So I have finally finished the OBC retrofit but not quite with the ease in which I thought at the beginning. I started by replacing the stalk which was straightforward. Armed with the BMW retrofit instructions (referring to the wiring layout on the bottom of page 4, Diagram No.2,
I got the wiring loom and firstly plugged in the OBC unit (a) followed by the connector to the stalk (c). I then joined up the two earth cables (b) to any earth I could find (all earth wires were brown - I never found any Brown/Orange). Next I went for the six wires (d to i) that were to be connected to the fan connector under the instrument panel. On my car, only two strips had space to add another wire so I had to use scotch clips to join the other four onto existing clips. The instructions said to concentrate on the wiring positions and NOT on the colours. However, nowhere could I find anywhere giving a layout of the fan connector so I hadn't a clue where X182, X183, X188 etc were located so I could only go by the matching colours which worked out fine.
Now the fun started. The next one up was the fuel sensor (j). I eventuall located the connector in the footwell but it was impossible to find the cable to snip within the mass of wires. I aborted this and decided to connect it at the back of the instrument panel instead. The wire was Pin 1 on the small black 12 pin connector.
Next up was to get the cables through the bulkhead. I could not release the clasp holding the wiring loom in place. I eventually decided to punch a hole through the same plastic panel under the loom. Installing the temp sensor (n) was easy but the final piece was the TI Sensor (m)
I found the X20 connector under the battery tray. However, plug in station No. 24 was already filled. From wiring diagrams, it would appear that it should be connected to Pin 25 on the blue 26 pin connector on the rear of the instrumental panel which is what was suggested in Diagram 13.
Hopefully this will prove useful for anyone else who decides to embark on this. It's a piece of cake in hindsight. My problems were so easily solvable but I wasted ages in the first place trying to do things by the book.
Cormac |