(T) Urgent Help Please - Fuses blowing

Hi,
Just on my way back from Uni and my car started behaving strange... I was driving along and all of i sudden i hear a crack of a fuse blowing and my radio cuts off... Was the 10A one for the radio and hazards etc... I though ok fine, I'll replace that later...

I tried to swap it with one of the other 10A fuses I had, but as soon as I put it in the fuse blew straight away.... I decided to try to get home.. Started the car ok... got about 100yards down the road and the car looses all power, no responce when pressing the accelerator pedal... I pull over, try to restart the car and it doesnt start.. Just turns over... I was low on fuel so I put 5l in to make sure... tried again and still nothing....

Eventually I opened the bonnet and had a look... The 20A fuse next to the ECU and the MAP sensor had blown... I managed to get one from a local garage and put that in. It didn't blow straight away... I got in the car and tried to start it, and nothing... Looked in the engine again, and the fuse has blown again....

I'm now stuck as to what to do... I've had to leave my car about 2 miles up the road (no hazard lights working) on the grass verge of a main road (national speed limit)... Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do? I can't pull it home with a toe rope cos with my Hormann bumper I no longer have a toe hook on the front... ideally I don't want to have to call out a mechanic...

Any ideas?

Thanks!

mmm on my horman front bumer there is a toeing eye but if not then u will have to get a flat back lorry to tow u homeim afraid but the fuses could mean u have a bad eairth something like that with means when u put the fuse in it will blow straight away other then that i cant help but good luck anyway

when i changed my side repeators i ended up havin touching wires that caused the hazard and indicator fuse to blow, so maybe u got some touching wires somewhere.

prob doesnt help tho.

Either a broken earth lead or faulty alternator would be my guess.

Cheers

D

I've managed to sort out the 10A fuse ok.. was a wire from my amp shorting out....

But the 20A ECU fuse keeps blowing when i try to start the car, its ok when i put a new one in, but when i turn the key all the way (past just ignition) it blows... It's started and run for a minute or so a couple of times, and then died again... but not managed to keep it going....

Any ideas?

Thanks

so its blowing when the starter motor kicks in? I've not got my haynes manual with wiring diagrams down here in stafford.. try bump starting it - see what that does?

also get a multimeter on there and see what its charging at

Long shot but.....how have you wired in the ICE ?

If it's wired into the ignition then the dodgy connection could be one of your
stereo wires in the ignition ??? Just a thought but probably unconnected at
all !

It's blowing when I try to start it yes.. but the starter motor does turn... I don't know what the fuse is for? the injectors maybe? Because when it does start and then dies the injector light comes on...



The ICE is wired off the radio, not touching anything to do with the ignition..


Thanks for your help.

have you got a haynes manual (they should come as std with the cinq!).

Its worth looking at what the fuse does, then you've more idea what you are dealing with. Or has anyone else got one to hand, mines 110miles away!

Yeah I have one... It tells u what the others do, but not this one... perhaps cos they are only in the Sporting model.

anyone got a sei handbook - i seem to remeber that documenting some fuses mr haynes forgot.

Have you checked the earth straps as suggested? The power could be feeding through to other things from fuses that aren't supposed to carry that much power. Is the alternator light on at all?

This happened to my cinq a few weeks ago.
The fused conection supplies a relay next to it that feeds just about everything that makes the engine run....coils, fuel pump, injector, map sensor etc etc.
I thought that it was a coil pack blowing that had caused the fuse to blow because it only stopped blowing when I disconnected them. Replaced with new and everything OK.
Then last week the wiring set on fire around the area of the ignition coils. This was even though the fuse had blown again.
I can`t say what caused it but i think the wiring around and under the area of the thermostat housing gets a lot of oil contamination.
There are also a lot of earth connections in that area.
I would check very carefully all of the wiring that you can get at for cracks, exposed wire or for brittle insulation.
In hindsight, I should have had an autoelectrician check it out.
My car had done 152 000 miles and was close to the MOT so I an not too sad at using it for spares.
The rewiring now needed would be very tricky.
You have been warned.

Peter

I've just spent most of the day messing about with the car... Taken the bumper off, checked literally every connection and connector I can find under the bonnet... there were a couple of oily ones, but they are all clean now.. Have also checked the earth connections and they all seem ok.. I even went as far as put my old fuel injector in... I found out the fuse is for the fuel pump relay, then also for the coils etc.... I've checked the wiring for the fuel pump and that all seems ok....

I managed to get it started on the drive and let it run for a while, and it ran fine... turned it on and off a few times and revved it and all ok.... Then I went down the road, got about 200yards and it just blew again... Put another fuse in.. blew again... another.. and again....

I don't know what to do next

Thanks for everyones help so far.

systamatic troubleshooting time. work out whats connected to that fuse, then disconnect them all. Then re-add bits until it blows?