M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
DISCUSSION => Electrical => Topic started by: Fillbilly on September 08, 2020, 07:51:35 PM
-
So I have a new problem and didn’t know if anybody had dealt with anything similar. 318is 1991. Everything was running good (except my aftermarket radio would go black after a while, though still playing music. Just couldn’t do anything with it. Now it’s dead dead.) A relay fell down under the dash and hit my foot. So I just tucked it back up in there while I was driving. Then when I was backing out of my parking space, the relay (connector and all) fell down and landed on the floor. Turns out when I stuffed it back up there blindly, some wires caught the steering shaft when I pulled into a parking space and ripped 5 wires out. Now I have no power to the tach, fuel gauge, temp gauge and blower motor. I soldered the wires back together and put the relay back in. The relay had 2 brown wires on one terminal, one brown/purple wire to another terminal, one green/white wire on a third and one brown/white on the 4th terminal. But nothing changed after reinstalling it. The tach, blower and fuel gauge work for a second after starting the car but then go out… Any ideas on what I might of fried or how to test the relay? It’s strange to me that they all work for a second but then go out. The fuses all look good, though I haven’t put a meter on them yet.
-
Well, as usual, basics prevail. I put a meter on the fuses and #10 7.5A fuse looked good but was not transmitting power. Swapped the fuse and all is well again.
-
Which relay was it? The only ones I can think of that would fall out and hit your feet, and get wires anywhere near the column, are the turn signal relay, the seatbelt chime timer and the chime module itself.
Anyway, glad you sorted it out.