Ford Scorpio Forum - Print Page


    
      
        Ford Scorpio Forum
        (https://www.fordscorpio.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl)
      

        General >> Give/Need advice to/from others >> A word of warning regarding fuses
        
(Message started by: Baz on Jun 22^nd, 2005, 12:28am)

Title: A word of warning regarding fuses
Post by Baz on Jun 22^nd, 2005, 12:28am

Hello,

As you may or not know, I have a 1998 Cosworth. Last Friday, it went in to have the window films installed and during this, the fitter had to remove the rear high level brake light located on the rear shelf to be able to get the film on the rear window.

Anyway, I picked up the car and as I drove off and touched the brake, the fuse blew. I replaced it and touched the pedal again, same problem. 12 fuses later I gave up and drove home to get a better look.

On the saturday morning (the day before the Harewood meeting, I spoke to an auto electrician who said it could be bulbs or the brake pedal switch. These were disconnected but I was still getting a dead short. Long story short....when the fitter had replaced the rear brake light onto the parcel shelf, one of the contacts underneath on the light unit had bent up as he hadn't aligned them properly, and shorted to earth by touching the bar that runs across the inside of the light fitting.

The problem is, that the fuse didn't blow until after the wires leading to it had melted together so that every fuse I replaced, immediately popped as soon as the pedal was pressed. The fuse is number 14 and is a 15a one that covers also the indicators and brakes so it has to be a bit meaty only this one is just too much so.

A quick repair job was needed and everything was sorted. So just be careful if you are changing your high level brake light bulbs!

Baz

Title: Re: A word of warning regarding fuses
Post by Boblavens on Jun 22^nd, 2005, 8:38pm

Baz
You gone in for Window tinting then?

bob

Title: Re: A word of warning regarding fuses
Post by Baz on Jun 23^rd, 2005, 7:45am

I have indeed. I was going to put some pics up a bit later. I had it done last week and I am very pleased with the results. The cops will tell me it is illegal and it probably is.....It does come off again!!

Baz

Title: Re: A word of warning regarding fuses
Post by brewer on Jun 24^th, 2005, 10:14am

If it is illegal you can be deemed to have made your car technically unroadworthy and therefore have rendered your insurance invalid (it is a condition of many policies that you maintain the vehicle in roadworthy condition) It's worth while contacting your insurers ; some I'm sure will be reasonable but others hide behind the small print.

Title: Re: A word of warning regarding fuses
Post by Boblavens on Jun 28^th, 2005, 11:36am

From what I have read it is not illegal past the door pillars to the rear, only the front doors and the windscreen isn't allowed to be touched.
Unless I have totally misread the info.
See this site for regs before worying too much Baz:

http://www.pentagonglasstech.com/news_legal_update.asp

In particular this bit:
During the early part of 2004, Section 32 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations will be amended to include “Window Tint Films”, where such materials attached to the glass are capable of reducing the Visible Light Transmission of forward windows to below prescribed levels. These changes will be back-dated to become applicable from 1st January 2004.

This will effectively ban virtually all tinted films fitted to windows forward of the B-Post on any vehicle that is to be driven on UK roads.

hope this helps.

What a bunch of Killjoys.
I can still drive with my sungalsses on so no one recognises me!!!

Bob