I have a 1987 camaro z28 and I have no clue about electronics in a car. this one fuse in my car keeps on blowing. It has a lot of things on it. what should I do? keep in mind I have no clue about this kind of thing so explain in detail. thanks in advance.

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- Duncan Clarke
1987 camaro z28

 

In order to help you, I'd need to know:

1. What fuse is blowing?

2. What is the rating of the fuse (10 amperes, 20 amperes, etc.)?

3. What exactly is connected to this fuse?

4. Did you connect something to this fuse when it began blowing?

From the factory, no fuse should blow unless there is a problem with the wiring or the device being powered.

When a person adds an electrical device to the car, you'll put an additional load on the fuse. Depending upon the rating of the fuse and the additional current that is being placed on the fuse, it could blow.

 

the fuse is rated at 20a and has had a few things added to it, my head unit and crossover unit, fog lights.. etc.! I just got the car and its blown twice already. should I just put a fuse that can handle a bigger load in? or?

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- Duncan Clarke
1987 camaro z28

 

I'd like to know exactly how many amperes the fuse is passing. Since you said it's blown twice, but not (I presume) immediately, I'd suspect that the load is close to the 20 ampere limit. It could also be an intermittant problem.

I don't think that there'd be much harm in trying a 25 ampere fuse. That's only a 25% increase. If the problem goes away, then I'd be more prone to think that there were too many things, or too much current being drawn on this fuse.

Of course, it's possible that the problem is intermittant - something shorting to ground for example.

If you just tapped into the fog lamp fuse, I would suspect that turning on the fog lamps would add enough additional current to what is already being used from the stereo to blow the fuse. Does the fuse blow when you use the fog lights? If not, then maybe your stereo is drawing close to 20 amperes just by itself (wow). Does the fuse blow immediately if you use the fog lamps?

Since this fuse receives power directly from the battery, just make a separate run from your stereo equipment to the battery, and protect it with a fuse at the battery terminal.

Another option would be to just move it (the stereo) to an in-line fuse and tap into a spot on the fuse box that has +12 with the ignition "on". I believe that there is (are) a spare terminal for tapping into the +12 ignition.

[This message has been edited by Stuart Moss (edited July 30, 2001).]

 

Thanx a lot! I put a 25a fuse in and everything runs at the same time with no problems! I was going to try that in the first place, I just didn't know if it would cause problems or not?! but everything is working great now!



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- Duncan Clarke
1987 camaro z28

 

Just a thought to keep in mind, they don't use over rated amp breakers on house wiring to prevent electrical fires. Auto wiring works on the same idea.

 

What Deadbird said is correct. Using a higher rated fuse is not normally a good idea. The higher the increase, the more chance of a car fire.

However, I still maintain that increasing the fuse from 20 to 25 amperes (25%) is not great enough to worry about a fire.

However, he does have a valid point.

Now that the fuse does not blow with a 25 ampere fuse, you can presume that you are drawing too much current from the 20 ampere fuse, and using one of my other suggestions above (spread out the load to another fuse) would be the proper way to deal with this problem. The fix is simple and cheap. You might even get a better (cleaner) audio signal from your stereo by connection the power directly to the battery in the process.

Thanks for pointing that out. I should have mentioned it in my original post so you know the risks (however small) you are taking by increasing the fuse rating.

 

Is the cigarett lighter on the same fuse? I had a fuse blowing once and a while. it turned out to be the lighter shorting out.. took it out, not a problem since..


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89 RS Camaro, LO3 305 TBI
L69 Duel Snorkel Intake
Dynomax Ultra Flo SS Cat Back

 

actually, I did find out that it was the stupid lighter shorting out. My brother had the same problem a while back in his car and I got it all fixed up now! I set the fuse back to a 20a and everything is working good! =) thanx for all your help!



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- Duncan Clarke
1987 camaro z28