Battery cover 30amp fuse burned up

[jakthree]

Hi,
I have a 98 NB. Under the hinged cover of the battery box there are sockets for three 30 amp blade type fuses. There is only one 30amp fuse inserted into the inner most socket (position 3???). To the back of the fuse is a plug with a single red wire. The plug (black plastic with pink inside and orange weather seal) and single red wire are OK. Only the fuse socket (holder) in the battery cover is burned.
What does this 30 amp fuse control?

After unplugging the plug with the single red wire you can see a metal flat terminal which slides onto a spade terminal. I want to move the red wire in the plug from the third position to the second position.
How do you remove the terminal from the plastic plug?

Thank you,
Jack

[D2Beetle]

One of those fuses is for A/C control; I would not recommend moving and reconnecting wires to the one remaining 30 amp as it would probably blow.

I would recommend that you replace that part instead.

[gforce1108]

I started to do that on mine for the same reasons, but couldn't get the wire out of the plug either. I completely took the whole thing apart and cleaned all of the connections. I also pinched the pieces that grip the fuse to make a tighter fit.

D2Beetle - on mine there was one one wire connected to one of the three 30A fuse positions - the other 2 were not used. I would guess jakthree's is probably the same, so moving it wouldn't cause a problem.

It was fairly straightforward to take apart - just note where each of the big metal fuses bars came from.

The fan has been working fine since.

[tdidood]

I just went through this yesterday. However my car is a '99 TDI so could be different. The 3 thirty amp fuses over the battery are S180, 179 and 178. S180 is the leftmost one while standing in the front of the car, it controls the cooling fans. My car temp warning came on last week, discovered that the fans weren't running. The fuse was good but the socket was melted once I pulled the fuse out to inspect. According to the manual S179 and 178 (rightmost fuse)are for ABS and EDL, no AC issues.

[gforce1108]

I knew I looked up the other 2 positions in the Bentley manual, but couldn't remember what they were for. Mine has no ABS or EDL so that would explain why there was no connections.

I was kinda surprised that it had no ABS - figured by '98 VW would have had ABS standard... My corrado had it back in '90. My wife actually likes it better without the ABS anyway.

[D2Beetle]

Originally Posted by gforce1108

I started to do that on mine for the same reasons, but couldn't get the wire out of the plug either. I completely took the whole thing apart and cleaned all of the connections. I also pinched the pieces that grip the fuse to make a tighter fit.

D2Beetle - on mine there was one one wire connected to one of the three 30A fuse positions - the other 2 were not used. I would guess jakthree's is probably the same, so moving it wouldn't cause a problem.

It was fairly straightforward to take apart - just note where each of the big metal fuses bars came from.

The fan has been working fine since.

My '98 does not have ABS; however my '99 and '00T do. I'll have to look at the fuses on mine again, I know one is for the A/C, because last summer the wife's ('00T) had one melt and the A/C stopped working. I cleaned it up and the A/C started working again.

When the one in my '98 melted the temp warning came on; had to clean that one up as well.

[jakthree]

Hi,
Thank you for your help on what the wire goes to. The cooling fans are working so the 'fix' is holding for now. My 98 NB does not have ABS. There is only one 30 amp fuse.

Does anyone have a factory service manual which may show how to remove the metal terminial from the black housing?

Thank you,