Can a fuse blow due to age or wear?

[Nabeel Rahimpour]

Hey all,

I have a 2004 VW Golf GLS 2.0L Gas. w/Manual

Yesterday I got my car back from the dealership, drove home and went to bed (got home before dark no need for headlights). Today, after work I went for a ride and noticed after a while that the Drivers side headlight was out. Turned out to be the fuse.

I recently ran a new 3rd party relay and wiring harness to install OE fogs on my car that didn’t originally come with it over the weekend.
( http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Golf_IV–2.0/Lighting/ES416/ and http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Golf_IV–2.0/Lighting/Tail_Lights/ES1251/ )

So I suspected this to be the issue, except neither of these share the fuse for the drivers side headlight. I Checked the headlight harness (thinking I may have pinched a wire or something) but it also seems to be fine from the conduit up to the bulb.

This being a 00’s VW, electrical problems are kinda a feature of the car from what I hear, but since replacing the fuse, and driving around for a couple hours, everything seems to be fine.

What’s the chance that the fuse was just worn out? Could corrosion and/or heat/cold cycles cause a fuse to wear out over time and blow at a lower amperage than specified? Is this even likely, if possible at all?

I guess it’s possible that while the dealership was working on the front end, they shorted something out by accident, and I didn’t notice till tonight.
But I also worry that it’s a short in a harness or something. It IS a 00’s VW, and as much as I love mine, I know it’s kinda an electrical fireball waiting to happen…

Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?

Should I just leave it and worry if it happens again?

Topic

[Mike]

Fuses don’t seem to wear out just because they’re old, but I’ve replace many blown fuses that seem to blow for no reason but never came back. I replaced all the fuses with new ones when my VW was about 15 years old, but that was on principle as opposed to having a problem.

[Andrew Phillips]

I suppose one could make the argument that anything is possible. Fuses generally only burn when subjected to over-current. From a safety standpoint it is far better for a fuse to fail from less current that its rating. Since the fuse is replaced now, and it didn’t burn out right away, any short-circuit condition that may have caused it to go out is no longer present, or the new one would have gone out very quickly. Another possibility I can think of is high resistance on the headlight wiring. If I recall correctly, the battery is right behind that headlight, so any electrolyte leaking could have caused corrosion on that connector or wiring. You could pull the connector from the headlight and visually inspect it and its wiring to the harness for any signs of acid damage. You may want to remove the battery to facilitate this, and wear rubber gloves to protect your hands from any acid spill.

[Author]

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