Earthing... (Facepalm)

22nd January 2014, 15:20

Just thought I'd share some of my misfortune with you guys

So a few weeks back a fuse blew in my Saxo VTS, leaving the indicator lights/stereo not working (all that was noticed anyway). Tried the basic fix of replacing the fuse, but no luck at all, blew again within 30mins of driving. Same happened another two times, so I think we know it's not just a dodgy fuse. Noticed there was another blown fuse (red 10amp) and as I went to replace it, bare in mind the car is obviously not running neither the ignition, I put the new fuse in the bugger started sparking at me? I'm no electrician but that seemed a little odd to me..

So I bit the bullet and it's in a Garage today having it looked at, trusted Garage used by my Cousins Car dealership and thankfully I'm paying what they would if it was one of their cars

But as I was posting this bad new, they haven't found the fault after an hour of checking, so now it's just following each wire until they come across an earthing problem etc, can just see this going badly.

22nd January 2014, 15:31

Disconnect the battery before working on the electrical system, that's very very basic stuff.

23rd January 2014, 00:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by holdawayt

Disconnect the battery before working on the electrical system, that's very very basic stuff.

Before replacing a fuse? Urm, I've not seen anyone do that before..

23rd January 2014, 06:20

Because you haven't seen it done before does not mean that you should not do it. You should effectively disconnect the battery before doing anything electrical indeed.

Quote:

leaving the indicator lights/stereo not working

You haven't fitted a stereo recently by any chance...

23rd January 2014, 09:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimpleJoee

Before replacing a fuse? Urm, I've not seen anyone do that before..

Well with a name like simple Joe I'm not surprised.

23rd January 2014, 10:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimpleJoee

Before replacing a fuse? Urm, I've not seen anyone do that before..

You run the risk of shorting something or an electric shock with the battery connected.

23rd January 2014, 16:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by holdawayt

Well with a name like simple Joe I'm not surprised.

Really, that's the type of button bashing comeback I'd expect from some kid on YouTube, grow up. If you're going to act like a twat, and not post anything informative or mature please don't bother, it's just pointless.

23rd January 2014, 16:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevo67

You run the risk of shorting something or an electric shock with the battery connected.

Haha fair enough, wouldn't have thought just changing a fuse would be of any concern! Just had the bad news, fuck sake
Been checked over in that garage, and they haven't the slightest clue what's causing the problem, so it needs to get checked out by someone else. Fuck it, I'm just never going to indicate from now on, and I'll play music from my phone in the car

23rd January 2014, 16:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manu

Because you haven't seen it done before does not mean that you should not do it. You should effectively disconnect the battery before doing anything electrical indeed.

You haven't fitted a stereo recently by any chance...

I haven't mate, came with the car. It was fine electronically since I bought it back in October, just recently a fuse popped and been going downhill

Coincidentally it's only happened since the ridiculous weather we've had, damn Welsh weather.

23rd January 2014, 16:45

Apologies, but I'm out of suggestions. I managed to blow a 10A fuse the once and in the process of replacing it managed to blow the 80A main fuse.

It caused such a ball ache with various other electrical components going mad that I just replaced the whole lot and it was fine. Since then I've always disconnected the battery when I'm going near anything with wires. Electricity is a dark gypsy art that I don't understand. I wouldn't want to anger the forces at work.

There's a possibility that water might be finding it's way onto the fuseboard as you say it's only happened since the poor weather? See what the other garage find first though, it might be something daft.

23rd January 2014, 17:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimpleJoee

I
Coincidentally it's only happened since the ridiculous weather we've had, damn Welsh weather.

I did notice a sharp increase of people going through weather related issues recently.

23rd January 2014, 17:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by holdawayt

Apologies, but I'm out of suggestions. I managed to blow a 10A fuse the once and in the process of replacing it managed to blow the 80A main fuse.

It caused such a ball ache with various other electrical components going mad that I just replaced the whole lot and it was fine. Since then I've always disconnected the battery when I'm going near anything with wires. Electricity is a dark gypsy art that I don't understand. I wouldn't want to anger the forces at work.

There's a possibility that water might be finding it's way onto the fuseboard as you say it's only happened since the poor weather? See what the other garage find first though, it might be something daft.

Thanks for that mate, I'm in the same boat, if not worse as I've not a clue what I'm doing at all with electrics. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a water leak somewhere like that, I had water dripping on my bastard feed before when driving, so I think there's an indoor water-park inside my car.

Garage replaced all of the fuses that had blown/and or looked dodgy, and they're completely clueless to what the problem is. Picking it back up tomorrow, I give it 20mins of driving before a fuse blows again and I drive off a cliff

23rd January 2014, 18:21

Just a thought but there's a drain hole in the scuttle not a million miles away from the fuse box.maybe thats clogged up.

24th January 2014, 11:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevo67

Just a thought but there's a drain hole in the scuttle not a million miles away from the fuse box.maybe thats clogged up.

Cheers bud, me and my dad are going to have a good look around tomorrow for little things like that

So I searched the forum for the fuse box diagram (ikr I searched before posting a thread, only to be told by you guys to then use the search option!) and then went up to my car just to double check. Two fuses were 15a that should've been two 10a's, not sure how important that is but I swapped them over to the correct ones. Found out that the indicator's Fuse had blown again, replaced it and now it works. Somewhere inside my car, there is a demon causing constant blows.

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a short forum search today. Skills that make me a nightmare for wiring like you. If you let my fuses go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will pay someone to fix you.

24th January 2014, 13:58

Might be helpful, the tops of the inner arches under the bonnet are prone to rotting and there is a few earths dotted around these areas.