Not Starting, no juice.

kungfukoala

kungfukoala

Regular Member
American Zeds
Joined
May 22, 2015
Points
13
Location
NC USA
Model of Z
Z3
Interesting condition with my 1996 Z3. I haven't driven it in about two weeks, and the other night my neighbor came by to let me know that the flashers were flashing. So I take a look and true enough the flashers (hazard lights) were flashing. The button to turn them on/off did not make a difference. I have disconnected the battery for now so i dont drain it. Upon further investigation, this is what I discovered.

Symptoms:
Cannot disable flashers
Won't start
No power to radio
No power to instrument cluster
No power to windows
With or without key in ignition, the car dings (beeps) when drivers side door is open.

What does still work:
All fuses look ok
Lock/unlock all areas with key in the key hole
Interior lights and headlights ok
Power Seat adjustments

My first thought is the anti-theft system went off for some reason, but the key should still start the car and the locks would not be controllable (so I've read), so that doesn't sound quite right. The ignition switch itself has been feeling a bit chunky recently, so maybe it's broke, but if that is the case why are the hazards flashing?

There was a bit of rain that got into the cabin so I am wondering if something could have been shorting out due to moisture?
 
The ignition switch would be my first guess, this since the radio has nothing to do eith alarm.
You could unplug the alarm easily and bypass that completely as well.
 
My guess is moisture in the switch from the rain. The battery will need recharging as it only hAs enough power to power those small items listed. Let the switch dry out with a hair dryer on low and see what happens. HTH JIM
 
Battery - almost certainly. Cars do odd things nowadays when the battery gets low. The electronics get all bitter and twisted as the voltage drops and things switch on un-commanded and things you want on won't work.
Possibly something inadvertently left switched on draining the battery over the days it was left or even just the alarm was sufficient if the battery is on its way out. Might be the ignition switch causing the battery problem. Try charging the battery but expect to have to replace it.
 
Wow..... So I took the staring column off to take a peek at the ignition switch and the wires are blackened and fried! I imagine the moisture connected a circuit there and then *Poof*! Which probably also drained the battery a bit. I snapped a pic or two.


20151011_155504.webp
 
Looks like you've found your problem...
 
oldcarman said:
My guess is moisture in the switch from the rain. The battery will need recharging as it only hAs enough power to power those small items listed. Let the switch dry out with a hair dryer on low and see what happens. HTH JIM
Click to expand...

Hey, this is how the hairdresser's car accusations start! :)
 
Just an update incase anyone finds it useful.

We (me and my 11 year old son ) replaced the ignition switch, part number 61 32 8 360 925, we're good to go. It fixed the issues in my first post here.

Thanks all for the help.
 
Good news, thanks for keeping us all in the loop. I hope that's all your problems done with.

Tony.
 
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