bdickason

First, I want to thank everyone for assembling such an amazing wealth of knowledge about the 928. All of the forum posts, guides, mailing lists, and webpages have given my wife and I tons of information about our new car

We recently purchased a 1980 with 37k miles that is in very good condition. I anticipated a few issues, and it has some electrical gremlins, of course!

I've read a ton about how to track them down, but my first thought is to just replace all of the fuses and clean the whole fuse/relay panel, as per Sharkskin's guide.

At first, this seemed simple. I've worked with computers all my life, it's no different than seating and unseating RAM. However, lots of owners have complained that it's difficult to slot fuses in, that they're easy to break, etc.

Would you recommend buying all new fuses from one of the big three and replacing all of them? Or is it safer/better to just remove the existing ones and clean them where necessary?

Avar928

Granted the fuses for my year are blade types and readily available at local auto parts stores, I'd replace all the fuses and keep a bunch as spares.

If you're going to go through the trouble of pulling the fuse panel, may as well go all the way and clean everything. Did it with mine.

worf928

New fuses should be cheaper than paying yourself to clean them. Relays, not so much.

bdickason

Thanks guys.

Any tips for putting the new fuses in?

I guess my worst case nightmare scenario is that I have to manually inspect each fuse after installation because half my electronics stop working

Just picked up a multi-meter but have no idea how to use it yet, perhaps this could be a way to verify that everything works before starting the car up?

Barry Chan

First get the fuse and relay chart from 928 inter', i don't know about your MY but mine has a misprint on a couple of fuses in the owner's manual. I use a pair of needle nose plier to pull and insert fuse, push up and pull/push up and insert, relays pull gently out and inspect, use some fine sand paper to file, welcome aboard!

bdickason

Thanks Barry! I'll go the needlenose plier route and will double check the curvature to make sure they're in the 's' pattern that people recommend.

As for the relays, sandpaper sounds like a good call.

Appreciate the help guys! Will report back with how it goes once I receive the fuses

Have a list of about 25 projects so I'm sure I'll be back with more questions

martinss

If you find a fuse has corroded or scorched contacts, whether or not it has blown, be sure to also inspect the fuse holder. A common failure is for corrosion to build up on a fuse contact, increasing local resistance, resulting in over heating, which can damage the fuse holder.

danglerb

80 has the old style European fuses, little ceramic canoes with an open strip of metal down the middle and folded over each end to make contact. Same is used in the older VW bugs. Newer models, by 85 or maybe 84, started using the blade type fuses most newer cars have and those you need pliers or something to get out, not the old ones which are more an issue to keep IN than to take out.

Some multimeters are junk, aka free from Harbor Freight, and may not work or work properly. Usually the weak point, pardon the pun, are the probes (test leads you touch stuff with). Make sure what you have functions properly and is of reasonable quality.

Multimeters have several functions, on a car most of the time you will measure, voltage, resistance, continuity, and sometimes current, but current if you mess up will blow the meter and the measurements in most meters are limited in current range below many automotive uses. Practice on something harmless before starting diagnostics on a car.