fire under rear seat- corroded contacts

[gmannino]

Has this problem happen to any other e34 or similar generation BMW owners?

[CharlesAFerg]

omg!!! :-O!!!!

[shogun]

It is recommendable to change fuses from time to time, clean them, etc., especially the fuse for the rear window heater is a bit dangerous, see here the fire under the rear seat of an E32.
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/fire4.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/fire5.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/fire6.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/fire1.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/fire.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/DCP_0066.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/DCP_0064.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/DCP_0017.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/04120512.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/04120511.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/04120508.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/04120503.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/04112107.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/04112106.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/newrelays.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/fire2.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/04112101.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/04112102.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/petetina1/e32%20fire/04112104.jpg

Same here in the fuse box engine room
http://bmwe32.masscom.net/johan/fuse_box/fuse_box_restore.htm

[Dave M]

That must have stunk a bit. I wonder if they'll get the smell out of cabin easily.

Helped an e32 owner find an LKM. Went to 'instal' it for him and found the remnants of a previous fire/melting episode. LKM worked fine, but I gave him no guarantess his fuse box and everything in it would last much longer.............

Dave M

[shogun]

1 comment on BB, maybe the electric experts here can answer:

The rear window heater fuse may have smthg to do with the fire in Pete's car, after I saw the way the fuse body plastic melted for the rear window heater (fuse 46) yesterday. Any suggestion of what better to do with that fuse? like reducing the rating if the heater coil doesn't draw near 30Amp? or remount that fuse away from other fuses and use a different kind of fuse like the glass tube type? I think there is a period of time where the fuse turned half melted due to usage, and had increased resistant. Thus the fuse element would start to heat up and either melt, or ignite the surrounding plastic.

Patrick C 88 750 159K

[gmannino]

Decrease to 25 amps should be an easy fix.

[vince]

That's pretty nasty! But these cars seem to have a problem with the defroster fuses.

In my '90 525im, the defroster fuse had blown pretty obviously; replacing it made the def work fine again. IN my '90 750iL, the defroster fuse had melted pretty good, but a new fuse made it all work fine again.

vince

[Claude]

1 comment on BB, maybe the electric experts here can answer:

The rear window heater fuse may have smthg to do with the fire in Pete's car, after I saw the way the fuse body plastic melted for the rear window heater (fuse 46) yesterday. Any suggestion of what better to do with that fuse? like reducing the rating if the heater coil doesn't draw near 30Amp? or remount that fuse away from other fuses and use a different kind of fuse like the glass tube type? I think there is a period of time where the fuse turned half melted due to usage, and had increased resistant. Thus the fuse element would start to heat up and either melt, or ignite the surrounding plastic.

Patrick C 88 750 159K

No specific solution but the following info may help your thinking
http://www.circuitprotection.ca/fuseology.html

Any fuse should "fail safe" it suppose that it's holder is a good one, the contacts also good and the surronding well ventilated.

[bmwpower]

So what's the remedy? Remove everything periodically and clean the contacts? Are the contacts from adjacent circuits fusing together or something??

[Qube]

Well, here's what mine looked like...

http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=35869

.

[bmwpower]

So what was the reason for that? Frayed wires going to the trunk?

My trunk lights work on/off... uh, oh

[icesoft]

Well, here's what mine looked like...

http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=35869

.

My defrost fuse looked similar to that as well, I almost think it's something to do with the fuse element in BMW's fuses. I've never seen the cheapy auto parts store fuses do that.

Going with a smaller rating would be a waste of a lot of good fuses (as we're obviously very near the rating of the stock 30A fuse). Circuit breakers or glass/ceramic fuses might be a good idea as they won't melt (the element should melt and interrupt the current flow long before the outside of the fuse gets hot enough to ignite the plastic of the rear PDB).