If you're hunting an E36 fuse and looking in the trunk, you're in the wrong place — the main fuse and relay box is under the hood, in the black electronics box (the "E-box") in the scuttle at the base of the windscreen. Unclip its lid to reach the fuses and plug-in relays.
The fuse map — which numbered fuse feeds what — is printed on the underside of that lid and repeated in the owner's manual
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