E36 30amp blower fuse blown
Discussion
The heater blower stopped working last week just as the temps plummeted.
Spent the weekend driving around fully togged up with gloves on and the windows open. Jeez I was cold.
Stupidly the fuse was not the first thing I checked and having had problems with the heater before, I jumped straight to the conclusion that it was the 'hedgehog' aka final stage resistor.
Boy! that was a bugger to get to and I now have my glovebox and various ducts sitting on the back seat.
New 'cheap' resistor arrived today and I plugged it in but alas no blowing. Very sad as replacing the blower itself is probably beyond me and I have heard horror stories of £600 bills. Thinking it was time for me and my BMW, owned since 1998, to part ways.
Started looking at the fuses after reading that they may be behind the glovebox but could not find them to only find that fuse 20 in the engine bay was well and truly burnt out.
New 30 amp fuse and the old hedgehog fitted and its all working.
Begs the question though, why would the fuse blow anyway???
The new hedgehog still doesn't work btw.
Spent the weekend driving around fully togged up with gloves on and the windows open. Jeez I was cold.
Stupidly the fuse was not the first thing I checked and having had problems with the heater before, I jumped straight to the conclusion that it was the 'hedgehog' aka final stage resistor.
Boy! that was a bugger to get to and I now have my glovebox and various ducts sitting on the back seat.
New 'cheap' resistor arrived today and I plugged it in but alas no blowing. Very sad as replacing the blower itself is probably beyond me and I have heard horror stories of £600 bills. Thinking it was time for me and my BMW, owned since 1998, to part ways.
Started looking at the fuses after reading that they may be behind the glovebox but could not find them to only find that fuse 20 in the engine bay was well and truly burnt out.
New 30 amp fuse and the old hedgehog fitted and its all working.
Begs the question though, why would the fuse blow anyway???
The new hedgehog still doesn't work btw.
rockin said:
Bear in mind that 30 amps at 12v is 360 watts so you've clearly got a significant problem somewhere. Obviously the fuse is there to give you a "fail safe" but you need to be cautious - 360w is a lot of heat if it gets in the wrong place.
If you have access to a high current ammeter you could connect it in series with the fuse and switch things that are on that circuit to see what sort of current drain you're getting.
Cheers.If you have access to a high current ammeter you could connect it in series with the fuse and switch things that are on that circuit to see what sort of current drain you're getting.
As the fuse itself is over 20 years old, is it possible it just wore out. Clutching at straws here.
So far everything appears to be working.
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