Gather 'round kids. Let me tell y'all the legend of the mini mini fuse. You see, it all started this gray morn when I pushed the windshield washer button for my (largely) trusty steed. But did I receive a quenching squirt to clear my view of accumulated road-salt residue and your garden-variety dirt? I did not. Uh oh.
Out comes the owner's manual to look for the location of the fuse that I am now praying will be blown so that I can replace it and be on my way. Under some black plastic engine-compartment trim and beneath the fuse box cover with its three locks, is my culprit. Yep, the tiny little red blade-style fuse is blown. Great. Easy fix.
So I truck myself up to a major chain automotive parts store (visibility through the windshield is not yet bad enough to justify wiping it by hand). But I can't find as tiny a fuse as I need. They have regular and they have mini but not this one. "Hmmm," says the store clerk when I show him the fuse. "I think someone came in here before with one of those. I've heard of them. But we don't have them."
He directs me to a parts store across town that caters to guys who actually fix cars instead of to customers who only mount their own Yosemite Sam mud flaps and air fresheners. When I show the guy behind that counter he says, "Oh wow, can I show this to another of our guys?" I hear him say, "This is what I was talking about. I wasn't making it up." He tells me he's trying to get a supplier for this new mini-mini fuse. "I want to be the only one with them."
"You're going to have to go to the dealer. Bring your own lube," he adds, helpfully.
Fine. The increasingly opaque windshield is beginning to give me pause but I mosey on down to Massey Cadillac, an old-school Caddy dealer if ever there was one. "I need one of these," I say to the man at the parts counter, pulling the microscopic fuse out of that tiny pocket within the right front pocket of my jeans. "Hmmm, lemme check [tap, tap, tap, tap, tap...] yeah, we've got one. Seven dollars." Oh, come on...er, fine. I pass on the 22-inch Vogue chrome wheel and tire package they're selling for $2,700 and the varsity jacket with the Cadillac logo for $215. I wonder momentarily if I could manage to expense an Escalade chrome gas door ($145) and if I can fit it to the CTS before giving the car to Oldham next week.
The fuse is replaced and the washer pump kicks out the juice something fierce now. An increasing number of new cars will be using this new teeny, tiny fuse, I'm told. I'm now considering getting in to the fuse business.
Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit at 20,772 miles
vvk says:
11:50 AM, 01/ 7/09
Am I missing something here?! This is a brand new car, still under full warranty, right? Instead of running around town and paying out of pocket for a new fuse, would it not make more sense to stop by Cadillac service and get this taken care of for free?
gjupp says:
11:59 AM, 01/ 7/09
Oh yea, little things like that are huge rip-offs. We all know it costs a few cents for that actual fuse, they need to make some money somewhere.
Once the chip becomes available in regular part stores the price may become more competitive, or not.
tackepj says:
12:21 PM, 01/ 7/09
Screw the fuse--just use the penny.
(Yes, I know it won't fit)
GT5000 says:
12:26 PM, 01/ 7/09
"An increasing number of new cars will be using this new teeny, tiny fuse, I'm told."
Why? What was wrong with the old ones?
altimadude00 says:
12:59 PM, 01/ 7/09
I guess you couldn't stop at a gas station and use their windshield scrubbers to clean off your windshield for the day?
roadburner says:
01:06 PM, 01/ 7/09
"yeah, we've got one. Seven dollars."
I thought German cars were the ones with expensive parts.
" I pass on the 22-inch Vogue chrome wheel and tire package they're selling for $2,700 and the varsity jacket with the Cadillac logo for $215."
At least the dealer has a good understanding of its customer base. Is the permanently activated left turn signal still a dealer added accessory?
7driver says:
01:36 PM, 01/ 7/09
''"An increasing number of new cars will be using this new teeny, tiny fuse, I'm told."
Why? What was wrong with the old ones?''
