weird fuse box problem p38

having trouble with starting AGAIN, flashes up all kinds of faults on dash, checked fuses under bonnet for live feed and fuses 23 srs and 24 abs both seem to be earths somehow, any ideas on whats happened please? thanks

First thoughts are with the fuse box. Remove it and have a look inside for burnt connections.

i have swapped over with another spare one i had but same thing, where does the feed for that fuse come from? i.e becm etc, thanks

what im getting is, eas, abs, srs faults on dash and will crank but not fire

The fuse box feeds the Becm not the other way round.

ok, so what else would cause it to be earth and not live? any ideas?

Check the earths. Also get your nose in the fusebox for signs of burning, pull the relays and maxi fuses out if needs be. If it's a second hand fuse box, it doesn't mean that it's 100%.
You can also check that all power wires and the earth wire feeding the becm, attached to the stud connectors by the fuses (Earth is the extreme left black wire) are secure..also do a "Sniff test" on it.
Normally, multi fault messages at the same time, especially fuse faults tend to be fusebox related. Multiple ECU related faults can be either a bad supply to the Becm or Becm connection problems. All ECU's communicate via the Becm which in turn flags them up on the message display.

hope this is of help:doh:

thanks for replys, diagram explains obviously why the those faults are coming up, still dont understand how a live can suddenly change to earth though, will check earths etc mentioned above and see how i get on, where does the power come from to fuses, i may be on total wrong track but if i can trace wire feeding fuses mentioned then problem must be there

Had a play with wires etc, checked earths etc, i pulled the 2 fuses out and put a live from battery to one side of fuse and it got rid of the slow 35mph max but still flashing up abs and eas fault and still no glow plug light coming up on dash, dont really wanna fork out for another fusebox to find out its not that if i can help it so any more suggestions would be very helpfull, thanks

It looks like you're going to have to remove your fusebox to have a look underneath as it uses a multilayer printed circuit board. A fault underneath may not always show up on the top. It definitely sounds as though the problem is in there somewhere.

so should just bite the bullet and get another fusebox?

Aye but the problem is if you get one off fleabay, you don't have any guarantee it's going to be 100%, especially if you buy one from someone down the road who's breaking his P38 because of electrical problems........
I think a new one is around 120 quid or so from the stealers. If it's tracking that much to earth, it should be evident somewhere so methinks I would make sure before buying another one. You'll have to remove it anyway so just have a close inspection. Also with it disconnected and removed, you can do static tests with a multimeter (with the relays and fuses removed) to confirm where the problem is if it's not immediately evident.

ok, thanks for reply, think i may need a specialist with right equipment and know how, anyone recommend a good one near heathrow?

im in a similar situation as yourself, got to replace my fuse box as relay 7 is all burnt out around the terminal, you can try lrseries.com they sell genuine parts, one for my 97 diesel is £105. have been told they are a simple change.

have you tried replacing the ignition relay that feed these items

Re: weird fuse box problem p38

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have you tried replacing the ignition relay that feed these items

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There is no ignition relay. The BeCM does that job.

am i right in thinking the power comes straight from battery to fusebox, through fuses, relays etc then onto becm and other ecus, or does power go anywhere else before fuse? thanks

Yep, you're right in thinking the power comes straight from the battery into the fuse box and then out through various relays and fuses.

what im trying to get at is if 2 fuses are earth instead of live it must be in fusebox and not bad wiring etc from somewhere else coming back to fusebox? thanks