E36 related. Need help, DME might be fried SOLVED

[mr.vang]

FOUND the problem. The ews got misaligned somehow when I short the DME. A new DME with ews deleted from Kassel performance solved the problem.

So my brother just bought a jack up e36 m3. The abs weren't connected, so I figured I just need to plug in the harness and be done with it, that's why I didn't bother to unplug the battery cables. After couple mins, I couldn't do it with the DME still inside. So, I pulled the DME out and plug in the abs harness. Right when I was about to put in the dme, it touched the power terminal. His + terminal cap was missing. I honestly forgot about that dam + terminal being there.


Now the car won't start. All fuses and main relay checked. I take the main relay and plug it into the headlight relay spot and the headlight is working fine. I tested the powersource of the main relay and fuel pump relay with a multimeter and it's giving out 11v. All electronic in the car and outside are working fine. So now I'm pretty stuck on what to do.

This is my first time playing with a multimeter with the help of some YouTube videos. So these might be wrong reading or not. Here are the ohms from the main relay and fuel pump relay.




11v from the main relay wire


I open the dme to see if anything was burnt. Nothing really other than this tiny spot shown with the flathead pointing to.










Also does all pins from the DME harness have to give out 12v when the car is on start position? I tested with the multimeter and half of the pins are showing 12v while the other half are just blank at 0. Now, I'm leaning toward buying a dme with ews delete from ebay. Any help would be great.

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[wodcutr]

First of all 11 volts is not going to allow a car to start. My experience is that the dme does weird things with anything less than 12.3 v. Arcing the case of the dme with the positive side of the battery is just like hooking up the battery cable in reverse as I believe the case is grounded with everything else that attaches to the body. To be absolutely sure that the dme is fried you should do specific pinout tests found in the bentley to verify what should have power and not just assume you killed it.

[blk4dr325i]

Did you check the fusible link?

[mr.vang]

First of all 11 volts is not going to allow a car to start. My experience is that the dme does weird things with anything less than 12.3 v. Arcing the case of the dme with the positive side of the battery is just like hooking up the battery cable in reverse as I believe the case is grounded with everything else that attaches to the body. To be absolutely sure that the dme is fried you should do specific pinout tests found in the bentley to verify what should have power and not just assume you killed it.

I know its under 12v but every electronic on the car is working. Horn, headlight, turn signal, sunroof, ects, except the engine doesn't start. It crank but doesn't catch. It sound like my 95 e34 when the ews2 malfunction and it wouldn't start. I tested the battery and it's holding 12v. So I'm not sure why the main and fuel pump relays isn't producing 12v.

I'll be going to my brother's house on Friday and replace all the fuses and relays with the one from my m3 and see if it'll start. If not then, I'll have to get a dme with ews deleted. I read online where another guy short his dme and it didn't fried his dme but misaligned the ews2 system. He had the ews2 realigned and his car was working again.

Did you check the fusible link?

I forgot to check that. Will the engine crank with a broken fusible link? Or will any electronic on the car be working at all?

[wodcutr]

A battery that is at 12v is at 10% capacity. Put a charger on that battery and get the voltage up to where it should be. If your ews is misaligned you won't be getting spark or fuel, I forget off the top of my head. Doing a dme pin out test would confirm that. I have dealt with ews issues and they can be a huge pita without the proper equipment to see if they are in alignment. You can figure it out by testing and eliminating all the possibilities but way easier to figure out with the right stuff. This is when everyone wishes they had that $5000 snap on tool!

[mr.vang]

A battery that is at 12v is at 10% capacity. Put a charger on that battery and get the voltage up to where it should be. If your ews is misaligned you won't be getting spark or fuel, I forget off the top of my head. Doing a dme pin out test would confirm that. I have dealt with ews issues and they can be a huge pita without the proper equipment to see if they are in alignment. You can figure it out by testing and eliminating all the possibilities but way easier to figure out with the right stuff. This is when everyone wishes they had that $5000 snap on tool!

The battery was at 12.6v with no load, if that makes it any better. As for the dme pinout test, shouldn't the fuel pump and coil have no power because the dme is not plug in, causing the ews to disable them? I went searching for an e36 obd2 m3 pinout diagram and found one. So, I should be testing pins 1, 2, 3, and 69? If they are getting power, it should be something in the 12v range right?

Here is the diagram. Help correct me if I'm heading in the wrong direction.







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[wodcutr]

12.6 v is good. If you are suspecting ews is the problem then you need to verify that pin 18 is getting the signal that the key is correct and the antenna ring is working. If that signal is not there then the dme will not allow either spark or fuel to operate to start the car. The next thing to verify would be if the dme is aligned. That is done by plugging the dme back in and verifying by pulling a spark plug to see if it is getting spark while cranking and testing the fuel pump at the power connection. If either of those fail then you know the dme is fried or out of alignment.

The pins you want to test in the dme harness are the power to the dme to verify that your main relay is working and sending power to the dme. If the dme is not getting power then it can't possibly work. If the dme has power with ignition on then it sends a signal to prime the fuel pump and also run the fuel pump continuously if engine is turning. You just have to verify why the car won't start by eliminating all suspected possible issues.

[mr.vang]

12.6 v is good. If you are suspecting ews is the problem then you need to verify that pin 18 is getting the signal that the key is correct and the antenna ring is working. If that signal is not there then the dme will not allow either spark or fuel to operate to start the car. The next thing to verify would be if the dme is aligned. That is done by plugging the dme back in and verifying by pulling a spark plug to see if it is getting spark while cranking and testing the fuel pump at the power connection. If either of those fail then you know the dme is fried or out of alignment.

The pins you want to test in the dme harness are the power to the dme to verify that your main relay is working and sending power to the dme. If the dme is not getting power then it can't possibly work. If the dme has power with ignition on then it sends a signal to prime the fuel pump and also run the fuel pump continuously if engine is turning. You just have to verify why the car won't start by eliminating all suspected possible issues.

Thanks for all your help. All this ews stuff is making more sense now. I'll test the spark plug and fuel pump on Friday.

[mr.vang]

I ordered a new DME with ews deleted from kassel performance and it work as described in the ads. It is a plug and play without any cutting or modifying of the EWS system. On first crank, it fired up. Now the car is running as it did before. For future reference, the DME with EWS deleted from Kassel performance cost me $198, which included a $98 core.