Lancia Motor Club

I am trying to get to grips with the fuses for my 1800 PF coupe.  The manual says that all are 15A but I have a mixture of fuses fitted (see picture) in my recent purchase (Jan this year) and I am a little reluctant to remove any to check their value until I have a replacement, just in case I blow a fuse, so to speak. I see that others have question the values and replies including one from Brian (Fay) also concurs with the manual saying that all are 15A.  The people in Norfolk say that they are either 8A, 15A and 25A.
If they are all 15A then where can I get them for I only see 16A for sale?.
If anyone can shed some light on this for me then I would very much appreciate it, thank you.

I use 16A for 15 specified. Not going to be a problem.

Colin,
Digging around today I found a spare Fulvia Berlina centre panel that contains the fuse box, I purchased this from Mike Matthews best part of 20 years ago, it came from a scrapped Berlina, so it is anyone's guess how long Mike had it before selling it to me.
It is for all intents and purposes like new, and every fuse is a 15 amp one, which leads me to suspect that as per the handbook this is what was fitted from new, quite why people have changed them for different values though, I have no idea.
Brian
8227  8)

15A do not seem to be made anymore. A quick ebay search showed loads of 16A continental car fuses but no 15A....

I always much prefer the old ceramic bodied fuses to the more modern plastic bodied ones. I imagine yours are all ceramic Brian?
Chris

Yes Chris,
I'll take a photo.
Brian
8227  8)

Thank you for all your replies.
15A/16A is the answer. I notice some of my fuses in the photo have been repaired with soldered bits of fuse wire in place of the “solid” flat one would normally expect to find.
Thank you Brian for digging around to find the fuse box from the Berlina, it would be interesting to see a photo of it.

Colin/Chris,
Having now had a close look at the fusebox while taking photographs I noticed that the ignition fuse has been changed for a 25A blue fuse, apart from this, all other position have a 15A white fuse.
It also came with most of the harness attached, including a couple of dodgy additional wires and in-line fuses.
This also is a good source for bulbs and correct connectors.

Brian
8227 8)

Brian
Thank you for the photos much appreciated. I think this topic is well and truly “sorted”. Thanks too for pointing out the 25A fuse, I shall look out for this. According to the wiring diagram there are a few in line fuses too.

Remember the advice to buy original pattern brass fuses as at https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ceramic-Copper-Brass-Car-Fuses-Continental-Torpedo-Type-Mercedes-VW-BMW-AUDI/332589247890?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=541693933852&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

I disagree as I have not had any problem with hard plastic modern equivelent for a fraction of the price. The fuse pops before any heating could distort the fuse body.

As an update I have just received 25 x 16a "ceramic" fuses from this ebay supplier (no connection).

The plastic used to "replicate" the ceramic is a robust  thermoset type. I put a match under one and after  a while the plastic charred but did not distort or bend.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/16-Amp-Continental-Car-Fuse-Torpedo-Bullet-Classic-Car-Fuse-Ceramic-Fuses-16A/122757469948?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=423179963683&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

not bad at 8p each!

The issue was not the fuse body melting but galvanic corrosion between the aluminium fusible link and the brass contacts in classic fuse boxes. This was identified as the cause of electrical unreliability by the member who recommended these fuses in the past. If the hard plastic ones have brass fusible links then this won't be an issue.

This is corrosion possibility may be true but in my case I have been running my car with the aluminium fusible links fuses for over a decade without problems. It maybe that I store my cars in a drier environment so the promotion of corrosion is reduced. Out of curiosity I pulled the motley collection of fuses (all aluminium type) as they were all different colour bodies (see Brians's photo as an example of what happens over time) - green brown black etc but 16A rated. I did not see any corrosion but decided to replace them with all the same colour.....(keeping the replaced fuses as spares).

I imagine if one blows you can switch in the metal part from an incorrectly coloured fuse and so maintain the authentic colouring.