Monday, November 7, 2011
People and their wiring jobs... CCFL halos from Hell
So the past week i was cleaning out my engine bay and to my complete lack of surprise i noticed the passenger side CCFL halos were out... wtf?... thats DDMtuning.com for ya. Never the less, i figured that it was just a short in the connection. I take a closer look and sure enough it is a crap connection to the bulbs. While im looking at the headlight housing i cant help to look at the unpleasant sight of the gummed over silicon trying to seal the headlight cover to the housing (the privious owner must have been a goo lover). I have been wanting to clean all the crud silicon off of it for a while plus the halos inside the housing were a little off-center... i made up my mind and rigorously dove into a little project. All in all this "little project" became a "huge nightmare." Just a list of the encountered problems: plastic clips were breaking left and right, the little wire that connects to the CCFL bulb snapped off right where it meets the glass (i was too cheap to give up and buy new ones so i whipped out the good ol soldering iron and RVTed it), then the halos wouldnt stay in the right place, my soldering job broke off for a second time... :0/ ... i was ready to call it quits and the worst part was that i had to be in SLC in two hours for a night on the town with the wife. All in all i got the halos working and in the right place and resealed the headlight cover w/o the goo. I then turn the key to the "on" position and the halos light up like normal. Then i try to start my car and i get a couple of weak cranks... dead batt. I pull out the jumper cables and light the car up... after doing so i look at the halos again with the engine running and now the halos wont light on the passenger side. checked the connection and it was fine... i gave up for the day.
A week later after being annoyed i decide to look further in depth on my halo problem. I figured that it was a blown CCFL inverter... no biggie they were only $8 from DDM tuning. So as i again rip into the mess of wiring pulling back nasty gooey duct tape covering all the wiring... "who in the hell uses duct tape for a electrical tape substitute?!" i probe the voltage coming into the inverter... OL on my meter... interesting... then i start back probing to the relay box by the cal. 12v... so now im assuming that there is a whole other monster in the main power wiring between the inverter and the relay box. I start ripping of more and more duct tape to find splices that were twisted together without any type of butt-connector or wire bean... honestly im not surprised. I again pull out the soldering iron and do it the right way... then back probe and again no voltage... i am now amazed by the lack of knowledge and ability of the privious owners DIY skills. I continue to rip out the entire wire and find two other splices the same as before. I rip out all the wire and replace it with a brand new larger gauge wire (just for peace of mind) and weather seal it all back and tuck it away in the body of the engine bay... perfect... the lights work and no issues. Honestly the CCFLs are brighter than before :0)
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
$600 alternator... EFF!!!!
leaving school to grab lunch the other day my red battery charge indicator warning light was popping on every time i hit higher RPMs... EFF! I knew exactly what was going on... the alternator was on the verge of "cah-put!"
So i get lunch and hop back into my car and the light is fully illuminated indicating that the vehicle's charging system is not delivering anything back to the battery. I then head back to school to diagnose my failing alternator; luckily im enrolled in the auto tech program at the university. So i grab a scan tool to see if i can get the alternator output voltage because im too lazy at the moment to pop the trunk, pull up the carpet and plastic battery cover to probe the terminals with a DVOM. Fail... BMW unfortunately hides a majority of their obd-II features... the output voltage being one of them. Next i break down and head for the battery in the trunk with the DVOM... just as i suspected the voltage read 11.93v... no charge coming from the alternator what-so-ever... even with trying to full-field it with turning on all the auxiliaries.
So? Whats next? I assumed that the alternator would be $200+ to replace and i didnt want to buy one right then and there... so i headed home 25 miles trying to beat the drain of my battery... and... i didnt even make it close to home... the battery then gave up its ghost at 16th north in Lindon by the Lexus dealership... as the poor Bimmer puttered to a death I called the wife... busy at work... then the mom... not picking up (she never picks up)... and then the pop... success. My dad came to my pitiful aid. by the time he got from Alpine to Lindon I had pulled out all my air cleaner system removed the serpentine belt and removed the alternator from the engine compartment (all of 15 minutes). We rolled over to the nearest parts store to pick up the new alternator. As we arrive we request the part and just to top of my sundae with a cherry they said it was going to be $600 for the part... i knew parts would be expensive but not $600-alternator expensive. I then told them to calculate my student discount for the auto program at the university and the price was right! It dropped down to $189.00 with the core included! Life is good when discounts come this extreme! All in all we made it back and i threw the new genny in and jumped the Bimmer and viola! Purring like a goat! I was back on the road again.
So i get lunch and hop back into my car and the light is fully illuminated indicating that the vehicle's charging system is not delivering anything back to the battery. I then head back to school to diagnose my failing alternator; luckily im enrolled in the auto tech program at the university. So i grab a scan tool to see if i can get the alternator output voltage because im too lazy at the moment to pop the trunk, pull up the carpet and plastic battery cover to probe the terminals with a DVOM. Fail... BMW unfortunately hides a majority of their obd-II features... the output voltage being one of them. Next i break down and head for the battery in the trunk with the DVOM... just as i suspected the voltage read 11.93v... no charge coming from the alternator what-so-ever... even with trying to full-field it with turning on all the auxiliaries.
So? Whats next? I assumed that the alternator would be $200+ to replace and i didnt want to buy one right then and there... so i headed home 25 miles trying to beat the drain of my battery... and... i didnt even make it close to home... the battery then gave up its ghost at 16th north in Lindon by the Lexus dealership... as the poor Bimmer puttered to a death I called the wife... busy at work... then the mom... not picking up (she never picks up)... and then the pop... success. My dad came to my pitiful aid. by the time he got from Alpine to Lindon I had pulled out all my air cleaner system removed the serpentine belt and removed the alternator from the engine compartment (all of 15 minutes). We rolled over to the nearest parts store to pick up the new alternator. As we arrive we request the part and just to top of my sundae with a cherry they said it was going to be $600 for the part... i knew parts would be expensive but not $600-alternator expensive. I then told them to calculate my student discount for the auto program at the university and the price was right! It dropped down to $189.00 with the core included! Life is good when discounts come this extreme! All in all we made it back and i threw the new genny in and jumped the Bimmer and viola! Purring like a goat! I was back on the road again.
New Bridgestone Tires
the date of purchase 9/2011
The next few posts im going to try to catch up on the most recent history of the vehicle. Hopefully i will be able to keep up from then on out.
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