My BMW journey has begun

It really annoying when the previous owner does a halfass job
 

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I would look at the wiring diagram but k think that is because the outer lights have two bulbs, the city light and the main light so needs two inputs. High beam is just single bulb.
 
that's an easy one, on the USA model the outer (low beam) is h4 and the inner (high beam) is h1 ... 3 wires + 2 wires respectively. on the euro model, the 2nd filament in the parking light doesn't exist and is moved to the city light with the h1 bulb in the low beam. as i remember, the city light is a blue wire and the high beam for the h4 is a white wire ... on the USA model the white wire goes from the h4 bulb to the h1 bulb on the high beam
 
I HIGHLY recommend getting a printout of the wiring diagram. I did order the Prospero one from EBay and overall it works well, but at Don’s suggestion I had one of the official ones in the FAQ that has color markings printed out at staples and laminated as a 3’ wide poster. It’s large but then VERY easy to track the wiring.

And I realize now that many of us made the same comments earlier in this thread. Sorry for the duplication - consider it emphasis!
 
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Ah yes, the process of remediating electrical problems caused by a high school dropout who was allowed to modify the wiring in an old BMW. I actually spent the first few months I owned my car fixing wiring problems caused by a stereo installation. The high school dropout who wired the stereo for the prior owner of my car installed a big ass amplifier into the fuse 1 circuit, pulled the existing 5 amp fuse and installed a 40 amp fuse in its place. When the prior owner cranked the tunes, she melted the fuse block, the wiring underneath the fuse block, and the wiring at both front and rear running lights on the left side of the car. The forum guy who helped me buy my car (@Peter Coomaraswamy) actually spotted both the melted fuse block and the melted rear light assembly as part of his inspection of my car.

Here's what my fuse block looked like before I started fixing things:

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there is something very therapeutic about removing all of the tape on the wiring harness and tracing every wire to check the condition and the connections ... as well as to find out where the harness has been changed. usually you can find that by the kind of connectors that David found splicing into a wire or by finding melted covering or messed up end connectors. one thing you will find is that if one end is messed up, so is the other end. you can also generally find changes by a difference in tape around the harness ... when you find sticky electrical tape it is best to remove it and find out what was done. everything i put on were uninsulated connectors (double crimp) that were put on using a proper tool and either heatshrinked or used proper spade insulators. yes, i asked maestro @sfdon a lot of questions since we were migrating a megasquirt harness into my existing harness. all wires that were no longer used were removed - such as the black / red wire + green wires that ran around the front of the car to the coil and the old wiring for the carbs as well as all the old wiring for the L-jet injection that was removed. putting in a new holy grail labs fusebox was much easier than expected once i realized that there were 2 models ... and i had the wrong one. but i learned a lot about the wiring diagram and how things worked electrically on the coupe. my fear is that i have probably already forgotten some of that.
 
That car is getting the royal treatment! It's going to be amazing when completed. Your accent contrast elevates the entire look.
Have you ever had an opportunity to drive it?
 
restart said:
That car is getting the royal treatment! It's going to be amazing when completed. Your accent contrast elevates the entire look.
Have you ever had an opportunity to drive it?
Click to expand...
I drove my car very little in the first four months I had it, and it was down for a few months with the five speed swap. @D Calkins appears to be in one of those phases.
 
Hello David! Congrats on your E9 ownership! My E9 ownership happened three months after yours. I just browsed this post. I have and am doing some similar things as you have. This includes adding a front Euro bumper. I'm waiting for parts from @TomHom which include the rubber gaskets that the mounting brackets fit through.

You have some skills and are on a quest to get your car sorted out as I am. It's a journey, but a satisfying one. Your interior looks amazing. Just wondering how durable the dye will be. BTW... my car has been on a lift since being delivered on Oct. 5.

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