30 amp fuse from relay

Hi
all Merry Christmas and a happy new year, just taken the van out for a run and while sitting in the back realised the fan was running slow, when home had a look at leisure battery almost flat, checked fuses from relay and found the 30amp  one was a little melted it is in between the 12volt  30 amp relay connection 87 on the bottom of relay  and the leisure battery  my question is could the relay be faulty or  something worse
thanks in advance
mike vwt4

Automotive fuse holders can get very hot if the contact with fuse is poor. The spade type often loose tension in my experience, you can maybe increase the tension carefully using a small screwdriver but make sure to disconnect the power before doing so.

Good luck.

more than likely just a corroded fuse terminal or loose connection renew the relay connection block new fuse and a new crimp terminal should cure the problem.

Alf

I had the same thing recently with the fridge fuse, see thread below for full details:

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cheers
Roger

another problem is that if the two batteries are at widely varying voltages, when the split charge relay is triggered and the two batteries are joined together you get a MASSIVE current flow from the charged one to flat one. This may not last long but will usually last long enough for things to melt, hopefully the fuse.

If the is any chance that just one of the batteries has become flat it is safer to recharge that battery first before letting the alternator try to do it.

I had a similar problem on mine to vwt4....blown fuse 'welded' into block. All internal 12v electrics went so the first opportunity i had i took the van into a local A/S dealer. He cut the old fuse block out and wired in a new one with new fuses. Wasn't exactly cheap but at least got it sorted out and is properly wired in.

hi thanks for all the replies, Dbroada the leisure has a very low charge at the moment,have tried to charge up but I dont think the battery is accepting charge, Alf I have thought I may change the relay, and will clean up the fuse block, Rogerblack thanks for the link.
I think I may need a new leisure battery also
mike
vwt4

As above, there can be a number of different possible causes, such as poor termination of the cables and poor contact between the fuse blade and the holder.

But if the leisure battery was nearly flat when you started your journey - as seems likely - then the probable cause is as explained above. The split charge system is likely to have been carrying a very large current, with the combination of the vehicle battery trying to equalise voltage with the leisure battery, plus the alternator adding its current in too. It's quite possible that the system had been carrying around 30 Amps for the duration of the journey - not quite enough to blow the fuse but enough to make all of the wiring components hot.

As dbroada says - it is best not to start the engine if you know that the leisure battery is in a poor state of charge, though of course many people will not check this before firing up!

If you know that the leisure battery is in a bad state and you need to run the engine, it's probably best to pull the fuse on the split charge system until you can get a new one.

update
leisure  battery  is dead, so looking for replacement, but size is going is a problem being 280mm long,180 wide and 180 high so will have to scour tinternet
also may replace fuse block and relay
mike
vwt4

Try Tayna at: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] they have a very good range and can be spoken to on the telephone for extra confidence when placing an order.

All the best for 2017

Hi vwt4, after new year need to order replacement starter battery and possibly leisure battery thereafter. Despite 80w solar panel, batteries have gone dead! You may like to look at two sites, Alpha batteries and Leisure batteries4less, both with next day free delivery.

Paramedic wrote:Hi vwt4, after new year need to order replacement starter battery and possibly leisure battery thereafter. Despite 80w solar panel, batteries have gone dead! You may like to look at two sites, Alpha batteries and Leisure batteries4less, both with next day free delivery.

I bought my Leisure battery from Alpha and can definitely recommend. Four year warranty and excellent price this was the one i went for; [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I'd had mine a couple of years when i totally drained the battery not realising the split charge wasn't working. As i was passing the place on my way back home i called in to see if they'd replace it. They didn't have to as it wasn't really their fault but they replaced without any quibble.

Grateful thanks Bulletguy, that's most encouraging.

Hi
update on battery problems replaced fuse holder checked all connections going to replace split charge relay and new battery ordered today from Tanya batteries had order one that not as high as standard batteries due to low height under bonnet of van
mike
vwt4

Just to throw in my four penny worth ...

Be wary of cheap blade fuses.  Their blades are often a few thou slimmer than those of a decent make.  This reduces the pressure of the fuseholder contacts on the blades and increases the chances of a bad contact.

G

Gram wrote:Just to throw in my four penny worth ...

Be wary of cheap blade fuses.  Their blades are often a few thou slimmer than those of a decent make.  This reduces the pressure of the fuseholder contacts on the blades and increases the chances of a bad contact.

G

That's worrying, that is !    Didn't know there were good, and not so good blade fuses... ...I shall study mine carefully from now on.  Most things have good makes, but blade fuses don't appear to have a superior make...or do they ?     

Yes I have been caught out with that.
Bought some off ebay and shall we say, not to the required standard.

Went to the local motor factors and bought a mixture of ratings.

PB

There's a very simple method of sorting that......and it's mega cheap too!! Go to your local breakers yard!! 

If you are the honest type and show them at the counter, few bother to charge and let you have them for free. I've got loads of spare fuses and relays from my days of scrap yard wandering. Same with light bulbs as well and it's always useful to carry a few spares in the van.

Plus: some blade-type fuses have test points on the front and some don't. It makes it much easier to test for blown fuses if they do, obviously.

And then there are glow blow fuses, of which I have a few (but only on circuits where I have a history of blowing fuses!).

Bulletguy wrote:There's a very simple method of sorting that......and it's mega cheap too!! Go to your local breakers yard!! 

That's an excellent idea, BG.

But do scrapyards (we're in danger of going seriously off-topic here) allow public wanderings through the scrap vehicles these days?

G

I wouldn't recommend walking around my local scrappy. I used to many years ago when I was after a part, but in these safety conscious days they frown on folk clambering over vehicles precariously stacked six high... Then there's the fierce dogs wandering around the site...

The breakers I use, near Crawley, Sussex have a public area with cars on the ground. They are roughly arranged in groups so you will find a few Focus' together and a few Vectras together etc.. They also insist on you wearing HV jackets. Most of the more popular items (radios, mirrors & headlamp units) have already been removed and are available "for sale" over the counter.

They do still stack the cars on top of each other but the public aren't allowed in there.

update
new battery arrived from Tayna batteries,fitted new split charge relay and new fuse block, all connected and working fine, back on the road.
mike 
vwt4

Gram wrote:

Bulletguy wrote:There's a very simple method of sorting that......and it's mega cheap too!! Go to your local breakers yard!! 

That's an excellent idea, BG.

But do scrapyards (we're in danger of going seriously off-topic here) allow public wanderings through the scrap vehicles these days?

Some do, some don't is the short answer. The main one in my area recently closed after 75 years in business and used to be a regular haunt of mine during years of "tinkering" with cars! Wander at leisure, dirt cheap prices but you removed everything yourself and the owner relied on honesty and trust. Most customers were honest and if a regular, you soon built up that trust. Other "scrappers" tend to be 'off the shelf' only, won't let you past the counter....and prices can be silly.

I have one very small breakers yard in my area which deals in nothing but Ford Transit parts so that's a useful place for me.