Melted Fuse

[zyxelenator]

On the way home I stopped at gas station to fill up, and get gas for myself(beer). while filling up I checked oil, and saw that I got melted fuse on hot wire that goes to HID kit,that I got about a month ago. It works perfect, no problems at all. Almost all plastic melted away, but fuse is not blown.
I tried to research a little, and found couple topics with same problems.
Some people say it is just cheapo fuses, swap it out if you can(if metal did't melt inside). Or it is too "thin" hot wire that heats up a lot. Then, I'll wait with that till it warms up outside.
I installed same brand kit on my Fathers truck(he has bad vision), will check his fuse later on.
I remember his instruction said something about upgrading factory fuses to 20A or 30A in case of troubles.
I have not upgraded any fuses.

Any thoughts guys?

 

[NateDN10]

Could be there's not quite enough current to open the fuse, but it's still getting hot enough to melt the plastic.

What wattage is the HID kit rated at compared to the stock headlights? It may be wise to use a relay setup instead of the factory wiring. Or possibly there's an installation or product quality problem.

 

[zyxelenator]

I believe it is same or less wattage. It has fuse, relay, control unit and 2 ballasts.
BTW is uses red fuse. 20A as I remember?

 

[eljefino]

OE headlights seem to have either a self-resetting circuit breaker or different fuses for left/right or up/down. I wouldn't want all my eggs in one basket of one fuse like that for something important like headlights. What's the brand, china-ebay?

 

[Xlr8r1]

I use to see melted fuse holders during my day when I installed car audio. They are cheap and you are pulling to much current through it.... Go buy yourself a better fuse hold so you don't short out the whole car, and start taking out expensive things like computers.

Get Something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/DB-Link-AGUFH1-Fus...0105&sr=1-4

 

[zyxelenator]

It is basically connected to driver side factory plug. Then control box, then 2 ballasts, then light bulbs. Each ballast has ground, control box/relay has ground, hot wire runs from battery(where fuse melted) to relay/control box.
DRL/low/high beam all have separate fuses in stock box and they are 10/15A(maybe 5 for drl) if I remember right.

Maybe drl has something to do with it(weaker factory fuses?), xenon lights light up to same output,no matter is it drl/low or high beam (mine just move metal shield on magnets for high beam, father's slide inside). So my lights are always on.

It is Kensun kit, has 4.5 out of 5 rating on Amazon. Probably made by Asians.

 

[HerrStig]

No question the car audio market has some very nice fuse holders
you can upgrade to. Excess heat means too much current for the design. When fuses get hot they blow. When fuse holders get hot the heat softens them if they are plastic. That often makes the connection worse, so MORE heat is generated. At some point a connection in the holder just fails, even if the fuse doesn't.

 

[zyxelenator]

Originally Posted By: Xlr8r1
I use to see melted fuse holders during my day when I installed car audio. They are cheap and you are pulling to much current through it.... Go buy yourself a better fuse hold so you don't short out the whole car, and start taking out expensive things like computers.

Get Something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/DB-Link-AGUFH1-Fus...0105&sr=1-4

Thanks for link,
I'll call couple electric engineering guys, to consult also. Then probably will buy better quality fuse from AZ, if it melts -- again from link above.
Will check all the wiring again soon.

 

[zyxelenator]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Excess heat means too much current for the design.
So upgrade to thicker wire? (current wire is like phone USB cable in diameter), pretty thin.

 

[Xlr8r1]

Does it have a Gauge size written on the side of the power wire? What size fuse did it have in the fuse holder? 10amp? 20amp?

 

[zyxelenator]

20Amp fuse, red mid size. Not tiny like Nissans have.

 

[zyxelenator]

I was wrong, red is 10A. Changed mine out about 1,5 week ago, was kinda hard to get old one out. Looks like one of connectors was little bent inside, maybe it had correlation to melting.
Checked oil and fuse during fill up yesterday-- it's fine.