Lost / Homeless cables behind the dashboard

[mark10337]

Hi Stefan

Your first picture..

Lilac is the feed of 12v. it splits, feeds the switch and the end going off the picture is the +12v for your clock.
Lilac Green goes live when you operate the switch and turns on the interior light (not the dash board lights). You can test this with the multimeter. Take off the lilac green cable and test the switch terminal with the switch on and off.

The Map Light next to it. That looks to be wired correctly. The black is the earth, and when the switch is operated it connects the map light circuit to earth (masse gesteuert).
The doors not operating the light - they may have been unplugged at the door contact switches. This is also a lilac white wire on both sides. The lilac white wire from the switch goes to a connector - should be a 4 way bullet connector.



P = Lilac, PG = Lilac Green

Steve is correct. The red brown is connected to the panel light resistor used for dimming the dashboard lights. There should be a red white wire attached to the other side of it.



R = Red, RW = Red White, RN = Red Brown, RU = Red Blue

The first and next 4 RW bulbs are your centre instruments, the next 4 are the Speedo and Tacho, the last 3 on the RU (Red Blue) are the lower dash lights that illuminate the strip at the bottom of the panel.The R on the right, is your power feed from fuse 5 which should have 12v (but only when the park lamp switch is on).

[disaster123]

Thanks again. Everything looks exactly like on your picture. That also tells me that the loose lilac cable is definitely for the old kienzle clock.

The panel light resistor has only one red brown cable. So the red white is "missing" but the loose red white cable which you can see on the first picture is far too short to get it to the light resistor. At least 8cm missing.

[disaster123]

@mark10337: where are those screenshots from? Seems i need to check each single cable

[mark10337]

The diagrams are from the Series 3 Wiring diagram. This is available in the Knowledge Base here.
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=700

S3 Wiring Diagram: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a4ubnltt94dnq ... g.pdf?dl=1

[disaster123]

Thanks mark10337 .

Some news.

1.) The instruments lights are working again! Hurray. I swapped two red white cables so they're all connected now. Still short but ok. But the switch for the instrument lights has three states. The instruments only light up on the in the 2nd position. The panel light resistor also has three connections But the wire diagram shows only two cables?

2.) Map light lights up if i open the passenger door but it does not for the drivers door.

[mark10337]

obviously you need to wire in the resistor. The multimeter should tell you between which 2 terminals the resistance is.

Seems like a fault on the driver's door switch or the cable from it. You can easily check by detaching the wire from the switch in the door frame (lilac-white) and grounding it.

[disaster123]

I swapped the cables on the light resistors but still only two states are working. Can somebody please tell me what the original 3 states of the switch should do?

[mark10337]

OK. The switch has 3 states and 4 wires attached to it.

1 - connects to #4 in the full on position Feeds 12v to the lights bypassing the resistor. Red-White wire - leads to a bullet 4 way connector
2
3 - connects to #4 in the middle position. Feeds 12v to the resistor. Red-Brown wire. Resistor. Then a red-White wire leads to a bullet 4 way connector (same as for 1)
4 - 12v Red Feed wire
5 - Permanently connected to #4. Feeds power to the under panel lighting. Red-Blue wire

OFF - 4-5
CTR - 4-5-3
ON - 4-5-2

First thing is to check the switch works. Either through continuous check or leave 12v attached and check for 12v at the other terminals.

[disaster123]

Hello Marc,

thanks for your great explanation. Did you mix red brown and red blue in your last comment? Currently it still does nothing in pos. 3 all cables are exactly like you said. I need to measure the switch itself tomorow.

[mark10337]

Hi

Red-Brown feeds the resistor for the dimmed lights to the Red-White circuit which is for the instruments. Red Blue is a direct feed for the panel lights which don't get dimmed.