Grae13

I had a cracked crank case breather hose, and a coolant leak from the y hose under the alternator a month ago. I made a temporary repair just until I was able to receive the parts that I ordered. Yesterday after I received the parts I started to take out the reserve coolant tank disconnect all the small coolant hoses on top, all the turbo air hoses ,which I also found the flange on the right one was cracked and there’s basically nothing holding it in so now I have to order that. But anyway I started to remove everything I also noticed that there’s a small wire on top of the alternator it’s like a small Y and the insulation on it was stripped down and one of the wires that goes into the plug wasn’t present. So I figured that the car has been running like that so it must not be that big of a deal so I proceeded to MoveOn planned on looking into it. While taking out the alternator I got a small spark which immediately reminded me that I should have disconnected the power to the car somehow. So then I went to the positive battery terminal under the hood on the right side and I also got another spark I must’ve made contact with the side of the car. When I was trying to unscrew the terminal. Anyway I made the necessary repairs and put everything back upon starting the car I got a short small little burst of smoke from right above the area of the alternator and then the car started but it started in limp mode. This is my first time ever doing something like this, attempting to take out the alternator. I planned on going to the car in a couple minutes and hooking up my Z-Pak and checking out the codes on BimmerLink

seanjordan20

First thing when doing electrical work always unplug your negative terminal on the battery. If not you risk damage to your 30 and 50 terminal which is the last thing you want. Secondly if there is a wire missing from a plug find a way to fix it. You could of very well knocked it loose after it had already been damaged. These cars are to smart for a wire to knowingly be separated without some type of warning or issue. I think if you unplug your negative terminal and correct the broken cable and/or fix whatever caused your car to smoke (maybe the broken cable supplies fire to whatever it was plugged in to) you will fix your issue. If not clear the codes and see what comes back and post them. A lot of things could of went wrong with how you attempted to fix your issues.

Grae13

thank you for the reply! I’m gonna try that!

seanjordan20

What does this have to do with being in limp mode or an alternator. Please create your own thread.

Grae13

So here the codes from BimmerLink after clearing them.the car was running fine with a lot of these codes present. But some are new . And the check engine light has been on for a while. I thought that was due to something else that I knew about.
Also in order to take off the serpentine belt there’s a wheel that you have to turn until it’s marker is facing to the right . Then you loosen the 4 E screws , then turn the wheel back 180 degrees the opposite way to take out the tension. What size socket do you need to turn that wheel, it’s pretty big does anyone know? I don’t have the size. ???