Beware Harbor Frieght fuses!
#1
Beware Harbor Frieght fuses!
My friend from another forum is a GM engineer and shared this with us:
We got an email sent around at work today with a warning about some automotive fuses sold through Harbor Freight. What to look out for is a "Storehouse 120 pc Automotive fuse set, mini blade type"
GM has gotten a couple vehicles in with extensive wiring harness meltage and found these replacemnt fuses in those vheicles. Testing has shown that they... well... don't blow.
Quote:We have now had two vehicles come into our department with extensive wiring harness damage. Both of these vehicles had a replacement 15 amp fuse instead of the GM fuse. The fuse does NOT “pop” causing the wiring harness to catch fire. The fuse has a clear, hard plastic blue body with the amperage stamped into the top there is no white paint on the fuse. There are no identifying marks on the fuse to tell who is making it. The fuse is distributed by Harbor Freight, I attached a picture of the box of fuses. Your dealers should look out to make sure that suspect wiring problems are not caused by these defective aftermarket fuses. The 15 amp fuse on this particular truck did not “pop” even at 50 amps. The fuse in the second picture still tests “good” even after a direct short across the battery. We tested six of these fuses and none of them pop.
I'll try to get pics up later, but suffice it to say, the 15 amp fuse melted it's plastic case before the conductor.
Don't be Harbor Freight ghetto. At least shop at Vatozone
We got an email sent around at work today with a warning about some automotive fuses sold through Harbor Freight. What to look out for is a "Storehouse 120 pc Automotive fuse set, mini blade type"
GM has gotten a couple vehicles in with extensive wiring harness meltage and found these replacemnt fuses in those vheicles. Testing has shown that they... well... don't blow.
Quote:We have now had two vehicles come into our department with extensive wiring harness damage. Both of these vehicles had a replacement 15 amp fuse instead of the GM fuse. The fuse does NOT “pop” causing the wiring harness to catch fire. The fuse has a clear, hard plastic blue body with the amperage stamped into the top there is no white paint on the fuse. There are no identifying marks on the fuse to tell who is making it. The fuse is distributed by Harbor Freight, I attached a picture of the box of fuses. Your dealers should look out to make sure that suspect wiring problems are not caused by these defective aftermarket fuses. The 15 amp fuse on this particular truck did not “pop” even at 50 amps. The fuse in the second picture still tests “good” even after a direct short across the battery. We tested six of these fuses and none of them pop.
I'll try to get pics up later, but suffice it to say, the 15 amp fuse melted it's plastic case before the conductor.
Don't be Harbor Freight ghetto. At least shop at Vatozone