Any e30 electrical people near Bethlehem, PA? Will Pay!

[dreamchasin]

Alright so here's the deal, a friend of mine is building an e30 for me since I spend most of my time with the girlfriend, as well as I am tired of swapping my motor into different shells. In my sig you will see my e30, it has a 91 NVm50 in it and it was just swapped into a 91 325i he got from a guy on bimmerforums. I bought it from him and gave him some extra money to swap everything over to the new shell. Now he says everything is wired correctly and put together right. The car will not crank, won't even try, you turn the key and nothing happens. The windows & sunroof ALSO don't work. The windows didn't work and then worked for a minute, then stopped working altogether again. They have never worked since. This is keeping me out of an e30 for so long, and I am stuck driving my 88 toyota pickup that takes 3 hours to get to 40 MPH.

If you can come out, and figure out what is wrong with it, name your price (obviously don't be crazy) and I will see what I can do. If you want a very good condition black e28 M-tech 1 wing, I will gladly just give you that. In fact, if anyone on here tells me what the problem could be, and the problem is that, I will just give you the e28 MT1 wing and pay shipping.

I FORGOT TO ADD, it was an automatic shell, converted to manual

[TurboJake]

Gosh. What I would give to be visiting my brother in pottstown right now.
Not even to make money or get free parts. Just the experience.

The issues may be related, or unrelated. Hard to say without having you check to see if your getting power to them or not. In all reality, I highly doubt they're related to the engine issues.

Not even trying to start? Grab a DMM. All of this will take about 10 minutes.
Check the starter lead, make sure it's getting juice.
Then check the starter signal wire, see what happens.

If you have power to starter, but no signal. Try jump starting it with a 12v lead to the starter signal. See what all happens.
If successful, try doing it with the key in the on position.

[dreamchasin]

Gosh. What I would give to be visiting my brother in pottstown right now.
Not even to make money or get free parts. Just the experience.

The issues may be related, or unrelated. Hard to say without having you check to see if your getting power to them or not. In all reality, I highly doubt they're related to the engine issues.

Not even trying to start? Grab a DMM. All of this will take about 10 minutes.
Check the starter lead, make sure it's getting juice.
Then check the starter signal wire, see what happens.

If you have power to starter, but no signal. Try jump starting it with a 12v lead to the starter signal. See what all happens.
If successful, try doing it with the key in the on position.

If I remember right, I was there not too long ago and the starter IS getting power, and it's getting constant power. I don't remember, I am dumbfounded. What's a DMM? He was using a thing that tells you how many volts it's getting, the starter and every connection we tried was getting 12v. We haven't tried anything with the windows because that's the least of our worries.

[dreamchasin]

Copy and Paste from his post on Bimmerforums.

when you turn the key:

- the dash lights up
- wiper system works
- hazard button works but only on the right side. if you turn the signal stalk to left turn all 4 ways work. neither turn signal works either way when the hazard switch is off.
- all of the standard lights work, front markers/signals, taillights, all 3 brake lights, headlights, reverse lights

- windows DONT work
- sunroof DOESNT work
- power mirrors DONT work
- car doesnt even make an attempt to crank and no noises

checked:

- all relays under the hood are known working and installed properly(ive swapped them out with 3 different KNOWN GOOD sets and no change)
- all fuses under the hood are good, none blown
- chassis was an auto, i converted to manual
- harness adapter is known good.
- ignition switch is good
- all airbag equipment removed
- nothing inside the fuse box appears to be tampered with.
- no wires disconnected that i cant claim what they are( cruise control , airbag and door dinger all removed*)
-engine has good ground. 1 ground on the passenger mount arm going to the top of the strut tower. i made an additional ground connected to the block at 2 points and then connected to the frame rail.

the starter gets full 12.x volts on the posetive side. black/yellow wire recieves full 12.x volts as soon as you turn the key to any position, doesnt change when you turn the key to try and start the car. blk/ylw stays solid 12.x volts the whole time. (i took the reading right from the connector on the starter, not from at the ignition switch)

the only thing changed on the motor during the swap was a brand new crank sensor.

[bimmerboy08]

Have you checked to make sure the wiring to the park safety switch was disabled when you did the auto to manual swap? If not there are some threads floating around that give you a step by step. To me, that sounds like it is your problem.

[dreamchasin]

If those wires weren't working correctly, I don't think the reverse lights would work.

[artoo93]

If there is a direct connection for the reverse lights, they may still work. Mine did this when I first did the manual swap. I had a bad connection between the wires to bypass the neutral safety switch. I had the same problem with no start as you. I also had a bad reference sensor which caused all kinds of headaches. Also, if you know the original crank sensor was good, try switching back to it and see what happens. It may not have any effect but at least you can rule it out. You could have gotten a bad sensor even being new. Ask me how I know!!
Also could be a bad starter or starter ground. I thought my starter was bad when we put the engine back together and installed in the car. Took it out and swapped with a known good starter and didn't change anything. Put original starter back in and added a ground wire direct from starter to chassis and she cranked over wonderfully. Good luck!

[dreamchasin]

If there is a direct connection for the reverse lights, they may still work. Mine did this when I first did the manual swap. I had a bad connection between the wires to bypass the neutral safety switch. I had the same problem with no start as you. I also had a bad reference sensor which caused all kinds of headaches. Also, if you know the original crank sensor was good, try switching back to it and see what happens. It may not have any effect but at least you can rule it out. You could have gotten a bad sensor even being new. Ask me how I know!! Good luck!

I don't think the crank sensor has anything to do with not even bothering to try and crank, but thanks for the advice, I will tell him to check it over.

[AbsorbantNut]

I wonder if it could be your inline fuse in the positive battery cable....that caused a no start problem on mine, but I wasnt getting power to the coil or a lot of stuff you didnt mention

[bimmerboy08]

If those wires weren't working correctly, I don't think the reverse lights would work.

They would.

[yert315]

Have you Checked the starter itself?

[dreamchasin]

Everything was working, I drove the black e30 with the m50 over. So I don't see how the starter could be the culprit.

[yert315]

check it anyway. Jumper the starter and see if it cranks over. If it doesn't, you may have your problem..

[Vtec?lol]

When checking the starter voltage always use the engine for ground, not the chassis.

There is a little black wire connection in the factory harness, make sure it's unplugged. it should be right under the windshield

as for the windows, check the breaker switch of course or swap it with a known good one. If still no worky then follow the wires and make sure there's no fault.

I would look at the fuse box connection under the dash/steering wheel where all the wires interface. make sure it's solid and push around the wires and see what you get.

[TurboJake]

check it anyway. Jumper the starter and see if it cranks over. If it doesn't, you may have your problem..

I said this in the first reply....