E30 Zone

Hello to all E30 worshipers!! ONE LOVE all the way.

Recently purchased my second baby E30 & I have to say it is personally the best one I have ever seen on a road!! Well I havent seen any of you guy on the road yet so maybe not the BEST lol, but to me anyway. if you guys help me I will also post up some pics for all as i dont know how???

Am new to the site as you prob will recognise I have searched & searched the forums for help as I spotted this topic before but no joy....

The only thing wrong with my 325 i sport is that the fog lights do not work, the front ones and the rears!!!! ( I have checked/changed all fuses & relays and still no joy, noticed someonec cleaned the contacts on the actualy switch, i highly doubted this but still tried & failed !! I have the same prob the illumination on the switches dont even come on???

Can anyone help me please???? As I have had a xenon conversion & really need to get these working as its going back for the fogs to hav e a xenon conversion aswell he he....

sorry and the headlight wash did not function as with many sports, but soon found the problem with it, the relay/or black box that goes on the right arch it was in the boot under the jack for some reason.....!!!

any info much appreciaed peeps !

1

send pics to azisbo@hotmail.com

and i will do it for you post the pics that is

welcome

Chances are the fog light switch unit on the dash has gone. The one under the headlight switch. Open the knee pad under the dash, remove the entire fog light unit and try another. Oh yeah, welcome by the way!

welcome to the zone fella look forward to see the pics of the motor!

Welcombe to the zone on behalf of the mods, but try to post in the correct forum please.
Fog light wiring varies a bit for different markets, but this should be correct:
Pull out relay K4, and link together pins 30 and 87b of its socket with a short piece of wire. Push in the rear foglight switch and see if the rear fogs and their warning light come on.
Pull out relay K8 and link together pins 30 and 87 of its socket. This should put the front fogs and their warning light on.
Make sure that you discriminate between 87 and 87b, and don't turn on the ignition, lights switch or the front fog light switch.

Woah, quick response this sh** is better than ebay lol.

Yeah i'll try swapping the switch with the other one actually. didnt think of that - do it tomorrow! thanks

Well A. i want to put a picture up next to my username like you members and B. just in general post some up for you guys, so can I not just do it.....? thanks

thanks 4 the welcome, takes the P abit though coz its almost 100% dry no rust prob 99.9 actually so I continue that I dont drive it in the wet!!! you know how often that is in this country.......but i'll see how long that lasts once its finished lol

Sorry what were you referring to by posting in the correct forum where should this listing be?? do apologise

Pull out relay K4, and link together pins 30 and 87b of its socket with a short piece of wire. Push in the rear foglight switch and see if the rear fogs and their warning light come on.
Pull out relay K8 and link together pins 30 and 87 of its socket. This should put the front fogs and their warning light on.
Make sure that you discriminate between 87 and 87b, and don't turn on the ignition, lights switch or the front fog light switch.

in relation to that^^^^^^^^^^^................
im guessin those pins are the holes underneath the relays in the fuse box yes??? and if so ust connect with wire ??

so do not switch on any swithces at all ??? or the ignition at all??? so what exactly will i be doing and looking for???

This post is in the correct 'tech help' forum now. I moved it from 'E30 chat' where you posted it!
The pins are the holes under the relays, and the pin numbers are marked on the relays. Just push the bared ends of a short piece of ordinary wire into the sockets to a depth of about the length of the relay pins.
Do EXACTLY as in my post, and report back. This is the first in a series of tests to determine what's wrong with your lights without blindly flailing about replacing parts at random.
BTW, we advocate capital punishment on e30zone.net for the use of front foglights in non foggy conditions, and the last thing you want in fog is over bright, brilliant white lights!

hey,

i did as you said above and yes the front fogs along with the warning light on the dash came on! however the other test i did and the front headlights were flickering on and off consistently i could haer the xenon ballasts doing there things during this but no rear fogs came on or any warning light for the rear!

Right, we've established that the fault with the front fogs is in the control circuit.
The front dipped beams should not have activated at all for the rear fogs test. Are you sure you linked 30 and 87b?

yep am positive have checked and double checked. there is a resisor fitted when the xenons were installed as the computer check unit kept flashing red on dipped beam when they were installed, after he put a resistor in they light went out. this may be something to do with it..........?

Still can't see how power would be getting to the dipped beams if my circuit diagram is correct for your car!
Try a different test then: Switch the rear foglight switch on and take a wire from the battery + terminal (the phantom one on the RH side of the engine bulkhead, if your battery is in the boot), and push the other end of the wire into the top of fuse 15, so that you contact the fuse wire.
Do the rear fogs and/or the warning light illuminate?
Include a 15 or 20A fuse in the wire near the battery if possible.

ok will do but how do i fix the fronts fogs in the mean time! ?

Hey brianmooore,

I have now carried out all the test EXACTLY as described by you. The last one I used a wire from the boot battery as I could not locate the bulkhead one at first into fuse 15 as described, but no joy neither the rear fogs or the warning light came on as the switch was depressed as you asked.....................

