I have an electrical gremlin.
Last summer the fuse controlling my horn, steering wheel controls for the cruise control and stereo, and heat/ac vent control kept blowing. I brought it to the dealer, and they couldn’t get the 10 amp fuse to draw more than 7 amps, so they couldn’t tell me what was going on. I’d drive it some more, and it would blow again.
At the time, gas was $4+ a gallon, so when I was driving downhill or not pushing on the gas I would shift the car into neutral, which would get me much better gas mileage. Since the fuse kept blowing, I decided to stop doing this. When I stopped doing this, the fuse stopped blowing. I’m not sure if they were related, but it seems pretty likely.
Now it happened again a couple times this week. Only now I haven’t been shifting from drive at all when driving. I’m stumped, and don’t want to take the car to the dealer to get whacked for another $100 hookup to the diagnostic machine that tells me nothing. Thoughts?
My best guess is that you have a defective clock spring in the hub of the steering wheel, and that this is causing the fuse to blow.
Driving downhill in neutral has nothing to do with this situation, but you should stop this practice because it is dangerous, illegal in many jurisdictions, and–with most modern cars–does not save gas.
Thanks for the quick response, I’ll check it out.
It looks like to replace this you have to disconnect the airbag, something I would be hesitant to do myself. Any idea how much something like this would cost to fix?
I would strongly discourage trowing parts at this car without a proper diagnosis.
You’ll probably be severely disappointed when you spend the time and money to replace the clock spring and it doesn’t fix the problem.
Specifically, which fuse keeps blowing? When you look at the little chart on the door of the fuse panel, which fuse number is the culprit? I happen to have the factory repair manual for this car and it doesn’t show these circuits being on same fuse.
Try to take notice of what accessories are turned on and when the fuse goes. Does it only blow when you’re using the cruise control, or only when the AC is running, etc.?
I agree with the poster above, do NOT put the car in neutral to coast. It will not save you a bit of gas. In fact, it will INCREASE fuel consumption. When the car is coasting in gear, the engine computer will cut fuel to the engine entirely and the momentum of the car keeps the engine spinning. When you’re coasting with the car in neutral, the engine needs to burn fuel to continue running.
It’s fuse #5, it controls the steering wheel controls for the stereo, the horn, and the heat/vent controls on the dashboard. Those are the only things that I’ve been able to observe are tied to the same fuse.
Until it blew this last time, the only thing I could think of it being associated with was shifting into/out of neutral while moving. I haven’t done that in a while, and it’s only happened twice since I stopped doing that, both pretty recently. It made it all winter without going once, which makes me think a/c but I haven’t had that running yet this summer.
Fuses are cheap, so if it doesn’t blow really regularly it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I had to keep replacing them, especially since nothing crucial to the safety of the vehicle seem to be tied into that fuse. Unfortunately, the default setting for the vents blows hot air onto my feet, so when the fuse does go when it’s 90 degrees outside that’s kind of unpleasant.