Took the ex cab out for a spin on Tuesday night and heard the sound of a fuse blowing. Now my power windows, mirrors and rear demister are dead. No intermittent wiper action and the wipers don't come on when I hold the washer on. Also the stereo remains on when I turn the ignition off (should turn off). Apart from that everything is working as it should.

Checked all of the fuses and nothing was blown but noticed some slight discolouration on one of the white relays. Replaced it and the problems still persisted.

So I went to the wreckers and got a BEM and its in the process of normal download at the moment. Couple of questions. Since this is the first BEM I've had to change the word "BASE" has come up on the odo reading and the smartlock light keeps flashing. Is this normal? Also, since my car is a genuine taxi pack, what would be the effects of fitting a low series BEM instead of a med series one? I'm hoping to God that this works. Took me forever to pull the old one out and twice as long to Fit the new one back in.

Sounds similar to the problem mine recently had that i only just overcome.

The smartlock light flashing is just what it does while the bem and your ign barrel are "learning" each other. Once you've gone through the learn process, as long as its succesfull, it'll be back to normal. I'm not sure what the "base" is on the odo, but i'd assume its because of the same reason. The EF/L doesn't do this.

With your second question, do you mean your car originally had a mid series and you've fitted a low series? Or other way round?

yeah. Taxi packs have the mid series and stupid me has fitted a low series BEM. Only found out this evening reading the BEM tech doco.

Its just under 2 hours since i've fitted the BEM and it still is learning. Does it normally take so long? Ellery's workshop manual says it takes 61 mins.

If the au bem is the same deal as an E series one, you'll lose power window control with key off, int light fade, and intermittent wipe. Other than that it'll be the same by the looks of the tech doc

How the hell do you program these friggin things? Surely it doesn't take 3 or so hours.

Oh sorry i didn't see the other bit.

No its not ment to take that long at all, something must still be wrong.

In E series, they are supposed to take 30 - 60 mins depending on the bem, so i assume AU should be the same deal.

Do you have every acc turned off, and the car only on reds?

What was the process that you tried?

Car on reds. All ACC's off. All doors closed with the rear windows open (rears are manual) in case the doors lock so I can sill get in the car.

Oh and update: wasn't the BEM at all. Found the demister fuse had blown so I replaced it. Chucked the old BEM back in so I could move the car and everything works as it should now.

There were only 3 BEM levels for the AU series 1. AUII onwards had the mid level and high level BEM (no low level BEM). Don't know about the utillities though.

Oh well good to hear its sorted. I know how much of a f**k s**t like this can be.

This stressed me out so bad It got me thinking very irrationally. Almost dropped the missus out of frustration.