46
votes
Accepted
Why don't cars have circuit breakers instead of fuses?
(1) Fuses are cheap. Really cheap. You can get a variety pack of 100 for $8 or so. Circuit breakers for 12V systems are available, but are not cheap (more like $10 each). My car has 40 or 50 circuits, ...
- 576
22
votes
Accepted
40amp protection on 25amp rated wiring?
The maximum rating of 25A will be for continuous use. The 40A fuse is there to blow very quickly in a fault condition.
If you look at this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge 2mm² ...
- 25.5k
14
votes
How can a fuse drain a car battery?
It wouldn't be the fuse which is causing the power drain, but the circuit the fuse is there to protect. (This is the reason why the copied area you have posted has 5 "Not Helpful" votes against it.) ...
- 160k
14
votes
Why don't cars have circuit breakers instead of fuses?
I don't have a definitive answer, but believe it is a combination of factors and boils down to the following:
Cost: While both do the job of protecting circuits, a fuse runs you cents per unit, while ...
- 160k
10
votes
Accepted
Fault find blown cigarette lighter fuse
You have a short somewhere.
The purpose of a fuse is to be the weak link in a circuit. If more current is running through a circuit than it was built to handle, a fuse will self destruct and break ...
- 3,012
9
votes
Could corroded or incorrectly soldered battery teminals cause parasitic drain?
Have a look at this picture:
From here.
Corrosion (the green stuff) can conduct electricity.
If one wire in that picture went to the battery positive terminal and the other went to the battery ...
- 201
9
votes
I have a distribution block buried under my center console. Would getting 12v from that line vs directly from the battery present any fire hazard?
The fuses are there to protect the wiring, the fuse needs to blow before the wiring gets hot. You say that you have a fuse at the battery end of the 4 gauge wire, so that wire is protected against ...
- 25.5k
8
votes
Why don't cars have circuit breakers instead of fuses?
In addition to the other good answers:
You'll see self-resetting circuit breakers in heavy-truck applications, which is a far more abusive environment, and prone to intermittent faults (esp. in ...
- 321
7
votes
Accepted
Golf 7 key stolen, which fuse to remove to disable car key reprogramming?
There is no fuse to remove that will disable immobilizer programming. You can how ever remove the fuse for the obd2 power. That will slow someone down since their tool would no longer be powered and ...
- 3,790
6
votes
Accepted
Does a constant blown fuse always indicate a short?
If the fuse is blowing as soon as you perform an action it's a short to ground.
Multimeter won't do much good in this situation. It'll come down to wiring diagrams and visual inspection of the ...
- 10.7k
6
votes
Power window switches stopped working 04 Chevy venture
You can stop changing fuses. I think you have a bad door ground, probably on the driver's side.
Some car doors are grounded through the hinge without a separate wire, and they depend on the tension of ...
- 7,478
5
votes
How can a fuse drain a car battery?
You mention, "no draining electrics," can you say more about how you determined this? It's important because "a self-draining battery" requires something that is causing a load on the battery – ...
- 14.5k
5
votes
Accepted
Blew the fuse for the battery
That would work, but it's a very dangerous solution. The fuse exists in the circuit as a safety mechanism. If the circuit is flowing more power than it can safely handle, the fuse self destructs and ...
- 3,012
5
votes
40amp protection on 25amp rated wiring?
I would suggest that you should find the source of the fault - probably in the wiring as you suggest as it could get worse and cause a fire (not the best thing in dense traffic with no place to go).
...
- 34.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Could corroded or incorrectly soldered battery teminals cause parasitic drain?
The effect of corroded or poorly soldered battery terminals is responsible for excessive voltage drop, not parasitic current drain.
They are not the root cause of the parasitic drain.
- 39.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Given a fuse panel, which way should a fuse tap be facing?
If you are running an inline fuse (which you should), you put it on the power side. This is so you don't overtax the fuse you're tapping off of. To tell which is hot, pull the fuse and check each side ...
- 160k
4
votes
How can a fuse drain a car battery?
What can drain your battery is Alarm system, Radio (memory), Remote control key (radio signal receiver), ECU, Clock... Can't imagine anything else. Even if you have all of this, they shouldn't drain a ...
- 1,438
4
votes
Accepted
Dodge 2006 Grand Caravan fuse F6
Had the description a little wrong. Added how Chrysler describes the power outlet system with annotations in ().
The power outlet on the instrument panel marked with
a battery receives battery ...
- 10.7k
4
votes
Accepted
Missing fuses - is it OK?
The fuse box is designed for all vehicles and positions only used as needed for each vehicle.
First check if those empty fuse slots have terminals in them, without terminals adding fuses does nothing....
- 34.7k
4
votes
Connecting Fuse Tap to another Fuse location
Or will each appliance receive exactly what it asks for?
Yes
Conversely, if I connected this fuse tap and cigarette lighter instead to a lower amperage, like 10, what would happen if the cigarette ...
- 7,990
4
votes
Accepted
Question about cigarette lighter voltages/currents
It depends on the efficiency of the electronics inside the charger. Presumably it will be some kind of switching regulator that will be fairly efficient.
Your calculations are correct for 100% ...
- 25.5k
4
votes
Why don't cars have circuit breakers instead of fuses?
With one notable exception, automotive fuses almost never blow in the absence of a catastrophic failure such as a crash which causes wiring to be severed. One of the primary purposes of the fuses is ...
- 291
3
votes
Accepted
car mobile charger blown my radio/ stereo
Your 2nd picture (fuses under dashboard) is where the radio fuse is located. If you look at your picture, you can see the fuses in the top left (those little plastic things with numbers on them).
The ...
- 12.2k
3
votes
Accepted
Astra dashboard warning engine light on. Can I check fuses randomly?
From a bit of googling there's a forum page which has many of the error codes listed:
ECN 13500 = O2 sensor 1 heater malfunction
ECN 14100 = o2 sensor 2 heater mulfunction
ECN 40062 = EGR valve
ECN ...
- 17.2k
3
votes
A back door power window on a 2012 Subaru Forester not rolling up
Hold up, don't order a motor just yet. What Ben meant (assuming) was pull the panel and jump the motor to test whether the motor is still working.
If it's not the motor, you can unplug the switch ...
- 1,742
3
votes
Accepted
Mercedes - What is this type of fuse?
That's not a grounding cable. The black piece (with the red wire) into which the fuse is inserted is a "tap" - apparently some device is getting its power outside the normal wiring of the vehicle.
...
- 845
3
votes
Accepted
Where do I find the fusible link in my 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse V6?
The low beam circuit uses dedicated fuses. There are no fusible links in the headlamp circuits. In your case fuse 11 is the passenger side low beam.
- 10.7k
3
votes
Accepted
How to tap into a corner fuse with a lip/wall on two surrounding sides
Yes. Use a different type of fuse tap. If you used one like the one below, you could bend the tang over and run the wire straight down and out of the way. (Note: You're looking at just the brass part ...
- 160k
3
votes
2014 VW Touran 1.6TDI 1T3 UK Windscreen Washer Motor Fuse
A quick search for "2014 VW Touran fuse location" provided a rather comprehensive link. All photos from linked site:
There's a photo of the fuse box under the left side of the dash:
A ...
- 4,915
3
votes
Fuse will not stay in slot
I'm pretty sure I wrote the answer you're talking about ...
What I meant by twisting it 10-15° is, if the prongs of the fuse are pointing right at you, with the colored plastic of the fuse pointing ...
- 160k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible