my fusebox is bad. rebuild it?

[Kershaw]

i have swapped ALL the relays, as i said in my original post.

my horn works.

[DaveSmed]

Swapping relays only helps if the relays are bad, not if the relay control is jacked.

I'm guessing you did a bit more diagnostic than your post implied, in which case hey, they sometimes do go bad. I'd hate to see you de-pin and re-pin all of that shit and have the same non-working windows though. That bank of fuses in that quarter are tied to the unloader relays that seem to be a recurring problem.

If the horn honks, 4, 5, 6, and 12 likely have power and the wipers don't work for some other reason past the fuse.

[Kershaw]

unloader relay?

and where would i test the relay control?

[Cletonius]

unloader relay?

this thread has lots of good info about the fusebox. Will explain relay locations and the like.

http://r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=60297

[Kershaw]

i swapped everything in the fusebox (minus the fuses, i put new ones in) from a working running e30.

it did not change anything.

if i jumper power from elsewhere, the windows will work.

[DaveSmed]

Give this a shot, see if you get windows.

[SynSyx]

I have a similar predicament... power at the switches, breaker, and K relays, but not fuse 17. I tried ^^ (jumping the k5 terminals with a 30A fuse but I still didn't get windows).

[Kershaw]

if i jump k5 i get the passenger window only. i've done that before.

no wipers though. or turn signals or hvac blower motor. etc etc etc.. -_-

my friends dad (who works in avionics, really knows his electrical shit) took a quick look at it yesterday for 30 minutes and played around with it. he is convinced i have a bad ground somewhere. if he says it, i believe him. so now i just have to find where.....

fyi: i have no idea how you managed to put that fuse in. it is impossible.

[DaveSmed]

Oh yea, prob should have posted this one too.



...but a jumper accomplishes the exact same thing.

Anyway, Pin 8 of C114 powers up the following stuff:

Turn signals
Glove box light
Wipers
Washer
Horn relay
Brake lights
Cruise Control
...and some other small shit.

If a majority of that stuff does not work (save the horn you mentioned) then it could still be a problem.

C114 also powers fuse 10 (gauge cluster and unloader relays) and supplies power to the headlight relays. If your headlights work properly, you should at least have the blower motor working.

Alternately, it could be a ground at the stalks on the column (wipers and turn signals have grounds there) and the unloader relays could be a separate issue.

Out of what I mentioned, what works and what doesn't? (esp. the headlights)

[Kershaw]

the previously mentioned friends dad (who also has a e38 740iL, e28 m535i, e24 m6, e36 318ti, AND an r90) helped me out again today.

we managed to fix:

wipers. contact on the motor was bad.

blinkers, the relay was bad. you'd take it out, reinstall it, it would work. wait 30 minutes. it wouldnt. we pulled apart and resoldered a few connections on the back that looked cracked. fixed it right up.

hvac, jumped k7 and it works fine.

power windows, jumped k5. added difficulty was that 2 wires (an unknown ground and the power windows wire) in the door had been pinched by the door in the rubber sleeve and cut it. we ran new wires and soldered them to the old wires. it works fine now.

power mirrors. they were working for a hot second while we were playing around with the rubber sleeve in the door, but as soon as we soldered the wires in place they stopped working. not a big deal as i dont really adjust my mirrors that often, but i would like to fix this at sometime.

my thoughts are that it is the ignition switch. all the electronics work. however the signal being sent to the relay to close is not happening. that signal is sent from the ignition switch.

i am very glad i did not pull my fusebox apart.

[DaveSmed]

Wow, so it was a little bit of everything.

Sounds like your friend's dad has some awesome taste, and is very handy with electrical stuff. Good guy to be friends with!


With the unloaders, they receive 12v+ from the ignition switch with the key on to one side of the coil, and the other side is connected to the windings in the starter. The relays use the windings as a ground path, but when you crank the car, the windings become energized and the relay's coil has +12v on both sides creating a voltage difference of 0v and turning the relays off while cranking.

That said, 99% of unloader problems are at the starter, usually in the forum of a disconnected wire. It is acceptable to simply ground that wire (Black/Green) if you changed the starter at some point to one lacking the extra terminal.

[Kershaw]

yep. that man really laid the foundation of me working on cars. he restored 2 late 60s mustangs when i was a teenager. he lived across the street from me.

every problem required a different fix. which is why the PO sold the car. i found electrical diagram printouts from alldata in the car. apparently they were trying to fix it before. had no luck and sold the car.

i figured they didnt know what they were doing and all i needed to do was replace some fuses. haha. i've also had to replace the exhaust. replace the entire suspension. and its looking like its not going to pass the jack test..... on a lift, all 4 tires rotate at different speeds. so much for "transfer case was rebuilt 10k miles ago." oh, and it came missing an ix weave.

:/

i'll give the starter a look man. thanks.