Brianmoore, only you can save me......

[William]

Brian,

Big problem, the ICE people had my car yesterday to sort out a couple of things with the alarm and it has come back with one side of the car not functioning. There is no left hand sidelight, front or rear, no number plate light and no dash lights. I presume this has something to do with the parking lights facility as it is just this one side of the car, on all the lights you would expect to be involved in this function.

Is there a simple fix as I NEED my car tomorrow to get to uni!!!

thanks alot

[ed325i]

Have you checked the fuse?

ED

[Bob_S]

will be ya fuse i think mate think it's a 7.5A one on the bottom right cant remember the number sorry

[William]

thanks guys, you were right, it was the fuse, number 23 if anyone's interested. Only thing is its blowing every time I put a new one in, so something is wrong. Any ideas?

[HartgeH27]

Sounds as though the ICE boys have left you with a wire shorting out somewhere. Carry a handful of spare fuses until you can get it back to them for a thorough check, alternatively have a look yourself and trace back where they were working. Just a process of elimination/backtracking where they worked.

[Brianmoooore]

E30 sidelamps/parking lamps, are seperately fused left and right.
Fuse 22, 7.5A, is for the left side front and rear sidelamps.
Fuse23, 7.5A, is for the right side fromt and rear parking lights, the number plate lights, and the instrument lights.
You say it's the LEFT hand sidelights, parking lights and instrument lights that are out of action? These are not the ones fused together, unless yours is a LH drive, and they are grouped differently on them.

[William]

Sorry Brian, thanks for your help, I was just doing it from memory, its the left set, so its just the circuit that everything is on as you said, fuse 23. It blows instantly as soon as I switch the lights on so I think it needs some attention ASAP as there is clearly a bare wire or a crap connection or something somewhere!

[Brianmoooore]

Still doesn't make sense. Fuse 23 is for the RIGHT sidelamps.
ICE (cow) boys have probably trapped one of the wires to the instrument lights, or possibly shorted out the OE wire that BMW provide for panel lights in a radio. This wire is grey/red (as are all the instrument panel light wires). If they've had the centre rear console out, then check the wiring to the rear ashtray lamp.

[William]

sorry, I meant RIGHT. Whichever set is on the same circuit as the license plate and the dash is the set that doesn't light up. They aren't really cowboys, they've done some good work for me and offer really good support when things go wrong or I need advice so I wont be too harsh on them, its just a mistake and they'll sort it out first thing Im sure.

Im a bit wary of having a look myself as i don't have the first idea about light circuits or most of the cars electrical circuits in general, so I think i'll leave it to them now I know roughly what the problem is. Thanks all for your help.



EDIT: just realised im not completely stupid, I was thinking left looking at it from the front, and you were meaning right as you sit it in the driving seat. OF course.

[William]

Right I have found the problem:

Sorry this pic is so horrific, it was taken on my phone to close:



The two wires are a yellow/grey one on the left and a red/grey one (as you mentioned Brian) on the right. Any clues where these should be?

thanks

[Brianmoooore]

Yellow/grey is the colour of the left sidelight circuit from fuse 22 (after the light switch).
Goodness knows wire you've got a wire going nowhere in this colour.

[William]

should these two wires not be part of the hazard warning light switch and have a terminal somewhere in that connector block on the left?

[Brianmoooore]

There's a red/grey goes to the hazard switch, but shoudn't be a yellow/grey, although there are some colour variations some times in E30 wiring.
There's a yellow/green to the hazard switch though.

[William]

ok, do you know where I can find a diagram that might show which pins holes the two wires should enter the hazard switch? I have some spare crimp terminals so I could probably sort it out if I knew which slot to put them in?

thanks again

[Brianmoooore]

Hazard light switch termunals:
1:purple/grey
2: blue/red
3: red/white
4: green/yellow
5: green/purple
6: blue/black
7: grey/red
8: brown/white

[William]

Brian, many thanks for your part in solving this. Turns out the hazard switch had all the wires it needed, so those wires in the pic seem surpless. Have no idea what they do so I taped them over and replaced the fuse and everything is fine, all lights working as they should. Haven't a clue what those wires are for though!!!

[Brianmoooore]

There's lots of spare connectors on E30s for various options and countries, but I can't say what these two are for, other than they seem to be left and right sidelight feeds. Some countries have extra side marker lights, but I wouldn't think the connections would be here in the centre of the car.
You've solved the immediate problem - the car is usable again, but try every electrical accessory on the car and see if everything works.
Especially try the parking light feature, (which a lot of people don't even know exists).
In case you're one of them. - With the engine off, push the indicator stalk right up or right down, past where it normally goes. This should switch on just one front sidelamp and just one rear tail lamp, depending on which way you move the stalk.

[orangecurry]

it is a great idea to have just one side lighting up as parking lights (to save your battery).... an idea stolen from VW I believe?

[JOSEMI]

Brian wrote

Especially try the parking light feature, (which a lot of people don't even know exists).
In case you're one of them. - With the engine off, push the indicator stalk right up or right down, past where it normally goes. This should switch on just one front sidelamp and just one rear tail lamp, depending on which way you move the stalk.

Blimey ! I didn't know that was there ?? It works on mine !! If I understand well, you use that when parking so that other road users can see you ?? I thought switching the lights was enough ?

Jose