Evening all,
I have two problems with my BMW E36 donor I bought.
Bascially over last couple of weeks I have been stripping down bits to sell from the interior. Electrically speaking, I have basically been removing
an item and then removing the electrical connector from the back of it. I've also done all the lights and all of the boot. So now I've got
a bunch of labelled connectors draped all over the floor.
My first problem is the battery now flat (interior light not working anymore) - will anything I've done so far have made it go flat ?
Secondly, my rear door is locked shut and the central locking won't open it due to the flat battery. BUT it won't unlock with the interior
pull thingy. The other rear door "clicks" postively when you lock/unlock it. This one doesn't seem to "catch" and I
can't get my hand in there to see what's going on due to the window track thing.
Any ideas how I can get the door open please ?
Hope these questions don't seem too daft but it's really stressing me out !! I was within a few seconds of taking a grinder to the body
around the lock until I saw sense and came inside !!!!
Thanks
Paul
can you hook it up to another running car with jump leads?
can you not charge the battery?
Hi
Yep I've got the battery out and it's charging I was just worried I might have caused a problem with disconnecting everything.
My biggest worry is that the door actuator has packed up and even with a charged battery in there I still won't be able to open the door. The
central locking was a bit dodgy anyway and it would only work from passenger side.
Maybe with a night's sleep (ho ho I have two toddlers !!) and a charged up battery all will be well in the morning and I will be able to unlock
the door.
Oh dear - reading this back, this is just the worst post ever isn't it.
I'm basically worried about a flat battery and on top of that I've managed to lock myself out (at the rear at least) of a car that
doesn't even need locking cos there's nothing it and you can't drive it as it has no steering wheel and a flat battery !!!!
And I'm wanting to build my own car - lol !!!
^ he he yep 
only thing i can think of (and it used to happen a lot on E30s) was something silly running the battery down.
E30s used to have a fault where the boot light switch wore, and didn't turn the light off when the boot was closed. remove bulb, fault fixed.
have you removed a boot light switch from the chassis for example but not diconnected it entirely? or the same for a bonnet light switch? don't
know if mines got one...
could be something silly like that.
Could be the interior lights as they seem to be all over the place. I have taken a boot one out and two at the rear - wonder if that's it.
I'll check tomorrow.
I wonder whether I've caught the interior light switch at the front without noticing....
Thanks for your help
well, te thing with the E30s was the light wouldn't turn off (but without folding seats, the only way to check was to get in the boot and close it!), so should be pretty obvious if thats whats happening, as the light will stay on. could be something similar though.
It's easier to do than that. Get your phone or camera and set it to record video put it in the boot and shut it. You will soon see if the light switch is working. Done this loads of times at work to find battery drains.
quote:
Originally posted by Davegtst
It's easier to do than that. Get your phone or camera and set it to record video put it in the boot and shut it. You will soon see if the light switch is working. Done this loads of times at work to find battery drains.
Well got battery charged overnight - put it back and and door opened on central locking.
As for the battery discharging, well once it was hooked back up the front interior light was still on !!!
Sorry folks - I'll get me coat