Need Your Help! Interior Lights

[archie]

Problem with the interior lighting...

After just putting in an after market stereo now the interior lights only function properly when the key is Aux(on) mode.
Key out or in off position the lights stay on in both settings. somewhere a wire must be crossed and tapped into the wrong wire.

When my buddy and I installed the radio we found a short above up in the knee bolster area in the harness with the red/green power wire. We had to by pass the red/green power wire from the clip plug it went into. The short was in the plug connection just outside where the harness comes from the firewall. It's got me thinking either the problem is there or with a wire behind the radio possibly?
Anyone in the OC(Ca) area that can come by and take a look in the next couple of days?

[Skunkworks]

Shant, Did you use this diagram? http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=191119

The same thing happened to a friend, he had something off.

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Shant, Did you use this diagram? http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=191119

The same thing happened to a friend, he had something off.

Yes, stereo is working fine just tapped the interior light wrong some where or maybe we didn't?
Got my,stereo buddy coming over tomorrow, said he wants to take another look at it.

[archie]

Ok, the interior lights just decided to work on their own over night, car is haunted.
So weird!

Two other problems,

E brake light in cluster not on.(bulb is good,just checked)
E brake wire (little blue wire in boot) has no power when I test it with the test lamp.

Door chime, both plugs that go into it light up with the test lamp but dontchime the door chime box when plugged in.

Any ideas?

[archie]

Ok, Interior lights are now NOT working properly. They stay on when the doors get closed.
This morning they work as they should.

Anyone want to chime in? Switch,relay? what do you think?

[archie]

Ok, just as I expected but the problem is not fixed just yet.
Here's whats up...

Yesterday morning before I did anything to my car I checked my interior lights.
I opened the doors and the lights go on, I closed the doors and the lights go off. In the morning they worked great!

During the day as I worked on the car I ran a battery charger to the battery because ya know on/off with the ignition all day fixing things the battery starts to get weak.
At the end of the day I check the interior lights again and they were not working properly like they did in the morning. The lights just stayed on when the door was closed.

So last night I wondered if this morning when the car was cold it would work properly again and this morning I checked it and it did! They again worked perfectly.
So I'm thinking as the interior delay module is cold(morning) it works properly but as the car warms up through out the day, the interior light delay malfunctions.

Does this sound like I may be right and have a bad interior light delay module in the lower kick panel?

[jdt10768]

I am seeing something similar after installing a bluetooth phone/audio adapter the other day, except - only my driver's side interior light stayed on (in all 3 positions). The pass side interior light turns off. I wound up taking the bulb out just to save the drain on the battery. Any ideas on this issue?

1991 318is

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problem solved

[xtos]

I am seeing something similar after installing a bluetooth phone/audio adapter the other day, except - only my driver's side interior light stayed on (in all 3 positions). The pass side interior light turns off. I wound up taking the bulb out just to save the drain on the battery. Any ideas on this issue?

1991 318is

Put your lamp back in and look at...
3 wires go to int light. A permanent + , a permanent - and a switched - from the door switch. If it's on on all 3 positions while you move the plastic regulator something is broken in there...? This has absolutely nothing to do with anything else except your dome light unit.

Archie...it's not a matter of expertise ,it's a matter of wild guesses now, but you really have to isolate the cause. Did you install only a head unit or speakers too? Did you open the door panel? Do you have an interior light delay relay installed (ie..the George Graves one)? Where did the green/red wire go to? What do you mean you found a short? Short/circuited = burned wire?
Ebrake wire should not have positive current when you use a test lamp. If you connect that wire to ground, then dash light should light up.
Maybe you got to go backwards.... start from the dome light. Take it out. Take test lamp. Check the positive current wire. Is it only ON at the acc position only? Check the color of the wire, take left speaker out , trace the wire and see where it's connected...to the relay socket? Start from there...

[archie]

Put your lamp back in and look at...
3 wires go to int light. A permanent + , a permanent - and a switched - from the door switch. If it's on on all 3 positions while you move the plastic regulator something is broken in there...? This has absolutely nothing to do with anything else except your dome light unit.

Archie...it's not a matter of expertise ,it's a matter of wild guesses now, but you really have to isolate the cause. Did you install only a head unit or speakers too? Did you open the door panel? Do you have an interior light delay relay installed (ie..the George Graves one)? Where did the green/red wire go to? What do you mean you found a short? Short/circuited = burned wire?
Ebrake wire should not have positive current when you use a test lamp. If you connect that wire to ground, then dash light should light up.
Maybe you got to go backwards.... start from the dome light. Take it out. Take test lamp. Check the positive current wire. Is it only ON at the acc position only? Check the color of the wire, take left speaker out , trace the wire and see where it's connected...to the relay socket? Start from there...

All is good now. E brake bulb was actually bad in the cluster even though it appeared good.Dont trudt them people!
Door chime works now because I didnt have the drivers seat belt receptacle plug plugged in.
So I am good in the hood here,thanks.

[xtos]

All is good now. E brake bulb was actually bad in the cluster even though it appeared good.Dont trudt them people!
Door chime works now because I didnt have the drivers seat belt receptacle plug plugged in.
So I am good in the hood here,thanks.

And the lights issue? Fixed?
Tell me something please. How does the door chime thingy work?
Here in Europe I haven't heard an E30 with an open door ever chime. Although I can see the gong takes another connector in it which is always blank...wondering how that works.

[archie]

And the lights issue? Fixed?
Tell me something please. How does the door chime thingy work?
Here in Europe I haven't heard an E30 with an open door ever chime. Although I can see the gong takes another connector in it which is always blank...wondering how that works.

Lights are 99% fixed I think. I won't know til I get the car on the road driving. They work great when the cars cold then as the battery stays on it was not working properly. But I may have fixed them but won't know til I drive it. Got to wait and see, done with them for now.

Door chimes people here in the US usually hate. Me, I dig them! It's such a BMW signature sound. I guess I'm used to hearing it since 1984 when my brother got his first 318 BMW.
There are two plugs up in the knee bolster area where the door chime is located.
Door opens and it is triggered. Also chimes when the key is put into the ignition in the aux mode.

What I want to do is take apart a small door chime and have it converted to a cool song somehow. My neighbor is a tech for Hitachi Data Systems and he says he thinks he can do this. How funny would that be to have your doors open and close to your favorite song. :D

[xtos]

How funny would that be to have your doors open and close to your favorite song. :D

Haha lol it be awesome. Maybe a sweet female voice saying "turn the lights down honey and close the doors :D"
Ima try to make the chime work on my car. The chime/gong has a free connection gonna try to read the schematic what goes there. Thanks

[archie]

Haha lol it be awesome. Maybe a sweet female voice saying "turn the lights down honey and close the doors :D"

Hilarious!

[jdt10768]

Put your lamp back in and look at...
3 wires go to int light. A permanent + , a permanent - and a switched - from the door switch. If it's on on all 3 positions while you move the plastic regulator something is broken in there...? This has absolutely nothing to do with anything else except your dome light unit.

Thanks XTOS, I will test it out. As I remember - the light stays ON in all 3 positions, so maybe I have a broken driver's side dome light fixture?