2002 Fuse Box Installation Manual

Basic instructions:

  1. Disconnect positive terminal from the battery.
  2. Unplug old fuse box from under hood.
  3. Plug new fuse box in.
  4. Reconnect positive battery terminal.
Detailed instructions:
  1. Verify all electrics work (or not).
  2. Disconnect positive terminal from the battery. IMPORTANT!
  3. Unscrew the retaining screw for the old fuse box.
  4. Remove fuse box from the fender.
  5. Install the additional ground wire onto the new fuse box.
  6. If you have an early car with individually housed wires, move wires one by one to plug all the wires into the new fuse box in the same location they came from on the old fuse box. Be sure to take lots of photos to make sure you know where the wires go.
  7. 6-fuse cars need to be careful about fuse 4, see details at the bottom of the page.
  8. If you have a late car with multiple wires in a few housings, trim the plug housing furthest away from the mount screw so it'll clear the ground wire. You need to remove one unused wire position, pictures of this are below.
  9. Put new fuse box into the fender, reinstall the retaining screw.
  10. Install the ring terminal of the extra ground wire on a convenient ground point - it should be able to reach the ground on the fender.
  11. Reconnect the positive terminal to the battery.
  12. Check that some LEDs light up, if not, flip the switch between fuses 9 and 10. If the LEDs still don't light up, there's an issue with the ground line.
  13. Start the car and test that all electrics work.

Pictures of what needs to be trimmed for late 12-fuse cars:

 

6-fuse additional details

Unfortunately, BMW used red for both sides of fuse 4, and not every car with a 6-fuse box has the same number of plugs for fuse 4. In the below image, the top two connections (next to the solid green area) are the supply to the fuse, and the bottom two are load connections.

For all cars:

1 - removing fuse 4 should turn the LED red. If it remains green, the large wire (large double wire in some cars) from the battery is on the load side, not the supply side, and needs to be moved.

2 - removing fuse 4 should disable the interior light and the cigarette lighter. If it does not, something is plugged in wrong

For cars with two plugs for red:

The large single wire goes on the supply side, the double wire goes on the load side

For cars with three plugs for red:

The plug with two large wires goes on the supply side, the single wire goes on the supply side, and the final plug with two wires (one big and one small) goes on the load side

For 12 volt cars with four plugs for red:

The largest wire (on some cars, the double large wire) goes on the supply side, the double wire goes on the load side, the single red wire goes on the supply side, and the red-white wire goes on the load side. Don't confuse the red-white wire with the gray-red wire from fuse 2.

For 6 volt cars:

The largest wire goes on the supply side, the double wire goes on the load side, the smallest single red wire goes on the supply side, and the remaining single red wire (size between the large and small ones) goes on the load side.