BMW E21 brake lights, rev counter and stereo suddenly not working

[Hellabroke 2]

Hi I'm extremely new to these forums and have had to deal with a lot of tricky e21 problems in my ownership as the mechanic who owned it before me treated the car terribly.

Anyway everything was working fine until I went on holiday for the last two weeks, came back jumped her up and running again (probably the 78th time

i've had to jump start it) and realised the rev counter, stereo and brake lights not working and I also think the interior lights arent working either.

Checked

fuses (cleaned them up and made good contact), checked both common grounds under dash and next to battery and spent hours searching forums to no prevail.

Everything seems in really decent condition but I can't find the problem! I hope someone can help, indicators/headlights are fine and the tail lights still light up when the headlights are on but still no brake light.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Hellabroke

[gjm 3276]

Sounds like a fuse... Perhaps your PO fitted some somewhere they shouldn't have?

Had a very similar thing happen on my Mercedes - dash out, headlights out, and more. One fuse fixed the lot, but it wasn't one in the fuse box. There's another couple of fuses mounted in their own little box on the inner wing.

[Neal 553]

Sounding like a ground strap behind the dash.

On the off chance check the engine to chassis ground cable as well. I had a series of electrical issues with an e21 323 which sorted after cleaning the contact points at both ends. This included rev counter, lights , temp gauge, charging etc.

Nice car btw.

[Hellabroke 2]

Thanks man and thanks guys for the help I'll check in the morning, it would be very typical for this to be the case..

[Mr Vapour 76]

Hay man.

Good to see another e21 on here. I want to see your car in the flesh. It's the same colour mine was factory and I'm wanting to know if I like it enough to do it again.

The issue you have sounds like a fuse or earth issue .

But you have checked all the fuses and I don't know of any more tucked awayany where .

Get your jumper leads and run them from The negative bat terminal to the motor and the chassis and see if it makes a difference.

And get a new battery. Jumping cars on a regular basi. Is risky .

[Mr Vapour 76]

Oh and buy the way. Oldschool.co.nz .The boys on there will fizz their bung over a hunger wagon .

[Hellabroke 2]

Holy sh*t this is embarrassing (especially coming from an electrical background)

I checked the car again yesterday and discovered actually WAS a fuse in the fusebox, it had only a hairline crack in it, small enough that the multimeter could read no fault, and produced voltage just enough to get the other side of the fuse but not enough to get through the circuit properly, replaced and done!!

Everything working correctly now. The fuse says its only for the stop lights and radio but in fact does supply the rev counter and interior lights. Never had this happen before but all is well!

Edited January 17, 2016 by Hellabroke

[Hellabroke 2]

Yeah it sucks the only other e21 I've ever seen in person other than my own is Murry Fullertons yellow parts car in papakura. I really like this colour I wanted to respray with a dark candy red but I think this colour is really growing on me, not too many cars this colour either. I'd be really keen to see yours. Haha I have an oldschool account for the wagon too but the last time tried figuring out how to drive the website was about a year ago haha, I'll give it a go again soon when the e21 stops being so needy towards me

[Mr Vapour 76]

Yep they are few and far between now days.

I'm in papatoetoe so not to far my olds are in kura as well.

yeah the colour is nice. But the only my thing left red is the engine bay

I'm thinking silver .