quick question

[Mike]

Dare i say it, but i went on realoem, and i swear that the battery cable and ecu are sold as one? also, i thought that i read it was 50A fuse? Please correct me, because i would hate to be the one responsible for wrong e30 technical info.

[Mike]

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=1113&mospid=47309&btnr=61_0481&hg=61&fg=10

number 14, 50A

[E30_fiend]

Today I went and took a look behind the liner and found the inline fuse. It indeed is a 50A fuse. It is an old style fuse those so the reason i am thinking that jlevie replacs it with a 30a ATC type fuse is because the newer syle ATC fuse will resist at 30 amps like the old style did at 50 amps.

I hope that makes sense. Because it does in my head.






Taylor

[E30_fiend]

Ok well I replaced the inline fuse and gave it a few days to see if it fixed my problem. And it hasnt.

jlevie, any advice? I have run out of ideas here.








Taylor

[jlevie]

Okay you've eliminated the in-line fuse as a cause of whatever problems you have. Now it is time to move to other possibilities. There is nothing in this thread to tell me what problem you are trying to solve. I can be of more help if you'll tell me what is going wrong.

[E30_fiend]

Ok the problem I am having is an intermittent one. Sometimes when I am driving if I tap the brakes, flash the brights, turn on my turn signals(either way), or when I put on my aux fan to cool the motor down my entire car surges. It will flash all the lights in the dash and make the motor stutter as well as making my HIDs flicker rapidly.

any ideas?

I poste all of this in another thread but nothing came from it.


TIA





Taylor

[jlevie]

That sounds to me like a bad voltage regulator. The brightening of the lights is probably the clue. The only way that happens is if the system voltage abruptly changes. Which can happen when the load changes if the voltage regulator is bad. It should simple to diagnose if you have a voltmeter monitoring the system when one of these events occurs.

But catching the event may not be necessary. Make sure the battery is fully charged and check system voltage with the engine idling and at 2500rpm. You should see ~13.5v at idle and it should rise to ~14v at 2500rpm. If the system voltage is significantly above or below that the voltage regulator is bad. Or you can take the car to an auto parts house and have the alternator tested.

[E30_fiend]

Just the answer I was looking for. I have a local parts house that will get me an alternator for basically just a swap out of my old one. I know the owner really well. I have a Snap On voltage tester at my shop that I can slap on the car tomorrow morning. I know my battery is good because it is only a few months old so it should be good and charged.


Thanks jlevie






Taylor