Help needed.. electrical/ overheating

[slo318TI]

Ok well I have a pretty big problem at the moment.
I just got some gas and as I was leaving I pulled my light knob halfway so I can have my parking lights and fogs on at the same time (it was getting dark) then I heard a weird buzzing sound from my cluster, so I turned them off to see if it would stop and it did but I tried putting them back on but my headlights wouldn't turn on nor my fog lights only my turn signals stayed illuminated and made a very very delayed "click" the sound that the turn signals usually make but very far apart from each other.

So I pulled into the O'reillys parking lot and fiddled with my fuses to see if it would fix it to no avail, all my fuses were fine but my headlights wouldn't turn on only my turn signals and tail lights stayed on constantly unless I turned the car off.

I ended up leaving because I lived right down the road but on the way I noticed my temp gauge getting hotter and hotter until I had to pull over into the 7/11 parking lot and let it cool down now I'm waiting here trying to figure out the problem..

Hopefully some one has had a similar issue and shed some light on what it might be. On Monday I'll get it towed to the shop and I'll have it diagnosed then.

** update**
The turn signals turn on like hazards when I pull the stalk to activate my high beams.. weird


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[paul somlo]

Very strange. The buzzing that you heard could be a relay. The relay box under the hood is on the driver's side close to the firewall, and there's also another relay box under the dash (driver's side). I looked at the wiring diagrams in my Bentley, but some of the pieces are hard to put together. I can sort of understand the connection between turn signals and flashers, as the hazard/flasher relay is responsible for both. You might take a look at the turn signal/highbeam switch, also. The nonfunctioning headlights don't make sense, because they should be independent (a different relay). And the temp gauge is a mystery to me, as well. The odds of independent faults are low, but I don't know what the connection is. Could be something systemic, like a ground. If you've got a wiring diagram and a DVM, some diligent sniffing could flush it out.

[slo318TI]

Originally Posted by paul somlo

Very strange. The buzzing that you heard could be a relay. The relay box under the hood is on the driver's side close to the firewall, and there's also another relay box under the dash (driver's side). I looked at the wiring diagrams in my Bentley, but some of the pieces are hard to put together. I can sort of understand the connection between turn signals and flashers, as the hazard/flasher relay is responsible for both. You might take a look at the turn signal/highbeam switch, also. The nonfunctioning headlights don't make sense, because they should be independent (a different relay). And the temp gauge is a mystery to me, as well. The odds of independent faults are low, but I don't know what the connection is. Could be something systemic, like a ground. If you've got a wiring diagram and a DVM, some diligent sniffing could flush it out.

Thank you for your input! I don't receive any notifications from this app so I need to change that haha.
But As I was driving it to the shop yesterday. Started it up with no problems, got it up to temp and it stayed there till I stopped to get a morning coffee then it cooled down and stayed a little over blue for the rest of the drive to the shop (about 20mi/32km) so i anticipated a faulty thermostat.
So I ended up replacing the thermostat and old nissens radiator with a Behr/hella radiator and flushed the old green coolant out with BMW blue.

Everything is running smooth as butter now.. no lighting problem and no overheating issues I even took it on a spirited drive afterwards to make sure. Only thing now is my random misfires I'm tracking down throwing on the new head next month should fix it haha (fingers crossed)


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[paul somlo]

So, the shop fixed an electrical issue? Or the electrical issue just went away on it's own?

[slo318TI]

Originally Posted by paul somlo

So, the shop fixed an electrical issue? Or the electrical issue just went away on it's own?

It went away on its own... Which is very strange. The day I got it up and running to take it to my shop it was acting up for a good 5 min while I was letting it warm up. But it went away after that and hasn't came back since (fingers crossed) hopefully it was just an anomaly


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[paul somlo]

That's the scary part - I think it may be back at some point, unless the shop did something inadvertently to make it go away for good. Did they do anything other than new radiator, thermostat, and coolant?

[slo318TI]

That's the way I feel as well I'm just hoping it doesn't. What I'm thinking happened was I may have pulled the light stalk out not far enough to illuminate the headlights but far enough to turn on my parking lights and that may have shorted something I replaced some fuses not remembering which ones (it was dark)
And un did the terminals on my batttery which didn't initially fix it but may have in the long run?? Hopefully it doesn't happen again but if it does I'll make sure I check the wires running from the stalk as well as the headlights too


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[slo318TI]

Originally Posted by paul somlo

That's the scary part - I think it may be back at some point, unless the shop did something inadvertently to make it go away for good. Did they do anything other than new radiator, thermostat, and coolant?

And no I work at the shop so I did all the work my self


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