NVADER

Sorry; at what point did I ask for comments regarding the legality of this? And at what point did I claim to be an authority on srs systems? Maybe I'm building an ornament for my great aunt's brother's uncle's back yard that doesn't need to be legal?

What I do know, is that these bypass units are commonly used and emulate an occupancy sensor-less system which is just as effective as replacing the mat sensor. There's nothing vague about it. The occupancy sensors (when working) detect anything over 18kg. The bypass removes the on/off functionality in favor of an always-on set up. It doesn't allow the system to be made inoperable, nor does it affect the the performance of the airbags, therefore any wof inspector with half a grain of common sense should have no issue with it at all; and as I've said before, if they do have an issue, ill pull both the bags out and add it to the cert.

I've stated my purpose and goals. If you're committed to having a cry about airbags you're more than welcome to start your own thread. There are that many articles/videos about bypassing mat sensors that it's actually hard to find information about replacing the unit. If it was your car, you could replace the sensor. I'm not going to - end of story. It will cost me less to pull out two airbags than it will to replace a mat sensor.

Tires should arrive next week so will post pics then

just as a side note, airbags dont always just go off. many read the weight of the ocupant and for lighter people blow with a smaller charge than if a big person is in there.

fixing the seat doesnt cost much, just do it

"I'm not sure why people keep bringing this up to be honest. This is a project car and an old one at that. It will get a warrant with a mat sensor bypass; or it won't. If the wof inspector does pick up on the 2cm long piece of plastic under the seat and is worried about it, I'll pull all the airbags out and get them to note it on the cert tag - which is completely legal. I'm actually not at all phased either way because I'm intending to swap the dash out."

People - this is a project thread, not a thread about the merits of repairing an 18 year old airbag sensor. If you disagree with what I'm doing, read a different thread It's a commonly performed mod that is ridiculously simple and just as reliable as replacing the mat sensor with an aftermarket item.

Exactly, it is illegal & no professional person should be quoting this repair - full stop!

The theory is as you say BUT - there is no guarantee it is going to work as intended. Frankly its a pity the WOF inspector cannot identify this mod.

Firstly, nobody has quoted the job. I can understand completely that no auto sparky would carry out the job during business hours. That's not the point. It's a fairly common procedure as the mat sensor's are not really necessary and ridiculously expensive to replace. I don't see how bypassing an 18 year old sensor from an 18 year old airbag system is going to make it any less reliable. It's not a theory. This does not affect the performance of the airbags at all, and if the system is not operational, it will throw an SRS fault. There's no guarantee that 18 year old airbags will deploy as intended anyway.

I'm not sure why people keep bringing this up to be honest. This is a project car and an old one at that. It will get a warrant with a mat sensor bypass; or it won't. If the wof inspector does pick up on the 2cm long piece of plastic under the seat and is worried about it, I'll pull all the airbags out and get them to note it on the cert tag - which is completely legal. I'm actually not at all phased either way because I'm intending to swap the dash out.

A 10c diode, and two 10c resistors. - It's also Illegal to do this. I would have not as a professional ever tell anyone to do this.

Interesting...I haven't actually done this yet because the airbag light has stopped coming on now but I can't see why it would be an issue? The whole system is still operational and as long as it's done cleanly, no wof inspector is going to notice it, much less make a fuss over it. I'll be getting an LVVC at some point for the wheels and lowering springs anyway so can get it added to the plate then but I don't see it causing any problems in the meantime.

Problem solved...I think.

To get a consistent and reliable reading off the wheel speed sensor's, I had to hook the multimeter up in parallel with the ACS/DSC control unit, with the car on, and the meter set to 2V. Then spinning the wheel by hand gave me a reading between .4 and 1.5V on all sensors except the front right. (Putting this info on here because it's bloody hard to find).

Anyway, new sensor is definitely faulty or for a different model as it throws crazy readings back at me. So after all that, I just have to get hold of another sensor and the problem will probably be solved.

delete it yourself there is an option to delete at the bottom

Pretty sure that's only for comments...Doesn't appear on first post.

Saw an White E36 coupe with a RD kit in Ponsonby today, had a bimmersport sticker.

On the rear windows? That'll be my old girl. Still have black E46 wheels on it?

