Going home tonight in the dark, -2c. turned down my street and ... no power, no lights, everything died...
Traced it back to the 30amp fuse, completely blown. I've replaced it with another one and bought 3 more to keep with me. Will replacing the fuse fix this problem?
I would think that you will have to track down what really caused the fuse to blow. It must have been a big enough "electrical anomaly/event" to cause such a high rated fuse to burn out (unless the fuse was defective), so it would be good if you can look further into it.
Here in the US it seems like the wires and fuse housing melt w/o actually blowing the 30amp fuse! :dry:
Like mentioned, you need to try and figure out where the problem originates.
[image: View Post]vfr_steve, on Dec 4 2008, 04:36 AM, said:
and if I put a 40amp in there would that be ok?
I don't think that would be the smartest thing you have ever done... but I don't know you.
Since you blew a fuse while running your heated jacket but didn't blow a fuse with it unplugged... I am willing to guess that the jacket is overloading your main. Where are you drawing the power for the jacket from? Something with that high of an amp draw should not be wired directly into your bikes factory wiring, it just isn't up to the task.
You need to look into an auxillary fuse panel attached directly to your battery to run your heated jacket and other farkles. In the long run it will be cheaper than buying fuses by the dozen.
[image: View Post]Lee 2002, on Dec 4 2008, 10:08 AM, said:
[image: View Post]vfr_steve, on Dec 4 2008, 04:36 AM, said:
and if I put a 40amp in there would that be ok?
I don't think that would be the smartest thing you have ever done... but I don't know you.
Since you blew a fuse while running your heated jacket but didn't blow a fuse with it unplugged... I am willing to guess that the jacket is overloading your main. Where are you drawing the power for the jacket from? Something with that high of an amp draw should not be wired directly into your bikes factory wiring, it just isn't up to the task.
You need to look into an auxillary fuse panel attached directly to your battery to run your heated jacket and other farkles. In the long run it will be cheaper than buying fuses by the dozen.
I see your point and it wasn't my suggestion to put a 40amp fuse in, it was an electricians! :blink:
I've had 3 other vtec's and I've used the same heated gear on them without problems so I shouldn't have to do that. I know some people here use the same gear so surely it shouldn't behave like this.
I would firstly suspect the installation of your heated accesory. Check the soldering and connections used to set that heated vest up. Did you do it or the same dopey electrician that suggested a 40 Amp fuse?? Sorry if he's a friend or colleague.
Then inspect all you connecotrs and earthing points and clean them all up. Grab a multimeter and take some readings.
I suggest you speak to Tightwad. He has fixed me up on several occasions now. I just spent this last weekend replacing the stock stator which was burnt to charcoal... defective insulation material from the factory. Recalled in the US but not over here. Mate of mine just had his second OEM stator fry on him in 6 years.
While I was at it, I installed Tightwads VFRness and other beef-up-your-wire solutions he provides. I know have a relayed source of fused power for all of my accesories, well, for four accesories at a time if need be, not that there will be a need for 4... it's not cold enough here for heated aparatii but if there's a weak link somewhere in your electrical system, running that stuff can bring it to the fore... this would explain why you had no drama on previous ocassions.
Give your bike a thorough going over... remove all fairings, even the nose cone, and check her over entirely... you do NOT want her to die on you in the fast lane of a 3-lane highway... ask me how I know!!
thankyou for all your suggestions once again, it doesn't seem 5 minutes since the last problem hey.
I'm not very competent in doing all that stuff so I've got these choices..
take it into a dealer to look at, charge the earth ...
go to my main dealer (where I get my bikes from) and swap it for something else... probably be another VFR but not 6th gen this time.. I have had it, 3 vtecs and issues with all 3. :pissed:
Sorry to hear about your troubles, Steve. We've just been talking about Amps and fuses in the recall thread. I would definitely suggest trying to find out what's causing it before contemplating a fix. As BR said, usually things melt before the fuse lets go, which seems to indicate only slight overload. But, in your case, the overload could be more extreme. At least the fuse is doing is job for you.
Someone here published measurements of the current drawn through the infamous 'main' fuse under various operating conditions. If I do the math correctly, with the high beams and brake light on you will draw about 24.
"Flipping on the high beams sends it from 13 to just over 20 continuous. I let it run until the fan came on at 220 and that also sent it up to about 20 from 13. Adding the high beams back in at that point showed over 26 Amps. In another test, I found that just the brake would add another 3-4 Amps...."
That said, we need to know how much load your heated gear adds. It must be indicated somewhere in the documentation. Without knowing, I would guess 10A-15A (10 x 12V = 120Watts which is not an unreasonable amount of heat to put into a heated jacket). That would easily put the total to...
24 + 10 (or more) = 34A-39A.
Most fuses are rated to sustain 125% or rating. So 30A fuse x 1.25 = 37.5A
My guess is that your jacket draws quite a bit of current (>10A). Do yourself a favour and measure the current drawn by the jacket.
