Hello everyone, this is my first technical-issue post on r3vlimited.
I bought a 1991 318i about a month ago with clear understanding that it will need new struts, new clutch, and either diff rebuild or a new diff.
I brought the car to my friend who is good with cars (former Mercededs master technician), he agreed to work on it since I don't have a garage and tools yet.
On the first night of working on the car he put the front wheels on the ramps and the rear on jack stands and unbolted some bolts on the tranny. At the end of the night he wanted to turn on the car to lower the window but the car didn't react to the ignition switch turn, thus it wouldn't turn on "Accessory" and thus no power in windows. With or without the key in the ignition, it will turn on the rear lights, front turn signals, and light on the dash cluster if you turn on low beams. The light inside the car turns on if you open the door. That's about it. No power to the windows, horn, or anything else.
He thought first that maybe he accidentally drained the battery, but that isn't the case since we charged the battery and the issue persists. We ruled it off as a lost ground connection because of one of the unbolted bolts in the tranny area, and continued working on the car.
3 weeks later, today, we put the tranny and new diff in and wanted to test drive it, but same story - the car doesn't react to the key turn. The only thing it does is unlock the steering wheel - pretty sure a mechanical feature.
So, right now we're clueless. I downloaded the electrical troubleshooting guide and will be trying to figure out the wiring diagrams, but I thought maybe someone else had this issue before, or maybe someone has any advice on how to figure it out?
I have a DMM and can check voltage/coninuity, but right now don't know where to start. We checked all the fuses in the fusebox - they look fine.
I bought a 1991 318i about a month ago with clear understanding that it will need new struts, new clutch, and either diff rebuild or a new diff.
I brought the car to my friend who is good with cars (former Mercededs master technician), he agreed to work on it since I don't have a garage and tools yet.
On the first night of working on the car he put the front wheels on the ramps and the rear on jack stands and unbolted some bolts on the tranny. At the end of the night he wanted to turn on the car to lower the window but the car didn't react to the ignition switch turn, thus it wouldn't turn on "Accessory" and thus no power in windows. With or without the key in the ignition, it will turn on the rear lights, front turn signals, and light on the dash cluster if you turn on low beams. The light inside the car turns on if you open the door. That's about it. No power to the windows, horn, or anything else.
He thought first that maybe he accidentally drained the battery, but that isn't the case since we charged the battery and the issue persists. We ruled it off as a lost ground connection because of one of the unbolted bolts in the tranny area, and continued working on the car.
3 weeks later, today, we put the tranny and new diff in and wanted to test drive it, but same story - the car doesn't react to the key turn. The only thing it does is unlock the steering wheel - pretty sure a mechanical feature.
So, right now we're clueless. I downloaded the electrical troubleshooting guide and will be trying to figure out the wiring diagrams, but I thought maybe someone else had this issue before, or maybe someone has any advice on how to figure it out?
I have a DMM and can check voltage/coninuity, but right now don't know where to start. We checked all the fuses in the fusebox - they look fine.
Comment