no power no nothing to whole car

[3toedshewie]

Hi,
I have a 92 325i vert. M20, 5 speed, ran great, sat for 2 weeks, put key in ignition- nothing, no dash lights, interior lights, no "ding ding" sound from the column with the door open and the keys in, no nothing.

Dead battery right? - no, tried good battery on car, still nothing.

did a search for this on the forum. only thing I found is that there might be some kind of security code or anti theft device keeping me from getting power? I wanted to know if it was something stoopid and simple before i start tearing things apart.

is there an easy way to check to see if the main relay blew? is this a common problem?

help help me,
shewie

[5Toes]

Maybe your battery ground is bad??

[3toedshewie]

Ill check that today, thanks 5Toes! Just do a basic ground check like from the bentely?

[LJ851]

Someone stole your wiring harness?





Seriously though, it should be easy to find not too many things will kill the whole system.

[3toedshewie]

Update!

Hi everybody,
here is an update: no power, still no power.

what I tried so far:
1) continutiy check on battery ground strap with mulitmeter - good ground, it beeped.
2) battery reads 11.5 volts
3) switched on lights. noticed only two sets of lights came on, front running lights (orange ones) and rear running lights ( middle red ones)
4) checking all fuses: all but one were good, 30 amp in position 20 of fusebox.
5) checked for security system: found remnants of one, rat nest-ish


who I talked to:
PO- he said that my problem might be a bad starter. I thought that is weird as there should still be power to the dash and interior lights. does this make sense to anyone?

ideas I have had while working on car:
check ignition swich in column.
trace problem from battery to see where I am not getting power.
Does anyone have a link to the ETM and wiring diagrams?

[RobertK]

You check the fuseable link from battery?

[bmwguy325is]

I say bad igntion switch.

[3toedshewie]

thanks robertk ill look for that again. I am having trouble finding the fusable link. does not show up in the etm. dont want to undo all the shrink wrap to find it. not sure if there is a fusable link on the verts. going to the junk yard today, maybe Ill pull a vert there apart.

Thanks bmwguy235i, Ill check the igniton switch.

[bernzpeed]

ground

[RobertK]

thanks robertk ill look for that again. I am having trouble finding the fusable link. does not show up in the etm. dont want to undo all the shrink wrap to find it. not sure if there is a fusable link on the verts. going to the junk yard today, maybe Ill pull a vert there apart.

Thanks bmwguy235i, Ill check the igniton switch.

Forgot this was a vert. It may not have a fuseable link then.

If just the ignition was bad your interior lights, glove box light and trunk light should still work without the key in the ignition at all.

Check your terminal connectors and cables thoroughly for corrosion (even signs of it under the wire cover). I've seen similar issues where the ground looked ok but upon removing the cable it was completely corroded under the wire covering and replacing it with a new wire fixed it right up.

[3toedshewie]

thanks Robert and bernzspeed,
the ground looks a little corroded, did a continuity check, it checked out ok, will do a voltage check on it, will replace it next time I go to the boneyard.


went to the boneyard today, completely removed all the shrink wrap from an 89 that already had been heavily parted out. no fusable link in either the positve or negative wires leading to and from the battery to the fuse box and beyond.

Plugged in a buddys computer, I got lights coming on in the interior.....Progress! after that my battery died so did not see if it could start.

I think I know why its the ecm, I recently tried to charge my battery backwards. hooked the battery, plugged in the charger, and EHHHHHHHHHH! battery charger goes nuts. I look at my battery hook up- negative lead on engine block....check......postive lead on.......shit. I hooked up the positve lead of the charger to the negative lead of my battery. Since the ecm is directly connected to that ground I fried it.

looking to hook my buddys ecm back up tonight, try it again to see what else I may have fried.

just in case... are alternators pretty universal? 80 or 90 amp is the only difference right?

[3toedshewie]

update

plugged my budies ecm back in and took a battery from another car that I know runs and works........and back to square one. damn. did a voltage drop test on the positive and negative leads with a mulitmeter- 0.00 voltage drop so grounds and battery terminals seem to be good. going to take a mulitmeter to the whole system today and start figuring what has power and what dont. wish me lucky fish. Please give me any advice you may have... OPEN TO ALL ADIVCE...PLZ!
oh... looks like rain today....well I might get wet.

[3toedshewie]

Update

bentley and haynes have no mention of how to test for a relay or ecm, does anyone know how and is willing to explain?

found an auxillary fuse in the ETM. its near splice 232. the location of splice 232 is not listed in the etm. does anyone know the location of this auxillary fuse?

[DaveSmed]

S232 location is shown in the ETM, page 8000-2.

The aux fusebox is that POS made out of the most brittle plastic known to man that at one time was clipped to the main fusebox. It has provisions for four ATO fuses, with terminals preinstalled in two positions.

Back to page 0670-2 though, you see the circuit in question runs into the shaded box, representing the fuse box, where it connects to C100. Check this next as it is the main feed for the car, and its relatively easy to get to compared to the hunt in the harness for a splice.

Pull out K3, K4, K7 and K8. In the center of these four relays, you will see an allen bolt. This is C100. It should have +12v at all times.

[3toedshewie]

Thanks Davesmed,

found the allen bolt and tested it, im getting 12v to c100. gonna keep looking.

I would think C100 would be some kind of connector, that is confusing.

so Im guessing the auxillary fuse is only a fuse box with no fuses in it? - wierd. I was thinking it would be the fusable link in one of the main lines that I was looking for which does not seem to exist on my vert.

gonna keep on keepin on.