Elecric fan fuse/wiring burning! - Third Generation F-Body Message Boards

maks10 · 10-08-2009, 11:45 PM

Basically was driving down the road and noticed smoke coming from stearing wheel area! Turns out, after pulling out the wires underneath my dash, the electric fan wiring has started to burn and melt. Now, I am very new to this type of work and to sum it up, I think I need a new fuse box that connects the fan power to the switch since it is completely melted down.

1st: where can i buy this small plastic fuse box?
2nd: how can I prevent this from happening again? I have been running the fan on every time the engine was on. Is this wrong?

Thanks for any help....

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Tyrel2018 · 10-08-2009, 11:59 PM

you could either go to a junk yard and get a fuse box out of a car like yours or you could find one on here and get one that way and i would run the fan every time that my car was on and never had any problems so you got me on that one and the wiring could be wired wrong or for some reason you could have had too much resistance in something and melted a wire or something to that nature.

radical82 · 10-09-2009, 12:02 AM

You might want to consider running your fan on a relay.... Then you don't have to run the high amperage current the fan requires through the switch on your dash. As to the why of the melting wires, perhaps to small a gauge on the wiring, or maybe the fan motor is going bad, turning hard, and drawing to much current...

maks10 · 10-09-2009, 12:12 AM

Thanks for the ideas, I will have to see if the fans maybe bad, maybe turning harder. So there isnt a chance of finding this plastic peice at advanced auto or something? Im thinking this may have happened bc I run the fan all the time. This is what I was told when i bought the car, but I have read that this may not be the best thing to do.

maks10 · 10-09-2009, 12:28 AM

The peice melted is the rectangle plastic peice on the bottom left

radical82 · 10-09-2009, 12:46 AM

The rectangle piece in the guy's hand is the fuse holder, there should be a fuse inside it....The fuse should have blown before the wires melted!!!! Anyway, if the fuse holder melted, your fan is drawing too much current or you have a short to ground!!!! Rather then just replacing the fuse holder you need to determine what caused the wires to get that hot....Maybe next time you won't catch it in time and you'll have a large, very damaging electrical fire!!!!

maks10 · 10-09-2009, 12:50 AM

Thanks for the info and heads up, will take it in!!!

maks10 · 10-09-2009, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by radical82

The rectangle piece in the guy's hand is the fuse holder, there should be a fuse inside it....The fuse should have blown before the wires melted!!!! Anyway, if the fuse holder melted, your fan is drawing too much current or you have a short to ground!!!! Rather then just replacing the fuse holder you need to determine what caused the wires to get that hot....Maybe next time you won't catch it in time and you'll have a large, very damaging electrical fire!!!!

Could this be the result of a recent alarm install? Thanks

radical82 · 10-10-2009, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maks10

Could this be the result of a recent alarm install? Thanks

It shouldn't be, but I guess it would depend on how the alarm was wired into the system.......

maks10 · 10-10-2009, 12:22 AM

radical 82 thanks for all the help!!! I couldnt tell you how much this has helped me find the right parts/info. One last question, I disconnected the power wire to the plastic fuse box and no more smoke but no more fan. Is this a definate sign that the electric fan motor needs to be replaced? Thanks for all the help and future help.