Zoner's E30 goes up in flames

[magpie]

brown or blue


the choice used to be brown or pink but that's another story

[bss325i]

I suggest you change the thread title and your post Brian to stop scare mongering as its clear most E30 run a 15 amp fuel pump fuse and have no issues doing so.

99% of zoners dont have lpg bodged in either.

Oh and myself and several other zoners were there till after 5, you should have come over and said hi. You would have got a warm welcome!

[magpie]

i was still there when the gates shut!

no chance of a lock in either ........

[Speedtouch]

My Haynes manual states 7.5A for the Series 2 (E30) and 16A for the Series 1 (E21), yet also has a diagram of the E30 fusebox which shows 15A for Fuse 11.

[Brianmoooore]

All the red owner's handbooks I have and a couple of earlier silver ones (one of which will be for the twin pump 318i I've referred to) state that fuse 11 should be 7.5A. For the reasons I've explained above, I consider that the ETM data that DaniTD has posted is most probably a mistake; almost certainly for the later ones.
The fuse rating for any circuit should be the minimum that will work reliably, and I've proved from my own experience that a two pump system has no issues running through a 7.5A fuse.
This post is not just about fuse 11, anyway. It's about every fuse fitted in the fusebox. Print out the wiki link, and compare!
When I returned to the zone area around 4 (just after the delayed second jet car run) I did the full rounds of the cars still there (wearing a zone shirt) but hardly saw anyone to speak to, before chatting to Ian for a while, and then introducing myself to Jim320i and a couple of others. I just missed Paul (E30M3) and Jess, as they drove off, but caught up with them several minutes later in the campsite.

[kieran325]

Brian, I'm sure I saw you looking at my car when we arrived early on.

Did you all have black zone t-shirts on???

[Royalratch]

I suggest you change the thread title and your post Brian to stop scare mongering as its clear most E30 run a 15 amp fuel pump fuse and have no issues doing so.

99% of zoners dont have lpg bodged in either.

Oh and myself and several other zoners were there till after 5, you should have come over and said hi. You would have got a warm welcome!

Barry man WTF.

Is there some shit going down here that we don't know about?

[B7]

I spent a while yesterday morning wandering around the zone's area at Santa Pod, incognito, looking at the fuseboxes of any E30s that had their bonnets up, .......

I think the most worrying thing can see about this thread is that you feel the need to be "incognito" looking for faults on strangers cars. A very strange trait and a worrying one IMO Were you wearing a long mack, fake moustache / beard and a wig?



There have been, in years gone by, stories in the press about cars, bursting into flames, the Scimitar was one as was (IIRC) the Interceptors from Jenson. However, I've not heard of many e30's "going up in flames" or seen numerous examples in the breakers yards that have fire damage.

[kieran325]

I've had my sport now for 17yrs and its still got the 15A fuse, never had any issues with the fuel pump either.

[Topblag]

Is that Dezzy in disguise ??

[bss325i]

I've had my sport now for 17yrs and its still got the 15A fuse, never had any issues with the fuel pump either.

Ive had my sport for 5 years and i have never touched the fuel pump fuse. Its never had a fuel pump in its life time either.

[B7]

Just checked the Bentley nmanual and it states:

15a 1984-1987
7.5a 1988 onwards

Checked my 1989 convertible and it's a 15a in there!!! With no signs of any scorching or heat damage either. Now placed a 7.5 in there to see if any issues arise,

[bss325i]

All the red owner's handbooks I have and a couple of earlier silver ones (one of which will be for the twin pump 318i I've referred to) state that fuse 11 should be 7.5A. For the reasons I've explained above, I consider that the ETM data that DaniTD has posted is most probably a mistake; almost certainly for the later ones.

Whats to say that the Handbooks are wrong and not the ETM's?

I mean, you said almost all the cars you looked at had a 15a fuse and the are plenty of others that do but they haven't "burst into flames" in their lifetime.

You telling us lots of people have had the wrong fuse fitted at some point.

To much of a coincidence if you ask me!

[bss325i]

Checked my 1989 convertible and it's a 15a in there!!! With no signs of any scorching or heat damage either. Now placed a 7.5 in there to see if any issues arise,

+1. And mines an '89 325i.

[bss325i]

I suggest you change the thread title and your post Brian to stop scare mongering as its clear most E30 run a 15 amp fuel pump fuse and have no issues doing so.

99% of zoners dont have lpg bodged in either.

Oh and myself and several other zoners were there till after 5, you should have come over and said hi. You would have got a warm welcome!

Barry man WTF.

Is there some shit going down here that we don't know about?

What do you mean WTF?

What kind of shit going down?

