A few Electrical questions

[Shaheenk]

Hi all

please can you assist , I have a 1984 323i chromie.

I have a few issues with it and hoping someone can help.

1. Some of the fuses in my fuse box appear to be melting, not blowing as they still work fine, they just melting the plastic. not sure why this is happening.
2. When I turn on my indicators my clock goes dim and bright with the ticking of the indicators.Could this be a earth issue on the car or something in the dash.
3. My fan blower is really weak, like someone blowing through a straw, this is on setting 3 which should be a gale wind. I have changed out the resistor pack in the engine bay without luck. Before I go and get a new blower fan could it be something else.

My windows wind up reaaaaaly slow, they wind up , but take forever and need some help. what could be the problem.

A while ago I had an earth wire burn out , replcaed it and everything has been fine since.

Advise please.

Thanks

[fixedwheelnut]

As I was reading that lot I thought it sounds like a bad earth, then see you have replaced one.
Has replacing the earth rectified all the faults? or do you have some left?

[Shaheenk]

I only replaced a single wire under the dash. because it melted out.

[fixedwheelnut]

Yes and has everything been OK since then? it sounds like you have already fixed it.

[Shaheenk]

no, I still have the issues above.

[Speedtouch]

Use a multimeter to check all earths for continuity against the body - if it doesn't have a continuity tester, put it on a low resistance range and check that the reading is close to 0 ohms.

Ensure you used the correct gauge wire when you replaced the earth lead, and that the fuses are of the correct rating.

Also use the multimeter to measure the voltage across the battery with the engine running, which should be around 14 Volts; any higher indicates that the alternator is over-charging it, which is usually down to blown recitifier diodes.

Have any non-standard electrical accessories been fitted? If so, ensure that they are wired in properly and not overloading some other part of the system.

[fixedwheelnut]

^^ plus one.

It is worth removing the main battery earth and cleaning all the contacts and refitting them, or go round with the volt meter to see where the volt drop is across the earth circuits, all earths should be less than 0.2volts really