Anybody help?

[black_sport]

abit of worry and bother here....all help appreciated.....

car has been left standing in the garage since 6th jan 07 and still is, I have put the battery on charge today as it has went dead......

in the engine bay the radiator caught my eye straight off as fisrt i spotted "320 auto" which i never did before and it looks a different colour to what i remember......its like ice white (see first pic) im shitting myself!!!

as I remember somebody else aswell as my neighbour saying change the fluid or top up antifreeze or something along those lines before cold/winter.....I only added a little antifreeze a few days before i left as i only had a tiny bit spare.

does this look abnormal to anyone?? what checks etc can i do to make sure everythings still ok?? i hope!!!


secondly the car had a alarm when i bought it and a seperate clifford oldschool keychain plastic thingy sensor for the immobiliser (works fine)

the alarm however i have never got to work. the fob button you can press which illuminates the red led on the fob but seems to do nothing else, there are two sensors inside the car near the sun visors and a led next to the hazzard lights along with a clifford led for the immobiliser.

when there was power in the car the led for the alarm did flash (i have a feeling that along with other things is what drained my battery) in the bonnet there are cut wires (see pic) i issume this has something to do with it.

Id like to get it working at least or even better remove the wHOLE thing completely so i can get a new clifford on my baby but am unsure of the consequences.....

ive looked at previous posts also will try to get a meter reader thing to test all the curretns etc as brian suggested so i can fault find as my car did have illuminated window switches i think.....and something is defoe draining my battery

[blitz877]

wheres the pics then??

[black_sport]

i'm having trouble with them, how do i post them up???

[Brianmoooore]

In the absence of pic's I'm guessing the white colour of the rad is 'white rust' of the aluminium, probably caused by salt, since the car was laid up in winter.
The word 'Clifford' and the phrase 'battery goes flat' occur surprisingly often in the same sentence, but even the best battery will go flat on a car after a few months, because of drains like the clock, radio memory, etc.

[Brianmoooore]

i'm having trouble with them, how do i post them up???

See 'Forum FAQ's' (Not 'Forum FAQ')

[black_sport]

I'm working on the pictures right now as i type this......

only the immobiliser is clifford which works fine in conjunction with a sensor on my keyring, the alarm however is of a seperate make (gamma i think) which is what i'm having problems with.....

I know that a battery eventually will go dead after a few months on many cars brian, but mine only needs around 6 days i think and its gone, even 4/5 days and i can see signs when starting, something is wrong there so i need to establish what.

pics...............

[black_sport]

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/2448/dsc01833iv4.jpg

[black_sport]

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3987/dsc01835zl5.jpg

[Brianmoooore]

I'm working on the pictures right now as i type this......

Keep working!

[black_sport]

there up now via the links

[black_sport]

Brian......?

[Brianmoooore]

White stuff appears to be all over the plastic header tank! No idea on that one.
Battery drain is usually down to aftermarket alarms, wrongly installed ICE, and occasionally the boot light not going off or dud alternator diode.
Best way to find out is to get a testmeter on a current range in series with the battery negative lead, and pull fuses/disconnect wires one at a time. Around 30mA is normal; anything over 80mA needs investigating.
Note that your battery is likely to have been permanently damaged to some degree by being run flat.

[Brianmoooore]

Some dodgy looking wiring in the second pic!

[black_sport]

the wirign in the second pic, all i did waas strip down the two you can see naked as i was thinking of joining them together to see if i could get the fob/alarm working but am unsure of the consequences and also there is only one wire that had been cut but two it could of been joined from dont know which (maybe both) if you can see pic, although i noticed they were black and also joined to car body so must be earth connections??? what do you reccomend i should do ideally i want to remove the whole alarm.

brian do you know how long i am suppose to charge my battery from as i have an oldschool charger which just three coloured leds normal low and man which none seem to be going out since yesterday! so have no idea when to finish the charge.

i will hunt down a mulitmeter and investigate i think even though electircs is my weakest weakspot

[black_sport]

so it is not white rust or anything to worry about????? maybe it was that colour to begin with i just didnt notice LOL but im sure it wasnt

[black_sport]

??