But had joy with the front fogs as you know, so how do i solve this! ?

Testing first, fixing later.
Pull out the foglight switch and pull off the connector. Take the wire from the battery again and push it into the socket (4) that connects to the grey/purple wire. Does this make the rear foglights and their indicator light up?
While you have the switch out, switch on the ignition and use a piece of wire to connect the grey wire at socket 7 of the switch connector to a good body earth. Does this make the front fogs work?

hokey dokey, i'll hit try that one tomorrow or at the weekend as Im in bed now.........cheers

Right, I got a result, finally!

I took the foglight switch out an gave it another clean again & lightly scratched the contacts down with a flathead screwdriver, AND it seems to have done the trick! the front fog lights are now on working, along with the green warning light on the dash!

so thats that hopefully sorted now! but the rear fogs still do not work, no light emitting neither does the warning light illuminate on the dash........................any suggestions for the rears mate???


thanks!

Does it have (or had in the past) a towbar? I had a similar issue on a customers car. I replaced the foglight switch, that sorted the fronts, but still no rear fogs. Turns out the wiring to the towbar electrics was a bit dodgy.

yep just tried that & it worked! seems to be number 2 rather than 4 though! but yes the rear fogs come on & the warning light illuminates! your a genius!!!!

Hi,

no, no tow bar at present & not to my knowledge has there ever been one, it has been enthusiast owned through its life so I highyly doubt there would of been one at any stage, too much strain on the engine etc, plus I would not of touched it if i was told any different! thanks anyway though, maybe a good valid point!

cheers

black_sport wrote:, too much strain on the engine etc, plus I would not of touched it if i was

Too much strain on the engine!!! This is a BMW, not some Ford or Vauxhall crap! You can't 'strain' a BMW engine or driveline!
Back to the foglamps: If you did the test feeding power to fuse 15 exactly as described, the only thing left is the switch.
Pull out the foglight switch and pull off its connector. Link pins 2 and 4 (yellow/black and grey/purple), and 5 and 7 (grey and grey/blue) of the connector with two short pieces of wire, and turn on the ignition and the light switch.
All your fogs should now be lit.

It does not matter what car make it is, it is a known fact that towing puts excess uneccessary weight on the car therefore the car has to pull more than usual therefored the engine has to work harder! lol just cos its a BM does not mean no strain is possible! come on mate! lol

I did the test to fuse 15 yes, but it did not work as mentioned earlier, but i'll do it again right now......

The red touring in my sig has done nearly 300,000 miles, many thousand of them towing loads nearly as heavy as the car, and generally at illegal speeds. Engine and driveline are as good as new, as was the rest of the car before a Porsche recently landed on it.

Just done that fuse 15 test once again, but without a 15/20amp fuse like you suggested at the other end (battery terminal) as i did not have one spare at that rating, and still does not work..........

lol "as good as new"....?


a porka landed on it?? how that happen?

illegal sppeds whilst towing? you gotta put some of that sh*t on youtube .....!

Just did the joining on both switch terminals with two pieces of wire as described, and yep both the front and rear fogs came on!

Im guessing its the swithc itself then, shall i throw another one in from my other E30....mind you the front are working now..................

Half a working switch isn't worth a lot!
No serious inductive loads on the foglight switch to burn contacts away, so I would expect a good clean up to sort the existing switch.

sorry to thread hijack but im insensed by people who think towing things damages their car!
towing does no harm to car at all. mostly depends on whos been using it to tow.....
look what mine can tow.....


also had 325i engine in the boot of the touring too. towed the lot over 200 miles!!!
feels all the better for it!

I've done it with an E34 on there! Did feel a bit like the tail was wagging the dog though.

missing my point i'm not saying they cant tow of course - all cars will. I said that the engine is pulling ALOT more weight than normal or intended for, & not going anwhere in a hurry really, also not manufacturers intention i think, parts wear quicker more strain on the engine.....therefore doubt the nearly as new comment!

No argument intended just a fact in my eyes and would never buy a car thats had one, ever

Occasional towing I dont see as an issue, but long term heavy duty towing ruins a car. We went through three gearboxes and two motors in a Jag XJS 5.3 V12's, one gearbox in a XJ6 4.0 (both run HP22 boxes) rear suspension bushes and other parts that are affected such as brakes etc. Ok, this was using the cars to tow a double axle car trailer with anything from an Alpine A110 to a Bentley S2 on it. But I still wouldn't touch the 96 P reg X300 Jag that was last used for a year. Even when it was offered to me for £300.

Exactly lance1a !

Towing ruins a car. Exactly my point - suspension, brakes, shocks, engine mounts etc etc everything mechanical involved in assisitng the car to move / stop (which is almost every bit on a car) all have unecessary shit to deal with when towing.

Towing a friend back home from the local retail park once or twice sure, but not how these guys are going on about it. Sorry people.

Towing might ruin an auto Jag, but BMWs are built will a little more in hand in their spec.
300,000 miles touring; 20,000 towing over a tonne; everything still as new. Even the dampers are original, although I expect I'd notice the difference with new ones.