Central Locking Retro

[Maeda]

When I rewired my whole chassis, I stupidly gutted everything and tossed EVERYTHING! Meaning that my central locking system is gone.

What do I need to get this working again? Is there some kind of 'brain' to the system that i'll need? I can't quite seem to decipher the realoem picture. :\

Everything IN the door is still there, so i'm guess thats the actuators, and such.

Could I just wire an alarm to the actuators and call it a day?

[Maeda]

I found the brain unit thing...... i guess i just have to rewire the doors together and give power to the unit?

[StereoInstaller1]

Could I just wire an alarm to the actuators and call it a day?

in a word, yes.

[Maeda]

in a word, yes.

If you were going to give me the long version what would it be?

[StereoInstaller1]

If you were going to give me the long version what would it be?

Basically, it would depend on what alarm you did.

Most these days do not have onboard relays, so you would need to use 2 relays to run the actuators...the alarm would run the relays.

If it happens, I would be glad to help on wiring diagrams.

Luke

[AndrewBird]

My question is, why did you rewire your car in the first place?

[Maeda]

It was much easier to do this with my own chassis wiring.

Stock bmw wiring is garbage. It's so old and corroded and badly run, and insulated. I went with a much simpler, much easier to trouble shoot, and much better wiring. I got to thin the thing down to about 9 circuits, and only kept what I wanted. Unfortunately I mistakenly ditched power locks without thinking. Plus you get to rerun all the wires where you want, and how you want.

I redid everything with expanding sleeve, heatshrink, and beefier wire for the essentials like headlights, alternator, and battery. Now I have a TINY harness that still has all the functions I need to run the car, as well as a couple other things that add some comfort like power windows, sunroof, and radio.

Stereoinstaller: I did more poking around and I dismounted the door lock unit, and relays, but found them bouncing around behind the kick panel. It looks like i just need to extend the wiring back to where it was, and through my new fusebox.

[e30edward]

i was wondering if u could just get rid of the central locking all together and just maually lock everything. would this be possible?

[e30edward]

i was wondering if u could get rid of the central locking all together and manually lock everything. would this be possible?

[AndrewBird]

You mean, lock each door individually? I don't see why you couldn't.

As far as the rewire, nice job. I had hoped you weren't just some idiot who decided to "rewire" his car for no reason. I.E. - Hack it to pieces then say nothing works and ask how to fix it. ;)

[golde30]

im going to be running all 4 actuators off a Clifford alarm soon. my installer said the same thing as Luke, hes gonna install 2 relays, 1 for the front doors, and 1 for the trunk and fuel door. there is a short in the wiring to my central locking unit, so this was in my opinion the best solution.

[Maeda]

You mean, lock each door individually? I I.E. - Hack it to pieces then say nothing works and ask how to fix it. ;)

On the contrary! Everything works except the locks, sunroof and the dome lights. I haven't gotten around the the last two, as they aren't all that important to me.

[PiercedE30]

Did you document any of the rewire?

[Maeda]

Did you document any of the rewire?

No. It's really easy, I didn't see a point.

The wires came prelabeled, and the fuse box prewired. All you have to do is run the wires, cut what you don't need, and connect to your old plugs.

[Maeda]

Behind my driver side speaker I found small harness with

Red/Black - 12v?
Brown - Ground?
Green/Purple - Lock?
Green/Black - Unlock?

Ok staring at this wiring diagram has me baffled. I admit defeat! I need some help.