I used to think I was good with electricity

"Santiago of Escuderia Boricua" (sdiglesias)
01/21/2016 at 21:53 • Filed to: None

Then I bought an e36

This is me right now:

I think my doors are on the same 12v bus as my HVAC controller. Hard to say since 1/3 of the Bentley manual is wiring diagrams

DISCUSSION (14)

OPPOsaurus WRX > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
01/21/2016 at 22:01

my old explorer had the interior lights on the same fuse as the 4wd and the power windows. Some times my interior lights would stay on for no f’in reason and the only way to get the f’ers to shut off was to pull the fuse until they decided to behave again. thins led to me going thru a McD’s drive thru one day and not being able to lower the windows TO GET MY F”IN BIG MAC

MM54 > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
01/21/2016 at 22:19

My friend’s e36 has the entertaining issue of some sort of crash sensor being intermittent, and on occasion when you go into 3rd gear the interior lights and 4-ways come on.

I’d try to lend a hand but I’m not really local (I think). I (briefly) used to debug wiring in the control cabs of locomotives, which have about 300 pages of schematic so...

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > OPPOsaurus WRX
01/21/2016 at 22:19

Lol. I’ve heard Ford has trouble in that department as well

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > MM54
01/21/2016 at 22:41

“on occasion when you go into 3rd gear the interior lights and 4-ways come on”

Wat

Also I’m in Detroit

BLCKSTRM > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
01/21/2016 at 22:41

Hmmm. That sounds about right.

Hopefully you never find out first hand that your left tail light, automatic interior lights, hazards, and OBD port are also all on the same circuit. Oh yeah, and also something that likes to short the whole circuit.

And hopefully your gas cap doesn’t go bad at the same time, because then there’d be no way to just reset the CEL (you know, since the port doesn’t have power).

Did I mention it’s intermittent?

I love my car, but this stupid issue has been dogging me for months.

And unlike you, I already know I’m crap at electrical.

At least this is the first electrical problem I’ve ever had. And yes, I’ll be holding my breath.

And good luck with yours. Keep at it, and go to the mattres.. uh, forums. Bimmerforums is full of help, or at least ideas.

yamahog > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
01/21/2016 at 22:44

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > BLCKSTRM
01/21/2016 at 23:04

Shit, I haven’t even checked the obd2 port since I put the doors back on

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
01/22/2016 at 00:37

Most automotive engineers aren’t even good with electricity (just look at Land Rover and VAG) you can’t really expect normal people to be.

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
01/22/2016 at 00:44

And this is why pre 70s cars are going to be around a lot longer than “new old” cars.

My first car was a Citroen Traction Avant (I’m old, but not that old: it was a heap of junk about twice my age). I rewired that from scratch in one Saturday, including scratch-building new harnesses, replacing all the connectors and changing the ground polarity, in my dad’s garage. With no prior electrical experience.

I pity the next guy who owned it, but nonetheless: try doing that with your modern beaters.

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
01/22/2016 at 06:48

I studied robotics in college. It’s the lack of logic that’s shocking

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
01/22/2016 at 09:14

Agreed. There are so many times I’ve looked at a schematic and wondered what the hell they were thinking. Then, a couple of times just modified it so that it would be better all around.

GMart > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
01/22/2016 at 10:28

The sunroof in my ‘99 coupe had this fun problem: the driver-side cable track had separated from the rest of the cassette, so if you tried to open the roof, the cable pushed down on the headliner instead of opening the panel. This would then short out the circuit in the overhead console, blowing the fuse for all the lights and the windows. The funny thing is, you could somehow still use the convenience-close feature of the door lock to close everything back up.

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > GMart
01/22/2016 at 10:51

I too have a 99 coupe. My sunroof is removed because race car. However, the convenience close feature on the driver’s door doesn’t work...

MM54 > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
01/22/2016 at 17:17

This isn’t his post, but it’s the same problem; the car randomly thinks it’s been crashed. His tends to do it when you go for third, something with the wiring in that area I guess.

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthre…