DDONNY
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Now I just have to put in a good battery and figure what, and where, went POP.
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Re: dead battery keeps trunk or boot from opening. OK. I stumbled upon (in my brain), that you have to push the black surround keyway about a half an inch in, while the emergency key goes in. Amazing! Too bad it won't work for a 2011 BMW. re: 2003 Mercedes CLK430.
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To top that, I was looking for a tool to pull fuses and opened up the fuse cover in my '92 BMW E36 five-speed; and found out why I had been smelling burning plastic for a couple of weeks. The car was running just fine but found out that I had a small fire in the fuse box. The heater fan motor must have locked up. UGLEY! Something more to work on.
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I tried hooking up my charger but got just a pop! The charger didn't make the pop, so I guess something in the car made the pop. I tested several fuses, for a blow out but saw nothing. I will put in a new battery for the fob. If that doesn't work, I will look for the red battery cable under the rear seat and cut the wire; hook it to a good battery and see if that will work.
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I forgot to mention that the trunk won't open because the battery is dead; and nothing will open it. Door will open with emergency key; but not for the trunk. I had not driven it since the middle of December.
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hey X5smw., this is DDONNY. I tried a pair of cheap pair of jumper cables; hooked it up to what looks like charging points under the hood in my Mercedes 2003 CLK430, and it burned quickly. Would a charger work? + on the red clip and black clip - grounding a bolt or nut on the steel? What I see is on the top of driver's fender with two fairly large wires attached to somewhere that appears to be +.
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And, of course, if you can't open the hood, you can't use the + and - to put power to the doors, windows, lights, keyway, etc.
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I just now remembered that you could use under the hood cables to hook up to a good battery. That should allow you to open the boot and doors.
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I probably won't be able to remember exactly step by step. (That happened with a 2003 Mercedes, one problem similar to the '92 BMW 325i. That time my battery looked like nearly new, but it was quite old. A new battery solved that problem.) As for the '92 , the instrument cluster lights likely went out some day before that day. It works, but lights are out. I have some extra lights; just haven't removed it yet. I have a few clusters that I have bought used over the years. Now the most important: The back driver's side door window was opened about one inch; I used a coat hanger to pull knob up; (the driver's door). After that it was easy. I put a new battery in and turned the ignition key; all was good. You might have to use a circular hole saw behind your car tag to open the boot.
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I learned the effects of using ordinary water mixed with coolants, a few months ago. I knew it was wrong a long time ago from manuals, friends and forums, but I just didn't have the time/care. From now on I am using distilled water for every car I have. I have a two-car garage, but it is full of car parts, tools (plumbing, carpentry, electricity), so it's the driveway.
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Good advice from Greydog, but in the latter years I would pay for used parts, ordinary mixing coolant with drinking water, bought used tires, and new when I had to. Keeping up with old cars is a chore. One of these days I will pay $240 for a new HV/AC solenoid. Two 3/4" brass, Hollow L shaped, will do for now. I will also remove the inside of the thermostat moving parts (and keep the rest) in the old cars. My other cars are: '97 Volvo 850 GLT wagon, '95 Volvo 960 wagon, and the newest is a Mercedes 2003 CLK430.
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Update: I checked my battery and it charged in 5 minutes, so I don't have to find another alternator. All seems to be OK except for the plastic "L"s with a short rubber hose that bypass the HV/AC solenoid. Those get clogged after @ 150,000-190,000 miles (if distilled water wasn't used) and cause air pockets that try to burst radiators. I have a few more brass "L"s, so now I can throw the plastic ones away. I have to be careful I don't fog the windows though, without heat or cool.
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Things went well, once I used a coat hanger to open the driver's side door in the back. Also, I had bought a trunk lid some time ago (and steering wheel, driver's side door, and several other things) from a guy that was selling parts. It was lucky I got the trunk electrical part that opens up all the doors with a key. That happened a day or two later; not right away. I guess that feature had to come back to life. I'm in the process of cutting out the A/C condenser aluminum that will give the radiator better cooling. I will put in another fan motor, because the other one had seized up. I may have to put in another alternator, just to be sure. As for the airbags, for both BMW '92s. I reused the original crash sensors instead of the clean ones that were likely from a collision. Live and learn.
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FITTING A SCORPION ALARM AND IMOBILISER
DDONNY replied to john newby's topic in The Owners Club General Discussions
I forgot that I have a lot of 100s, and "fairs 84, 85, 87", "goods 93 ", and a few "not so goods". -
FITTING A SCORPION ALARM AND IMOBILISER
DDONNY replied to john newby's topic in The Owners Club General Discussions
OK. I removed the front bumper and took out the A/C fan. (blue '92 325i) I still can't grasp the hood cable. It looked difficult, so I decided to take a shirt hanger and pull the doorknob up. Wow, that was easy because I had plastic rain awnings on the glass. It opened a back door and then the others. I changed out the airbag crash sensors back to the old ones. Things seems to be normal, but I didn't drive it. I tried to do the same to the other '92, but a light came on re: airbag. I had already messed up one of the sensors, so I will have to do surgery on one or both. The A/C fan was rusted, so I might put a better one on, or just leave it alone....As for the Beacon, it's only supposed to see that I'm not speeding, gently turn, gently go from 0 to speed limit, mileage, etc. I have to keep the mileage often.
