Speaking of automotive fuses, our 2015 Subaru Forester has a pair of fuse boxes, hereby documented in case of need.
One under the hood:
Note the white fuse puller near the top.
The layout chart doesn’t say what “SBF” might be, but we have a lot of whatever it is:
The spare fuses line up along the lower edge of the cover.
Another under the dashboard:
And their functions:
The string of fuses down the right side of the main block looks like a line of spares, but they’re not. What they might be isn’t documented anywhere, which seems to be very deliberate.
Memo to Self: Having never replaced an automotive fuse, I shouldn’t start worrying now.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
SBF = Slow Blow Fuse
Which became perfectly obvious after you pointed it out!
Thanks …
IIRC, even British Leyland didn’t make you replace fuses. My MG had two for the entire car, and when a tail light wire shorted to ground (metal cable clip For The Loss), the headlight switch failed to protect the fuse. Lucas Electric, the Prince of Darkness.
I’m pretty sure I had to replace the brake light fuse in the pickup, though that was due to a wiring failure in a utility trailer.
I’ve seen silicon fuse protectors, too … [heavy sigh]
One of our prii (plural of prius, of course) had an overloaded 12V socket (formerly “cigarette lighter thing”) courtesy of a previous owner. It can happen, I suppose.
Eeek!
Other than a ham radio transceiver, what would draw more than a hundred-some-odd watts inside a car?
Some things may be best left unknown …
If you stop at a truck stop, there are some appliances (mostly cookers) that’ll run off a 12V lighter outlet. In the first season of Riding on Asphalt, Alton Brown ran a shoe-box sized slow cooker off the 12V outlet in his motorcycle. Not something I’d want.
I’ve charged a phone with that jack, though the Subie turns off the 12V when the ignition is off. OTOH, one can get enough power to do a phone call with the charger plugged in.
Of course we need a slow cooker for all our long trips … but, on a motorcycle? Double eeek!
I’m guessing a phone charger from the usual ebay supplier developed a short. In a related vein, the Makita 18V rechargeable coffee maker(/a) is a thing that exists.
I’m’a holdin’ out for the 80 V MAX(tm) Iron(y) Chef Back Seat Speed-E Cooker …
Hmm, looks like the OEM battery in my 2012 Forester was jealous of all the fuse-love. Things were normal last week, but the battery was dead yesterday morning. (0.0V in circuit.) We had the brake-pressure switch fail on that one in February, and the battery checked out as “fine”, so I’m guessing an internal link broke. Too much going on in my life, I fear. (6 weeks after the last round of work; the eye is pretty quirky, but I know it’ll take a few more months. Oh well.)
Swapped the OEM for a 6 year Interstate. Radio and clock were reset, but the trip odometer and mileage widget were all right. Starting the engine was iffy; the Forester forum indicated that the ECU uses factory default settings after a battery swap, and our elevation wouldn’t help. I gather it takes a few cycles for the ECU to relearn conditions.
I’ll have to take another look at the battery voltage out of circuit; the weather was mild, but I got more life from that battery than I should have expected. Now I have to look at a couple other batteries before returning the core.
At one point I measured the “all off” battery current and found something in the tens of mA. Won’t kill it quickly, but draws enough to justify a trickle charger in the winter when it might sit for a few days between short trips.
Shameless product promotion…
https://www.defa.com/product/multicharger-1204/
One of these years I’ll get around to running a jumper with an actual plug through the grille and, of course, a big flag on the windshield …
The bad battery was only mostly dead; 3V this morning. I need to look at the other older batteries and swap if necessary; I’ve done vehicle work in sub zero weather, but try to avoid it at all costs.
It didn’t help that the ’12 was idle* when I’ve been doing my medical trips (2.5 hours each way). Not sure I have enough solar power to run the Battery Minder continually in winter; time for some Science!
(*) The Eyesight stuff on the ’16 is handy when one or the other human eye is suboptimal. A few more months and full healing should be there. Looking pretty good so far.
I
To quote Eks: “If solar power is so great, why is there winter?”
The Battery Tender needed 1.5-2.0A from the storage battery in 1A charge mode, and that’s more than the small system could cope with in winter. The system is intended for emergency lighting and trickle charge, with an emphasis on “trickle”. In summer, I’ll charge the old 12V cordless mower.
I think we’re in “Houston, we have a problem” territory. Replacement battery is now mostly dead. A half hour on a 2A dumb charger (the smart charger said “No, Nope, Nein, Nyet”), and I got a flicker from the dome light in override mode. No signs that I left a light on…
No indication of rodent-chewed wiring, so wild guesses are a stuck relay or something horrible in the alternator/regulator. Oh well, we have AAA towing, and redundant Subarus.
One of those “oh crap” moments. The 2012 has an overhead cargo dome line (didn’t notice it; we usually load/unload daytime), and it has an override switch, which I must have bumped. I’m guessing a 1A drain. The dealer jumpstarted it, and between a 15 minute idle and a 40 mile ride home, it’s sort-of OK. Have it on a 1.5A charger for a day or so. (The 2016 has its cargo lights on the side, so I didn’t look up top when I checked for stray dome light switches.)
I keep thinking I should replace the dome lights with LEDs and you’ve just explained why I must bump that right up the to-do list …
Interesting. I too own a 2015 Forrester and I would have thought those were spare fuses.
Verily: hell hath no fury like that of an unjustified assumption!
What is the function of Fuse Number 10 – 7.5A ( D-OP +B ) ?
All I know is what I read on those labels, so I have no idea. [sigh]