Electrical woes

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jkarran
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Post Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:01 pm

My 320 has developed some very anoying electrical problems. It gets rallied so has seen a lot of water and vibration. Also it is of course 20 years old and may just be getting old. It has a crap old imobiliser that may also be playing up and should really be removed.

The symptoms are listed below.

Should I just gut the electrics and wire everything that's vital to switches? Is the ignition switch a likely suspect? Is there any single point of failure that would cause all this? I hate car electrics :x

The faults developed it the following sequence:

The electric windows stopped working due presumably to a fault in the child lock switch.

I removed the little plastic bump that pushes in the passenger door switch as a temporary fix.

Following that the car no longer starts (no ignition power) once stopped until the battery is disconnected for a couple of minutes. This now happens with or without the passenger door "shut".

Now this temporary fix has stopped working and the car wont start on the key at all (no starter motor action). Ignition power is present as the car will bump start and the dash sort of works.

The dash, indicators and interior fan apear to have gone a bit mad too flashing lights and switching on and off as and when they can be bothered.

Any ideas appreciated,
James
jkarran
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Post Tue Mar 14, 2006 9:25 am

Nobody got any ideas or is the question too vague?

Only ever parking on hills and needing a spanner and five minutes to start the car is no fun :cry:
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Brianmoooore
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Post Tue Mar 14, 2006 11:38 pm

Ignition switch is a distinct possibility for some of it, and I'd definitely root out that immobiliser and get rid of it.
Look above the top of the glovebox for a white two pin socket with two green wires going to it, and ,while you're there, check the earthing stud for all the brown wires.
jkarran
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Post Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:06 am

Thanks Brian,

There does seem to be more than one fault so I guess tackling the obvious ones like imobiliser and earthing first is the way to start.

Its just been abandoned facing downhill in in disgrace for the last couple of days.

What do the green wires above the gloovebox do? Or a better question, where can I get good wiring diagrams, the Haynes manual perhaps? Genuine BMW manuals?

Cheers
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Brianmoooore
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Post Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:02 pm

Socket with the green wires is where the immobiliser is connected in, if the installer knew what he was doing. In unmolested cars it will be fitted with a plug with a short loop of green wire linking the pins.
Sometimes, in cars with factory fitted alarms the plug and loop will be taped loosely into the loom nearby.
Best online source of wiring diagrams that I know is :
www.autolib.diakom.ru:8001/CAR/BMW/
316eyes
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Post Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:56 pm

Brian - tried the link twice. It comes up in Russian!!
ad318i
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Post Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:00 pm

316eyes wrote:Brian - tried the link twice. It comes up in Russian!!
yeah but if you click on the dropdown boxes its all in english so you can work it pretty easily
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