I claim title of stupidest self repair move!

GTOMX09 · 01-22-2009, 02:13 PM

A week ago I decided to replace my voltage regulator. I have the valeo so the alternator has to be removed to replace it. I'd done this a week before to check it so I knew it would only take a few minutes.

Long story short, I forgot to unhook the battery, caught the cable from the alternator to the starter on fire and fried the harness that cable is in.

All the wires were melted together!

I have a parts car so I removed the ecu and harness and alternator from the other car ('88 325ix) and put those into the ruined one ('91 325ix). I am 99.9% sure everything is done properly (I know, the guy who forgets to disconnect his battery says he did it right

) but it won't start now. It turns over but won't start. The starter is working but I think it was affected during my mishap. It sounds a bit sick. My next move is to replace the starter, but that's a big pain.

Any ideas on things I've overlooked? Things that would definitely be dead after this? I want to exclude anything else obvious before I tackle changing the starter.

All the fuses are fine. The electrical in the cabin & lights etc. work fine. The battery will need to be replaced (11.5v now on a brand new battery....ARGH!).

Manolito · 01-23-2009, 05:52 AM

First of all, the competition for stupidest mistake is keen. Many of us have made valiant attempts to claim that crown, so don't be so sure that you have it.

Secondly, if the car cranks over but does not start, the problem is not the starter.

I worry that the ecu (DME?) from an '88 would not work properly in a '91, so I would suspect that it is not getting the inputs it expects so it is refusing to cooperate.

It would be helpful to determine whether the problem is lack of spark, or lack of fuel.

When you turn the key to On, can you hear the pump spin up and pressurize the fuel rail? If in doubt, crack a fitting and see if fuel sprays.

If you have pressure, put a rod on an injector and touch it to your ear and make sure the injectors are clicking open and closed as someone cranks the engine.

To see if you have spark, pull a coil, and put a spark plug in it and the electrical connector back on it, ground the coil housing and the plug housing, and have someone crank the car to see if you get a strong blue spark.

Jeron · Jeron's Garage

Maybe we need a thread for stupid repair screw-ups. My worst is leaving a socket wrench on the front Main Bolt.

Freebirdrebirth · 01-23-2009, 12:27 PM

check for burnned fusible link at battery in truck.

GTOMX09 · 01-23-2009, 02:40 PM

Thanks for the replies. I'll have some time tomorrow to keep working on this.

Please speak up if anyone else has an ideas and I'll post any progress I make.

coolbear1 · 01-23-2009, 08:57 PM

Don't feel bad, I put my brake pads in upside down, (metal toward the rotor).
On both front wheels!

GTOMX09 · 01-24-2009, 09:51 AM

Hey coolbear. I remember you helped me with something before, i think my alarm. Thanks again.

Pads backwards. That is pretty stupid, but I'd take that in a second over the mess i'm in now. At least i know how to fix that!

coolbear1 · 01-24-2009, 05:38 PM

I claim drunkiness.

Jeron · Jeron's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolbear1

I claim drunkiness.

Me too.
LOL

GTOMX09 · 01-26-2009, 02:12 PM

So I'm still working on this. I don't have spark so I'm running tests from the bentley manual. Everything is testing fine so far. I'm pretty stumped!

GTOMX09 · 02-12-2009, 01:14 PM

Update!

I hadn't touched it in 2 weeks because I was losing my mind. Today I was determined to get it running and the answer came within 10 minutes.

I had previously run all the DME tests in bentley and almost all of them were good. The only one that didn't test right was one dealing with power supply. That made me think of the main relay.

I looked at the 3 relays where the main relay is and remembered that one of them is supposed to be white. I pulled out the one in the main relay spot and immediately realized my mistake. I put a plain old 4 prong relay in the main relay spot. When I put the white 5 prong in there, well..........it still didn't start! I was positive that I'd figured out the problem so I was pretty heart-broken when it didn't start. Then......I looked in the engine bay........and.......realized that the last time I'd worked on it 2 weeks ago, I was doing tests on the coil and hadn't put that back in. I reattached the coil, turned the key, and.......VIOLA!

Pretty funny that I could put take out the whole ignition wiring harness from my parts car, put everything into the new one, and get hung up on a stupid relay!
Isn't how it goes though?

I pretty ecstatic that my precious iX is running again. I LOVE THIS CAR!

coolbear1 · 02-16-2009, 05:55 PM

Hey, s**t happens to us all, good for you, a happy ending.