How can one fuse effect this lot?
Discussion
Advice required!
Went to Supercar Sunday fantastic day out apart from a small problem...
On the way driving down the M6, all of the instrument gauges/speedo/tacho/oil pressure stopped working, the indicators/brake lights also stopped play/ plus my fan overide switch and boot release.
Got to Gaydon, checked fuses, sure enough ONE of the 15 amp jobbies had blown. So this was changed spent did a quick check all gauges lights etc were now working. This was a bit strange as looking at the fuse box I would have thought that fuses for all of the stuff that had stoped working would have blown?
Anyway started the car up and set off from Gaydon, within a minute the fuse had blown again. Drove to Leamington collected the kids from the mother in laws, changed the fuse again, all worked until I reversed off the drive put it into first pulled away all the stuff stopped working again.
Got home, put in another fuse, checked everything, reverse lights brakes, indicators, horn all worked, I DID ALL THIS WITHOUT THE ENGINE RUNNING, after speaking with Griffbob I disconnected the alternator and started the engine moved it into the garage switched it on and off a few times all the stuff was working, and the fuse has not blown, I guess I need get the car moving next to see if it blows again , but initial thoughts appear to point toward the alternator, which is 2 years old.
So what is the problem, could the alternator effect all of these things?
Earths should be good as I had the car totally apart and have done about 900 miles since without any similar issues, I haven't been messing about with wiring, the imobiliser works fine, as does the engine even after the fuse has blown.
Anyone got any thoughts?
Thanks in anticipation
Steve.G.
Went to Supercar Sunday fantastic day out apart from a small problem...
On the way driving down the M6, all of the instrument gauges/speedo/tacho/oil pressure stopped working, the indicators/brake lights also stopped play/ plus my fan overide switch and boot release.
Got to Gaydon, checked fuses, sure enough ONE of the 15 amp jobbies had blown. So this was changed spent did a quick check all gauges lights etc were now working. This was a bit strange as looking at the fuse box I would have thought that fuses for all of the stuff that had stoped working would have blown?
Anyway started the car up and set off from Gaydon, within a minute the fuse had blown again. Drove to Leamington collected the kids from the mother in laws, changed the fuse again, all worked until I reversed off the drive put it into first pulled away all the stuff stopped working again.
Got home, put in another fuse, checked everything, reverse lights brakes, indicators, horn all worked, I DID ALL THIS WITHOUT THE ENGINE RUNNING, after speaking with Griffbob I disconnected the alternator and started the engine moved it into the garage switched it on and off a few times all the stuff was working, and the fuse has not blown, I guess I need get the car moving next to see if it blows again , but initial thoughts appear to point toward the alternator, which is 2 years old.
So what is the problem, could the alternator effect all of these things?
Earths should be good as I had the car totally apart and have done about 900 miles since without any similar issues, I haven't been messing about with wiring, the imobiliser works fine, as does the engine even after the fuse has blown.
Anyone got any thoughts?
Thanks in anticipation
Steve.G.
Wicker Man said:
Old fuses can blow with age, however, yours has gone twice so that indicates a fault. Best to get this rectified soonest.
You have some none standard wiring mods so that may be a good place to start looking. Where is the current for you fan overide circuit coming from?
You have some none standard wiring mods so that may be a good place to start looking. Where is the current for you fan overide circuit coming from?
I will get some new fuses today, the one's I have came with the car so at least three years old.
Not sure where the feed for the fan overide comes from, I will check this out, but my initial thoughts are that the problem does not sit there, I wasn't using the fans the engine was running cool with good air flow...I know that you can't rule anything out with these cars and wiring though!
Still don't undersatnd how one fuse can kill so many other items?
Thanks,
Steve
bga said:
No advice as such but this happened to me a while ago, replaced it & it blew again, replaced it a third time & has been OK for months.
Thanks for this, do you mean that one fuse effected so many other parts of the wiring system?
Perhaps all on the same earthing system?
Or as my mate Bob suggests perhap the alternator is about to throw one something to do with the voltage regulator?
Me now
schimg said:
bga said:
No advice as such but this happened to me a while ago, replaced it & it blew again, replaced it a third time & has been OK for months.
Thanks for this, do you mean that one fuse effected so many other parts of the wiring system?
Perhaps all on the same earthing system?
Yes, the 15A fuse affected all instruments, boot release & brake lights. I'm not sure about indicators but the headlights & rear lights were OK (good job as 1st time it happened it was night time).
bga said:
schimg said:
bga said:
No advice as such but this happened to me a while ago, replaced it & it blew again, replaced it a third time & has been OK for months.
Thanks for this, do you mean that one fuse effected so many other parts of the wiring system?
Perhaps all on the same earthing system?
Yes, the 15A fuse affected all instruments, boot release & brake lights. I'm not sure about indicators but the headlights & rear lights were OK (good job as 1st time it happened it was night time).
