M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
DISCUSSION => Electrical => Topic started by: Jimmy Lewis on July 18, 2007, 09:43:21 PM
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After posting in a thread many months ago concerning the issue of my tach only reading to 4500 I have finally fixed the problem. It was a simple pop the old plug out and put the new plug in and my tach now scales properly, however, I have run into a few electrical snags. My cluster used to work perfectly with all the gauges functioning properly minus my gas gauge only scaling to 1/2, everything else electrical on the car has worked flawlessly. I noticed now that all functions that run through fuse 12 do not work anymore, speedo, radio, economy gauge, OBC clock all quit working. The fuse never blew nor is it damaged at all, nothing else was done but disconnecting the airbag and horn temporarily. I did notice that the previous owner who replaced the old cluster busted the red ignition cap and fixed it with zip ties, I can't imagine that it would stop working right now if it has worked flawlessly in the past. Now comes the kicker, I noticed some obvious damage to the hot wire running into the wiper selector assembly, the question is that if there is a bad connection at that one spot will it affect the other things. Sorry for drawing such a simple question out so bloody long. Thanks guys.
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I suppose no one has any ideas. I would also like to mention that I did indeed leave the airbag disconnected if that has anything to do with it. My first intention was to just leave the thing alone until I got the proper guidance but at this point I need to just go out and test things and try not to mess anything else up.
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Ok, there is a much bigger problem now. After messing around with checking voltage and trying to tweak the mangled red ignition cap the car will not start. I'm no mechanic but I know for a fact that the car is turning over and that the fuel pump doesn't make its usual whine. I removed the rear seat and the pump cover and it doesn't make a sound when cranking, I'm assuming the starter is fine because the car cranks over just like it always has but never runs. I checked the pump relay and when properly grounded none of the slots in the relay showed any voltage, so it checks out. All of my fuses have been replaced with proper new ones, so that cannot be the problem. I cannot imagine that troubleshooting the speedo and washer problem could lead to a fuel pump failure but who knows. Any input would be greatly appreciated, I really need to get this thing running as soon as possible. Thanks guys.
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YEOW!
PM sheepdog, bmwman91 or Dclay. I think these guys are familiar with your area of problems.
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VICTORY!
Well, after discussing the issue with dude8383 and bmwman91 I found myself fixing the car today. The odd thing is that nothing that I perceived to solve the problem played any role in its solving, haha. I was sure that I had a bad connection to my fuel pump because in accessory mode I got no voltage running through the pump. After further investigation, namely hooking up my only other available 12V battery, a hobby battery the size of a flashlight made my fuel pump whir. Then I shifted my attention to my botch job ignition switch cap. I removed the switch and harness from the car and sat it on my desk where I would sit for almost 2 hours rebuilding it. I won't go into the details but if anyone wants to know the exact mechanical and electrical function of every spring, ring, and odd shaped copper thing jam packed into that round piece of red and white plastic I'm you're man. Essentially the spring that held one of three copper things that bridged the connection for my fuel pump was missing, as well as a small copper piston. I replaced them with very "ghetto", if you will, solutions including a cut pen spring and oddly enough a small copper piston out of a flashlight (Which oddly enough was my shift knob until last week, we shall save that for later perhaps...). All in all the car runs great, everything works as it should. And another side note to Dennis, my fuel pump isn't actually loud at all, about a year ago I pulled the rear seat because my car wouldn't run and I left the metal cover off, what a difference it makes! Again thanks guys for all the help, even if it turns out to not be the problem, I learned.