hotwire

Yeah but I remember hooning up the Austrian Alps in the snow in my front-wheel drive light-weight Fiat Tipo passing all the BMWs and Mercedes who had to stop to fit chains :-)

It was a fun little car, but you could never pull it apart and put it together again without breaking something....

Agreed on both counts - they are pricks to work on, the French stuff a close second I reacon

Hey guys,

I have an e30 323i, now the dash lights dont seem to be working....like the speedo, tacho, fuel gauge etc. Now i did ask some bimmersport member on trademe about it and he said it is most likely the S.I batteries, unfortunately i lost his number and was unable to contact him.

Anyways just am wanting to know if anyone here with knowledge about this is able to help me! I will pay for their courteous work. Also i have noticed that the fuel gauge isnt always accurate. whats up with that?

So yeh, as you can see i dont have much knowledge about this and do seek some advice and help from anyone...

thanks

Are you talking dash illumination (orange) If so this has nothing to do with SI batteries.

If heater controls & clock display are still lighting up then probably blown bulbs in the dash. If none working then possibly the dimmer control

As for temp gauge, my e30 used to run at that, then we did the cambelt etc and the gauge went from a third to half way.

I have no idea why, but it was deffinately that incident.

Are you sure you have the cam belt timed correctly??

hmm,

stuff

Perhaps i will come across a later type complete 2.5 engine at some stage

whats it like on the electronics side of things running a 2.5 in a 320 body/injection gear.

I know there is at least one member on here with that setup but ive forgotten the user ID

Different ECU, AFM, injectors, throttle body sizing, at least

Sold a good M20B2.5 recently at $700

Sounds like it could be low fuel pressure. I had a Fiat Tipo once with a fuel pump so clogged that it couldn't deliver sufficient fuel pressure to feed the engine under load. I used to get to 90kmph OK on the motorway and then struggle to go any faster because It couldn't feed the engine fast enough.

Doing a pressure check with a pressure gauge told me immediately what the problem was - way too low fuel pressure.

so get your fuel pressure checked.

Jochen, What on earth did you want to own a Fiat Tipo for?? That leading to an E39 540i - hardly a comparison.

Agreed though, get your fuel pressure/flow checked. Be aware that sometimes there can be good pressure but with poor flow rate (filter or pump/s) I have had both these senarios causing low flow & the problem discribed in the thread

Does anybody know will the 6"x9" speaker fit on 99 E46?

Because I bought a pair of speaker from Noel leeming today, but my installer says it doesn't fit on my car, the size is too big. I can't do refund or swap, because i bought these speakers as part of the package, i've already installed the headunit.

But someone told me that it can be fitted if i could find a speaker adapter for my E46.

I don't have much knowledge on car electronics

so I just wondering that does anyone konw about this?

thanks for any help.

You can mount them in pods but with inferior performance. You cannot cut any structural part of the car to fit them (you will fail a WOF & require a structual report being done to verify whether satisfactory or not). Not worth the cost or risk orf having to have reversed.

Best bet is a quality speaker to fit the hole.

Ok. I will have a look into all of that. Yea i know what you mean about driving with the head lights off.

Thank you all.

From your ride (1990 320) it will have projection lamps for low beam. When you say you have cleaned the glass - do you mean inside or outside?

These lamps are notorius for a smokey discolouration build up on the inside of the glass & on the projector lens itself which causes at marked deterioration of light output.

They can look ok but but once cleaned - makes a big improvement.

To clean:

Remove the lamp & dismantle from the back to gain access. Use clean cloth to clean both projector lens & inside of glass.

If properly clean & with good reflector these lamps work well.

Also headlight alighnment is critical.

If not H7 then possibly HB3 & HB4

Any automotive upolsterer should be able to do that easily enough.

Havent done a 6 button changeover from anologue but it wont be plug & play. Even change from anologue to standard digital needs one wiring mod - the digital has an acc supply in the wiring plug position that the anologue has illumination, an easy mod to do though.

What's a good (ie, not too expensive) source for a spare key for an E46?

We've got one remote key and one "valet" key, but given the latter is plastic I don't like using it. It would be nice to have another remote key; is BMW the only source?

Your only option is genuine BMW. The keys are all microchipped & vehicle specific (even the plastic valet one) to communicate with vehicle electronics to overide immoblisation.

You cannot use any other key to start the car.