Net dropped out and posted twice. Please delete this one mods

After a .pdf workshop/repair manual for the 95-2001 E38 if anyone has one, or alternatively a paper copy if anyone wants to sell for a reasonable price.

Cheers

Hey guys cheers for the input - pretty sure the system self checks on start up as the lights only turn on after the car starts moving.

Couple of strange developments today. Firstly, tested the wiring from the Control unit to the sensor for continuity and it's fine. Checked the terminals on the control unit; fine again. Hooked the sensor up and tested for a signal at the control unit...nothing. Tested the new sensor again at 50ohms and weirdly can't get a resistance reading off it at all now. Stripped the corroded wires off the old sensor and tested that - perfect reading straight away. Decided to solder some new wire onto the old sensor since according to the multimeter, it's the only working sensor I have, and the ABS light turned on 10m down the road as usual.

So now I'm faced with a few new problems. Was really hoping this would be a quick fix...New sensor seems to be faulty as wiring is fine and problem persists. Old sensor works but wiring is so shot that it's barely usable for testing however, problem persists still. Over the next few days I'm going to take each sensor out and test individually even though fault codes only showed front right as faulty and hopefully find a culprit. In the meantime the new sensor is going back where it came from. Joy.


Also, new rims have arrived so will be ordering tires next week hopefully.

Spent another couple of hours scrubbing the leather as well. You can clearly see what's been cleaned and what hasn't now and after a condition it feels a lot less like sitting on a chain smokers roof.

Lastly, pro tip for anyone with an older cd stacker. This: http://www.burn4free.com/how-to-make-audio-cd-from-mp3.htm will burn CDR's in the old .cda method which is compatible with pre-98ish cd players. Finding that's made doing the aux cable upgrade a lot less urgent

Replaced RF wheel sensor today. Wiring on it was absolutely shot. The actual process of replacement is fairly self explanatory once you have the wheel off so not really worth posting pictures of. Anyone that's attempting it should note that a good dose of CRC and a few taps on the bolt with a hammer is essential to avoid the bolt breaking off in the hole

Anyway, problem persists. The ABS light is still on however the new sensor is definitely working. Tested all four wheels and the problem is definitely right front so currently removing the ASC/ABS control module so that I can test the wiring between it and the sensor as I'm fairly sure that's what's at fault. (This is a separate unit on pre '98 car's and is located on the driver's side under the steering wheel. Took me the best part of 3 hours to find as google only returns results for the newer cars which have the controller integrated into the pump under the bonnet.)


To be continued in the morning............

Welcome! Think I might have seen this recently...There's been a couple of nice E39's show up over these ways lately

Awesome ride mate!

Does he do one for the 750???

Ordered a set of these in staggered fitment today. 20x8.5's in the front and 20x10's in the back. Not the exact ones I wanted but they'll do the trick until I can find some Alpina Softlines.

Love the 750iL's, wanted one myself for ages but i just have no need for the masses of space it has! Yours is a nice colour, and the facelift is a good choice. Any pictures of the interior?

I have this strange thing for the noise of the starter on V12 BMWs too.... they sound awesome.

Same here! Went for a ride in one when I was 16 and wanted one ever since. I'll put up pics of the interior when I get stuck into cleaning it over the Christmas break.

my 750il is lowered already and has edc and self levelling

Is this your parts car Brent? I'm not sure whether mine has SLS...I've read that it was standard on all 750's but don't know how to tell. Is yours just lowered using springs or are they aftermarket shocks as well?

As far as lowering with edc I called a couple of places and did a lot of looking into it for my 540 places I called and research said no

I've got a mate looking into it for me in the states. He's told me his local suspension shop do H&R, Eibach and Tein lowering springs that are compatible with EDC and are a 2" drop in the front and .5" in the rear. I need to read into it some more but that will be further down the track anyway. Haven't been able to find anyone local who even wants to touch it let alone look into options haha

The SRS bypass thingy.................

Nup. That's from Deutsche Parts USA and came recommended by my auto sparky. Happy to be corrected if anyone knows better but from what I was told, all those seat sensors do is tell the passenger airbag whether to deploy or not after sufficient impact. The bypass just removes the sensor from the equation and keeps them active all the time. Like I said, if I have a decent enough accident, the more bags the better

I thought you might be referring to the V12 badge which I'm assuming is fake but least of my worries.