You should of course take the advice of others and NOT connect the jacket to the output of the main fuse. I'm sorry to say, but the reasoning that 'it was never a problem on other bikes' is weak at best. It is standard practice (as in 'the right way') to add accessories on their own fused circuit. The existing fuses are meant to support the load in the existing circuits.
The generally accepted practice is to power a relay coil from the rear light. The battery voltage is connected to one side of the relay contact (center) and output is taken from the 'Normally Open' contact. The Normally Open contact line is then passed through the add-on fuse. the output of the fuse is then passed on to the plug for your jacket (or accessory). This way, as soon as you turn on the bike, the rear light circuit drives your new relay coil, which applies 12V power to your accessory plug. Even if you leave an accessory plugged in, once you take out the key, the plug loses power. Get a fuse block with several outputs and drive the heated grips with one, the power socket with another, and so on. That way if one of your accessories goes on the fritz (highly technical term :happy: ), you don't lose all the others.
It's a pain to set up the first time, but then again, you wouldn't be going through this aggravation right now.
If you're wondering what I do....I freeze my butt, my hands, and constantly get lost without a GPS... :laugh:
hi thanks for your detailed reply, I'll show the dealer this thread if I decide to keep the bike and fix it.. they seem to think it may be a charging/rectifier issue since no other fuses has blown but the 30amp one.
The heated gear is fed from the battery and has it's own 5amp fuse which has not blown, so doesn't that rule the jacket/gloves out?
the jacket; Current 6.4 amps, Watts 77 watts and gloves 2.2 amps, 27 watts.
and it is feasible to say I have had no issues with this on any other bike I've owned, which would suggest another electrical gremlin on the bike.
Good info, Steve, although a bit puzzling that the gear is rated at 8.6A total, but a 5A fuse works. They appear to be drawing less than rated. Do they have any settings to control the temp?
Also, feeding direct from the battery actually doesn't bypass the 30A fuse. The R/R is on the other side of that fuse, so the current will still come through there whenever the bike is running.
Please read through the 6th gen Electrical Problems Thread and you should find some of your answers.
There is the recall in North America for the grounding block issue which has melted a few people's harnesses.
And then there is the 30A wiring and fuse holder issue which seems to be a very common issue. I used a Maxi fuse holder (30A and 8 ga. wire) to re-do the 30A wire before Honda issued the recall. I also added a couple extra ground connections as outlined in the 6th gen electrical thread.
Also, the voltage regulator sensing wire is VERY thin and takes its signal through too much stuff. If you change your wire's sensing point to right off the battery, your battery will no longer get cooked from overcharging.
I pulled apart every electrical connection and cleaned and inspected it. then added dielectric grease and put back together again.
Other than the dealership forgetting to re-connect my voltage sensing wire to the regulator (resulting in a boiled battery to my bike which they refuse to replace) I have had no issues with the bike electrically since the mods were done.
Frankly, the Tightwad fixes and the home remedies people used to fix the electrical woes were better quality and better engineered than Honda's fix to the problem.
I only did the recall reluctantly in case I ever decided to sell the bike. I think I will re-do some of the wiring again in a larger size and re-re-locate my voltage regulator wire (it is back to stock location again).
The other thing I would suggest is a ignition activated wiring relay to an auxillary fuse block (run right from the battery) to power any extra add-ons to your electrical system like heated vests, etc.
If you have basic soldering / wiring skills and can read wiring diagrams, none of this is to hard to do yourself.
thank you for all that information and I've got to say thank you to everyone, this forum is such a great place full of caring helpful people who seem genuinely concerned for each other it's remarkable, I only wish I could meet some of you on a ride someday.
Here is what the mechanic did, basing it on all the stuff posted here and what I said..
in pictures, he has beefed up the wire surrounding the fuse, he mentioned something about bypassing something but sorry he did loose me there... the rectifier plug appeared to have been burnt and he did something to that but here is what he did under the seat...
(note smaller more robust fuse)
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/1963/fix1cs8.jpg
I have been pretty stressed out with a lot of bike-related cost this past month and I'm going to really struggle through Christmas not being able to buy presents for the people I care for - The guy spent a good 3 or 4 hours with the bike, cleaning connectors and checking all the currents etc... he usually charges �20 per hour + parts but he only charged me �40 for the whole thing, I'm very grateful and shall definitely be going back there, plus it's a 5 mins ride from home... later that evening I joined my family to walk around the Christmas market here, the night was cold, very cold, and after several hours I jumped back on my bike, full heated gear and it felt fantastic riding through Lincoln with everyone hearing that beautiful V4 going by whilst I sat there warming up!..
I just hope it lasts but as always I'm very very sceptical.
the photo's probably don't privide much detail but there quick snaps from my camera phone whilst in the dark. I hope all that made some sense, I'm very tired now :sleep: