Member
Hi guys
I got 2 problems that I have been trying to solve for over a year and to no avail.
1- when I have either the headlights or fog lights, or the indicator lights on, the temperature gauge goes over the 1/2 mark by just a little, when I'm in traffic and the temp gauge goes another fraction towards the red it suddenly goes to red and I get coolant warning, now if I turn off/on the lights or the indicators it goes back to normal. after a while it starts again. I have checked the wiring at the back of the cluster, I have changed the the location of the -ve of the cluster, same thing starts again.
2- sometime and not all the time specially after driving for a long period of time when I stop the car and turn off the ignition, I come back to the car try to start it everything seems fine except the starter will not engage, but if I hot wire the starter the car starts, now if I turn off the car and start it again normally it starts with no problem, this also happens if I don't start the car for a week or so. I have changed the battery, checked all the relays no problems there.
any help on those 2 issues will be much appreciated.
E34 525i Touring 1995, M52B28 LSD... fully restored.
Member
Last issue sound like a parasitic drain. I was chasing start issues for ages and became convinced it was the ignition switch. I would park my car for a while, give the battery a charge before using and for 3 weeks everything would be fine until I needed to hotwire via the diag port for another week. Seemed to play up more in hot weather so if was summer it wouldn't start after the first week. If it was winter it wouldn't play up for 3 weeks. I ended up finding it was the battery running low (heat just made it worse as my winter is 15C, not freezing).Originally Posted by zkd
My battery never dropped so much I couldn't hot wire it and get the alternator to charge the battery enough for the next day, but there's a lot of volt drop through the various old BMW wiring, enough so that a slightly low battery can't start it from the key.
Do the volt test across all fuses, any milli-volts measures means there is current flow on that circuit - and their shouldn't be any. I think I found something like 0.09V across the (non funtional anyway) cig lighter circuit which was the culprit, all the other circuits were 0.01.
That was backed up with an ampmeter across the battery showing a high parasitic drain, enough to drain the battery after 3 weeks.
I forget the details but search my posts for correct numbers. E:https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...4#post30223914
Maybe your dash problem is related, a similar bad circuit or a short causing the dash problems and the start problems. Mine was easy as it was the cig lighter circuit so I pulled the fuse and it's been 2 months since a hard to start problem. The start problem usually showed up in under a month unless I used a car charger for planned long term parking/storage, so hopefully I'm safe now.
Last edited by fo3; 05-07-2019 at 11:41 AM.
MORΩN ΛABIA
BMW CCA Member
My thought was the same: bad ground. I suspect internal problems in the cluster. Is it possible to swap in a spare?
Check starter contacts. They may be weak and open with temperature changes.2- sometime and not all the time specially after driving for a long period of time when I stop the car and turn off the ignition, I come back to the car try to start it everything seems fine except the starter will not engage, but if I hot wire the starter the car starts, now if I turn off the car and start it again normally it starts with no problem, this also happens if I don't start the car for a week or so. I have changed the battery, checked all the relays no problems there.
any help on those 2 issues will be much appreciated.
Member
This is the third cluster I tried, they work fine at the beginning then they start doing it, problem gets worst with time. I'm thinking of running the -ve direct to battery, because every time I change the position of the ground the problem gets solved for a while then it starts again.
as for starter, I changed starter, I think it's the starter relay that might be effected by bad ground across the car.
how do I check for bad ground...? is there specific ohm reading?
E34 525i Touring 1995, M52B28 LSD... fully restored.
shade tree mechanic
Moderator
Does the car have electric headlight aim motors? If so, pull the plugs from the motors and see if the cluster problem goes away. On the German E34 forum there are many threads that old electric headlight aim motors can cause a lot of trouble.
Shogun tricks and tips for the E32 series are HERE!
Member
ok will try.
E34 525i Touring 1995, M52B28 LSD... fully restored.
Member
Just a quick update I have solved the cluster problem.
it turned out to be faulty capacitors and a couple of resistors. so I went for the quick solution and just changed the whole electronic board in the cluster rather than change each component.
I will however change the faulty components on the old board and test it.
still have not found the problem with the starter.
thanks all for all your help.
E34 525i Touring 1995, M52B28 LSD... fully restored.
Member
Final Update (Sorry about double post)
I finally found the problem with the starter, it turned out not to be anything to do with the key nor the relay or anything else. it turned out to be a stupid mistake done when installing the new starter about 5 years ago, the internal nut the pole of the positive node on the starter was loose and over the years it got looser, so I tightened it and everything was normal.
I know stupid mistake. sometimes the biggest problems have the simplest solutions.
E34 525i Touring 1995, M52B28 LSD... fully restored.
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