Nice.

Have a look on youtube re: cleaning leather. There's a yank chap based in Japan who posted a vid cleaning lexus leather seats with some impressive results. I've also had good results with Lux soap flakes, and patience.

Sweet will do, thanks. I've had a go at the front seats using Mothers Leather Cleaner, a soft toothbrush, and a whole lot of elbow grease. They look 100% better after removing most of 17 years worth of grime but there's a lot of cracks, scuffs, etc especially on the drivers side that I'd like to do something about.

Lols - you've been buying stuff off Trademe.........................car should bling up ok ae..........

Actually, I got this through a swap and this is exactly how I got it. Photos were taken on the drive home. If anything, shiny 'bling' bits will be removed. What's from trademe....?

Finally managed to get my hands on one of these after the need arose for rear doors and more boot space than my 325 offered

It's a '96 750iL facelift in Calypsorot Metallic. Wasn't convinced on the colour until I saw it up close. Actually looks damn good but phone camera's don't seem to like it much.

Has a few things that need to be done urgently:
- Front right ABS sensor needs replacing
- Passenger SRS sensor playing up

ABS sensor is coming ex-USA and should arrive this week and I've also got a little plug and play bypass unit for the SRS sensor. I'd like to just replace the sensor but to be honest, if it's crashed, the passenger side airbag going off regardless of whether there's a passenger there will be the least of my worries. I'll post pictures for both of these as I do them.

Less urgent but next on the list:
- Cruise control doesn't seem to work. Lights come on but nothing happens. Need to do a bit of reading on this before I rip into it but hope to give it a crack over Christmas.
- Tints all round
- Leather needs a serious clean and condition.

- Roof lining, sunroof, and pillars need to be retrimmed.

- Rear parcel tray subwoofers needs to be replaced.
- Clear coat on the bonnet is badly oxidised and someone has done a pretty poor job of trying to cut and polish so this needs to be sorted.

- I'd like to lower it slightly but retain the S EDC functionality. More research required on this.
- Fit 20x10's on the rear and 20 x 9's on the front.

From whar i understand the dsp does some pretty tricky stuff, time delays, road noise compensation etc, if it is all tuned using speaker with specification x, and you change them to speakers with specification y, it may turn to custard.

I doubt that you will damage anything but the sound results might not be ideal!!

If you are serious about good sound your best bet would be to bin the whole system and replace it with something newer and high quality ( major headache!)

Probably best to do some more research before you start pulling trim out and buying speakers.

Good luck.

Cheers mate that's sort of the general picture I was getting but there's so many differing reports/opinions about what DSP actually does and whether to keep it or not. I've got some time to muck around over Christmas and need to retrim the roof/pillars etc so will chuck some new speakers in while I'm there and see what they sound like

Solved - Power pin had broken clean off the amp and was stuck in the plug. Soldered back on and I'm away; sub and all.

Still interested to know whether normal, off the shelf, 2-way's etc can be used with the factory DSP system without causing any issues...Any help apprieciated

It is connected but via the choc block as I've got the remote line for the aftermarket amp running off it.

Going to disassemble and start from scratch again tonight to ensure there's no shorts anywhere and then take it from there

Have a '96 750iL with DSP and some buggered speakers in need of replacing. I've also got a sub and amp from my last car that I'd like to put in to give the system a bit more bass but if possible I'd like to leave as much of the factory gear in as possible.

Started by following this guide: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1431211-HowTo-gt-Mojo-s-Quick-n-Dirty%99-Subwoofer-Installation-%28DSP-Cars-Only%29

Connected my line level converter to the factory lines as shown, but cut the cables and used a choc block instead of those splitter things he's got. What I did do (which this guide says not to) is cut the white remote cable and added it into the choc block.

Now when the car's switched on, the amp shows it's got power but I get no sound whatsoever through any of my speakers. Everything is connected well and as shown so I'm at a bit of a loss as to what's happening.

Any ideas?

Also, are the factory DSP speakers any different to normal speakers? ie, can I replace them with new items and retain the DSP amp?

Any help will be much appreciated

Will be sold on Friday unless anyone makes a cash offer $6000 or higher. At that price it won't include sub and amp and will only come with one set of wheels.