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Topic: Okay to replace 20 amp fuse with 30? (Read 636 times) |
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Scramble
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Posts: 17
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Okay to replace 20 amp fuse with 30?
« on: Sep 7th, 2009, 8:44am » |
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I blew a fuse recently -- it was the cigar lighter/heated seats circuit. The fuse is 20 amps but I decided to replace it with 30 amps. This is because I now often have two electrical items plugged into the cigar lighter -- a SatNav, and a speed camera detector. I was thinking that with these two items and the heated seats I might blow a 20 amp fuse again (although you'd think that 20 amps should be adequate).
What I would like to know is whether using a 30 amp fuse rather than 20 amp could cause other problems?
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1997 Scorpio Ultima estate, 2.9lt 24v V6 Cosworth
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wojtekor
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Re: Okay to replace 20 amp fuse with 30?
« Reply #1 on: Sep 7th, 2009, 9:09am » |
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You should never swap the fuses for ones with higher amp then recommended or you're risking an electrical fire
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Simmo
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Re: Okay to replace 20 amp fuse with 30?
« Reply #2 on: Sep 7th, 2009, 9:18am » |
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on Sep 7th, 2009, 9:09am, wojtekor wrote:| You should never swap the fuses for ones with higher amp than recommended or you're risking an electrical fire |
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Absolutely.  . The fuse is matched to the capacity of the wiring in the loom and if you are blowing fuses then the units you are running are too powerful for the cables and thus overloading them. You could take a separate, fused, link direct from the battery to a suitable socket installed in the car making sure the cable and fuse size is correct.
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lesterlad aka Rodders
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2.3 Ghia x Estate (Manual)
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Re: Okay to replace 20 amp fuse with 30?
« Reply #3 on: Sep 7th, 2009, 5:56pm » |
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I wouldn't have thought a Sat Nav, and a speed camera detector used together would draw enough power to blow the 20 amp cigar lighter fuse, obviously you wouldn't ( or would you ? ) be using the heated seats at the same time this time of year.
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Gazza_UK
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2.3 Ultima auto :-)
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Re: Okay to replace 20 amp fuse with 30?
« Reply #4 on: Sep 7th, 2009, 8:25pm » |
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on Sep 7th, 2009, 9:18am, Simmo wrote:
Absolutely. . The fuse is matched to the capacity of the wiring in the loom and if you are blowing fuses then the units you are running are too powerful for the cables and thus overloading them. You could take a separate, fused, link direct from the battery to a suitable socket installed in the car making sure the cable and fuse size is correct. |
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There for you have a fault hence the fuse keeps blowing
Try the seats first if all is ok then the fault must be with the cigar lighter socket as No way the sat nav and speed detector draw that amount
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Scramble
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Re: Okay to replace 20 amp fuse with 30?
« Reply #5 on: Sep 7th, 2009, 8:40pm » |
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Okay, I'll put a 20 amp fuse in instead.
The fault happened after I turned on one of the heated seats the other day while the SatNav and speed camera detector were on as usual.
I've had a look at the SatNav and SCD and they only draw 1.5 amps between them, so that's not very much. The heated seats are more likely to be the problem. I hadn't used them in years, I got out of the habit of it. Perhaps that has left them in bad shape? Or is 18.5 amps just cutting a bit fine to run the heaters? Heaters draw a lot of power, so with a low voltage you need more amps to provide the same power, right?
Or is it possible that the fuse got gradually damaged over the years and finally went (don't know if that's something that really happens to fuses), but that a new fuse will last a few years?
(Nothing blew this morning when I tried everything with the 30 amp fuse, but I didn't test if all for very long. I can't test now with 20 amps as the car is at the garage being MOT'd).
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Tekno
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Tenho Ruohoranta
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Re: Okay to replace 20 amp fuse with 30?
« Reply #6 on: Sep 8th, 2009, 9:38am » |
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There may be bad connection somewhere (so it draws additional current which goes to heating bad connection) I'd doublecheck every wire and connector which are going to seats...
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1998 Ford Scorpio Ultima Estate 2.3i 16V
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