Won't make tha mistake again!

[Rob]

Well yesterday was an eventfully day for me and my 525i.

I replaced the 12th fuse in the fuse box and when i turned the key, it popped. Tried another fuse, same thing. I think okay, must be a short somewhere. I check what that fuse protects. Mirrors, Reverse Lights, Heated Jet Washer System.

Well, I didn't put the car into reverse, so it can't be the reverse lights causing the problem. Mirrors, no, I haven't touched them and almost guarantee they work perfectly. Right, leaves me to the Heat Jet Washer System.

I look to the front of my hood, while open, and see the wires, yup, there's there problem. So I figure since I'm not using them right now, I'll just cut the problem wires, tape that up and that's that. So I did exactly that.

That worked, mirrors working lights working again, no more fuse popping. Great! :D

So I get out of my car, lock it. Disconnect the battery as the car will stand still for the next week until I do some work on the engine and fuel pump. I then clean the battery in there and close the hood. As soon as I close the hood I think, ****, how the **** am I going to open this again.

So I get my key, try the driver's door, I just hear a click and nothing else. Okay, fine, passenger's door. Nope. Key doesn't turn fully and she won't open. Fine, want to be like that, we'll do it another way. Open the truck connect a 12V source to the light, hear locking motors ect, but she won't open still. Damit.

So my old man tries the wire down the door trying to pop the lock from inside. This doesn't work due to the car being dead locked. Realise that after I've screwed up the silver trimming around the door. :(.

So I sit there and think, I tried the emergency unlocking, where you lift the handle ect, no joy, she won't badge.

I was just about to smash the window, when I came up with another, last effort attempt to open the door.
I go get the jack from my old mans car, place it under the front end. And jack the front up 3 inches so I can get under the car and have a little room to move about. I placed the jack under the engine supports that go to the shocks. lift the car couple of inches, front tyres still firmly on ground though.

I then go inside and get a 12V battery charger, go under the car, hit my head on the starter motor, then bumped the radiator, and knocked it n the jack. I wasn't a happy person at this stage. I then stick my arms up into the engine bay and try feeling for the battery, battery found, then I look for the negative cable, 20 minutes later, negative cable found. I then pull it as far as possible to the bottom of the engine, under the car. Right, next it's time for the positive cable. This took about 30 minutes of swearing and hitting my head on parts of the engine, but eventually found it while holding my phone on my head to get some light. (It has a damn bright LED touch for the camera) (SE K750i)

So I connect the charger to these two, and power it. I hear a few noise in the car and quickly go to the drivers side, no luck, still won't open. So I try passenger's side, bingo, she opens! :D
Went back to driver's side and she works from there as well. I pop the hood and reconnect the battery and leave it as is.

Needless to say, after that I wasn't in the best of moods and was hot and dirty, took a bath and relaxed. Then got a call from my girlfriend to say she was coming round to my house in the next 15 minutes. Spent the next 2 hours with her, she changed my mood and made my forget how **** my day was.

And that was my Sunday, folks. ;)

Won't be making that mistake again, can assure you of that!

[SRR2]

At the risk of runing your Monday too, you went to a lot more trouble than necessary under the car. The battery is connected directly to the starter. You could have powered up the car's electrical system by jumping your 12V external battery right at the starter.

[Rob]

Lol, really? Ah well got it open, that's the good bit!

Thanks anyway, SRR2! :)

Edit: Actually, the battery was disconnected as that's was caused the problem of the locks in the first place, so your method wold not have worked, or have I missed something?

[Evan]

Glad you're back up

[Rob]

Thanks man, so am I. :D

[SRR2]

Yes, you're missing something. You disconnected only the battery from the electrical system. The wiring between the starter and battery cable was still connected, thus the lug on the starter was still part of, and connected to, the car's system.

[Rob]

Oh, doh! I was missing something!

Thanks, SRR2, will do that next time if this happens, hopefully not!

[SRR2]

I won't tell you how many stupid dumbassed things I've done in my lifetime that have made bad situations unnecessarily worse. In the heat of the moment, you tend to think a little more narrowly than usual and go for the most direct approach. Only later after you've had time to think through the situation more thorougly does the DUH! moment occur.

Basically you get credit for a good solution to the problem. Not the easiest, but a good one. You got the car open, you didn't destroy anything in the process, and it didn't cost you anything but some time and sweat. Oh, and a bump on the head. Heh heh.

[Rustam]

Well yesterday was an eventfully day for me and my 525i.

I replaced the 12th fuse in the fuse box and when i turned the key, it popped. Tried another fuse, same thing. I think okay, must be a short somewhere. I check what that fuse protects. Mirrors, Reverse Lights, Heated Jet Washer System.

Well, I didn't put the car into reverse, so it can't be the reverse lights causing the problem. Mirrors, no, I haven't touched them and almost guarantee they work perfectly. Right, leaves me to the Heat Jet Washer System.

I look to the front of my hood, while open, and see the wires, yup, there's there problem. So I figure since I'm not using them right now, I'll just cut the problem wires, tape that up and that's that. So I did exactly that.

That worked, mirrors working lights working again, no more fuse popping. Great! :D

So I get out of my car, lock it. Disconnect the battery as the car will stand still for the next week until I do some work on the engine and fuel pump. I then clean the battery in there and close the hood. As soon as I close the hood I think, ****, how the **** am I going to open this again.

So I get my key, try the driver's door, I just hear a click and nothing else. Okay, fine, passenger's door. Nope. Key doesn't turn fully and she won't open. Fine, want to be like that, we'll do it another way. Open the truck connect a 12V source to the light, hear locking motors ect, but she won't open still. Damit.

So my old man tries the wire down the door trying to pop the lock from inside. This doesn't work due to the car being dead locked. Realise that after I've screwed up the silver trimming around the door. :(.

So I sit there and think, I tried the emergency unlocking, where you lift the handle ect, no joy, she won't badge.

I was just about to smash the window, when I came up with another, last effort attempt to open the door.
I go get the jack from my old mans car, place it under the front end. And jack the front up 3 inches so I can get under the car and have a little room to move about. I placed the jack under the engine supports that go to the shocks. lift the car couple of inches, front tyres still firmly on ground though.

I then go inside and get a 12V battery charger, go under the car, hit my head on the starter motor, then bumped the radiator, and knocked it n the jack. I wasn't a happy person at this stage. I then stick my arms up into the engine bay and try feeling for the battery, battery found, then I look for the negative cable, 20 minutes later, negative cable found. I then pull it as far as possible to the bottom of the engine, under the car. Right, next it's time for the positive cable. This took about 30 minutes of swearing and hitting my head on parts of the engine, but eventually found it while holding my phone on my head to get some light. (It has a damn bright LED touch for the camera) (SE K750i)

So I connect the charger to these two, and power it. I hear a few noise in the car and quickly go to the drivers side, no luck, still won't open. So I try passenger's side, bingo, she opens! :D
Went back to driver's side and she works from there as well. I pop the hood and reconnect the battery and leave it as is.

Needless to say, after that I wasn't in the best of moods and was hot and dirty, took a bath and relaxed. Then got a call from my girlfriend to say she was coming round to my house in the next 15 minutes. Spent the next 2 hours with her, she changed my mood and made my forget how **** my day was.

And that was my Sunday, folks. ;)

Won't be making that mistake again, can assure you of that!

I disconnected my battery plenty of times locking the car - the passenger side front door always works with manual unlocking procedure...

[Rob]

Mine didn't for some reason though. :(

[Kakaire]

Mine works on either door(s).

[Rob]

Meh, not going to fuss over something so small. :)