleyes:

[redneck01246]

which one?

[Guest vr6galaxy]

The one held on with the Torx's bolt is the resistor pack

[redneck01246]

what does 114 do?

[Guest vr6galaxy]

From my diags 114's the timer relay for the heated rear screen

[redneck01246]

the red and black wire runs into it and if you un plug it blower stops so i wondered if it is this that is faulty rather than resister pack?

[Topbloke]

if this relay does supply rear screen then that could possibly be pulling to much power, the only sure way would be to run both items vie the fuse board through an amp meter (the tester would have to be a good one as most testers only go up to 10 amp's and im sure the rear screen on its own would pull more than that) do you drive the car all the time or does the wife drive it with heated rear screen on all the time (sexist remark i know , i am waiting for the flak) it happens many many times and when ever i talk to the owner and point out the fact that you are supposed to tutn it off they say "the wife drives it more then me!!!!" :ph34r:

[redneck01246]

hi tried new relay no change, but what i have noticed is everything is okay up until second bar on display whether rear screen on or off anything above that and the fuse gets hot and melts (quicker if you put it on full speed)rear screen makes no difference to how it reacts(rear heater works fine?

[Masked Marauder]

I would check the back of the fuse box. Something arcing would cause the symptoms you talk of and it could be where the wire is crimped into the fuse holder.

[seatkid]

Agreed, a melted fuse is because the connectors holding it have become too hot, due to a high resistance. Could be a loose fuse socket or more likely a poor crimp behind the fuse holder as MM says.

 

The fuse will blow if there is overcurrent. Provided you fitted the correct rating, it will not overheat and melt the plastic.

[redneck01246]

thanks guys will check in morning before i spend on a resistor pack-

[redneck01246]

well what can i say,THANKS ALOT GUYS disconnected red/black feed to fan from fuseboard crimped section blue from heat ,cut away put new connector on but took supply from next free outlet as the original was slightly arcing.

new fuse ran car for 2hours with fan on full power and front and rear screens on and no problems, fuse gets slightly warm but not remotly close to melting(presum due to currant being drawn through)

once again thanks. :blink:

[seatkid]

Well done and thanks for the report!

 

If everyone did that we would all benefit...

[superslysnap]

Got the exact problem on mine at the moment, all the fuse casing around the blower fuse has melted and heaters stopped working! Thanks to the forum i'm off to fix it myself with a little help from ere... thanks