Thread: Help - -removed radio- - now engine won't crank

Did you have the battery disconnected while you pulled the radio out? This should be the first thing you do before touching the electrics.

I would try disconnecting the battery for a while to reset everything.

It may pay to post on FULLFATRR.COM as well, as there is a wealth of info on these things there.

Let us know how you go.

Cheers - Gav

Gav,

I didn't think the radio disconnect would be to traumatic (not much different to turning it off i thought)
I did the battery disconnect and when I reconnected realised it was now quite flat (9V)
So I got the jumper battery pack I had used last night to confirm the problem wasn't a battery voltage issue and guess what - - It was not fully charged either (11V)

With booster battery, voltage was still too low.

I have been trying to work out how to charge the L322 without;
interior lights stuck on
alarm not going off, etc


I can't believe how hard this was.

I gave up, and disconnected the earth lead. (Even disconnecting the earth lead was new technique I hadn't seen in my 40 years of working on cars)

Then I check the charging voltage of the small charger I was using and it was reading something like 10v - - I was starting to think it will never charge it.

Just read some threads on others difficulty with similar situations, and now I don't feel so bad.

The voltage has come up (under charge) to 12.5V so I think it will work. - -I might have to pick up a faster charger for the future I think.

Also, importantly;
When I was thrashing fuses in and out trying to get the system to reset last night I had incorrectly returned the fuse from 18 to the vacant hole at 14 - - that's why my ignition / steering lock failed to reinitialize the second time.

I think it is all good when it is charged - - I will watch some more racing.

Hard work these RR :-)

Thanks again

Ah yes, flat batteries do the strangest things to these cars. If your battery is dodgey, I would replace it all together. It seems like batteries only last a few years before they need replacing.

Once you get it fully charged, give it a go, but if the battery doesn't fully charge, I would stuff a new one in. Even if it starts now, you may have other things go wrong, and you may get all sorts of fault codes start appearing.

Seems to have been a few people buying diesel 322's recently.

I bought mine 2 weeks ago.

Whats the issue with your stereo? I bought mine knowing the stereo didnt work, and this was a bargaining point. I had it up and running in an hour or so, and still have to attempt to fix the bad pixel display though on the mid unit.

Its the 3rd L322 I have seen now where the taillights have leaked and moisture has gotten into the amp in the back.

JSP,

No sound from the Radio.
The whole process (which I can now confirm was started from the battery flattening whilst I worked on the dash all day) was to pull the headset out to have a look.- i was planning on chucking it in favour of a sat nav screen of sorts

I only got to briefly look at the headset, (pulled the fuse, checked the pins in the plug for obvious damage - -what I call Australian content) but could see anything wrong.

When plugged in, the lcd shows that it searches for stations, find them. All volume, bass etc controls appear to work on the LCD. the Disc stacker seems to work, as does the dsic front feed, but no noise from any function.

My L322 is a HSE spec. From what i can read & see their isn't a separate amp(please let me know where it is if this isn't the case.

There isn't an amp in the left rear compartment.


How did you fix the radio?

Stephen

My car has the mid stereo, which is the stacker in the glove box and another cd player in the middle, above the lcd panel for trip computer and radio display. In the back passenger side compartment there is a black box with a big squareish plug, thats the amp. If you have the same setup as me, and you describe the exact same fault as mine, pull that black box out (bit of a bugger to get at some of the nuts) and trace the two power lines and earth, as most likely the permanent 12 volt line has a bad track underneath the plug on the sub-board and you will need to retrace it.

I have fixed 2 units with this fault now.

Mine just has a lot of wires not connected to anything - - I think it is the poverty pack system! Either that or the amp is missing - that would account for the lack of working!!

I will rip the unit a part and try my hand as a radio tech!!

The amp missing in the boot would sum it up - as I bet the headunit works just fine - as the amp in the boot has no smarts - its just an amp.

You can get the BMW version fairly cheap on ebay occasionally, I assume its got the same pinout.