BMW 316i Suspicious Wires? Help?

[smiithers42x]

Hey i got a question but first of all let me just say this:

I'm a 16year old student who wants to become a mechanic, and I'm no pro at it. I'm just a ordinary 16 year old dude who is playing with his mums car

The other day when I was fixing the electric window system I discovered 2 yellow plugs inside the passenger door that hit my window when its down you can hear it rattling going round corners, it's 2 yellow plugs which by the looks of it could be connected as there is a match. So I openned the driver door to check if it's got them plugs too- yes the driver door has them too but they are nicely connected and tucked so their not allover the place. The ones on the other side are too short to connect and some wires connected to one of the yellow plugs has been cut

So yeah could some one explain what they are? Give me a brief overview of whats going on ?

Here is the passenger door plugs that I'm concerned about:





And here is the driver door:





Please feel free to post any thing that would be useful for me
Thanks

[witeshark]

I see similar connectors in a pic on this site

BMW E36 COMPACT DOOR WIRING LOOM PASSENGER DOOR

Maybe this can help narrow it down a bit.

[smiithers42x]

Hmmm, don't really tell me what it does ? :S

Care explaining if you know roughly what it does?

[Lord Vader]

I always thought the yellow connector was for the airbag. What year is this? Have you traced the wiring to the where it goes?

[koason]

*spam edit*

[smiithers42x]

@koason
I don't want it doing I've been driving with it for over 2 years like that..
It's just that I've opened the door to see that it is and the i discovered these and just want a rough out like of what they are and what they do...

@Lord Vader
This a 17 year old car from 1995, and not really. I've only looked at it and didn't wanna fiddle with it, all i know is that the bottom yellow plug is stuck a bit behind the window system so it cannot connect to the other yellow plug and that the bottom plug has some wires cut opened.

[Lord Vader]

You don't have to fiddle with it, but follow the wires to see where they originate.

And ignore that koasan guy, he's just a spammer.

[smiithers42x]

Can't open the door panel any more as i gave the 'star tool' back ( the like a screw driver but with like a star at the end ) as they weren't my tools,

And doesn't this help you to identify what it is? as it tells me nothing

Originally Posted by witeshark

I see similar connectors in a pic on this site

BMW E36 COMPACT DOOR WIRING LOOM PASSENGER DOOR

Maybe this can help narrow it down a bit.

[smiithers42x]

Or this
BMW E36 COMPACT DOOR HANDLE COMPLETE PASSENGER SIDE

[Lord Vader]

Let's see of this helps. Does it look anything like what's in this picture?
Bimmerforums - The Ultimate BMW Forum - View Single Post - What is this random hanging plug inside my frivers door?


Yellow tells the centtral locking to unlock all the other doors when you turn the key.
Gray turns on the inside lights when you have doors locked and lift the drivers handlle
White is drivers door lock heater.

All these plugs go to the door lock.

[smiithers42x]

Yes that helped... but since our central locking system was broken and the mechanic has made a bypass to be able to start the car with out the electronics and the car does not lock with a click of the button. Now you have to turn the key in the lock, to lock all the door or unlock them. To do that he said he had to turn the car alarm off too and he charged us £230 :O

But then you say

Yellow tells the centtral locking to unlock all the other doors when you turn the key.

And my yellow plug is disconnected, and when i turn the key in that door everything works fine? :S

[Lord Vader]

That makes sense now. But when you turn the key ALL the doors lock/unlock?

How the central locking system works is when you turn the key in one door, it sends a signal to the ZKE (central module) to unlock ALL the doors. All the doors can be unlocked mechanically should the ZKE fail. It just means that only that one door will unlock.

If your central locking system was broken it would have been cheaper to replace the ZKE module of figure out why it wasn't working then bypass it. It's normal for a door actuator or micro switch to fail. I know this as the acutator in my drivers door failed. A new actuator is $80 CDN. When one of the actuators or micro switches fails it will cause issues with the whole system. On a sedan their are 6 acutators. One for each door, the trunk, and the fuel door.

[smiithers42x]

Yes, when i put a key in that door all other doors unlock :S same with the driver door where the plugs are connected. :S So now I'm confused.

And yes maybe it would be cheaper to get ZKE but i never know whats happening, and it was a new mechanic to us, so he spotted a good opportunity to make good money, and we just got ripped off.

[Lord Vader]

Well if all the doors unlock when you unlock the drivers door your Central Locking system is working. It's odd though based on that disconnected wire.

[smiithers42x]

Indeed, any other suggestions for whats going on with them wires?