E30 current drain through aux fan circuitry?

["Russ Maki" <rinard@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks,

I've been tracking down a ~100ma current drain in my '87 325ic. After
pulling fuses and relays, I found the current was leaking through the
control circuit of the high-speed auxiliary fan relay.

I "fixed" the problem by replacing the 40-amp relay with a 30 amp, which
seems to have enough interent resistance to stop the drain. But I'm left
with a couple questions and concerns that (surprise!) the Bentley manual
can't help me with.

I'm reasonably at ease with the lower-capacity relay in place, since the car
is in Wisconsin and really high temperatures are relatively rare. In fact, I
don't know that the 40-amp relay is original. Does anybody want to
straighten me out on that? ;-)

I pulled every fuse in the box, and none had any effect on the current flow.
Only pulling the relay interrupted the circuit. Weird.

The sketchy schematic in the bentley indicates that the system check relay
has a connection to the auxiliary fan circuit. Could that relay be the
source of the drain? If so, is that a malfunction?

Thanks,
Russ Maki

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