bmwe21.net forums

A few years back, when driving my old Baur home from buying it, I noticed a feint glow with brake wear? light & battery light. I thought the alternator was failing but the guy who sold me the car said it had always been that way. This feint glow even remained when the car was off and the keys removed.

Anyway, the same thing happens with MIB. Does this happen to anyone elses e21?

Now that you mention it, I think I remember this to have happened with my car in the past....I may remember wrong, though..

Yep I know of serveral E21's that have been doing this for years, no further problems and usually you only see a slight glow in the dark lol no worries

Had exactly the same problem with Big Red my E30 Hartge

now I have fixed up and tightened fan belt and it now has full charge - problem has gone away

(bearing in mind my poor technical input!) I would suggest a charge test on your alternator etc and see whether the belt is slipping?

Hmmmm.


That looks like the brake light wear indicator? Take the bulb out lol

Yep, i'd just remove the bulb as i'm sure you don't have any sensors fitted.

It's all 3 red warning lamps not just the brake one or battery. Alternator is charging fully and no slippy belts either. It's not a real problem, just strange. Especially as it seems quite common.

i will have to look through the wiring but could be an earth fault, a bit of earth leakage either from a cable chaffing or a component breaking down

Jason

Jeroen wrote:Yep I know of serveral E21's that have been doing this for years, no further problems and usually you only see a slight glow in the dark lol no worries

Probably BMW had thought of the MAC "sleeping+breathing light" long before Apple did , lol !!!!!

my Baur has this issue as well and right from the 1st day I got it, and the past 3 years this has not developed into an alternator issue so I would not worry too much

btw what we found out a couple of years ago is that this issue is seen with most cars that have an electrical cooling fan installed as well, driving at high speeds the thing probably starts to turn and act as an alternator. We tested and blocked it, another test drive and the light stayed off. So this could be an issue with some of our cars as well.

Of the two E21's I've had, it seems the alternator just about puts out enough juice to keep everything going - especially apparent when I've got the blower on, rear demister, wipers and stereo - my headlights start dimming until I put my foot down. And that's with a new alternator/battery/fan belt.

I'd check your earths & battery size/condition. There shouldn't be any drop in brightness even if you have all the leccy bits turned on.

You know the red light on K.I.T.T.?...............they never sleep,you know.

m3gaz wrote:You know the red light on K.I.T.T.?...............they never sleep,you know.

It'll go all HAL9000 on him when he least suspects it...