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[ghostprotocol84]

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum so just thought I would introduce myself and my 2.0 6 cylinder Topaz Blue Z3 Roadster. I had the car for almost 3 years now, purchased it from the fourth owner with a fully stamped up to date service book and some history, it's done about 70k now but still drives great. I had it cheap as the airbag light was on but replacing the ecu cured it so happy days. The car is standard but I updated the head unit to an Alpine with iPod support and refurbished a set of 17" Konig rims to make it stand out a bit, saying that it sits a bit high now so will be shopping around for some lowering springs

[bertiejaffa]

Welcome, nice wheels...

Never heard of the ECU having to be changed to cure the airbag light - one to watch out for.

[ghostprotocol84]

Thank you

The dash arirbag light came on as the wires pulled off underneath the drivers seat, unfortunately the previous owner ignored it for a very long period of time I presume and the wires were touching/earthing which caused the ecu to fry basically. No big deal as it's located behind the dash clock and you can get to it through the radio hole, if you get one with the same serial number it's a simple plug & play job without the expensive re-programming.

[g8jka]

When I purchased my 2.0 it had the same problem, airbag light was on and we couldn't read the airbag ECU. Took me a while to find a second hand one with the same number but after swapping it over the airbag ECU was able to be read straight away and we could clear the light.

Nice looking zed by the way, would look great with a set of lowering springs.

[ghostprotocol84]

Same here, it took about two months of emailing breakers but in the end someone listed the exact one on ebay for £13.99 delivered

The car recently developed a central locking/alarm fault. I replaced the battery in the key and done the pairing procedure but still no joy, before when pressed the led would illuminate for much longer, now it's just a faint quick blink after a second of pressing the key button. The fuse is fine, the central locking won't work even if you put the key in the lock either, so I'm a bit puzzled

[Robert T]

Dzień dobry and welcome to the forum.

It sounds like you have two faults there, as to the best of my knowledge, the key only transmits to the car - it does not receive - so the remote control circuitry might be foobarred.

If the central locking does not work using the key in the drivers door lock, then check whether it operated from the boot lock and also by pushing the pin down on the drivers-side door whilst sitting in the car with the door shut (you can release it by pulling the handle twice). Also check whether the boot locks when you use the key in the drivers door and by pressing the door pin.

If you get some response, it might be the actuators. If you get no response, then my first guess would be the boot loom (aka the loom of doom) where it passed from the body of the car to the boot lid - the wires break with repeated flexing as the boot lid it opened and closed. It is also possible that the alarm/remote central locking unit is fried and is causing problems because it connects to both the lock and unlock trigger lines.

Cheers R.

[ghostprotocol84]

At first when the central locking failed to open from the remote I checked the fuses and one of the 5A was blown so I replaced it and the central locking worked off the lock but when I tried it off the remote the fuse went again. However after a while the central locking stopped working off the key, lock and the door pins (when inside) but the fuse remains intact. Had a similar fault with my old 944 that turned out to be a worn through wire.

I have heard that this dreaded boot loom is the root of all electrical evil in the Z3 but mine looks intact judging by the rubber sleeve. I did notice however that it has popped out of the mounting clip so I guess there is a possibility it got trapped in the guillotine-like hinge right by it at some point I think it would be best to feed the cables out of the boot lid, leave it in the sun to melt that horrible glue, slip the sleeve off and inspect the wires, thank you for the tip

[bertiejaffa]

I would be tempted to cut the sheath away and check the wires visibly

[Bonzo]

Too right. I had central locking issues and the boot loom looked fine......until I cut away the sleeving! One wire broken and another nearly so.

[ghostprotocol84]

As expected it's the boot loom the red cable is completely severed, the thick white one has chunks out of it and the blue/white one doesn't look great either. No wonder the central locking or alarm won't work. I did manage to slip the outer sleeve up so when I'm done with the repairs it will look OEM

[ghostprotocol84]

So I soldered the broken cable, isolated all the ones that were exposed, checked the fuses for alarm, central locking and remote locking, re-connected the battery and NOTING Still no joy opening the car from the remote, lock, or from inside. I tried to re-pair the remote key to the car, LED flashed as it should but the central locking did not kick in to seal the deal. Don't know what else to do or check? Any suggestions guys?