SRS Indicator Light *Popped*

[h0bbez]

Hey, everyone.

I recently got a black '98 318ti w/ Sport package from a local independent dealer. One previous owner, ~82,000mi and in pretty good shape, all things considered.

I already drew up a laundry list of (hopefully) little things that need fixing. Among them, the SRS indicator. The darn thing refuses to light up like it's supposed to when starting the engine.

One of the things in the laundry list is to replace all the bulbs in the instrument cluster. My initial thought was, "Great, hopefully the fix for the SRS light will be as simple as replacing a burn-out bulb." I followed previous DIY postings on how to replace the cluster bulbs (thanks fellas, you might just save me $100). To my surprise, I found that the SRS bulb was not only burnt-out, but it POPPED (as in burst into pieces). How could that be?

Before this little discovery, I took the vehicle to the mechanic last week for a general inspection. The SRS issue was one of the things brought to his attention. I was later told that they couldn't perform a basic check of the SRS, perhaps because someone had taken out the bulb as a cheap fix for something, or because of some larger underlying problem, which they could not diagnose without use of their fancier toy$.

I'm pretty freaked now that I found this broken bulb. Is the problem isolated to the instrument cluster alone? Did the SRS fry, causing the bulb to burst? I'll be the first to admit that I don't know sh~t from chinola when it comes to fixing cars (but I hope to someday).

I'll appreciate any insight any of you might have regarding this.

TIA

[stormos]

my light has been on since i bought the car. one day i might get it sorted aswell as the endless list of other issues!!

[J!m]

h0bbez:

I would just replace the bulb and see what happens. Bulbs sometimes fail this way. I doubt a problem with a control system sent such a jolt down the line, through the cluster computer, and straight to that bulb ONLY, and not anything else...

Try it and see. What can it hurt? a $2.00 bulb blows right away?

[andyman7931]

I accidentially unplugged something under the hood of my 735i one day and it caused the SRS light to stay on forever. I think it was the sensor to tell the car it had been hit. When I had the car painted they unhooked the battery before doing that to prevent the SRS computer from registering the loss of sensor, or at least that's what they told me. I could have taken it to a shop to get the light off, but I didn't care that much.

[h0bbez]

Thanks J!m.

Umm... I replaced all the bulbs, including the one for SRS. But no dice. SRS remained out. I found out in the process that the bulbs are not the typical 2721's that one finds at the local auto parts store. The original bulbs were soldered to the base. I had to fetch 16 of those puppies from the BMW dealership across town.

Funny thing though, I noticed that there are three indicators in the bottom row that had missing bulbs -- "CHECK CONTROL", "<=.=>" and "^_||__". Are these special purpose and not to be messed with? If I wasn't supposed to, I already did, but they didn't light up -- so I decided to remove the bulbs and leave those like they were originally.

I tried running the gauge tests as mentioned in one of the DIY's. It just flashed "TEST 01" and didn't continue with all the other tests. It did work when I ran them before I replaced the bulbs.

I opened a can of worms, didn't I?

[J!m]

Originally Posted by h0bbez

Thanks J!m.

I had to fetch 16 of those puppies from the BMW dealership across town.

"CHECK CONTROL", "<=.=>" and "^_||__".

Yep. Special little bulbs in their little plastic base...

Not sure about "Check Control"; but "<=.=>" is for trailer lights (my Land Rover has this and it flashes to tell you the trailer signal lights are working) and the last one is the convertable top indicator. Not sure exactly WHAT it indicates, but it looks like the side view of the upper half of the car.

None of these should light up on a US spec. ti.

[robcarync]

ahhh i love calvin and hobbeS!!!!

haha sorry guys!