Older E32 articles
Last month I imported all of my old BMW E32 Articles to this site, but I was contacted by a reader pointing out that many of them had broken image links in them. This was due to the way I put the site together on my server before uploading it all to my web host. All of the images ended up with URLs pointing to the temporary host I set up on my server while I was configuring it. I’ve fixed them all now, as far as I can see. I’ve also set up an index page which lists all of the repair articles I wrote for my E32.
Air Conditioning
It must be the start of summer here in the UK, because the temperature has hit 26° C for the last couple of days. The downside is that the air conditioning in my car can’t cope with it at all. Last year it seemed fine. My initial diagnosis is leaking heater valves, which mean that engine coolant is always going through the heater matrix even with the valves closed.
I’ve bought a new heater valve unit (photo to follow…) and hopefully I’ll find the time to fit it this weekend.
Car now fully re-assembled
How did that manage to take so long? I managed to get it all back together this weekend. First job was to install the siren, which I managed to fit by the bulkhead, secured by one of the bolts for the bonnet latch. Finally I completed wiring up the speakers to my head unit
I routed new speaker cable to each front footwell speaker, and from there another length to each dashboard speaker. I’ve not bothered to connect up the door speakers as one of them has broken anyway. Each footwell speaker is a Rockford Fosgate Punch, installed by the previous owner. The dashboard speakers are the smallest no-name 40WPC speakers I could find when I bought them about a year ago. I recovered all the old crossover networks when I took the old installation out, but I only re-used the filters for the dashboard speakers.
It now sounds pretty good, to my ears anyway!
Progress in the alarm installation
Over the last couple of days I’ve managed to make some progress with the alarm. This afternoon the remote start worked for the first time! There’s something a bit creepy about watching a car start itself with nobody sat in it.
I’ve still got a few things left to wire in:
- Parking lights (they flash when you arm or disarm, and light up when the engine is running)
- The alarm sounder (I also need to find a space for it under the bonnet)
- The door open switches
- The boot and bonnet switches
- The vibration sensor (needs mounting on the bodywork somewhere)
- Boot open solenoid (needs some thought…)
- Probably some other stuff
There is no remote boot release on my car, but I’ve got a spare solenoid that might work… that’s the last job though when the rest of it is installed.
Beaten by the weather
Well the plans for today’s work went out the window when we were hit with a heavy rainstorm over my lunch break. Then after work I got about 5 minutes before it clouded over and the rain started again.I got as far as removing the existing speaker wiring. It’s been installed by the previous owner, and consists of some quite good quality cable, and Rockford Fosgate crossovers for the front bass, mid and treble speakers. I’m replacing the cable and routing it better, but I’ll save the crossover networks and re-use them (why not? They probably cost a fortune).