Too easy for a redneck to substitute a .22cal bullet, I suppose :-)
cartester16 says:
01:56 PM, 01/ 7/09
By wk...I agree! Plus, it's always fun to bring in a car for warranty work you already know the fix for. Then you get the paperwork back to see how the dealer fleeced the OEM with all kinds of diagnostics and unrelated part R&R's! But in all fairness, there is probably something wrong to cause the fuse to blow in the first place. I imagine this won't be the last time we hear about the windshield washers...
subytrojan says:
02:08 PM, 01/ 7/09
Great story, Dan!!!
the_big_al says:
02:10 PM, 01/ 7/09
I wouldn't say there is something necessarily something wrong. It is only a 10 amp fuse and wouldn't take a whole lot to burn it out. Just a slight surge would do it. Maybe the washer fluid was frozen and when the pump tried to pump it and couldn't, it blew a fuse to protect the pump?? He is in Detroit and by the few pictures that have been posted, I don't think the car is parked in a garage. Very easy for washer fluid to freeze if it is not laced with an anti-freezing agent/de-icing agent.
dragonflight says:
02:38 PM, 01/ 7/09
Is the one of the vehicles with the heated windshield wiper fluid (aka the one that was recalled)?
greenpony says:
04:59 PM, 01/ 7/09
While there are special winter blend washer fluids out there, I never intentionally buy these. Living in Chicago which has the same climate as Detroit, I've never had this problem, even with cars parked outside. So I think it may be a problem with the vehicle itself rather than the cold.
rasldasl says:
05:46 PM, 01/ 7/09
Last time I needed a fuse there was at least one spare of each type in the fuse compartment. Do the automakers not include this anymore?
benson2175 says:
06:42 PM, 01/ 7/09
Last time I needed a fuse when I was sixteen and wired my first car stereo. I've never had a car blow a fuse. I've only ever owned one GM vehicle though. I guess that's what I'm missing out on.
roadburner says:
07:40 PM, 01/ 7/09
"Last time I needed a fuse there was at least one spare of each type in the fuse compartment. Do the automakers not include this anymore?"
Even my 1999 Wrangler TJ carries spares in the fusebox.
bimmerjay says:
08:22 PM, 01/ 7/09
You went to Don Massey, yay!
Very classy dealership, it has a circular staircase in the showroom and Cadillac crests pressed into the sidewalks. I believe Don Massey installed more vinyl roofs on Caddys in the '90's than any other dealer in the nation - so many in fact that they actually do (did) it in-house!
tmanz says:
09:10 PM, 01/ 7/09
"I've only ever owned one GM vehicle though. I guess that's what I'm missing out on."
Yep, they must all blow fuses all the time. And every Honda fit has it's transmission fall apart and every.....
dougtheeng says:
06:21 AM, 01/ 8/09
"Very easy for washer fluid to freeze if it is not laced with an anti-freezing agent/de-icing agent. "
I surely hope the car had anti-freeze fluid if it is spending time in Detroit.
stingray454 says:
08:51 AM, 01/ 8/09
I would be surprised if the car didn't come with spare fuses. Both of my GM vehicles, a '99 Suburban, and an '02 Z06, have several spare fuses of differents amperage, along with a removal tool, located inside the fuse box cover. You might want to check there. I thought it was a nice touch, and saved me a trip to the parts store.
enicko says:
11:32 AM, 01/ 8/09
I work for a group of your local "real" auto parts stores and greatly appreciated your story yesterday. I sent it to our product guys and we actually have this in a couple of different assortments - one of which is $7 for a pack of 6 that I show being in the system since June of 2006, the other is a new low profile fuse assortment with about 10 each of 6 different types of low profile fuses in it, including this one - for a whopping $12.29.
We do have a public website with a store locator, autoparts2020 and a huge upcoming technician training event at avtechexpo (.com) in February.
The part numbers are KM6LP for the small assortment and 392 for the large one if you want to take a look.
the_big_al says:
12:28 PM, 01/ 8/09
I had forgotten that some cars carry spare fuses... my truck has them and I should have remembered as I commonly will blow a fuse in one of two places. The one under the hood to the stereo amp and the turn signal fuse because the trailer hookup has a frayed wire and can short out sometimes when I hook a trailer up. But that is the only time I have blown a fuse that I can remember and I own a GM vehicle.... :D