[Brianmoooore]

Charge the battery for 24 hours.
Any wiring which uses crimped ring terminals and self tapping screws as an earth point should be removed ASAP.
Does the white stuff rub or wash off? End tanks are black plastic, unless you have some special aftermarket rad.
It's obviously not the original with the writing on it!

[black_sport]

ok i'll stop the charge now as the charge indicators are not changing at all and i think its been on for over 24 hours, also hopefully it hasnt damaged the batt majorly by going completely dead.

the white stuff seems to kind of wipe off and appears to be a dusty powdery substance, i know its not original obviously - but does the 320i auto use the same one/size as a 325i sport or should i replace it with a original 325i sport one?

what do you anticipate would happen if i joined one of those or both wires to each other or should i not attempt it ?

[black_sport]

just taken the battery off charge and its now reading at 13V.14/15 which is bang on i think

[black_sport]

I have removed the siren from the engine bay disconnected the plug connected to it, then followed the other end of the plug which goes along the bulkhead through onto the passenger side into the glove box. I have found the alarm box and removed that, traced the two sensor wires to the top of each pillar of the car and removed them. traced and removed the led from the dash.

I am still now left with 1. which looks like a central locking module and looks non-original to me which some of the alarm wires are fed too with kind of a large connecting block sort of thing, and 2. the rest of the remaining loom from the enigine initailly traced from the engine bay which consist of the following - 1 red, 1 blue, 1 purple, 1 white, X2 red & white. I have not toucherd or cut/removed these yuet as I'm unsure what im doing?

Any help brian this should complete the job and i can then check the door pins for windows/roof when the cars out of the garage, boot bulb is still 5W.

Thanks

would a picture help.....?

[black_sport]

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/7764/dsc01839gb3.jpg


Thats the bunch of wires fed through from the engine bay

[black_sport]

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/5383/dsc01842mc4.jpg

second shot - as you can see 4 wires out of 6 are going into the exisitng loom

[black_sport]

also has a fuse connected through it which i believe has been added on and not OE

http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/5882/dsc01843kv7.jpg

[black_sport]

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/4783/dsc01845fp0.jpg

remaining 2 orange and white are going into another box / pin connecter at the back......

[Brianmoooore]

Can't make out too much in those pictures, other that most of those loose wires aren't OE and need removing.
Look for a white 2 pin socket with a green wire to each pin sprouting out of the main loom above the glove box.
This is where the immobiliser circuit should connect to the car.
Also look for anything connected to a green/purple wire behind the speaker panel, which is where a fuel pump connection to the immobiliser is likely to be.

[black_sport]

I know they are not OE which is why I'm trying to remove all that arnt. But wish to leave the clifford immobiliser installed for now but completely remove the alarm which I will of done after this last connection in the pictures.

In the first picture you can clearly see the wire which I'm holding-(the other end of the siren wires) you will also see 4 of those wires conncted to some of my OE in some way and the other two are plugged into a connector board at the back which I believe is also OE.

I need to remove all 6 coming from the black taped bunch but is it just a case of breaking the connections/cutting the wires off / unjoining wires / how exactly am i suppose to remove them brian??

I know which ones need to be removed but am unsure what there connected to and what will happen if the OE wires lose that connection....im doing his right now so prompt response would be great bud

cheers

[Brianmoooore]

Most of the wires will be spliced onto OE wires, so it's just a matter of removing these. Any wires that are cut into OE wires (I.e. The OE wire has been cut, and two seperate non OE wires connected to the cut ends) will be associated with the immobiliser.
The wires that go to the largely unused socket at the back of the glovebox are probably power wires.
I can't help you from here as to which wires are for the alarm and which are for the immobiliser if they are two seperate units.

[black_sport]

I have successfully remvoed that bogus alarm system now. there are two wires 1 green 1 purple which are left in still, and the orange/white two which I dont know what they are, everything else has been cut off disconnected, hopefully the car starts still!! the ignition comes on at present an d streo still works, whether the fuel pump kicks in and starts i dont know yet i hope so.......clifford awaits...........

thanks for all brian im sure you'll be assisting me again lol

thank you