Electrical Issue (Help!)

[Kasey paramore]

I recently purchased a 2000 Z3 2.3 Manual trans. Manual roof

I currently have an electrical problem, after about 5 days the car will be totally dead. All fuses look fine and so I pulled out the common #33 (Interior lets etc) to see if the drain will continue. 4 days passed, battery dead. So #33 is NOT the issue.


Notes:

The car had water pooling in the the rear left side pocket, below the left tail light. This was a drain issue, I removed the plug and water drained very quickly. The water was only about 2-3 inches high, it didn't actually wet the trunk. This ended up being because the antenna grommet was totally missing, so I replaced it.


The car had an aftermarket radio, I immediately swapped this with OEM to rule out problem.

When I purchased the car I took note of which light bulbs were out. I noted that the DRIVER side running lights were out, all of them (rear running lamp, front corner running lamp and front bumper side lamp). In addition to these, one plate lamp and one fog lamp were out.

After ordering the new bulbs on Amazon, I noticed that all running lamps were back on! I previously assumed they were burned out but the bulbs were good.

The light above the plate was verified to be a burned bulb.

So now, I am convinced that there is something wrong with the DRIVER SIDE running light harness wires.

Does anyone have any experience with tracing down running light wiring issues, specifically with the DRIVER SIDE?? My problem does not appear to be symmetrical.

Thank you!

 

[Kasey paramore]

So today I discovered two new things:

1. The battery ground cable is not all the way on, and is missing hardware

2. There are THREE wires coming off the ground which are totally cut (a solid red, solid gray and a white/blue wire). They look like they are going into some BMW clip on the ground, so I’m assuming they are factory wires.

 

[NZ00Z3]

That's not the factory negative terminal. While it has BMW on it, its off another car, so those extra wires are just not part of the Z3 setup.

 

[FRANKIE]

I recently purchased a 2000 Z3 2.3 Manual trans. Manual roof

I currently have an electrical problem, after about 5 days the car will be totally dead. All fuses look fine and so I pulled out the common #33 (Interior lets etc) to see if the drain will continue. 4 days passed, battery dead. So #33 is NOT the issue.


Notes:

The car had water pooling in the the rear left side pocket, below the left tail light. This was a drain issue, I removed the plug and water drained very quickly. The water was only about 2-3 inches high, it didn't actually wet the trunk. This ended up being because the antenna grommet was totally missing, so I replaced it.


The car had an aftermarket radio, I immediately swapped this with OEM to rule out problem.

When I purchased the car I took note of which light bulbs were out. I noted that the DRIVER side running lights were out, all of them (rear running lamp, front corner running lamp and front bumper side lamp). In addition to these, one plate lamp and one fog lamp were out.

After ordering the new bulbs on Amazon, I noticed that all running lamps were back on! I previously assumed they were burned out but the bulbs were good.

The light above the plate was verified to be a burned bulb.

So now, I am convinced that there is something wrong with the DRIVER SIDE running light harness wires.

Does anyone have any experience with tracing down running light wiring issues, specifically with the DRIVER SIDE?? My problem does not appear to be symmetrical.

Thank you!

Welcome to the forum from the other side of the pond..............Frankie

 

[the Nefyn cat]

The bolt being missing out of the clamp won't help, and it also looks like you've got a case of "previous owner blues" coming on. Not very constructive, I know, but seeing cut wires and missing bits probably means there'll be more hidden horrors. Patience and a multimeter will be your friends.