Major Electrical Issues on my 1990 525I

[JTan1990]

I hope someone can help me. I have a 1990 BMW 525I and am having some serious electrical issues. The Power Windows, Interior Dome Lights, Power Door Locks, Windshield Wipers, Radio, and Power Seats all stopped working at the same time. The car still starts and runs, the exterior lights work fine, signals work fine, Air Conditioning and Heat are all working, including the heated seats. I tried looking for fuses in the engine compartment, but could not find any problems. What would cause all those systems to go out at the same time? And if anyone knows, what I need to do to fix this? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have little money to take it to a dealership. The dealerships here tend to really bend you over and cause much sufferring for taking it to their dealership (aka, need lots of $$$) which I don't have... Thanks

[Pawly450]

In my 1991 525 the fuses and relays for this lot are under the rear seat base on the left hand side. Suprisingly the relays here also seam to effect the wipers and stereo. The fuse listing shows the fuses to effect heated seats, wiper motors, central locking, elec windows etc. Many of the relays are in a big black electrical box which you can easily remove if you need to.

[JTan1990]

Thanks for the reply and the helpful info. Do you know how difficult it is to remove the rear seat to access those fuses? I never knew that they located fuses/relays there. Thanks again for your help...

[Pawly450]

Originally Posted by JTan1990

Thanks for the reply and the helpful info. Do you know how difficult it is to remove the rear seat to access those fuses? I never knew that they located fuses/relays there. Thanks again for your help...

No tools needed for this. Just push the front seats forward, climb into the back and grab the front edge of the seat base and give it a good yank upwards (do one side at a time), There are two spring clips either side which engage in the into sockets. Once you've disengaged these on each side, just shuffle the seat base forards and lift it out. On mine, the battery is on the right and the other bits are all on the left. The fuses are exposed but you need a philips screw driver to get to the majority of the relays.

[eddie rogers]

Hi JTan1990,

The answer to your porblem most likely is a Fusable Link located under the hood on the right hand side (in my '91 525i it is near the battery). The piece of metal going between the black (on my car) possitive terminal cable coming off the battery going to a black box with four inserts for cables. It may look O.K., but it may need to be tightened or replaced. In my case it was cracked near the connection screw point and you couldn't tell that it was broken until you moved the wires and or box.

Samething happened to me. I am replacing the fusable Link (gray wire between the to black cables). For now I just re-positioned it so that it made good contact bewteen the cables. But everything works better than every now. Before, sunroof switch would act up, my windshield would work intermittently, radio antena was not very clear, interior light would work sometime and somtimes not. Recently, radio, computer, windows, seats, locks and wiper stop working all together and then would work for a time. Now, everything working even better than before.

Try this, it worked for me! After reading my Bentley and looking at everything that could possibly cause this. If it works for you please email me at [email protected] and let me know as I am new to this forum and may not log on anytime soons.

Good luck, I know this just saved me a bunch of $$$$$$.

Eddie