ground locations

[azzkikr]

I am missing a ground on my car somewhere. On my load reducing relay the relay gets power on 86 but does not ground out on 85 so the circuit never closes. The relay works fine I have tested it out and the 30 has power. If I ground the relay on the chassis then everything works as expected. Where is the ground for the relays? I tried to take apart the fuse box but I didnt have any luck yet because its tough to straighten out all the wire and figure out which goes where

Anyone know where the ground on the relay goes? As much of the path that is know would be good.

[azzkikr]

I found out a litte bit more about this problem. It turns out one of my grounds is actaully live. I tested the voltage across the relay and I got 12V on 30, 85 and 86. Unless I am misunderstanding something fundamental I should only be getting 12V on 30 and 85. 86 should be a ground but I am reading 12V on that pin in the fuse box. I am seeing this for the load offset relay I think it is called. All the other relays seem to be fine.

Essentially I must have a short in a line somewhere. But even with a short I shouldnt be seeing 12V I would see a few volts and lots of amps flowing, right? It seems as though the ground wire must be hooked to the battery instead of ground. How else would it show 12V? And Ideas anyone?

[BMW03]

hummmm, that is weird, but if it is a short then like you said I don't think it should be 12V. Or maybe it depends on what it is being shorted with, their is a chance. I will keep looking around and if I find something I will get back to you.