[stealth1]

I have a question on what, if anything in the photo below needs to be replaced.

Background:
Previous owner had a minor fender bender, one airbag went off. Driver seat lower seatbelt is sinched down, others seem fine. Already have new airbag and lower seatbelt, not yet installed.

Dash lights: Restraint system, Airbag. iDrive shows the same, plus two signal lights and the SOS warning. Car runs/drives perfectly fine.

Previous owner told me he spoke with a BMW tech who told him to simply "squeeze" the battery terminal together. It appears as shown in the photo. Note the following: 2b and 3 are loose wires.

Questions:

A. What is the significance of the fact that 2b is not plugged into 2a? What does this lead do? If it has to do with the airbag, do I risk blowing any other airbags by plugging it back in? Really not sure what to do with this, or why it's unplugged.

B. What should 3 connect to?

C. I have not labeled it, but what is the significance of the white powder on the blue plug on the left? This appears to be connected.

D. The plastic is marred in the vicinity of 1. Should this be replaced?

E. What's up with the white powder around the only connector (w/approx. 8 GA wire) attached to the distribution block?


As I said, the car runs perfectly. I am not interested in replacing parts for the purpose of replacing them, particularly when it *seems* nothing is wrong. But - despite a good outcome of whatever "repair" was done, I find the rigging job questionable, and want to at least know which parts if any are a high priority to replace. And which parts should be replaced but are not immediately critical to getting past aformentioned errors/lights.

After I replace the airbag and seatbelt, could the airbag and restraint system errors be coded out, or would this battery safety terminal situation cause interference?

Finally - would anything discussed so far produce an SOS error? The others make sense to me; this one seems from left field.

Thanks in advance.

[ctuna]

http://bmwcoders.com/forum/3-er-8/bm...1-e92-e93-291/
You may have to join that board.

Yes that blue cable plugs in I think it goes to the IBS sensor but that is
just a guess.

There is one tiny wire that is always disconnected it has something to do
with battery maintenance during shipping I have been told.

SOS usually means a bluetooth or most bus problem see the
pdf's or search for SOS here.

If you take a look for manuals in the main part of the board you may find
those electrical pdf's to but the list is not as complete as in the first link.

http://www.socale90.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51

number 3 is a don't care no connect.

My guess is you will need errror resets for the errors incurred
You could do that with a coding setup from the coding sub board
here.

http://www.socale90.com/forums/attac...7&d=1173849963

http://www.e90post.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=368

[stealth1]

The PDF's will be a great resource, thank you. I can now at least find out what everything does.

What the PDF's will not reveal is whether anyone else has experience in driving a car long-term without replacing parts - particularly #1. Right now, the terminal connection is solid. But I don't have knowledge of what may have happened with fuses, etc... The bottom line is that this safety terminal system has definitely has gone off, but does it matter?

[kmarei]

A. in a standard car, 2b should be in 2a
B. http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=316982
C. don't think it makes any difference, both of my cars didn't have it.
D. i assume the previous owner had installed an amp, and used this connector.
E. see C

more importantly, you are missing the battery holder
the black diagonal clamp in this picture

[ctuna]

It there is suppose to be and explosive charge in one of those lines
I believe its the one that goes to the engine , to cut power but still leave
the lights and sos working . But I suppose the car wouldn't run it that had gone off. Its described in one of the pdf's

[stealth1]

I suspect that 2b being disconnected has nothing to do with the accident, but everything to do with a bad IBS sensor. Is there a way to test this without plugging it back in and eventually finding my car dead?

The indicator window on the battery shows black instead of green, so I'm already nervous about having a dead battery at some point..

[ctuna]

You are due for one . They go out like clockwork at about 6 years.
(Or well before 6 years if you haven't been driving enough since these
cars are battery hogs . Its best to have battery tender with one of these cars)
They cause all kinds of strange problems when they get weak and
also the car is hard to jump when they finally go. Its better to be preemptive
with the battery change so you don't get caught at Costco or autozone or
get raped by the stealer ship for a battery and programming for 500 plus bucks.

[stealth1]

Ctuna, Thanks for the advice and confirmation. I will replace it, the peace of mind will be worth it. When I had my e46, I found that the exact same same BMW battery was sold by Walmart under a different name.... everything was identical, casting, fittings, etc, but with a different brand name and black casing.

This battery may be WM's only redeeming quality, it's hard not to be repulsed.
The reprogramming bit seems kind of excessive... I'll probably go with the 3 year warranty battery and just repeat the routine as needed.