Electrical Issue - Please Help!!! Idiot Lights gone mad!!!

[momatt82]

Driving home tonite and all of a sudden my battery light, Antilock brake, Check Brake Fluid, And Brake light all turned on. They stay on most of the time however when i stop and go they sometimes dim or go off for a few seconds. Some stay on, some turn off, but mostly they all stay on. I do have a front driver side caliper issue but this seems more like an electrical issue thus the battery light.

I have a 1991 318is.

Any ideas????
Im pretty new to Bimmers so any suggestions will help.

Thanks,

M.....

[Jordan]

Sounds like a alternator or SI board problem.

Your ACS chip isn't made by ACS. Its some eBay junk chip.

[momatt82]

its not a purchased chip. Its a reprogrammed stock chip set to AC standards. A guy in this are does it for everyone. He is very good.

[momatt82]

Sounds like a alternator or SI board problem.

SI board???

[Julien]

Re: Electrical Issue - Please Help!!! Idiot Lights gone mad!

Driving home tonite and all of a sudden my battery light, Antilock brake, Check Brake Fluid, And Brake light all turned on. They stay on most of the time however when i stop and go they sometimes dim or go off for a few seconds. Some stay on, some turn off, but mostly they all stay on. I do have a front driver side caliper issue but this seems more like an electrical issue thus the battery light.

I have a 1991 318is.

Any ideas????
Im pretty new to Bimmers so any suggestions will help.

Thanks,

M.....

check your battery/charging.. mine did that once when one of the battery terminals got loose.


good luck
Julien

[momatt82]

today they went off for a while and now are just on super super dim agian? Checked all battery connections = Good.


Could it be something wrong with the instrument panel?

[Tangent]

Check your alternator belt, if it's slipping it might not turn the the alternator fast enough to produce a good charge.

[erik325i]

It's probably the alternator and/or your battery

[Jand3rson]

It's probably the alternator and/or your battery

It's not his alternator/and or his battery, it's 99% the SI board.

momatt82, SI stands for Service Indicator. This is the small cicuit board in your cluster than controls the idot lights, service lights, and several other fucnctions in the cluster. Pull your cluster, check all the connections in it and on the board, and check the batteries on the board. It could be something as simple as the batteries going bad.

[AdamF 88iS]

These are not symptoms typical of SI board failure. It sounds like the alternator isn't putting out enough juice to keep the lights out. If you're sure the belt is tight and connections are good, test the voltage output of the alternator itself.

[erik325i]

It's probably the alternator and/or your battery

It's not his alternator/and or his battery, it's 99% the SI board.

I still think it is the alternator. Just recently both my alternator and battery died, and before I repolaced them, most of the warning lights were on (battery, brake lining, brake fluid, parking brake). After I changed the alternator and batt, the problem was gone.

Can you take the car on long drives? My car would die after a while, because the alternator wasn't charging the battery.