no lights !!! help please!!

[apacanins]

i would like to start with the fact that i am a new bmw owner and im hooked but the car i bought has a little glitch that i didnt see when i test drove it (DURING THE DAY) and now i dont know what to do,, maybe some one out there has had a similar problem and can tell me how to fix it. The Problem is that the lights on the cluster and on the air controlers dont work and thanks to a local police officer i found out that neither do the licence plate lights. i changed the bulbs on the plates and they still dont work and so i went to the fuse box and it turns out that the instrument cluster and the licence plate lights are all controled by fuse 37 :mad: can any one help??? oh yeah and everything else in the car (speedometer, tack, guages) works even the odometer faint and hard to see but it works. thanks

[TD]

Obvious question- Have you tried replacing fuse 37?

[apacanins]

yeah

[Vornado]

you sure the cars title is clean? theres a lot of flooded lemons being sold from LA thanks to the wonderful hurricane katrina.

[TD]

yeah
Well damn. That would imply to me that somewhere, that circuit has a short.

Troubleshooting that could be a big PITA.

Were the license plate light sockets corroded?

[apacanins]

title is clean and the sockets werent coroted but the bulbs i replaced were blown black which if im not mistaking means that there is a short right?? both were blown may i ad and now that i remember my break lights also dont work the tail light works but not when i press the break it does nothing

[TD]

title is clean and the sockets werent coroted but the bulbs i replaced were blown black which if im not mistaking means that there is a short right?? both were blown may i ad and now that i remember my break lights also dont work the tail light works but not when i press the break it does nothing
Seeriously, if all that is wrong with it, find a decent independent shop and get them to troubleshoot it for you. It'll be cheaper than taking it to a dealer, but it still will likely suck cost-wise.

There is no easy way to tell where the problem is.

[apacanins]

thanks man

[zachgeo]

I agree with TD -- electrical problems are a PITA to diagnose, even though the problem is sometimes ridiculously simple. Worth paying a pro to do it. They are a dying breed, but occasionally you still find auto electrical shops -- if there's one near you, head there. BTW, the black bulbs don't necessarily mean you have a short -- just some burnt bulbs. But if the new bulbs are burnt black again (after you replaced them), then you probably do have a short. If they're not burnt, but simply not working, it's most likely a fuse or relay problem.

[TD]

Good luck with this.

BTW, this is why you get pre-purchase inspections.