You are driving your car and suddenly something just stopped working. This could be one of the fuses in the car blow out. If you have a blown fuse, something will no longer work in the car and this could be power window, headlights, fog lamps, car stereo,  gauge lights, rear lights, parking lights, horn, signals, wiper, and among others. Do not panic and do not worry, fuse is something very cheap to replace and there are many ways to figure out which fuse is blown and it just take less than 5 minutes for a replacement.

It could be expensive if you go to the dealership because the labor cost per hour is costly. The fuse itself may just $1 dollar but the labor could be $50 for an hour. Here we teach you step by step to locate the blown fuse and get it replace easily. Even girls can do it.

Step 1: Diagnosis which fuse is blown

First you will have to see what kind of thing isn’t working in your car. Whether it is interior light, radio, backup lights, there are fuses for these things. You can then locate exactly which fuse is blown base on the fuse box diagram in the owner’s manual. See Honda Civic fuse diagram.

Step 2: Locate the fuse box

Locate where the fuse box is. Newer car usually has two fuse boxes, one is located under the car hood and another is inside the car. It is usually somewhere under the car steering wheel.

Step 3: How to tell if a car fuse is blown

Now you will need to use pliers or needle-nose to get the fuse out from the fuse box. Now you may ask “How to tell if a car fuse is blown?” Look at the picture shown here, on the left is a good fuse and on the right is a blown fuse.

You will see an “n” word (for plastic fuse) or a metal link in a good fuse. It can be seen clearly with lights from behind the fuse. For blown fuse, the metal link will be separated just like the picture shown above. If you no longer see the “n” word like metal link, the fuse is blown.

Step 4: Replace the fuse

Bring the fuse and go to any car accessories shop to get the same fuse. Purchase the exact Amp, if the shop is out of stock, try another shop. Do not purchase a lower Amp fuse or higher Amp fuse. For example, if the fuse blown is 15 Amps, buy a new 15 Amps fuse. If you replace with 5 Amps fuse, the fuse will blow sooner than it needs to, which is not good. If you replace with 25 Amps fuse, it will not blow when it needs to and could bring possible damage to the part of your car, which is bad! Also, do not bypass fuse in your car which could bring possible damage and the damage could be costly! After you get the new replacement, you can simply push the fuse into the fuse box using hand easily. That’s the simple four steps on how to replace a blown fuse in your car. See also: How to jump start a car without jumper cables.