Our 1994 Mazda Miata started going mildly haywire a few days ago. All of the gauges went kaput, save for the cable-driven speedometer. The turn signals ceased signaling. Michael Jordan resorted to using the trip odometer to decide when to add fuel over the weekend.
This morning I crawled down by the pedals to have a look at the interior fuse box--the one that's located on the kick panel in the neighborhood of the hood release lever and the driver's left foot.
But the cover and it's all important fuse diagram were missing, so I referred instead to the one on my own personal 1991 Miata, currently in a state of partial disassembly in my garage.
The fuse box from my own Miata clearly indicated that the 10-amp "meter" fuse is the second one over from the upper left-hand corner. The lead photo shows what that fuse looked like after I pulled it from our project car. But something else wasn't quite right, and it may indicate a larger problem.
The fuse that popped was a 15-amp fuse, not a 10-amp fuse as the diagram stipulates. I guess it's possible that my 1991 Miata with its 1.6-liter engine takes a 10-amp fuse and this 1994 with a 1.8-liter motor takes a 15-amp fuse, but I somehow doubt it. The gauges and interior accessories are identical to my slightly older car.
More likely, the 15-amp fuse was installed because that's the size of the single spare fuse that's provided in the fuse box cover.
But if a 15-amp fused popped where a 10-amp fuse is specified, we've got some sort of latent electrical problem somewhere. Heck, we've still got a problem if a 15-amp fuse popped where a 15-amp fuse is specified.
I didn't have time to sort any of this out this morning so, like someone before me, I installed the spare 15-amp fuse from my car's fuse box cover.
The gauges and turn signals work fine once again. Jay loves solving electrical puzzles like this, but he's away on a business trip. I'll save it for him. He'll really appreciate that.
Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing @ 177,360 miles
mihai says:
11:56 AM, 06/22/10
All that pink just doesn't look right...
lostboyz says:
12:14 PM, 06/22/10
get an inline fuse and a voltmeter to mesasure the current with different systems/functions on and see what is making it creep up. It might be an electrical ghost that you will never see again.
ktinsd says:
12:15 PM, 06/22/10
My 1994 Miata is also missing the fusebox cover, but the owners manual has a nice diagram that shows the meter fuse (labelled "B" and in the same location) is a 15A.
But yeah, there must be a reason it blew.
And I think the pink makes a good contrast in the pics.
csubowtie says:
12:17 PM, 06/22/10
It's true that the pink really isn't helping the Miata's image at all. But it's worrying that it took IL more than a few minutes at the next stop after everything died to find something as simple as a blown fuse. I understand taking a few days to track down the underlying problem but a fuse?
greenpony says:
01:00 PM, 06/22/10
My wife (then girlfriend) had a problem like that in her Eclipse. Turns out a screw had fallen into her 12V plug and would occassionally make contact with the + and -, and pop. Blown fuse.
jkavanagh says:
01:08 PM, 06/22/10
csubowtie, the root cause of what happened here was pinpointed in about 5 minutes. Via email.
ptcdawg says:
01:10 PM, 06/22/10
The old barrel fuses were better, you could substitute a .22 rifle bullet. :)
fuhteng says:
01:22 PM, 06/22/10
ptcdawg - is that a Darwin award reference? When the guy used a real (not spent) 0.22 bullet and shot himself in the groin and drove into a river and died of hypothermia?
nsbio1 says:
03:15 PM, 06/22/10
My old 96 Protege has blown a fuse (literally) a couple of times. The first time it was scary, actually: all of a sudden the engine just quits, no CEL light, no nothing. All headlights work and the car cranks but does not start. Turned out to be a cheap 10Amp fuze.
The second time it happened at 80 Mph on an interstate. Fortunately, I knew what it was, could safely pull over, and had a spare fuze from the previous encounter. So I was back and running in less than 2 minutes instead of waiting for a tow truck. I do not know why a simple fuse is allowed to control the engine at all. This is a safety issue: I'd rather blow something electrical but keep the engine running instead of saving whatever that is for my own funeral.
stwok says:
05:09 PM, 06/22/10
Good job leaving it to Jay. How nice of you!
actualsize says:
09:07 PM, 06/22/10
@csubowtie: Think before you smear. Things are never as simple as that. The editor who drove the car over the weekend when the fuse blew is unable to bend into the position necessary to see the fuse box, let alone work down there. I was the next driver, and I took care of it.
And my buddy Ken faxed me the '94 fuse box diagram, which shows that Mazda did indeed enlarge the "meter" fuse in question from 10 amps to 15 amps sometime between 1991 and 1994. So this is the correct fuse for the job. Don't know why it blew, exactly, but I can think of 177,360 reasons.
Dan
actualsize says:
09:07 PM, 06/22/10
@csubowtie: Think before you smear. Things are never as simple as that. The editor who drove the car over the weekend when the fuse blew is unable to bend into the position necessary to see the fuse box, let alone work down there. I was the next driver, and I took care of it.
And my buddy Ken faxed me the '94 fuse box diagram, which shows that Mazda did indeed enlarge the "meter" fuse in question from 10 amps to 15 amps sometime between 1991 and 1994. So this is the correct fuse for the job. Don't know why it blew, exactly, but I can think of 177,360 reasons.
Dan
dg0472 says:
08:22 AM, 06/23/10
@fuhteng
He hit a tree, but didn't go into a river. He still got a Darwin because he blew both of his testicles up, thereby still removing himself from the gene pool.
See: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1944225/posts
Or has this happened more than once?
csubowtie says:
01:35 PM, 06/23/10
Whoa, don't blow a fuse guys. Sorry for offending anybody. After reading the article my impression was that someone who's job description includes test driving cars (and who I assume to be an expert in the automotive field) proceded to drive a vehicle with no gauges or turn signals for several days on public roads, and potentially running out of gas, before letting the next person sove the problem. There was no mention of the difficulty of getting to the fuse box which might be a concern. I know fuse boxes aren't always placed in an obvious spot, but they are a simple first line defense that in my opinion any driver should know how to fix. If the placement makes it hard to physically access then that may be a design issue of the vehicle, similar to a hard to access spare tire.