Battery power cable fuse blown
 

Hi

I have 2006 Volvo v50 2.0D.

Two weeks ago the fuse that is in the positive cable failed, so when you start the engine you only hear a click and nothing else happens.

It is the cable that runs from the battery to the starter motor to the alternator. I blew whilst it was at the garage for it's MOT so they had to fix this first before they could do the MOT. The fuse can not be replaced on it's own and you have to replace the whole cable.

It has now blown again and and am awaiting a replacement, and have replaced the starter motor, just to be sure that that is not going to be the cause, as one of the connection points was not very good, but question is, could a faulty alternator blow this fuse as well, and is there a way to test this before I blow another fuse?

I have had the fuse go on me last night leaving me stranded at work!

I have have done a bit of looking about and some people have removed the stock fuse and drilled the two metal clamps/connectors and put a couple of nuts and bolts on to allow them to fit a midi fuse which are much much cheaper than the standard one

I had the exact same problem on my '06 S40 2.0D - Starter motor was gone on mine and caused the Inline Cable/fuse to blow. Both had to be replaced on my car, its the second time the starter motor had to be replaced, but I have huge mileage put up on my car so I can't complain. Those inline cable fuses aren't cheap. As the other poster mentioned they could be made up cheaper if you know someone who knows waht they are doing, but I needed my car back so just went with the main dealer part.

This is not my pic but this is what I found that someone else has done

That is what I am going to do if this on blows again, which I hope it won't, but if the alternator is the culprit then it might do it again.

The cable for the Ford Focus Mk3 is the same minus the fuse. You can just connect a fuse holder to it and attach it to the battery the same way as in your picture

The fuse holder I have in mind is this one
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-x-150-A...n/202061527506

The new part was 119 + VAT from Volvo when the garage put it on when it was there for it's MOT. I now got a second hand one coming in for 40

And this is my bodge!

it works a treat and a new starter fitted it turns over pretty well

cost to repair this battery cable fuse? under £5 for two fuses

Well my fix didn't last long!

I popped the fuse this morning! luckily I bought two so I replaced it and started doing some testing

After starting I noticed my fuse was pretty warm and staying warm while running and checking voltage either side of the fuse I had a drop of about .04V not sure on the amps!

As a result I think the fuse is cheap and crap but upon more checking I also think I had a poor earth to the engine.

I also thought I had a poor connection from the battery to the starter so the cable was removed and inspected.

I removed the clamp on the battery end of the cable and the wire had a fair bit of corrosion.

I decided to make a new connector between the battery and cable from some copper pipe and do away with the fuse as after all there is a lot of cars that don't have this fuse fitted.

I also removed the earth on the engine and cleaned it up and attached it to one of the starter motor bolts.

As a result the car now spins over much better.

So I reckon I was right in that I had two issues here one being a bad earth and the other a bad connection on the battery cable causing a large draw.

High amp fuses
 

I have some of those fuses, used in the rear fusebox on S60, not sure what amperage but Pm me with a pic and amp rating if you need any,

Nice one that all is working ok on your car.

My replacement cable came in on Thursday and I checked the cables on corrosion but also the connection points which I all cleaned before connecting them. They didn't do this at the garage apparently.

All is working fine and the starter motor is going round faster then previously so I am hopeful that it is now sorted. I have however purchased a fuse holder and fuses so that I can make a similar set-up next time it happens again.