[harry_p]

After you told me about my over stocked fuse box on my wip thread a while ago i went through the wiki link and correctly fitted all the right amp fuses and removed the none needed ones and funnily enough, things that had stoped working like my interior lights, fag lighter etc etc all started working again so thanks brian

surely thats just cleaning up contacts rather than voodoo magic of the fuse now being the right rating.

obviously a fuse doesnt 'do' anything, it's just there as a circuit breaker should something go wrong, using a fuse with too high a rating wont cause anything to go wrong, but you won't have the same safety net IF something did go wrong.

i always thought the unused locations in the fuse box were totally empty, with no contacts, so i can't see having a few spare fuses stored in there being the cause of any issues either!

can i add my name to the list of people that have never heard of let alone seen a fire damaged e30, despite so many fireball deathtraps apparently driving around...

[Ollie_bwoii]

My '87 325i has a 7.5 amp fuse in slot 11.

My '89 316i has a 15 amp fuse in slot 11.

[Jesus325iTouring]

Oh dear you should see the state of my fuse box,it tends to have have whatever fuse happens to be at hand

I guess by the rules of chance,some must be right

I did have a minor fire once,the oil level sensor wire melted belching lot's of black smoke out.................and another time the wiper motor did the same thing.........

Best check my fuses...

[Simon13]

all 3 of my e30's have 15amp, they're all facelift 325's 88 89 and 92 built. I think this a bloody stupid thread and making an issue where there isn't one. And a touch of scare mongering in thread title for good measure

[Jim320i]

My '87 325i has a 7.5 amp fuse in slot 11.

My '89 316i has a 15 amp fuse in slot 11.

What rock you been hiding under dude?! I was hoping you surfaced up at Santa Pod but didnt.

[DanThe]

If it works with a 7.5 amp fuse then IMO a 15 amp is too high a rating, more than double what is needed.
When I fitted the elec fuel pump to my 316 (carb) I first used an ebay high flow/pressure pump, it kept blowing the 7.5 fuse, so I fitted a 15, not because id read it in a book somewhere just because thats what later cars use. Ive now changed back to a standard E30 in tank pump and a 7.5 amp fuse, no issues, so its all good

[macas]

I always thought that the size of the cable used on that certain circuit would determine what the fuse rating was that should be used.

So what guage cable is used on both the 7.5 and 15a circuits?

[Royalratch]

The fuse has to be the highest point of resistance - i.e. the thinnest point not just in the circuit but also in the pump internals for it to do it's job.

[B7]

My '87 325i has a 7.5 amp fuse in slot 11.

My '89 316i has a 15 amp fuse in slot 11.

The opposite to what the Bentlry manual states. Thats random man!

[Andyboy]

I spent a while yesterday morning wandering around the zone's area at Santa Pod, incognito, looking at the fuseboxes of any E30s that had their bonnets up

Were you wearing slacks perchance?

[Jim320i]

Bit harsh Andy. Not sure how this has turned into I hate Brian Moore thread?!


Edit ====


You've changed your post now.

[Andyboy]

Never mind poppit.

[Andyboy]

You would have got a warm welcome!

We even had an electric fire going Brian!

[jacko]

This has got to be the wierdest thread i've seen.

Mr Moore posts a thread differing from his usual 'getting people out of trouble' on the technical forum, daring to venture into the good old 'E30 chat' arena for a light hearted awareness thread, and he gets thrown to the wolves by certain individuals.

I'd be surprised if he bothers after this one!

[bimanut]

+1

[Andyboy]

+ 7654

[Steve-E30]

So silver foil round a broken fuse is a no then

[Brianmoooore]

Hardly "thrown to the wolves"! More like a bunch of yapping Chihuahuas.
It'll take more than the "Barry goon show" to have any effect on me.
As for wiring damage caused by over rated fuses that have failed to blow when the correct one should have - I've seen plenty of examples of it. One particularly memorable one on an E30 was where a car in my workshop, unknown to me, had 'modified' wiring to the electric windows. The supply was constant live, and they hadn't bothered with the thermal overload switch (which is a type of 'fuse'.
I'd been working in the passenger footwell, piling things up on the centre console, and when I knocked off for the night, some heavy object must have pressed down the driver's window 'up' switch.
In the morning I was greeted by acrid smoke filling the workshop, a burnt out window motor, a flattened battery, and the whole window loom completely burnt out. If the thermal 'fuse' had been fitted, it would have tripped in around half a minute, and no lasting damage would have been done.
There is an E36 currently in my workshop with severe wiring loom damage that I haven't fully checked out yet, but the boot loom and central locking actuator for the boot are both toast for sure and almost certainly the damage goes further . The root cause of this is that the 7.5A fuse for the locking control circuit had been replaced with a 30A one!

[Dezzy]

I have replaced all my fuses with nails just to be sure.

[Rav335uk]

I have replaced all my fuses with nails just to be sure.

Yep, you need to Burn that shitter Dez