RE: fuse box upgrade

["Dupree, Jim" <dupree@alldata.com>]

Actually there are a lot of changes to the fuse/relay panel. The obvious
external changes, blade style fuses and spade type connectors for the
harness. There are also significant changes to the internals which results
in a much mode durable board. The old style boards were several circiut
boards press fit together with the connector pins making a mechanical
connection from circuit to circuit without any solder joints. They were very
susceptible to corrosion damage and pins becoming loose. You could often
solve or cause electrical problems by slightly twisting or binding the whole
board. VW/Audi improved them over the years but they still were poor. The
tin coated round pins used for the harness connectors can't handle a lot of
load and tend to overheat and melt down. The  new style boards are much
better but I would be inclined to put in complete harnesses with it if I did
an upgrade. I think you could spend an enormous amount of time just
determining how to graft the old harnesses to the new board, the wiring is
quite different. I think I would use relays to carry the heavy loads around
the board and keep a good  board in the garage.
Jim Dupree

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Buchholz, Steven [SMTP:Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com]
	Sent:	Monday, March 15, 1999 1:23 PM
	To:	'qlist'
	Subject:	RE: fuse box upgrade

		I wrote:

		From my point of view the only real improvement afforded by
the swap
	is that you will get the blade-style fuses, which means a better
electrical
	connection on each and every fuse in the box.  The same type of
relays and
	connectors seem to be used, so unless Audi decided to derate the
connector
	pins there isn't anything inherently more reliable about the
underhood box
	as compared to the "Rabbit-style" (yes the ur-q has exactly the same
P/N as
	my '78 Audi Fox or a VW Rabbit!) under dash unit.  From what I have
found
	the underhood fusebox has a separate case to protect it from the
elements
	and the fusebox itself is held in place by a couple of plastic
clips.  

		... interestingly enough, at about the same time I was
writing this,
	a fusebox from a 5k arrived at my house.  While I have yet to try to
fit it
	to the ur-q it did give me an opportunity to give it a once over.
Perhaps
	the biggest item that I had been unaware of was the fact that the
wiring
	harness connectors are all "spade" style (i.e. just like the relays
and the
	bladed fuses).  This means that by definition the existing harnesses
will be
	incompatible with the new fusebox.  

		Steve Buchholz
		San Jose, CA (USA)