Mine is a manual tranny, so I do not have lights. I was able to replace the steering column switch, and now I have most of the functions of the steering wheel. My horn, washer, indicators, high beam, BC and Check controls all work. My wipers still don't work, so I need to look into that, but the washer jets do.

I was unable to loosen the fill plug for the manual tranny, so I'll take it in to an indy for a manual gear oil change. Today I'm working on getting NCSExpert to work on the car. The netbook I have will not cut it, so it's time to hunt on Craigslist for a cheap laptop.

 

Cool! Where did you find the column switch and price? Did it come with all the levers or did you have to remove from old and attach to new. The a few I saw was just the board it didn't have the indicator, cruise control levers, etc. Maybe that is how they are sold. I have the cable and NCSExpert and INPA installed on my computer but haven't used it yet. What are you trying to code? I have a good document which gives step by step NCS DIY, I attached it so you can check it out. The other file is just some good info. Good luck, you give me hope.

 

Wow this sucks I do wish you the best of luck on getting this resolve I hope your pocket is not emptied by the time its over!

 

I got the column switch off of ebay. Seller blast2010 has been really great about getting me parts for way under listed price. For the unit I got I paid $99. I've gotten most of my modules off of him. I got just the board and reused all other parts and it worked like a charm. I'd taken out the headlights and my brother who's tons more mechanically inclined than I am was able to jerry rig the headlights and now I have all light functions with the exception of AE which I plan on buying the 5W LED upgrade from the vendor on here that sells them.

For the coding, I'd planned on coding the newly installed modules if needed, but so far, the modules I've plugged in have simply worked. At the bare minimum, I want to be able to get a listing of all the failed systems.

Next focus point is getting the wiper motors sourced and replaced, and then getting the CCC sourced and replaced.

One interesting thing I discovered is my alarm system works . I wanted to disconnect the battery so that I can spray electrical cleaning stuff on the head-light connectors. I had the car locked and only opened up the trunk as that's all I needed to do to disconnect the battery. It turns out that if you open the trunk without opening the doors, disconnecting the battery sets off the alarm . Good thing it was in the day time, but since I was in a closed garage, man that thing is loud!!!

 

I'm sure my pocket will be empty, but I'm cool with it

Thanks for the well wishes

 

Sounds like you are ready for the road. Did your brother just clean the headlight connectors, were they xenon? I ordered the column switch it was $119, so not too bad. I also ordered a blower motor and regulator. What about your CCC are you getting any life at all? I wanted to replace the amp and TCU before thinking about replacing the CCC I can hear the CD moving and it is lighted.

 

We did clean the headlight connectors, but the ballasts were shot. Actually when shaking them I can hear water sloshing around in there. He basically installed HID's in the place of the Xenons. I took the CCC out yesterday and I'm not getting any lights in anything in the center except the heated seats (which work fine). So I'll be looking at getting a CCC and AC/Heat unit. The screen seems to be trying to display something with vertical lines sometimes showing, but I'll replace that after replacing the CCC and CD-Changer/iPod connection kit (whatever the local junkyard has in a 545i I'm trying to get parted out).

The last thing I'm waiting on before I retire my E46 is the wiper motor. As soon as my wipers are working, I'll start piecing the car back together.

 

what is the story with this car? did you buy a flood damage or salvage car?

 

Salvage. I checked all I could to make sure it wasn't flood damaged, but lo and behold on receiving the vehicle it was indeed flood damaged. Like I stated before I even run an autocheck on it before buying it and the autocheck came back clear on flood/water damage. Still not sure how the car evaded being tagged as flood damage. I'm guessing the previous owner personally took it to the auction after trying to fix it and ommitted the info about the water damage.

 

Basically what you are saying is that you connected regular headlight bulbs and they worked without connecting the ballast? What about the igniters, did you use them? I have adaptive headlights and both modules are out so I wonder if that would work for me. If the headlights will stay straight and not move I can work with that for the time being.

I found some info on that MOST BUS you were talking about. According to this if one part of the MOST bus is down then nothing works, this could be the cause of the CCC being down. I took out my amp yesterday, it was dirty inside lots of signs of water damage. I'm going to try two of those MOST jumper for the TCU and AMP to see if the CCC will work. Checkout the info below.


"One thing you may want to check - the TCU on your car has a connector that has a red light coming out of one "terminal" This is called the MOST bus system. If the light is coming out of one terminal- it must go back into the terminal next to it to complete it's loop. The MOST system is a circular ring of fiber optic cable- if one part of the ring goes out- the entire system will not work. Also NEVER crimp or splice into these fiber optic cables- that will NOT work. IF the fiber optic plug is disconnected you need to go to the dealer and purchase a "MOST BUS JUMPER" and plug the fiber optic cables into it.

Read more: I removed the BMW assist module that was located on the ... - JustAnswer http://www.justanswer.com/car/0uqwp-...#ixzz1n8atstMs