Fuse Ratings??

[SafeAirOne]

This is something that I've known about but ignored for some time now:

The few circuits in my SIII that Solihull saw fit to protect with fuses are all "protected" with 35 AMP FUSES!

A wire had come out of its connector and shorted last week. I was surprised to find one of the fuses had actually blown before the rover burst into flames.

Anyone happen to know whether the SIII originally came with ALL 35a fuses or whether a PO just wanted to avoid the hassle of changing blown "reasonable-amperage" fuses?

[Jim-ME]

Mark,
I think that those are correct.
Jim

[TeriAnn]

This is something that I've known about but ignored for some time now:

The few circuits in my SIII that Solihull saw fit to protect with fuses are all "protected" with 35 AMP FUSES!


British fuse ratings are different than US fuse ratings.

The British Standard rates fuses by the current that was guaranteed to make them blow instantly while the American standard rates fuses by the current that they will carry forever. Fuses work on heat, so a small overload may take a long time to build up enough heat to melt the fusible element and blow the fuse. How warm the fuse was to begin with plays a large role too. So the carry rating winds up being quite a bit lower than the blow rating. an English 35 amp fuse is roughly the same as a US spec AGC 25 fuse. An AGC20 fuse might be a tad safer and work OK.

I think all the LR parts houses carry proper British spec fuses (Though they look the same, the size is slightly different).

Hmmm, maybe I should write yet another web page.

[SafeAirOne]

Thanks Jim and TeriAnn.

That makes sense TeriAnn...While I was checking the fuses the other day, I was wondering how a 35 amp fuse could have such a miniscule wire element.