Mystery cable (sorted)

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tfi_friday
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Post Sat Apr 05, 2014 6:48 pm

Hi,

In my idiocracy of trouble shooting the Automatic Heater Control in my 1990 325ic when putting the centre console back in I noticed a stray cable hanging loose. It's hanging about 15cm out from under the fan control so could go anywhere. :(

Two wires into a 4 pin plug (2 blank). One wire is black with a red stripe, the other black with a purple stripe.

Image

Any ideas what I may have missed... Or is it something optional?

Cheers!!!
Last edited by tfi_friday on Sun Apr 06, 2014 9:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
sweep
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Post Sat Apr 05, 2014 7:04 pm

Iluminating gear knob?
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Brianmoooore
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Post Sat Apr 05, 2014 7:51 pm

Nothing to do with lights with those colours! Wire colours aren't randomly chosen, but follow a code.
The black main colours indicate that they are something to do with ignition switched live, and the red stripe and purple stripe both indicate that they are something to do with the + side of things, rather than the negative, although that's not always followed.
There's a few black/reds around the car, but the only black/purple I can think of is for the fast wiper speed request from the switch. The normal speed request is black/purple, but I can think of no reason why a plug for those two signals should be in that area.
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tfi_friday
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Post Sat Apr 05, 2014 8:25 pm

I've got AC so probably something I've missed... :-(

Any idea what part it connects to?
Grrrmachine
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Post Sat Apr 05, 2014 10:43 pm

Black/violet wire connects the AC switch to the ECU, according to the Wiki diagrams:

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/imag ... ntrols.pdf

Is this the plug that connects to the little pig-tail loom at the ECU plug?
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tfi_friday
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Post Sat Apr 05, 2014 11:31 pm

Brilliant! Definately looks like that C136 connection.

BK/VI -> VI/GY
BK/RD -> BK/GY

Looking at the 1990 electrical trouble shooting manual, the C136 connector view is a 4 pin plug. I guess it tells the MCU that the AC is on.

Just need to find where it's physically located. :-)

Big thanks again for the help!

:D
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tfi_friday
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Post Sun Apr 06, 2014 9:17 am

Bingo!!!

Image

Image

Thanks again