Heater Blower

Afternoon guys.

Thanks for the responses.

I had today off work, so given that it was probably the only chance I'll get this week, I went upto the scrappers in the pouring rain.
After trudging up the hill (I'm surprised the cars weren't sliding down it!), I found two 406s. However, some considerate person had left both their bonnets wide open, leaving the fuseboxes bathing rather nicely in the elements, I found a Xantia, but it had no bonnet at all, so same story with it.

As I was heading back down, I spotted a very clean looking Mk2 Xantia. Lifted the bonnet to find some kind person had already cut all the fusebox wiring, so it was just sitting there ready to be lifted, handy!

I haven't yet put it the XM though, as the rain just will not stop, and I don't want it getting soaked. That, and this will sound daft, but I can't figure out how they release? Its like a rubix cube!

But yes, should be interesting to see if this works any better. Must get a 40A fuse for it too actually...

Ciarán

Hi Ciaran

You push the two yellow locking bars in the black base until the latches release the wiring plugs which can then be pulled out. All the plugs are colour coded and polarised so refitting cannot be got wrong.

Regards

John

That is EXACTLY what happened to mine, except the fuse biody had disintegrated more.
Same leg stuck in the melted plastic!

Less rainy here today, did you get it replaced?

Morning

A quick update, I finally got it replaced, in the freezing cold, on Thursday night. Its working pretty well now. The little plugs and corresponding yellow slidy things are actually quite ingenious, given how they're all locked in and can't be removed. Felt like a bit of an idiot when I saw how simple it was, after the explanation here, thanks John!

The grey plug below F2 has had a nice layer of melted black plastic seep into it from the fusebox above, so I guess I should replace it at some point.

Regarding the earlier mentions of using the empty fuse slots in the box, I would guess this is entirely possibly if you removed the specifically shaped plug and put on a single, generic spade connector. Obviously you would have to be very careful that you had the polarisation right, and labeled it, but it could work.
I didn't realise these boxes were common to most PSA mobiles, should be good for a continuing supply, seems Peugeot are good for something, besides making Citroens bland and 'non quirky' I guess

On a side point, the heater is currently on a 30A fuse again, as I haven't been able to find a 40A in standard size anywhere... then again I've only tried 'Frauds so far so maybe they're more widely available at a decent motorfactors...

Cheers again for all the help.

Ciarán

Hi Cairan

Glad it worked out Ok. Many things on an XM are easy once you know how. Finding out how usually involves breaking it to get it apart.
My logic to justify the 40amp fuse is that these fuses do not blow instead they progressively burn out. They must be running at high current most of the time. The thin metal of a 40amp fuse will not get as hot in use as a 30amp one so it might slow or even stop the burn out process. I suppose you could file the polarisation lugs off the fuse box plugs to use another slot.

Regards

John

Once again my heater fuse blew/melted, unfortunately 150 miles from home, late on a Sunday, with no tools to pull out the melted and stuck remains of the 30A fuse. Lets just say that the drive home was rather toasty with the heater stuck on maximum temperature.

I have done a temporary fix (until more repair bits arrive) by dismantling the white 2 pole plug, which supplies the heater from the fusebox, and swapping the connector into the adjacent empty plug slot. This has meant moving the 30A fuse down one position. This won't be any better than the original set up but at least it will start life with no melted/burnt bits.

I am buying one of these to run a separate fused feed to the heater
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/In-line-MAXI-blade-f...1742.m153.l1262
By using the physically larger Maxi fuse any localised heat buildup should be reduced when the heater fan is pulling a high current.

Ken

The correct fuse for the fans is 40 Amps so the fuse is gettibg hot as a result.

Fuse F2 for the air conditioning was upgraded from 30A to 40A from ORGA number 7483, i.e. 1997/5/5. There is one single blower in the cabin.
The radiator cooling fans are protected by 40A fuses

I don't believe that the standard underbonnet fusebox is capable of handling high current loads (eg when heater blower is on full speed blowing cold dense air) due to the skinny terminals which are fitted, possibly made worse by a bit of salt corrosion. In my experience the heat build up occurs where there is a high electrical resistance between the fuse blade terminal and the Lucar type connector resulting in melting of the plastic both on the fuse and the fusebox body. Increasing the fuse size to 40 amps will not lessen the heating effect of an already overheated and corroded fusebox terminal.

I have therefore taken the heater supply out of the underbonnet fusebox and fitted a new 30 amp 'Maxi' fuse on a bracket alongside. The two cooling fan fuses sitting behind the green ABS relay are also 30 amp Maxi type and these have never been any trouble. Picture of installation attached.

Ken

This post has been edited by kenhall1202 on October 16, 2008 01:25 pm

many thanks for this info .... the power to heater controls had packed up meaning there was no fan no heat no nothing.
the F2 fuse in engine compartment looked fine externally .
It was only when F2 fuse was pulled out that one contact leg was seen to be oxidised to the point it wouldn't pass current & the plastic had suffered from excessive heat .
A spare fuse was inserted but it worked only for a second... when I removed the new fuse and twisted the contacts with pliers & reinserted it , the problem was solved
cheers,
RichC

That is only a temp solution. Buy a maxiplug socket from malpin's and bypass the fusebox. it's a 5 minute job.

otherwise you'll have exactly the same problem again and again until you can't actually use the F2 fuse socket.

Hello All,
Just a thank you for pointing me in the direction of fuse no2 in the engine bay.
The heater fan on my s2 2.1td hatch packed in last week,I thought it might be a bad connection,so I took the under dash panel off and remade all the connectors ,no change so I checked for 12v on the feed wires,nothing.
I came to this thread and straight away had a look at fuse 2 in the engine bay,it was proper toasted,I fitted an in line fuse holder from the battery post to the connector I had pulled from under fuse 2. Now the fan works,sorted.
Many thanks Gary