Bought an mpv early last month for pretty cheap. I've never owned a Mazda (or any import really).
I'm a "learn as you go, hate working on vehicles but can't afford to pay a mechanic" type... LOLAnd I'd say my mechanical knowledge is pretty good after my last unwanted project truck.

So now I'm starting to work on the immediate issues. And all I know about this vehicle is that it sat for 7 months before I bought it, so I knew it need some TLC.
Some info that may or may not be relevant;
It had started overheating a bit, noticed coolant was a bit low so filled it. Was fine for a few days. Then would overheat much sooner and much hotter. No fluid in hoses from radiator to thermostat/water pump. So replaced both. Water pump didn't look to be very old but I think it failed anyways. I suspect someone replaced it that didn't know the air needed to be bled from the lines or that you should also replace the thermostat at the same time.
Got everything back together and decided to clean up someone's terrible electric tape job on the positive battery cable. Just a mass of loose but still sticking tape... it was very weird. Anyways, pulled most of the tape off (it also had tape further down onto the plastic coil protector, but left that on as it was tight and looked okay) and found 2 clean cut wires (no caps, and not individually taped) but taped together to the main cable.....
they run down into the plastic protector, so not so easy to trace to origin.
Retaped everything separating the 2 wires and connected to battery terminals.
Later that night I noticed the ignition light was on but I had opened the door some time before but wasn't paying attention to how long it had been.
Then I sort of forgot about it (oops).
Was going to burp the coolant system a day or so later and realized battery was dead. I bought a new battery because it was on the list anyways and put it in AND..... ignition key light is on again and won't go out. So disconnected positive terminals. Then went looking into fuse boxes and saw this;
120amp main fuse!

Not good!
IT looks like the plastic part where the fuse plugs in is burnt and needs replaced but is this a normal main fuse for the Mazda. It looks like heat shrink (burnt and bubbled) over bare wire?

Here's a pic of the 2 cut wires, if anyone has any ideas on what they might be for, would save me some time (and probably frustration trying to trace it)

green with white stripe and red with white stripe.
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Looks like this thread is pretty old but for whatever reason someone replaced a fuse with a wire and whatever circuit it's feeding is drawing a lot of power. Track down the circuit, look for a short somewhere and fix it but first unhook your battery and get rid of the wire in your fuse box. That's a great way to burn a vehicle to the ground

 

Ended up taking it to a shop. Turns out the whole fuse block had caught on fire which is why they used a jumper wire... and paper clips and even a penny to keep it running.
It was the dual fan system that's overloading. Too many AMPs and Mazda, Kia, Hyundai and BMW all know this but still insists it's fine
Unfortunately, the fuse block needs replaced, of which there are none available. No new ones at all and used ones so far haven't worked; seven months and three fuse blocks later. So the fan has to be hardwired with a switch.

 

Oof! What a pain!