FUSE caught fire!!

[ssmate]

g'day driving along the other day, nothing out of the ordinary
soon after i start seeing smoke pouring out from around the streering wheel thinking wtf?? **** me self (lol) pulled over turned everything off took
me about 20seconds to realize where it was actually coming from so quickly undone the screws for the fuse cover and theres number 4 fuze melting away
(think its called ' interior illuminum light' ??)

then me parcel shelf starts smoking poped the boot and the bootlights dangeling melting away the plastic cover so got me key and poped out the light and riped the plastic cover off with old rag in the boot

so yea i got a melted fuze which is half stuck in and i cant seem to get it out i got most with a pair of pliers
and my boot light it rooted as with the likes of the wiring!

so what do i do . . lol
is this going to be hard to fix myself or should i take to an auto elec?? thanks
here some pics to show ya what im on about

[kopper69]

Hey mate,

I always encourage everyone to give things a go themselves, but there are times when things are best left to a professional. It does depend on your ability, but chances are if you are asking on here, your not 100% sure. In this case you probably shouldnt have a crack at it yourself because a professional will just charge you more to clean your mess if he isnt happy with the work you have done. I would double check that fuse too. If an incorrect fuse has been fitted, maybe because it kept blowing with a previous owner, that might explain why it burnt instead of blew.

[ssmate]

hey thanks i cant get my pictures up either :S

nah i doubt that i have had the car for about 1.5 year and that fuse has never been changed and the boot light always worked pefrect so got me stumped why it all of a sudden happend

[kopper69]

Nice getting the pics up. She is in a bit of a mess. I have never had to replace it before but I would look at replacing the fuse panel and as much wire is damaged as possible to the bulb. She wont be a nice job though, you may end up having to run a new set of wires right to that light if shes shorted out somewhere between the fuse and light.

[Phreddy]

Hmmmm - if the wiring has melted all the way to the terminals, that indicates that the short originated in whatever those terminals attache to - ie, the boot light. If the fitting became loose and the + terminal shorted to tghe chassis, that would explain it.

Depending on your ability/experience, you will need to replace that wiring as far back as the melting has occurred, which is probably all the way back to the fuse panel - and given that it was probably part of a harness, it might well have damaged the insulation on other unrelated wiring - that should also be checked. As for the fuse holder - Hmmm, probably not much that can be done apart from replacement really.

It seems quite odd that the fuse didn't blow - what rating was the fuse which smoked up?? Perhaps the previous owner did replace this fuse once, but possibly just had a spare kicking around which was much higher rated than the original. I would think that this fuse need not be any more than say 10A - if it was a 20 or 30A fuse in there, that would explain why your wiring burnt instead of blowing the fuse....

Best of luck with it Mate, it's a relatively big job.

Cheerz!

[ssmate]

thanks for your replies guys,
well after it was all over there was a blob of red plastic, and going off the other fuses it was a 10a so yea dunno?
i think i might just take her to the auto elec dont really have time to play around with it!
cheers

[Tasmaniak]

How strange....that fuse should've popped the moment the short occurred. I don't think we know the full story here.

I have so many theories running through my head but then I have to ****can them when I realise that it's not possible with the information we have.

Did any work get done on the car recently? Stereo? Lighting? Alarm? Repairs? (mechanical or electrical)

[VZHSV]

similar thing happened to me 2dai ..
i was working on my car stereo trying to neated some wiring up when i blew
my fuse for the amp id say? then my power windwos decided to stop workin aswell so i checked under the steering wheel and i noticed a fuse was melted aswell it was something to do with either no3 or 4 were it says something like "rear wdow heater" .. no central locking works or power windowss..
any ideas?

[bradvt98]

yeah i found my rear window heater fuse melted today had the right size fuse to wierd yet it still worked fine this morning i've taken it out still dunno what caused it