panel is dead

Dishwasher is completely dead, no lights work on the panel,so I checked the breaker and it was fine. I checked the thermal fuse and got no response, so I picked up a new fuse which matches but the wiring is different. the new one has two yellow wires that are connected while the old one in the dishwasher has two wires with another wire spliced into one of these and it goes into the circuit board. I’ve read that I should change the wires also, not just the fuse. help! Gary