I can relate to this, the headlights and hazards worked, but NOT the indicators, best case scenario here is that I put in 2 duff fuses, but I doubt this will be the case somehow!
Thanks again
Steve
Almost certainly not the alternator that is at fault. IIRC the 15amp fuse feeds all the instruments as you mention along with the boot release and on mine the heater fan. It siezed and blew the fuse knocking out all the instruments, new fuse fan on again and blew another fuse. Its all sorted now, fitted another fuse and don't use the fan.
Mr Jenks said:
Almost certainly not the alternator that is at fault. IIRC the 15amp fuse feeds all the instruments as you mention along with the boot release and on mine the heater fan. It siezed and blew the fuse knocking out all the instruments, new fuse fan on again and blew another fuse. Its all sorted now, fitted another fuse and don't use the fan.
Thanks,
Thinking about it it knocked the heater fan out too, this doesn't appear to the cause though, had this running since fitting the third fuse.
Just been speaking with Adrian Venn who suggests that I start with the "Green" wires, in this particular case I will start by removing the centre console and looking at the one's off the gearbox/reverse light/handbrake/ speedo transender areas. This is probably least painful, taking into account the fact that I had the body off her in the winter there may a rubbing/wearing wire problems in this area.
That said I was very concious about routing wires when I had the engine and gearbox out?
Hey the fun of owning TVR's fantastic!
Thanks
Steve.G.
Quick update:
Moog (Howard) came round last night and we ran through the stuff that stopped play when the fuse had blown. Did this with the engine off initially, all went well, started the engine up still all the stuff worked (indicators/fan overide/brake lights/heater fan/boot release/reverse lights). Then decided to have a closer look at the fuse mother board, Howard being considerably less bulky than me managed to get to the board and pretty much get it out of the footwell depths, as he removed the 15 amp fuse that had been blowing...it blew! So we replaced it with another, went through the stuff again, it blew when I changed gear from 1st to 2nd, we reckon the reverse light switch is just catching as you change from 1st to 2nd, so if it occurs again this is where we will start. I replace this fuse with a "new" as opposed to the one's that come with the car.
So we cleaned up the fuse mother board because this was covered in fibreglass (from front light conversion) took out all the relays cleaned and hovered all of the cr*p out, tidied up some poorly routed wires, put it all back and it appears to have cured the problem, maybe fibreglass was causing some of the problwem?
However left the accumate on all night and the battery was still charging at 06:30 this morning, O.K.the charger didn't go on until about midnight but I would have thought that it would have done the trick by now.
I think this will be a case of time will tell.
If nothing else I learnt a lot about the wiring on my car last night, location of various fuses relays, some of which is non standard....
Steve.G.
Moog (Howard) came round last night and we ran through the stuff that stopped play when the fuse had blown. Did this with the engine off initially, all went well, started the engine up still all the stuff worked (indicators/fan overide/brake lights/heater fan/boot release/reverse lights). Then decided to have a closer look at the fuse mother board, Howard being considerably less bulky than me managed to get to the board and pretty much get it out of the footwell depths, as he removed the 15 amp fuse that had been blowing...it blew! So we replaced it with another, went through the stuff again, it blew when I changed gear from 1st to 2nd, we reckon the reverse light switch is just catching as you change from 1st to 2nd, so if it occurs again this is where we will start. I replace this fuse with a "new" as opposed to the one's that come with the car.
So we cleaned up the fuse mother board because this was covered in fibreglass (from front light conversion) took out all the relays cleaned and hovered all of the cr*p out, tidied up some poorly routed wires, put it all back and it appears to have cured the problem, maybe fibreglass was causing some of the problwem?
However left the accumate on all night and the battery was still charging at 06:30 this morning, O.K.the charger didn't go on until about midnight but I would have thought that it would have done the trick by now.
I think this will be a case of time will tell.
If nothing else I learnt a lot about the wiring on my car last night, location of various fuses relays, some of which is non standard....
Steve.G.
The ignition / dash circuit provides the switching power to all the relays which power the other fused circuits. It always seemed odd that this circuit also powers the heater fan and excites the alternator.
It is undoubtedly a single point of failure in the design, but the fuseboard layout only has 2 feeds to switch the relay sockets. I removed the heater & alt from my circuit by utilising a spare socket in the aux relay panel under the dash (uses the heated seat / mirror fuse which is fed to a relay in the aux relay panel).
Dave
It is undoubtedly a single point of failure in the design, but the fuseboard layout only has 2 feeds to switch the relay sockets. I removed the heater & alt from my circuit by utilising a spare socket in the aux relay panel under the dash (uses the heated seat / mirror fuse which is fed to a relay in the aux relay panel).
