Idiot light bugs after engine swap

[Username in use]

Needless to say, I couldn't find this situation after searching or reading the FAQs, so I'll post here.

First off, my car is heavily modified. It started out as a '94 525iT and now has a 2005 Chevy V8, Tremec T56, and 7 series large case diff. No brake work was done at the wheels other than to bleed them. The master cylinder & booster were replaced with a Hydroboost unit from a Cobra Mustang- tied into the BMW power steering pump on a GM bracket. The stock ABS unit is present and fully connected. When I was first wiring & testing the car, I had no idiot lights on other than the "trans program" that was dealt with by grounding the proper wire per forum directions. The Cobra master cylinder reservoir has a low fluid sensor that was wired into the BMW harness and tested OK when installed. The reservoir is full. The brakes work very well with no pulling or odd effects.

Two days ago I took it off the jack stands and drove it. The dash light bugs were present before taking it down. I have the "Parking Brake" idiot light on regardless of the handle position, the ABS light is also on (didn't use to be), and the charge indicator idiot light. I installed an Autogage voltmeter, and at idle I'm just shy of 14V. I'm not concerned about the check engine light as it is operated by the GM computer I installed and this will be addressed elsewhere.

The car is also making a whirring sound that corresponds to road speed, but only after stepping on the brakes. It seems to be coming from the passenger rear wheel area. When I first drove the car, the brake pedal did not want to return to original position. After some use, it is now operating normally.

I'm working on debugging these issues and thought I would throw out my symptoms in the slim chance someone may have an answer to one of them. I plan on lifting the car again this week to see if there is anything visually amiss with the rear brakes.

I'll update here if I discover what is wrong.

Thanks for any advice or pointers.

[Kashmirbeige525]

It's complaining you put on so many domestic car parts on it.

[Binjammin]

First of all, I say post some pics. That sounds like a mean ride. Second, I'd suspect something's up with the parking brake on that wheel. Pull it apart and inspect.

[filmy]

First of all, I say post some pics. That sounds like a mean ride. Second, I'd suspect something's up with the parking brake on that wheel. Pull it apart and inspect.

(There's a video link in his sig)

That thing is awesome! Except for the word "Corvette", I would think it was a factory install. Nice job! Put the stock wheels/tires on it and you have the ultimate Bavarian Sleeper.

[JLoZ E36]

Your cars just pissed cause you put some Chevy in there. Cars are like girls you change something and all they do is nag then after a while they just stfu. that light will prolly just turn off soon. ahahahahaha!

[PorscheH6]

A 5300 Vortec turbo in a touring?

[attack eagle]

ground issue for the idiot lights and park switch?

did you test the parking switch?

[Username in use]

It's complaining you put on so many domestic car parts on it.

I look upon it as organ rejection.

Factory install? Yeah right- maybe if the factory was in Outer Slobovia.

Thanks for the other tips, I'm going to put it back up in the air & inspect the rear brakes & the hand brake switch this week. The only glitch like this when I bought it was the coolant level sender- I found the terminals were corroded & this was fixed with a new sender during the conversion. I was able to sell the project to the "other half" of the finance committee based on this problem:
Me: Everything works pretty good except for this light being on in the dash.
Her: What is it for?
Me: I think it means the motor is worn out or defective.
Her: Is it expensive to fix?
Me: Not too bad- I can buy a motor at a junkyard & put it in myself. I can even save some money by putting a less expensive Chevy motor into it!

And if you believe that, I have some prime waterfront property here in Florida for sale!

Fquick page for this car (Has pic galleries & some info)

LS1tech build thread (warning- never ending story, has lots of pics/ideas (good & bad), 13+ pages!)

[525fourthew1n]

Jesus christ, you need to post here more often, that ride is ridiculous!

Such a beautiful swap, and I'm sure the E34 will get used to its new heart. A turbo 5.3 truly is a lovely setup. When I first watched the video I was like......wait....why is there a boost guage? How could you fit a turbo in there, and then you walked out of the car.....DAMN.

Needless to say, I'm impressed, I'll check out the build threads. Good luck with the lights!

[Username in use]

I took both rear wheels off & noted no unusual noises while turning the axles by hand. I then noticed the pads had ate into the rotors to the point there was a ridge at the outer edge of the rotor. This would not allow removal of the caliper w/o retracting the piston. I'm figuring the car was not designed this way.

I'm planning to go ahead & redo the brakes at this point, with new calipers/rotors/pads (fluid was changed to Motul when the Hydroboost was added).

Before I dig into the shop manual, is there a trick or tips to removing the rotors & is there a common item that needs to be replaced as far as the parking brake assembly?

I still need to inspect the handbrake switch. Incidentally, the dash was never out, so I'm thinking it would not be a wiring/ground issue there.

Thanks.

[Username in use]

As an update, I measured the right rear rotor. It was 10.16 mm on the outer edge/ridge, and 8.83 on the inner where the pads were. Will have to look up specs on those, but it sure felt thin.

I took off the RR rotor and all the parking brake parts appear to be intact. I will link some pics from my Photobucket account here, I did not downscale them as I usually do:
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/IMG_2359.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/IMG_2360.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/IMG_2361.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/IMG_2362.jpg

Does anything look out of place? The shoes appear to have a good bit of material, and nothing is hanging or sticking out.

[Username in use]

UPDATE
I'm redoing all the brakes & hoses. The wear limit for the rear rotors is 8.4mm, so they are worn out. I'm adding 540 rotors/calipers in the rear and E31 rotors & single piston calipers up front (as soon as I can find some calipers to rebuild- the JY I bought from sent me rear calipers).

I've been doing a lot of reading here, and since the lights were not on when I was running the motor during the initial phases, I suspect the problem may be the battery- it is not holding a charge. I'm putting an Optima in there so I'm hoping this will take care of the battery, ABS, and parking brake lights.

I also found my GM engine computer (PCM) was locked so it would not accept a new tune. I borrowed one from another of my vehicles to use until I can find another one. This should take care of the check engine light, since it is now controlled by the PCM.