Car dead after turning on blower fan

[Cletonius]

Today I spent some time with my car and managed to sort out a bunch of little issues (yay!) but in the process managed to find some problems.

There was a huge "fuse" thing jammed into position 20 of the underhood fuse panel, which I now know to control the blower motor for the climate controls. It's really cold tonight (19F) so I thought it would be nice to have heat on my ride home. I popped the fuse thing back in there, started the car, and then after about 15 seconds turned on the fan just to verify that it worked, and the car shut off. It'll crank like the dickens but not fire. It ran totally fine before I did this to it so I'm guessing that I managed to blow a fuse or fuseable link somewhere that I'm missing. I have a hanes book that I couldn't find anything useful in, and will be checking my bentley later tonight.

Any suggestions where to start? I need to get this thing home. At this point I'd consider wearing a hat and mittens while I drive it for the remainder of the winter, as long as that meant I could drive it.

edit: car is 1990 325is 5-speed

pics of fusebox:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Evan12]

Does it run without the fuse?

[Cletonius]

it did run without the fuse. the only reason I put it back was to have the blower motor run so I didn't freeze on the ride home. it ran until i turned on the blower fan and then died, to not start again.

[Evan12]

So will it run again without the fuse? Or did u screw the car even starting by trying it once?

[Cletonius]

After turning the blower on it was dead. before today I was able to use the blower no problems. before this incident it ran fine with and without the fuse. After replacing with a correct 30A fuse and turning the blower on, the car will crank but not start. it was running until I turned the blower on.

[Evan12]

Hmm. It could have back fed and shorted something else out. Or maybe it is just the connection. I'm not too good with fuses n stuff. Sorry mate.

[Cletonius]

I think it might have jumped to something else when I turned the fan on but I'm not seeing any other blown fuses in the box. I thought I would check the fuel pump relay and maybe pop the fuseblock out to inspect the underside. Is it possible to replace just the fuseblock or do I have to replace a huge harness with it?

[jlevie]

The heater blower itself should not be able to cause the car to die. But if there's a fault in fusebox or wiring all bets are off. You'll have to do some diagnostic work to find out what is going on. Hopefully it isn't a problem in the fuse box as it and its harness are an integral assembly.

[Cletonius]

I have heard that you can replace the top half of the fusebox and the board inside. Was going to open it up today and look for burnt traces.