Fridge Power Repair

It must've been out of power for a few ours at least. When I finally noticed the warm lettuce yesterday evening, it was at 64F. No way I could fix it after hiking Peekaboo Loop. I plugged it into the car's cigarette lighter instead and left a door open. The lighter power goes off when the car is off and leaving a door open keeps the car on. The car still goes off after about 30 minutes, so I had to come out and close and reopen every 30 minutes. It went on for 7 hours without power over night, but it was still in the 40s, thanks to cool nights.

I was thinking that all that vibration from driving on dirt roads must've shaken the the splicer clamp off the 12V line. The vibration did shake the rear window loose, enough for it to come unhinged from it's motor mechanism, after all. (The nearest Tesla service center is in Denver, so I duct taped it for now so that rainwater won't get in.) It was at least 30 miles of dirt road from Lava Point to Cedar City and that must've done it. 

This afternoon, I finally ripped the car's lining off and accessed the 12V wiring. The clamps seem to be intact to my surprise. It was the 10A fuse on the 12V cigarette light adaptor that blew. I'll have to take back all the cussing for it being cheap Chinese splicer clamps and instead cuss out the 12V cigarette lighter adapter for being cheap Chinese parts. To be fair though, the fridge could've been working hard in the hot car with one of the vent almost block by the wall.  

I didn't have a spare fuse. The cig lighter set came in a pair and I left one at home. Pretty dumb I should say. I should've installed both just in case one failed, so that I would have a spare power source without ripping the wall lining again in case one failed. Hindsight twenty twenty. At least I had all the tools to take the car apart and figure it out the problem. 

I found a tiny metal pin on the ground and McGyver'ed it into a makeshift fuse, a fuse that will never blow. Shoved it into the fuse tube and voila! the fridge was back in business. That'll do for now till I get to a hardware store somewhere and get a replacement fuse. 

Meanwhile, my $70k car is getting trashed left and right.. That's what I get for using a luxury sedan as an utility vehicle.