Wiring nightmares

[DazzyA]

just got a 325i convertible and the wiring is shot to bits, radio turns off when you put the lights on, speedo not working bulbs not working after fitting new, and dozens of loose wires with or without connectors everywhere. All the fuses are ok and I'm pulling my hair out. I was thinking of getting wiring looms from a scrap yard and doing myself, but thought I would ask if anybody has done the same and have any tips.
cheers darren

[Brianmoooore]

Interesting, this one's going to be fun sorting out.
It's possible to change the loom, but it's a major operation. It's all one loom including the fusebox from the front right corner, via the left side, all the way to the back right hand corner, apart from the engine loom, and a few small sublooms, although there is a fairly major subloom behind the dash.
Colours of BMW wiring looms have a fair bit of logic to them. For a start, all brown wires are earth wires, and all of them under the dashboard should end in ring terminals, fixed by two 6mm nuts to two studs at the rear right of the glovebox.
Don't know how bad this all is from here of course, but it's nothing like as difficult a job as it might look, to remove the complete dash.
Photos and descriptions of the loose wires could be uaefull.

[DazzyA]

Hi Brian I was hoping you may come to my aid, I will get some photos done in the morning bfore work and try and put them on tomorrow night, most of the dash is already off as it was held together with hope I think.
regards
darren

[DazzyA]

Got a few photos of the afore mentioned wiring problems
This is coming from ECU loom nothing to plug into.
These are from behind drivers side speaker
If i place this connector into the yellow plug pin for pin ie pin1 to pin1 etc, blown tracks if i plug it in pin1 to pin26 orange bulbs come on and stay on.
these are behind o/s lights
behind glove box
there are plenty more but this is a start.
Thanks
Darren.

[Andy335Touring]

This black plug is for the interior light delay relay i think ?

[DazzyA]

Hi Andy,
thanks mate, where would i get one? I'm still (over a week) waiting for my Haynes manual, which I've been told to file under B.I.N in favour of a Bentley.
cheers
darren

[DazzyA]

Inever used to have dirty fingures till i bought Carrie, she's taken over my life!!!!!!

[Andy335Touring]

Tell me you haven't named your car dude !?

[DazzyA]

Er no, sorry i er put the wife's name in for er some reason

[orangecurry]

the black connector does NOT go onto the yellow plug on the back of the instrument cluster - that yellow plug is for the OBC (if fitted) ONLY!!!

[Andy_magic]

To tide you over until your bentley arrives (Haynes really are crap) heres a link to my site with the BMW electrical troubleshooting manual.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/e30/etm.htm

[DazzyA]

orangecurry, thanks for letting me know, that will be why i blew the tracks when i fitted it, i did resolder, but that must be why the speedo has given up, will look there too.
Andy-magic, many thanks for the link will be there every night i reckon.
i love this site!!
[img][img]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4751/c ... 6wl.th.jpg[/img][/img]

[Andy_magic]

no worries mate, hope it helps you out.

[DazzyA]

Me too, I used to do a little electronic engineering when i was a lad, but car electrics always seem to have been lashed by every previous owner, I've got speaker wires used as the memory, 12v and neutral from the stereo wired to the hazard and heated rear window. AAARRRGGGHHH.
[img][img]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4751/c ... 6wl.th.jpg[/img][/img]

[Andy_magic]

sounds like you have a right mess to sort out.

I don't know if this will be of any help but I have wired my headunit directly to the battery with some heavy duty cable and fuses just like you would an amplifier in the boot. It makes alot of difference to the sound quality when cranked up. I run a 60w x4 Alpine.

[DazzyA]

Fuses inline on the power and memory? what size cable? I've got to get a new stereo as the one in the car is a TAPE deck, the only tape i can find is baby's BOB THE BUILDER, not great round town!
[img][img]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4751/c ... 6wl.th.jpg[/img][/img]

[Andy_magic]

The main power lead has an inline fuse, this is also the memory, the earth comes straight from the battery and the setup uses the existing switched with ignition live as this just tells the radio to switch on.

I'm not sure of the guage of the wire but its much thicker than the standard stuff. It's like a 1/10th scale version of an amplifier setup. I made it myself out of some bits I had lying around.

[DazzyA]

It's making more sense now, coz he's wired the mem to the heater thats why i have to re-tune all the time.
Thanks for the advice Andy I will do same when i get round to it.
[img][img]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4751/c ... 6wl.th.jpg[/img][/img]

[Andy_magic]

If your feeling brave you could rip out all the non standard wiring and start again.

I once owned a Sierra 4x4 2.8 Turbo technics conversion that had alot of extra stuff. I ended pulling the dash/seats out and ripping all the extra cabling out, I filled a big box will all the extra shite and started again.

[SCOTT325SE]

dude, if u think thats bad, you should see the wiring in my sport project car! its had 4 different alarms, and i found 3 different leads for hi-fi systems in the car from over the years! the wiring in the car is wanked. im buying a new wiring loom from BMW - Much easier.

[DazzyA]

Yeah, I've got all the seats out, dash apart, carpets out, footwell panels out I was thinking about it the thing that worries me the most are the ecu connectors and getting all the right pins for the connectors it's a bit scarry.

[Andy_magic]

Dazzy, I've just spotted your location. If you need a hand give me a shout and I'll give you a hand if you like.

