Fuses Blown Putting In Zkws W/ Hids - BMW Forum

Delmarco · 02-10-2005, 04:13 PM

Okay so....Fed Ex arrives but in a Budget Rental Truck...

used , drivers said their short on trucks today!

Anyway...I open the box and there is like 20 sections and wires...I gotta put together

...but I thought it was plug and play and drive off....now it looks like I'll be out in the rain and cold...splicing wires and shit...WTF Umnitza....is this what ya'll mean by plug and play?

anyway...they ZKWs look sooooooo freakinng beautiful coming outta the cardboard box.....

look out more pictures soon......

Delmarco · 02-10-2005, 04:14 PM

So I just blown some fuses, when testing the HIDs and now my car wont start and there is a clicking noise under my hood by the fuse boxes....Umnitza told me I shouldds upgrade my fuses to 15A after the fact....so I figured that is what happened.

I'm going to buy new fuses but I have no idea what to do....help!

mech9T8 · 02-10-2005, 04:29 PM

Make sure to take some pics with the HID's on.
Did you get 5K or 6K bulbs?

Rooz · 02-10-2005, 04:32 PM

no biggy, put stronger fuses, lol

Delmarco · 02-10-2005, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rooz@Feb 10 2005, 04:32 PM
no biggy, put stronger fuses, lol

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I did and still nothing...my car is dead! When I turn the ignition the lights dim on and off and my dah flickers and there is this persistant relay sound!!!!

and those guys on the phone at Umnitza are not much help at at all!!!!!!

Could it be the wiring to the HID ballast?

Speedy-325is · 02-10-2005, 10:34 PM

check the wiring and the bulbs. if the bulbs are not sitting right, or half blown, they will short out every fuse. chances are though, .....one of the wires is hooked up wrong.

Delmarco · 02-11-2005, 03:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Speedy-325is@Feb 10 2005, 10:34 PM
check the wiring and the bulbs. if the bulbs are not sitting right, or half blown, they will short out every fuse. chances are though, .....one of the wires is hooked up wrong.

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But would that stop the car from starting?

93 325i · 02-11-2005, 08:05 AM

I would now pull every fuse and inspect each one again...Your problem with not starting def. lies within the fuse box. By not putting in the 15A fuses tho, it shouldn't have caused a melt down like you explained. The 7.5A fuses shoulda blown and that's it. I bet the headlights are hooked up incorrectly..

I just installed HID's and luckily the whole procedure went flawlessly. When I first opened the box tho, I was like WTF, this is PnP?!?! No directions or anything and they included like 3 extra harnesses just to confuse me. First lets make sure you installed them right:

(Change fuses 10-11 from 7.5 to 15A)
-The stock low beam connector goes into the ballast.
-The other wire that was already installed on the ballast goes to the wire coming out of the ZKW.
Now the HID's should work. I would try them now before going onto hooking up the high beams with the PnP harness.

Delmarco · 02-11-2005, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by 93 325i@Feb 11 2005, 08:05 AM
I would now pull every fuse and inspect each one again...Your problem with not starting def. lies within the fuse box. By not putting in the 15A fuses tho, it shouldn't have caused a melt down like you explained. The 7.5A fuses shoulda blown and that's it. I bet the headlights are hooked up incorrectly..

I just installed HID's and luckily the whole procedure went flawlessly. When I first opened the box tho, I was like WTF, this is PnP?!?! No directions or anything and they included like 3 extra harnesses just to confuse me. First lets make sure you installed them right:

(Change fuses 10-11 from 7.5 to 15A)
-The stock low beam connector goes into the ballast.
-The other wire that was already installed on the ballast goes to the wire coming out of the ZKW.
Now the HID's should work. I would try them now before going onto hooking up the high beams with the PnP harness.

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Yeah this sounds alot like what I did and it seems you have exactly what I got whenI opened the box. I just woke up and haven't been outside yet to check anything but I was thinking overnight...My ballast connection wires that goes from where I have the ballast to where the lowbeam rear end may be exposed against the car's ground and is causing some sort of "arcing" of voltage.
Another problem is that I also plugged in the city lights connection to the extra wiring harnessing that was provided (you mention you got these extras too)...I wasn't sure if i was suppose to do that...but they dont do anything and it seems that i have extra exposed wiring coming out of theZKWs...so I'll remove that. I also cut an alarm wire when i removed the old headlights. These wires only go to a hood switch that trips the alarm if someone prys open the hood to steal something whiles the car is locked. I'll reattach these wires so they wouldn't be exposed. Finally I'm gonna wrap all the ballast wiring with elctric tape to prevent any conflicts with voltage "arcing". And check all wiring going from the front to the fuse.

