Hid headlights, fuse melted issue.

[cartejo5]

Morning folks, out on bike yesterday and noticed headlight wasn't working sidelights fine as are rears just the headlight dipped or main simply not working.
The bike is a 1100gs fitted with a hid50 conversion which have been on for 4 years and been fine.

Had a look at in the garage last night and the 10A fuse in the hid power line was melted literally half of the fuse casing was melted, replaced fuse and it seems ok now.

Questions, is 10A the right size fuse? Is the melted fuse a symptom of something else being wrong? Should I simply replace fuse and cross fingers, must admit I'm more inclined to find out why it's happened but it could just be one of those things.

Electrics are not my strong point, any helpful pointers would be nice.

 

[warmshed]

Melting fuse/holder does not mean the fuse is incorrect. If its the right size for the current/wire then it should not blow. If higher current is drawn then the fuse will blow. If its melting then it means a poor connection, either within the fuse or on the fuse holder. You can normally tell which by looking at what part is burnt. Do not put in a higher fuse.
A poor connection means resistance. Current flowing through a resistor will create heat, hence the burnt fuse. Cheap fuses are not to be recommended. You did not specify whether it was a blade or in line sprung glass fuse. If the latter I would replace it with an in line bade fuse, the sprung ones are more likely to cause resistance .

 

[Grim Rider]

I am not that great on electrics either but a melted fuse after all that time working would seem to indicate to me something was wrong and I would want to trace all the wiring to check for breaks where a bad contact is being made to cause this, then as has been said replace with a blade fuse - if it has worked all that time on 10A should be right?

 

[cartejo5]

Thanks for your input guys, I've checked all the wiring etc and it all looks sound. Looking at the fuse itself it looks like it was corroded which may have led to resistance\heat build up causing the fuse plastic to melt and eventually pack up.

Cleaned up the fuse holder and popped new 10A fuse in and it seems ok, fingers crossed time will tell.