Newbie! 535i fuse question.

[Nix]

Ok, I have recently found myself to be the proud owner of a 1987 535i. The car came with no book/owners manual and I haven't been able to get my hands on one yet.

I have since put all new brake lights into the car and the wiring has been redone. A new brake switch has been put in, and now I'm still getting spotty brake lights.

After opening up the hood I noticed that the previous owner had been using generic fuses, and once I play around with them, the brake lights work again. I don't know if it's a matter of them going loose or what.

The dilemma is this, I can order the fuses and that's fine. But, the ones in the car that aren't bmw specific fuses are 5a, 10a, and 25a. I've noticed that the ones I can buy from a bmw parts dealer are 6a, 18a, and 25a.

The question is; do I just put 6a in for a 5a and 18a in for the 10a ones? The 25a are self explanatory, obviously.

[pingu]

I'm not quite sure whether by 5a, 10a etc you mean the location of the fuses (are there locations 5a ?) or the fuse rating in amps.

If you mean amps then using a 5A fuse instead of a 6A fuse should be fine. But putting in an 18A fuse instead of a 10A fuse isn't a good idea - if there is ever a fault condition, an 18A fuse could allow 4x as much power as a 10A fuse and might cause trouble. In the UK getting 10A fuses is a doddle - maybe you can find another dealer?

[joshua43214]

The regular "generic" fuse will work fine. If fooling with the fuses makes an electrical problem go away, you may have either tarnish on the contacts or loose fuse holders. spray some contact cleaner into the fuse holder and work the fuse in an out. lightly try to tighten the holder with a tooth pick to see if you can get better contact. I have seen many loose fuses from people useing fuse straps that wrap arround the spade on the fuse. and they can just fatigue over time as well.

[Qube]

If you can, just replace all of them according to the manual or the chart under the cover. There really isn't a brand to fuses... they're a cheap commodity item.