You need to contact BMW parts & quote the chassis code (last 7 digits) of you car & they will source a replacement key directly out of Germany, only catch - about $300

Hi, alternators always have a slight drain on your battery,thats why you disconnect the leads if you are not using the car for a long period.

Not correct. A "correct" fitment alternator does NOT draw current at rest (assumming no fault in it) they can do with a fault or if an incorrect unit is fitted for a specfic wiring set-up - Depending on whether a vehicle is wired for ign or battery sense.

A fault in an alternator to create draw at rest (short in a diode or stator) would usually draw more than this - about 1.5 amps or so & will quite quickly flatten a battery while at rest.

Without an alarm fitted, a vehicle will draw up to about .06 milli amps at rest -max (usually less) this being the the memory for electronics/clock/radio etc.

With an alarm this can vary but sometimes up to .25 amp (usually less) which will accelerate discharge over time.

As already said - with ammeter in line -remove each battery fuse at a time to confirm which circuit the draw is in.

Glovebox light is the only bulb likely to cause this as the rest will all draw more current.

Any pics?

Pics as requested

Is this the service tool?

TradeMe

Yep - does both plugs but not later OBD2 (2000 >)

Any pics?

Dark now -will take some pics tomorrow & post

Cheers Grant

You say you thought oil was leaking from it - have you checked the level? Should be up to plug level in the back.

If not then top up. If it has been running low or without then damage may already be done

Din 55 is the correct fitment battery for these cars. They are rated around the 450 -500 CCA depending on brand.

Being a Euro spec battery they are more expensive than the common fitment types but they fit & secure as original.

Standard type can be used but dont always have the ledge around the bottom of the case for the retaining bracket - a must for WOF purposes.

so i need to replace my starter motor on my M20 and the replacement unit i got is the small unit and the one i'm replacing is the big unit.

the problem is that they have a different pinion size so i am swapping the pinions over, all was going fine until i got both pinion assemblies out only to realize that they are slightly different (the assemblies) and swapping them over probably won't work, unless there is a way of removing just the pinions....

has anyone done this before ... can offer me some advice ?

Ollie

Early (big) & later (small) m20 starters both interchange freely without any mods at all. The set-up is the same for both. I have done this before both ways. Cant say I can remember pinion size relationship between them but they are totally different style starters (later is planitary gear redution type) which if pinion is different size - this will be compensated by its offset in relation to the front bracket mounting.

As long as both are for an M20 then is a straight forward swap, the later doesnt use the third mounting into the side of the block though.

Finally no - pinions cant be interchanged

Cheers Grant

Had mine off for repair when I first got the car, cant remember exactly how I did it now but I also had the seat out at the same time so probably did that before removing panel itself. Knobs need pulling off for a start though. I dont remember it being an issue to remove the part. If there are no obvious securing points with seat in situ then probably requires removing first.

i concur.

skinny 18s on e39 is not quite enough... heck i look at my M5 rep. 18s and long for slightly increased diameter... Really nice wheels for e36 tho.

My Silver E39 has same alloys - 18" BBS shadow chrome & the car looks staunch!

fuel injection computer is playing silly buggers. scoped the inj banks and they stop firing randomly. had to drill out rivets to get inside the thing, pressing gently on PCB will make it misfire (no inj pulse), the foam inside the case has bent the PCB i think thats the problem, but dry solder joints dont help I hope not all BMW's computer are this bad.

anyone had to fix one of these before? mostly discrete components just hoping someone had been here before, or should i just throw it away?

I could put my Megasquirt II on it. anyone installed a MS on an old BMW here? was there much trickiness involved?

I have a 323i ECU if you require

PM or 027 6146607

Cheers Grant

Can do one, from a 90 325i, all works - but I just need to replace the display illumination bulbs first. Will do this over the next few days

PM me or 027 6146607

Cheers Grant

TV cutout is either speed related, park brake related, or both. Or can be on all the time.

Try as Huttey says or as said already -contact Jochen - he has a programme on laptop to "talk" to the car through the IBus control & programme the system for TV in motion.

Dont let the boys in blue or WOF guys see that though!

hey guys, i just want to know if 100w light bulb would be ok in my 1990 e34??

Not really recommended, you can get Hella Cool blue or Ultra which are still 55w & are 30 -50% brighter than standard halogen & dont create excessive load upset the diagnostics

I reckon they look real good, not too sure on the e39? would suit a more squarer shaped bmw i reckon.

I agree, nice wheels but probably more E36 look rather than 39 IMO