no dash display = no start! help me please!!!

[sheltered]

okay hey everbody, own a 90 525i 5 speed. i'm new here and searched for hours with no avail.
Well this is my problem, my car cranks (turns over) but wont start. My car was running fine and then one cold day , while at a red light, i went to turn the heater on and it killed the car! So i checked the fuses, all looked ok, and wiggled the relays and while wiggling the fuses with the ignition switch on position 3 it came back to life! ok so the same thing happened again but wiggling didnt work this time. so frustrated, i slammed the door with ign. in pos. 3 and that (slamming door) worked!?weird. So here we are at the present and it happened again, but i didnt touch the heater this time. i just went to start it and nothing.
i have noticed this little detail: while driving the car one day it stalled for a second then came back to life.when it stalled the dash display went out for a second also.but only the message display not the odometer display.
now, when i crank the engine only the odometer lights up.but no start.

okay, my car had major electric work done before i bought it. (i think) the main harness caught fire right under the steering wheel. and had to be partially replaced.and probably got hacked.so this is what i know.


please help anything will be greatly appreciated

[632 Regal]

whoa...Javier? Bill R? shogun? winfred?

where is everyone?

let me post a link in the OT forum...

Hang tight dude!

[HDhandyman]

There are two guys who can help with this, but they'll want you to be a little more specific, and tend to only hit the site once or twice a day.

Shogun

Javier

[shogun]

Either a broken wire or a lose contact where the fuses are. I do not know how good you are with electrics, but if you click here, scroll down, there are electr. trouble shooting manuals by year of production.
http://www.e38.org/e34/

I had a similar case some weeks ago on my 750. Engine was only running in emergency limp mode. Lights and indicators in dash went , heater did malfunction.
Finally after long time checking, changing the MOTRONIC, EML, GM, RM, sword, cluster etc, it turned out that 2 cables in the main engine wire harness connector were lose from the bottom of the connector.
So get your multimeter ready. My car could even not give any data on the PEAKE, only error, as no proper connection.

Or read this one too
http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthr...ghlight=shogun

[Kalevera]

Search fusible link.

I've never seen an M20 525, so I can't say for certain where it is...but I think it's on the PS strut tower. With the early M50 525s, which still had the battery under the hood, this was a common problem. The link deteriorates, then breaks contact, and nothing works. Checking continuity might not be enough, as the car occasionally runs and drives, and jolts affect it.

If the car had an electrical fire, it's anyone's guess.

best, whit

[shogun]

Here 525
http://www.bmwe34.net/e34main/mainte...sible_link.htm