[Jhonno]

yeah if you want a hand (on a Sat) give us a shout.. i'll see what i can do, had to sort out wiring on a couple of cars now.. altho nothing quite as messy as yours is!!

[DazzyA]

Nice on mate, I'm just waiting for the right ECU (had a 2 L in for some reason), then gonna try and fix my speedo, then the wiring, but it would be great for someone to have a look over I decided i wanted a classic and would breath new life into it but this is the first time and learning everything off here at the moment.
Darren.

[DazzyA]

Scott sorry, but is somehow reassuring to know someones worse off than me, sorry again, big bucks though mate??
[img][img]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4751/c ... 6wl.th.jpg[/img][/img]

[Andy_magic]

The ECU swap is a simple job, should only take 5 minutes.

I've got some test gear that should help diagnose the speedo (checking pulse signals etc)

I'm moving to Cambridge sometime soon, just waiting to hear on a job so the sooner the better.

[DazzyA]

Whenevers good for you Andy, I wont be able to work on the old girl to the weekend if you could make it then I'd be chuffed, the ecu was gonna be posted today, he said it maybe chipped, but haven't heard from him tonight, but he's a zoner so sure it will be here by the weekend.
darren.
Maybe jhonno can make it to then i can just watch and fetch the bacon sarnies and tes.
Don't suppose anyones got a air filter inlet pipe?

[Andy_magic]

Cool, Saturday should be OK for me.

It's easy to check if the ECU is chipped, just pull the lid off and look.

I might have an inlet pipe somewhere, do you mean the one that sits between the airbox and headlight or the Air flow meter and throttle body??

I like bacon crispy

[DazzyA]

Yeah thats the pipe will send pm with address and number, we're buggered if it's raining though coz I've got no cover.

[Brianmoooore]

Right, had a look in the breaker I have here with the loom still in place.

Pic 1/ These should be on a metal bracket to the left of the ECU when looking under the dash. Most cars they aren't used. Seen plugs in them on cars with aircon or switchable auto.

Pic 2/ Big black socket is for the optional interior light delay unit. If you really want one, Smithy318i is going into production producing OE copies.
There are a couple of other unused plugs in this area as well.

Pic 3/ This has its outer coloured shell missing. The only connectors I know of like this on an E30 are a blue one and a white one that fit into the instrument cluster. Are these both present?
If your car has the optional on board computer in place of the analogue clock, then there will be another one with a yellow shell, that goes into the yellow socket. Since your car has been well messed around, it's possible someone has removed the OBC and left the loom, but in that case it should cause problems if its just plugged in. Other end of the OBC loom has a connrector like this with a green shell.
There is also a connector like this to the check control module, which fits in the headlining behind the rear view mirror. Yours is a cab . Did cabs ever have check control, and if so where did BMW put it?

Pic 4/ These two wires should have an outer plastic shell (available seperately from your dealer) similar to one of the headlamp connectors.
Tell me what colour the two wires are, and I can identify it.
Your rads been replaced at some time, as its got a brass plug for an electric fan thermoswitch.

Pic 5/ Green wires are live with ignition on. Looks like a scotchlock has been on the big green one. Don't think this socket is used on UK cars.
The little loop of green wire and white two pin plug is the connection for a factory immobilizer.(Loop wire is removed,and replaced by immobilizer plug.)

[DazzyA]

Hi Brian,
a big thanks for the help,
Pic 3, the blue and white connectors are present, i did find a similar green connector shell in one of the door compartmets, it has the analogue clock fitted. The check panel is above the rear view mirror.
Pic 4, cables are brown and brown/yellow i think they may be the same as the spot lights but do not have same configuration on passenger side.

I fitted a 173 ecu today bought from a member and what a difference to the car, wow, only thing is the interior lights now don't work except for the electric windows, it's probably the wiring but thought I'd ask.
I've got a few pics of the wiring I will get on later if thats ok.
thanks again
darren

[Brianmoooore]

Brown and brown/yellow are the colours for the LEFT foglight. Your wires appear to be on the RH side.
Is the connector you tried to plug into the yellow socket on a seperate loom? Follow it along and see if you find another similar plug. If you do, this is the one that fits into the yellow socket, and it looks like you have a spare OBC loom.

[DazzyA]

thanks Brian (I'm thinking of having that as my signature), will check on the obc cable, it seems to be a multi-core cable on it's own.

Am i right in thinking the 2 cables are for a tweeter behind wing mirror, the other seems to actuate the central locking if pressed, there is one fixed to the passenger door barrel.
Something to do with spotlights?
Melted green, i think goes with the grey/red, seem to be bulb crimps on the end, there is a set (not working) for the main/fog/spot light panel, these seem to go to same sort of area.
Behind instrument panel, don't know what to say really
Interior heating lights given up now, and when i turn main lights on the radio turns off and back on when lights turned off.
I think the live and neutral from the stereo are go to the hazard switch via speaker cables and the memory goes to the rear heater screen switch(no heated screen) also via a speaker cable.

[SCOTT325SE]

dude, seriously... buy a new loom. lol lol lol.

yours is as bad as mine.

or get one out of a breaker for Ԛ£10. job done.

[Andy335Touring]

Some ones has made a right mess of your wiring mate !

First thing i would do is to insulate any bare wire or connections.