"Hi,

Anyone who owns or has owned a Biturbo will sooner or later have come across a problem with their electrics. This can be due to a number of problems; poor contacts, poor earth contacts and a faulty fusebox. Damage to the fusebox is normally caused by overheating, causing the plastic around the fuses to melt.

Incidentaly, one of the simplest ways to protect your fusebox is by using your heated rear window as little as possible. Leaving the heated rear window switched on for too long can often result in this overheating.

A replacement fusebox can be quite expensive (around GB £300 here in the UK), but help is at hand!

Ron Carlson in the USA now provides a competent fusebox repair service for the Maserati Biturbos; Coupe, Spyder, 425, 430, 228 E, Spyder i.

There is a fixed price service for repair, refurbishment, cleaning, testing for your Maserati Biturbo Fusebox, also known as the Junction Box or Interconnection Box.

Almost every electrical function goes through the fusebox or is controlled by it - 149 interconnects. The fusebox is a source of many intermittent, odd and difficult to diagnose problems and expensive repairs.

Won't start - won't turnover - starts and dies - ignition intermittent - won't charge - windows work intermittently - instrument lights dim and/or intermittent - engine runs poorly as if sensors are bad or engine not tuned - headlights or running lights don't work or work intermittently - no A/C but system is good - HVAC fans not working or intermittent - flickering lights - electrical system completely dead - heater/fan settings turn on other items - car only starts after kicking the passenger side footwell or slamming the glovebox - and other annoying peculiarities. Or that project car you just bought off eBay or Craig's List.

Here's how to rid your Biturbo of these quirks.

A "new old stock" fusebox will cost several hundred dollars (about US $400), used ones are usually in need of repair and are expensive as well. Refurbished units are available on eBay (all the ones listed so far have been refurbed by this seller).

In 18 months of refurbishing, over 100 fuseboxes, not one fusebox received was in good working order including "new old stock" units sent in for a check-up from USA, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia and Italy. Nor were the fuseboxes in any of my Biturbos. This is rather alarming, but at least there is a solution - this is it.

This item is for the repair of a fusebox from any Biturbo from 1982 to 1990.

Models include 2500, Coupe, 2.0L, 2.5L, 2.8L, Spyder, Spyder i, 425, 425i, 420, 220, 222, 428, 430, 228 E, 2.24v, 4.24v, Zagato, export variants, etc., fuel injected or carburettor engine models, 3-valve or 4-valve, North America, European, Australian, Switzerland, Netherlands/Belgium, UK, Sweden variants, etc.

You get: detailed assessment of the fusebox, pins, hardware, any missing parts,identification and location of faults, every circuit path is tested and itemized in a repair report. housing pieces are cleaned, all parts degreased, with each circuit restored to proper operation, all solder joints and layers cleaned, each circuit path is tested again and report updated with final circuit measurements.

Up to 5 fusebar fuses replaced, included as part of the service.

Almost every fusebox is repairable given enough effort. Some are quite hard to completely restore, But we put in that effort!

Testing to find and identify the fault types:

Separated solder joints, corroded solder joints, cracks, separated solder joints, cracked copper circuits, vapourised/burnt copper circuits too.

Traces, poor prior repair attempts, flood damage, fires, acid damage, outdoor storage, outdoor weathering, or years in storage.

Circuit function:

Working OK, some interference in the circuit, intermittent circuit, circuits about to fail, failed circuits, shorted circuits, failed printed conductors, burnt areas. Click on the image below for a lineup of failed joints. Of the 14 shown only 1 is good, can you find it? It's really hard to tell all of them even from a magnified image, but you'll know when those quirky problems act up.

Relays, if left installed or shipped with the fusebox, are tested and external and internal condition is reported prior to return relay types are checked to catch wrong types, wrong manufacturers, these can be replaced at an additional parts only cost.

We now test extra relays included with your shipment at no charge, be sure to mark them and keep a location map to put them back. Limit of 25 extra relays which should cover the entire car.

The diode pack is opened, inspected and tested. All diodes are replaced with if there is any degradation / overheating evident. Roughly 1/3 of the diode packs have one bad diode, about 10% have two bad diodes.

The fusebar is completely disassembled, cleaned (these fluff up with oxide corrosion in about 2/3 of the units). Every clip is inspected and re-tensioned, any marginal or bad fuse clips are replaced. After the fuses are installed each circuit is checked with a micro-ohm meter to verify that the circuit is down at the right value of resistance. They are almost always wrong when received. This test proves to me that each circuit is going to work right and not cause flakey intermittent faults in the car.

We use the proper cleaning chemicals, soldering chemicals, temperature controlled soldering tools, soldering microscopes, and compatible solders to the somewhat difficult metals used in these fuseboxes.

You get a repaired fusebox, and the test report for you records. Repairs done by an electrical engineer who is a fellow Biturbo owner and creator of The Biturbo Compendium. If not repairable ( such as burned too badly or otherwise terminally damaged ), then the fixed price is refunded. Buyer will be contacted prior to any returns. I have had one, just one, that was ruined by an attempted repair that really went wrong. But the worst appearing fusebox was the one which had been sabre-sawed to gain access to one of the relays with wires hanging out of it, one can only imagine the mood of that owner - now completely restored.

You will need to provide the specific chassis model of the car or just a VIN number will do, and a current email address for contact/reporting.

Turnaround is about 3-10 business days plus any time for parts or email replies from buyer. Depends on how much work is needed.

All enquiries to RCarlson2@aol.com