Dave
spend said:
The ignition / dash circuit provides the switching power to all the relays which power the other fused circuits. It always seemed odd that this circuit also powers the heater fan and excites the alternator.
It is undoubtedly a single point of failure in the design, but the fuseboard layout only has 2 feeds to switch the relay sockets. I removed the heater & alt from my circuit by utilising a spare socket in the aux relay panel under the dash (uses the heated seat / mirror fuse which is fed to a relay in the aux relay panel).
Dave
It is undoubtedly a single point of failure in the design, but the fuseboard layout only has 2 feeds to switch the relay sockets. I removed the heater & alt from my circuit by utilising a spare socket in the aux relay panel under the dash (uses the heated seat / mirror fuse which is fed to a relay in the aux relay panel).
Dave
Dave,
Thanks for this mate, went through all the stuff agian yesterday, took her out for a 15-20 mile run yesterday, all appears to be fine now.
If this stays the case I intend to leave it for the winter, when I will re-visit the electrics, as I have a number of things I want to change, including :
1. Putting a relay in and wiring the headlights and driving lights so that they come on together on main beam
2. separate relay and feed to the ignition switch/poss starter button too
3. re-route and tidy up engine bay wiring
4. fit a mod wise boot release and lighting kit
But for now I intend to drive the car, had enough of working on her over the winter!
Thanks for all your help and comments.
Steve.G.
Update on this......
bit of an unfortunate thing happened yesterday, had pretty much total melt down of the electrics yesterday this electrical problem has totalled the 30 and 15 amp fuses melting them to the fuse board, which I do not think is recoverable.
How much are they new?
Wixer/moog and myself have been working on this trying to resolve the problem, the ignition feeds all appear fine as does the main feed from the battery, looking for a shorting problem, but to be honest not making much progrees so far
I can't see me making it to backhome in the car, timescales all too short, I will be gutted if this is the case thats for sure.
I have done the obvious and looked for trapped wires, found nothing
, this is the obvious route as after ptting the body back I could have trapped something and a 1K miles later the wire has worn through....but cannot find a thing apart from the earth cable to the battery only connected by a few strands of wire....
I had to disconnect thebattery to turn the engine off yesterday as the wires in the ignition switch got so hot they fused themselves together, not far off a fire situation me thinks, ended up towing it back home
THIS IS SOOO FRUSTRATING!!!...back to the garage
I would appreciate any advice apart from the obvious sell it!
Certainly need a fuse board me thinks
Steve.
oh yeah had the alternator checked out...no problem
bit of an unfortunate thing happened yesterday, had pretty much total melt down of the electrics yesterday this electrical problem has totalled the 30 and 15 amp fuses melting them to the fuse board, which I do not think is recoverable.
How much are they new?
Wixer/moog and myself have been working on this trying to resolve the problem, the ignition feeds all appear fine as does the main feed from the battery, looking for a shorting problem, but to be honest not making much progrees so far
I can't see me making it to backhome in the car, timescales all too short, I will be gutted if this is the case thats for sure.
I have done the obvious and looked for trapped wires, found nothing
, this is the obvious route as after ptting the body back I could have trapped something and a 1K miles later the wire has worn through....but cannot find a thing apart from the earth cable to the battery only connected by a few strands of wire.... I had to disconnect thebattery to turn the engine off yesterday as the wires in the ignition switch got so hot they fused themselves together, not far off a fire situation me thinks, ended up towing it back home
THIS IS SOOO FRUSTRATING!!!...back to the garage
I would appreciate any advice apart from the obvious sell it!
Certainly need a fuse board me thinks
Steve.
oh yeah had the alternator checked out...no problem
Edited by schimg on Sunday 9th July 15:35
Not one I've personally come across, and maybe you've eliminated it as a possible, but I've seen a few posts after hunting through the archives on electrical gremlins... are the engine mounts ok? Seems like a few guys have had problems if the battery lead has got nipped if the offside drops lower than normal. Might be worth a squint? Hope you sort it
I know the earths 'should' be good as you say,but have you checked them all?I would be checking every earthing point,and then checking continuity resistance on just about every one i could.First circuits and earthig points i'd check would obviously be the ones relating to the troubled fuse.
I think you'll be lucky to get a new fuseboard,try David gerald.If you cant get new,then you'll have to go to Bell Hill breakers or Douglas Valley.Best of luck,and hope you get it sorted soon
I think you'll be lucky to get a new fuseboard,try David gerald.If you cant get new,then you'll have to go to Bell Hill breakers or Douglas Valley.Best of luck,and hope you get it sorted soon
sorry to hear this steve, it could be just the lack of a descent earth that has done the fuse box in, hope you get it sorted, would come and give you a hand but the wedge is off the road at the moment and need to get that done for the weekend. hope to see you in blackpool chim or not. if you mail me your mobile number i will ring you when i get there on sunday. good luck
blaine
blaine
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