But still would any of these mistakes prevent the car itself from starting...even if one or two fuse blew...(i cant even find any blown fuse) would that stop an E36 from starting! what kind of circuit system is this?

also is there a way to get my car started and bypass the fuses or start circuit?

93 325i · 02-11-2005, 10:09 AM

It sounds like you have a nice action plan from here. Those extra harnesses baffled me for the longest time. Why would they even be sent?? I figured they were to install the lights outside of the car for a manual type application directly to a battery..The only harness you need is the PnP one. Throw the others back in the box and forget they exist. Having exposed wires would definitely create a surge if they were to ground themselves on metal. Also which wires did you tap into on the corners for the driving lights? You have to tap into the GREY wire with a purple stripe for one side and a grey wire a yellow stripe for the other side.

If you blew a fuse linked to the fuel system or ignition then this would definitely cause your car not to start. Also that alarm wire might have killed the ignition as well. But by the "clicking" sound coming from the fuse box and your interior lights going nuts, it sounds like a short (A bare wire touching metal). I would first unhook all the wiring and get your car to start before trying to reinstall the wiring.

RIBEMR26 · 02-11-2005, 05:16 PM

Im pretty sure BMW stock alarms if triggered cut the ignition....by cutting that alarm wire, I bet that is what happened....check into that...I could be wrong...

Delmarco · 02-11-2005, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by RIBEMR26@Feb 11 2005, 05:16 PM
Im pretty sure BMW stock alarms if triggered cut the ignition....by cutting that alarm wire, I bet that is what happened....check into that...I could be wrong...

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No the alarm is an aftermarket alarm...and the wires were not main wires but and extra feature that allows the alarm to go off if the hood is forced open during a theft.

So today...

I re-wired everything, re-checked the fuses, put lots of electrical tape layers over every exposed wiring I could find around the headlights and under the hood. checked all of the relays and I found one of them the orange "check control relay-i think"one that goes to the two low beam headlight fuses to be charred alittle on the metal thongs that plug into the fuse box...but it only seemed brown/charred/burnt compared to the other relay thongs when I pulled them out...but it did not smell like a burn. Anyway I put everything back and reconnected the battery....and started the car.

The results...everything seem fined when i got the ignition into the 2nd spot. Power came on in the car as normal, dash lights and gauges wre all okay, but when turned the key to ignite the engine, the interior lights flickered like mad then the dash guages went crazy and the constant clicking returned from the fuse area...So I go out checked everything...nothing...a minute later I got back in the car and I saw I had a few warning lights on...the one that states I got an "Electronic control module for automatic transmission" error and the "ABS" lights were on. I turn the car off and started it again. This time the power came on for half a second and then all the lights faded, alarm system, dash fuction went dead as if the battery had died.

Now I think my problem may either be a dead battery or a blown orange relay module?

I'm not sure what to troubleshoot first but what do you guys think?

jrhaile · 02-11-2005, 07:45 PM

hmm altanater? (I spelled that wrong I know)

Delmarco · 02-11-2005, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jrhaile@Feb 11 2005, 07:45 PM
hmm altanater?* (I spelled that wrong I know)

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Hey Jrhaile
My car is still dead, but I may have pinpointed the problem to a blown "check module relay". This is an orange relay in the fuse box that goes in between the headlight switch in the E36 to the low beam headlights and then continue to the lights themselves. Now a manual I was reading trouble shoots that relay as a possible problem that shuts itself down when it suspects that the power drawn from the headlights (in this case the new more powerful HID ballasts) is much more than the fuses can handle...
This makes sense since I still had the OEM lower A fuses after installing the HIDs. What doesn't make sense is why the car went crazy and doenst start anymore....

My question is....Is that "check relay module" wired to anything else that may possibly be involved with starting the engine or powering important areas of the car? You wiring diaghram may show this.

I want to know if replacing it may help.

In the picture the rcheck relay module is circled in green. The low beams is in the blue circle

jrhaile · 02-11-2005, 07:58 PM

I'll check for you tonight and show my mechanic this topic on the forums and see what he thinks. if I were you though man, I'd take it somewhere to have it checked out. you could have possibly blown something really important and because of the way it's acting, it sounds like something major is wrong.

also those flickering symptoms happened to me when my altanator went out fri :P