Visor bar has me stumped

May 21, 2010
2,201
Elmira, ny
Boy this visor bar has me stumped beyond stumped (if that's even possible)

A little back story was I had a local firefighter from millport vfd (here in ny) message me about a visor bar a member had that was blowing fuses. He bought the bar down for me to look at and I'm still scratching my head.

The fuse inside the switch is blown and has 2amp/250v on the ends. Would it hurt any if I replace it with a higher amp fuse and MAYBE solve all fuse blowing problems?? It does it with the switch AND the fuse for the cig plus outlet in the car.

It's a nice bar and dont really wanna rewire it with new led heads if I can avoid it (and trust me.........I WANT TO AVOID IT!!!!!!)

also for the record too, i didn't see any exposed wires touching the housing too (it's a metal housing)

Heres a few pictures of it also :)

20190911_174154.jpg20190911_174206.jpg
 

John Smith

Member
Oct 19, 2010
304
CO, US
What make, color, and LED count is each module?

So that's got 10 LED modules total, and an educated guess from just looking would be a max of 1 amp per module, so 10 amps total. That is absolutely a safe guess, even on steady I doubt they pull that much. Either way, the odds of it being over 2.5 total are pretty good I'd say. If your wire gauge is sized appropriately, which again I'd say it probably is, I'd say bump the fuse size to 5 or 10 and see what happens.
 
May 21, 2010
2,201
Elmira, ny
It's a cheap Amazon light (found it on the site for 99.99)

All modules are blue and each one has 3 individual leds in each head (totaling 30 leds)

Has some nice patterns too, it's not mine but it's on a pattern I like lol
 

John Smith

Member
Oct 19, 2010
304
CO, US
Ah, cheap bar like that no way it's exceeding 10a, it's probably sitting right at 2.5. Your wires aren't very long, I assume they're somewhere in the 18ga range, you'll be fine to try a 5 or 10a fuse.
 

NPS Ranger

Member
May 21, 2010
1,988
Penn's Woods
Something isn't right here. A fuse saying 2 amp/250 volt would give you about 40 amps at 12 volts. No interior LED bar is going to draw more than 40 amps when operating correctly, I think you have a dead short somewhere.
 
May 21, 2010
2,201
Elmira, ny
That's where I'm confuzzled lol.

The power switch works, the pattern selector switch cycles through all patterns, all the leds work great, no exposed metal to metal contact for wiring.

When I test it it works awesome as can be. but when the original owner does, its POP GOES THE FUSEY!!!!!!!! (sorry couldn't help but a new rendition of pop goes the weasel)

Makes me wonder if its maybe the guys truck for wiring or something
 

NPS Ranger

Member
May 21, 2010
1,988
Penn's Woods
So help me out here, I'm having trouble understanding this. A 2 amp/250 volt DC fuse that could be used to fuse a 500 watt heating element running on 250 volts DC (think hybrid vehicle) could handle no more than 2 amps when powering 12 VDC equipment? I thought volts x amps = watts.
 

irishff

Member
May 24, 2010
522
SW Missouri
So to be clear, when you test it on your stuff everything works fine, but when he does it blows fuses??? Sounds to me like the plug on the end does not like his accessory outlet and is causing a short inside the outlet itself. With the lighter plug having a lower rated fuse compared to the outlet itself then it blows first and leaves the outlet alone. Some of those Chinese plugs have longer ground points on the side or have a "nose" that when depressed too far can contact the ground points. I would say that if he wants to keep the cig plug on the end I would install an independent 12v outlet that isn't connected to the factory wiring.
 
May 21, 2010
2,201
Elmira, ny
@irishff

That be correct. Of course the fuse in the plug is blown, but wrapped in foil which still makes it work. I'm going over to autozone in a bit to get a new fuse, but should I get the same fuse (2a/250v) or should I get a different amperage one (was suggested 5 or 10 amp one) but keep the 250v??
 

MtnMan

Member
Dec 20, 2012
1,533
Eastern PA
That be correct. Of course the fuse in the plug is blown, but wrapped in foil which still makes it work. I'm going over to autozone in a bit to get a new fuse, but should I get the same fuse (2a/250v) or should I get a different amperage one (was suggested 5 or 10 amp one) but keep the 250v??

Try a 10A fuse. The voltage rating of the fuse doesn't matter, as long as it's greater than 12V.

Did this light bar ever work in the owner's vehicle?
 
May 21, 2010
2,201
Elmira, ny
From what I can gather it worked great, not sure what went wrong why its popping fuses.

I had the whole thing apart and had no exposed wiring anywhere, so stumped as to why it pops the fuse for cig plug outlet in his truck.
 
May 21, 2010
2,201
Elmira, ny
Lol....I think he drives a chevy.

Well got home from autozone with a new pack of 10amp fuses, and instantly blew the 10amp.

Maybe I should stick with just repairing lightbars, sometimes they're less of a headache lol
 
Oct 20, 2010
809
Rehoboth, MA
Does the fuse still blow when you unplug the connector to the bar?
 
May 21, 2010
2,201
Elmira, ny
What were you reading my mind lol ??

Actually was thinking the same thing a little bit ago, or even just wiring it to a simple toggle switch, but fuse it at 10 amp with a regular fuse (not the glass round style)
 

Nolines

Member
Apr 5, 2018
1,678
Margate, FL
Well if we are trying to figure out where the bar is connected to that may be causing the fuse pop why not start at the battery direct wire, then alligator clip the cig lighter plug to the battery and let's hear what happens!
 

Bvfa23

Member
Oct 14, 2013
147
Depew, New York
Sounds like there is metal on metal contact in the owners cig lighter plug, I'd check that top to bottom too cuz it definitely sounds like its an issue with his rig if you have plugged the bar into another cig plug and it works just fine
 
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