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    Electrical Gremlins?

    Recently my E30's headlights have begun to turn themselves on from time to time. It seems to happen completely randomly, and when it does the "rear light" and "license plate light" lights illuminate on my check panel. When they're on randomly, the headlights, parking lights, sidemarkers, and passenger tail light come on. When I pull the headlight switch out once there's no change, and when I pull it out all the way the headlights get a little brighter, my fogs come on, and the driver's tail comes on. I also recently left my lights on, and when I came out the radio was still on as well. When I switched off the lights, the radio turned off. Not sure if that's related.

    The only thing I've done to this car electrically was to dig out the stock foglight wiring and wire in my ghetto Wal-Mart fogs. However, I didn't have this problem when I first wired them up, so I doubt that's the issue. I also removed this random wire that was connected to an OEM plug and ended with bare, live wires. I have a pic of this piece if necessary, but I can't imagine how removing that would cause an issue because it wasn't plugged in to anything before. Another thing to note is that my alternator is rigged in a pretty ghetto-tastic way: the bold / stud / whatever that held the alternator bracket to the front of the engine got torn off somehow. I've got a wooden wedge between the engine and the alternator to keep the belt tight, and I hammer in the wedge every time I go to start the car. My battery still occasionally drains however, so I've had to jump start the car many times. I usually jump directly to the battery in the trunk, and I occasionally have to connect a battery charger to help keep the charge up.

    Any ideas? I know I saw a similar thread recently, but I don't think a solution was found and I can't seem to find it now.

    #2
    I was going to say "clean your grounds and all contacts" but the more I read your post I'm sure the cause is all the monkey wiring. However, it wouldn't hurt to get some CRC QD Contact Cleaner and hit EVERY connection and ground you can find.

    Good luck! Electrical gremlins are the worst. I've been chasing the elusive "brake lights" warning light.
    SOLD '90 325is SOLD

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      #3
      Originally posted by jhowell View Post
      Good luck! Electrical gremlins are the worst. I've been chasing the elusive "brake lights" warning light.
      At least that one is an easy fix...you need to clean the contacts on the diode pack, near the antenna.

      Do the tail light housings, too.

      Closing SOON!
      "LAST CHANCE FOR G.A.S." DEAL IS ON NOW

      Luke AT germanaudiospecialties DOT com or text 425-761-6450, or for quickest answers, call me at the shop 360-669-0398

      Thanks for 10 years of fun!

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        #4
        Originally posted by StereoInstaller1 View Post
        At least that one is an easy fix...you need to clean the contacts on the diode pack, near the antenna.

        Do the tail light housings, too.
        Did the tail light housings, brake switch, harness connections - pretty much everything but the diode pack / relay / whatever's by the antenna. I'll try that, thanks!
        SOLD '90 325is SOLD

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          #5
          Originally posted by StereoInstaller1 View Post
          At least that one is an easy fix...you need to clean the contacts on the diode pack, near the antenna.

          Do the tail light housings, too.
          Update - I finally got it - I tweaked the brake switch bracket, and changed every fuse in the active check control circuit. Brake light warning hasn't come on since!
          SOLD '90 325is SOLD

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