Tripping circuit breaker

[cs251bob laws]

On return from holiday, I discovered the circuit breaker had tripped out on my fuse board. Its an old board with only one circuit breaker. Trying to reset failed and it tripped again. This also happened two days before I went away, but on that occasion the trip could be reset. The fuse board has only 6 fuses of 8 being used. By trial and error I established the circuit causing the tripping was a power circuit to my detached garage. I am now operating the house with no power to the garage without issue. I disconnected the feed to the garage fuse box, to eliminate that as a possible fault - circuit breaker still tripped out. I changed the fuse used in the main house fuse box to power the garage circuit and it still strips out. I used the garage fuse to power other household power circuits but they did not trip out.
Therefore I'm pretty confident the fault is in the cable that runs to the garage. BUT its looks like 3/4" thick armoured grade, and it runs in a 2" dia plastic pipe under the lawn and drive. There is no sign of damage at either visible end, or where the cable is above ground. How can I test this cable to prove my belief, or what have I missed in my initial investigations. I am finding it very difficult to comprehend how a reinforced cable running in a pipe underground can develop a fault.
Both fuse boards (house and garage) are clean, no spiders webs etc.

Cheers

Bob

Sorry guys appear to have posted this in wrong section ...appologies

 

[Octopus]

Your best next step would to get the circuit to the garage tested properly....... By a local spark with a mft

 

[Hellmooth]

Get a spark out to test it properly, won't take long to establish what is wrong with it.

 

[Rpa07]

That's definitely the way to go Bob. It needs the proper test equipment to diagnose where the problem lies. Just be ready with a cup of tea and some biccies and you'll have it sorted in no time. If you haven't told us where you are from, post the area and a local member may be able to help. All the best. Just remember, not all of us work for tea and biccies!

 

[Pete999]

On return from holiday, I discovered the circuit breaker had tripped out on my fuse board. Its an old board with only one circuit breaker. Trying to reset failed and it tripped again. This also happened two days before I went away, but on that occasion the trip could be reset. The fuse board has only 6 fuses of 8 being used. By trial and error I established the circuit causing the tripping was a power circuit to my detached garage. I am now operating the house with no power to the garage without issue. I disconnected the feed to the garage fuse box, to eliminate that as a possible fault - circuit breaker still tripped out. I changed the fuse used in the main house fuse box to power the garage circuit and it still strips out. I used the garage fuse to power other household power circuits but they did not trip out.
Therefore I'm pretty confident the fault is in the cable that runs to the garage. BUT its looks like 3/4" thick armoured grade, and it runs in a 2" dia plastic pipe under the lawn and drive. There is no sign of damage at either visible end, or where the cable is above ground. How can I test this cable to prove my belief, or what have I missed in my initial investigations. I am finding it very difficult to comprehend how a reinforced cable running in a pipe underground can develop a fault.
Both fuse boards (house and garage) are clean, no spiders webs etc.

Cheers

Bob

Sorry guys appear to have posted this in wrong section ...appologies

Bob, from your post description "my fuse board only has 1 circuit breaker" make me believe that you mean it's an RCD that's tripping, this could be anything causing this, faulty appliance, bad lamp or indeed a faulty cable, best try unplugging all your appliances and then reset the RCD,if the fault is related to any appliance then plugging them back in one at a time should isolate the faulty one, if that doesn't work then don't mess with it call an electrician