[DeTomaso] Electrical nightmare scenario...

[Ed Pike]

Mike:

For what it is worth, I seem to remember that those older vw's were a little
susceptible to fuse block issues. Water would leak thru the windshield and
right onto the fuse block eventually causing problems. My memory isn't as
good as it should be so I would file that away in case you continue to
experience electrical gremlins... (kind of like a Pantera!!!)


Ed....

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of MikeLDrew at aol.com
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 6:02 PM
To: DeTomaso at realbig.com
Subject: [DeTomaso] Electrical nightmare scenario...

Hi guys,

I spent the day before yesterday locked in mortal combat with my daily
driver 
VW Scirocco.   There is Pantera relevance to this story, so bear with me.

After years of driving it everywhere, I decided to treat it to a tune-up 
(although arguably it probably didn't really 'need' it).   New plugs, wires,
cap 
and rotor, and it ran just as well as before.   For no particular reason I 
decided to ops-test the electric radiator fan, so I let it sit and warm up
in my 
driveway while I put the various tools away (itself an almost unheard-of 
condition).

I was in the back of my garage merrily organizing my wrenches and sockets 
when I heard SPLOOOSH!!!, turned around and saw a geyser erupting from my 
radiator!

Sure enough, the radiator fan never turned on.   With visions of blown head 
gaskets in my head, I did a dance worthy of Baryshnikov through the piles of

parts and debris on my garage floor to race to the Scirocco and shut it off.

Okay, so now why didn't the fan work?   It is actuated by two independant 
means--either by the thermoswitch in the radiator, or automatically anytime
the 
interior heater/blower fan is turned on.

Neither method would get any action from the fan.   The first thing to do,
of 
course, was to check the fuse.   I opened the fusebox and all the fuses were

visibly good.

I then proceded to do some basic troubleshooting.   Disconnecting the 
connector from the back of the fan, I rigged up some jumper wires and ran
them 
straight to the battery--VAROOM!   Okay, so the fan motor itself works.   I
then got 
out my voltmeter and tested the connector; with the fan switch on the dash 
turned on, there was 12.7 volts.

Okay, so let me get this straight?   I've got power at the plug, and the fan

motor runs when you give it power, but when you plug the plug into the fan,
it 
doesn't work?

Electricity is my weak area and I quickly call for backup when I get in 
situations like this.   I keep SOBill Taylor's phone number on speed dial
for just 
this sort of occasion.   I called him up and explained the scenario, then 
scanned the factory wiring diagrams and e-mailed them to him.   Together we 
conjured up several likely scenarios; I would hang up, spend a few minutes 
testing/troubleshooting, eliminate that potential cause, and then call him
back for 
another lead.

Eventually every wire and connector had been tried and tested, and
everything 
was checking out good.   The last possible problem area was confined to the 
fusebox itself.   

A couple of hours (at least) had passed by this point, and then I physically

removed the (Pantera-style) fuse from the fusebox, and this is what I found:

http://members.aol.com/mikeldrew/BadFuse.jpg

My 'good' fuse was anything but!   Sure, it was good where a fuse is
supposed 
to go bad when it DOES go bad, but hidden from view under the prongs of the 
fusebox, the fuse was totally wasted!

Simply popping another fuse into the holder instantly fixed the problem!

During the course of my troubleshooting I cleaned all the various connectors

in the system, so hopefully any excess resistance has been resolved.   But
the 
lesson learned here is that 'checking the fuse' doesn't mean merely looking 
at it sitting in the fusebox.   It means removing it, inspecting it and then

reinstalling it!

BTW, some people have suggested replacing these old-fashioned fuses with 
glass fuses.   But I have had poor luck with glass fuses, because when a
circuit 
goes bad (but not terminally bad), they would heat up and melt internally, 
completely out of view.   Instead of blowing, they would simply stop
working, but 
even when looking at it in your hands, there would be no visible indication
of 
failure.   At least with these ceramic fuses, when they go bad, it's visible

evident.

That is, assuming you take the time to actually LOOK at the thing!

Sheesh.....

Mike


**************************************
See AOL's top rated recipes 
(http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)
_______________________________________________

Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA

Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/

DeTomaso mailing list
DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso