Harw40 wrote: I thought I’d take the $25 gamble. I didn’t try charging but went instead to ‘ready’ where my hopes were dashed with an audible pop from the rear of the car.
Huh. So that's evidence that some of the problems happen after the fuse goes open circuit. But I'd like to be clear on the exact sequence of events if possible. It sounds like the first symptom (warning lights) happened after starting the car. Then you could not charge any more, but there were no pops or other changes in symptoms till you replaced the fuse. Then the first time you went to ready, with no AC power connected, after replacing the fuse, there was the pop from the rear of the car. Did I get that right?
... have extracted the obviously damaged components. They are one of the blue ( m&m size) ‘snubber’ caps, which had split open; the Okaya LE 225 capacitor which had bubbled on the 7K resistor side, and the 7K resistor itself that may have been ok but I extracted anyhow as it looked baked next to the Okaya bubble.
I'd say that the capacitor was damaged from the "7K" resistor (actual resistance is 4.7 Ω), not the other way around. So I think replacing the resistor, even if it measures OK, is a really good idea. Actually, the P10K (also 4.7 Ω but with a fuse included) gets the same current, and therefore since it has the same resistance gets the same power, might also benefit from replacing, but it's physically a little larger, so it may handle the same power load better.
My guess is that the pop would have been from the "M&M" splitting; the resistors would suffer in silence, I would think. I wonder if the resistors were getting hot before the fuse failed, or overheated as a result of the capacitors dying? I would think that they would fail open circuit, and even if they failed shorted, that's still a low power situation.
I do wonder if putting a new fuse in and giving it another go caused further damage?
It's sounding that way.
Questions; will I be able to solder reliably from above to the legs sticking up?
You should clean the protruding pigtails as best you can, and pre-tin the pigtails of the new capacitors, and solder as quickly as you can.
Can anyone inform me of the polarities for these three pieces
None of them is polarity sensitive. AC components never are, as they experience polarity changes all the time.