11 replies to this topic

[brivinci]

If any of you own an SPi, at some point this might happen to you...as it did AGAIN to me recently. I was driving my 94 the other night and the dash lights went out. They came back on after a second or two and stayed on the rest of the journey. The next night, the never came on and then I notice a slew of other strange things. My fogs (now driving lights) would only work with the hi-beams and my switch illumination mod wasnt working. I set about tracing wires and ended up taking the entire dash out...all to find out that it was an inline fuse!!!

 

Maybe Rover cheaped out a bit when they sourced them? Maybe they should have just fitted blade fuses from the start? All I know is that these damn things have caused me more trouble then I care to remember. The trouble is that the fuse can become warm/hot and start to heat up the fuse holder. Over time, and many heat cycles the plastic get tired and starts the deform. Sometimes it molds around the fuse itself other times it pushes the non-sprung end into the recesses of the plastic. In either case, what can happen is the fuse loses contact with non-sprung end of the inline fuse holder and you have a dead line.

 

This is what happened to my dash lights. I have gone through and replaced a handful of the other inline fuse holders with similar (to keep it standard looking) type holders but of a better quality. Looks like i need to start replacing them all. This little problem has actually felt my car totally immobilized on two occasions when I first bought it. Well, hopefully never again!!

 

If you ever find a strange outage in power, dont only check the fuse but also that there is continuity when installed as well AND that the fuse and spring both move freely.

[ryomini]

brvinci

inline fuses can cause all sorts of problems

sometimes the fuse is not broken but the current doesn't flow, there is poor contact with one of the ends

they often cause problems in scooters as they tend to have a fuse near the battery

 

I have the same set up as you, I am thinking it would be a good little project to fab up or purchase a little fuse box and rewire in the

 same place

 

sometimes the holders just give up and the fuse drops out - but unfortunately that is not the only miserable design feature on the mini - haha

 

[brivinci]

No, sadly there are many:-)

Yeah, my brothers 95 has a neat little blade-fuse multi fuse holder, as standard I believe, mounted where the typical 4-fuse block is. I believe it does away with nearly all of the inline fuses. LOADS simpler to figure out what went wrong.

I thought about doing something similar but would need to source all the correct color wires and fuse panel to suit my overly anal ways in keeping certain things perfect

[ryomini]

Really

can you get a picture up

redoing all the fuses is something I would enjoy tackling later on once I am up and running again

the fuse box on the drivers side of the engine bay has a 2 tiered spade input - if there was a fuse box like that it would make

wiring up a cinch - plus I have a very good soldering iron

 

for the other side, the separate fuse holders - I have seen a six row fuse box for just a couple of quid so that is a big must on my 'to do' list

[brivinci]

That is very true about the original fuse holder having the blade terminals. Good point. Only thing is I'm sure there is not enough wire length to get everything where it needs to be.

 

I think if you were going to actually tackle this, it would be best to get rid of ALL inline fuses/glass fuses and replace with one single blade type fuse holder in a central location like what my brother has. Apparently, I asked all about this is a previous post and needed to re-read to jog my memory. The wiring diagram is exactly the same from 94-late 95 (some 95's being made in early 96 even) with the only difference being that the very late 95's had all the inline fuses replaced with a single, central 24 blade fuse holder. Now that I know that (again) I am going to be on the look out for a complete wiring loom from a 95 and plan on swapping it over in the future.

[FlyingScot]

No, sadly there are many:-)
Yeah, my brothers 95 has a neat little blade-fuse multi fuse holder, as standard I believe, mounted where the typical 4-fuse block is. I believe it does away with nearly all of the inline fuses. LOADS simpler to figure out what went wrong.
I thought about doing something similar but would need to source all the correct color wires and fuse panel to suit my overly anal ways in keeping certain things perfect

Yes changed on later ones thankfully. On my early cars I replaced the inline glass fuses with waterproof blade holders which I bought from a chandlers.

FS

[Kam]

I got rid of my in-line fuses (1993) and swapped them (just them) for the blade type, got an appropriate blade fuse holder from - Vehicle Wiring Products

 

 

 

 

 

Before you go buying like for like rating blades the same as the glass ones your taking out have a read

 

http://www.theminifo...to-blade-fuses/

 

Hth

[brivinci]

If a miracle happen and I find a mint, later 95 SPi wiring setup, with the 24-fuse panel, then I would set about changing it. Otherwise, I'll stick with the inlines and just upgrade them where I can. My brothers 95 setup is serious sooooo much better. So simple. What took them so long:-)

[ryomini]

Kam

like what you did that's neat and tidy and not too much work either

[FAZ]

i replaced all mine with blades, 

 

 

[ryomini]

Faz where are your leaks ? So clean

Your vacuum hose looks like it needs upgrading

the silicone hoses are trick

[FAZ]

Vacuum hose turned up in the post this morning.

Leaks? Nothing engine cleaner a rag and am old toothbrush can't fix