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Almost junked my '04 Accord over a $12 fuse
I used to just give up on anything electrical in a car over 10 years old assume the whole harness was shot. Took my 2004 Accord to a scrapyard quote because the radio and interior lights went dead got offered $400 on the spot. On a whim I pulled the interior fuse panel found a blown 15A radio fuse swapped it for 12 cents from AutoZone. Everything worked fine. Now I check every single fuse before I even think about labeling something a lost cause has anyone else had a cheap fix that almost got scrapped?
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the_anthony4d ago
Fuse covers melting from heat or corrosion can look fine on the outside while secretly hiding a broken link inside the plastic. Had an old Camry that kept blowing the horn fuse turned out the horn button itself had a tiny crack letting moisture in and shorting out. Ended up just unplugging the horn and calling it a "stealth mode" mod for a few weeks until I found a junkyard replacement for five bucks. It's wild how the simplest stuff gets overlooked when we all assume the worst.
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lunakim4d ago
Jumped on this exact trap with my 2003 Malibu a few years back. The dome light and trunk release just stopped working and I was ready to dump it for cheap. Ended up spending a whole afternoon just staring at the fuse box before I pulled out a 10A that looked totally fine but had a tiny hairline crack on the metal inside. Replaced it for like fifty cents and everything came back to life just like that. What @the_anthony said about heat and corrosion hiding inside the plastic is so true I always give fuses a good wiggle now to see if the metal snaps loose. It's embarrassing how many times I've almost junked a perfectly good car because I didn't take ten minutes to check the damn fuse panel first.
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