Citroen c4 - electric problem

[naragorn]

Hi gents, I come here to ask for your kind help, I made quite possibly one of the biggest errors I've made on a car. I own a Citroen C4 2007, automatic transmission. I bought a Bluetooth dongle from AliExpress to add to the rd4 radio. So I unplugged the radio, but didn't unplug the battery. I was trying to remove the 12v and ground cables from the socket, when I accidentally short circuited both of these cables, I heard a snap, I thought it could be a fuse. So I tried to test the car, when turning the ignition to on, the wipers will activate once, the key buttons are not locking nor unlocking the doors, the car won't start, just crank, fuel pump not working. Headlights are not working either. There's no 12v going to the radio so it's not working at all. And the radio display won't show anything. The dashboard is on. It shows all the gauges, that seems.to work fine. I removed all fuses from fuse box, they are ok, so are the maxifuses, apparently. I've checked the fuses under the steering wheel, they all tested ok for continuity. I really hope you can help me, I'm desperate, I love the car. I own one of these pp2000 scanners, but I haven't used it since I don't know if it's safe to do so.

[moizeau]

BSI reset first, search that in the forum, it's been posted many times

[GiveMeABreak]

Sounds like you've blown something - did you check all the engine fuse box fuses and I mean test them, not just physically looking at them? Also check all the fuses in the BSI in the passenger compartment. I don't think a BSI reset will help as it sounds like a fuse has gone.

Not much help now but for future ref:

BSI Reset / Battery Disconnect / Reconnect Procedure

[wheeler]

My money is still on a fuse here.
When you removed the fuses did they all go back in the same slot they came out of? Remember there are normally some unused fuse slots, have you possibly re fitted one back in the wrong position?
And yes have you actually tested the fuses or just looked at them?
I got caught out years ago checking a non start (no fuel pump running) on an old Nova. First thing i did was check (or should say look at) the fuel pump fuse. After spending a lot of time doing other checks long story short it was a blown fuse. It had actually blown at the edge so when you looked through the little window bit on the fuse it appeared in tact.

[naragorn]

Thanks for your suggestions, I will check the fuses on the BSI. it sounded like a lil bit of an explosion, hope it's just a fuse

[naragorn]

Thanks guys!!! It was fuse F8, it was totally blown, but when testing continuity yesterday, it was all ok!! I can't believe that one fuse would render the car unusable, but at the same time, I can't believe how good these car were made. So there comes another question, can the rd4 radio be replaced with something newer? Are those Bluetooth dongle safe to use, or can they cause some kind of shortcircuit? I don't feel safe connecting the dongle directly to the radio plug, if it fails, it can render the car unusable again. Is there somewhere safe where I can connect the dongle to a 12v line?

[wheeler]

So there comes another question, can the rd4 radio be replaced with something newer?

Absolutely, you should be able to fit pretty much any single DIN sized aftermarket radio in there with the correct adapter & a little wiring modification. You will loose the steering wheel controls unless you have an adaptor for that too. An easy trade off i think to have a far superior radio with built in bluetooth etc.