Oxidized Fuse? Problems last night..

[427 Street]

I was driving the car around sunset last night....lights on...no problems. I then stopped off at a friend's house. When I started my car up and drove away, I noticed that the fuel gauge and the tach were not working.

My first thought was a short.

I called Bob today, and he said that the 3rd fuse down, on the right side, houses a 15A fuse that controls the tach, the fuel gauge, the wipers, and the heater. I then told him that I got back into the car this morning, I did not fire it up, but I turned the key to the ACC "first click" position, and the fuel gauge was working (I did not check the tach/wipers/heater etc) He then said it probably was not the fuse but maybe a Grounding problem.

I thought I would still change the fuse and look for a grounding issue later. When I opened the hood and looked at the fuse, the 15A fuse that he told me about looked awful. The other fuses were fine.

It did not have a broken element, but it looked like oxidation was on the element and the chalky oxidation "powder" was on the glass. It looked like it had been in salt water (just for a visual).

I changed it out, fired the engine, and everything works.

My question: Can a fuse that is not physically broken work intermittently like that and cause the problem that I has having with the gauges?

Thanks, I am not an electrical expert by any means.