Weird car related day
Discussion
What an odd day I've had. Went off to play a game today with a bunch of mates in the car. Stop at petrol station to get some fuel and pop the boot open to get my wallet out before closing it again. Go into station and pay etc before coming out to find my 3 mates gathered round the back of the car. I go over to find that the rear windscreen has totally shattered. Turns out that I mistakenly trapped someone's bag strap/buckle between the boot lid and the rear windscreen so it was pressing against the glass. Whilst in the queue paying, it failed in catastrophic fashion making a loud crack and scaring the hell out of my mates in the back seat. Unfortunate you might say but not totally unexpected given what I had just done.
Fast forward half an hour... we've done our best to tape the glass together and bag up the rear windscreen from the inside to stop the imminent showering of glass which has done little to stop the inevitable so I'm now driving the last stretch of the journey to the game with the rear windscreen caved in. That's when it all got a bit more strange as the ABS light came on, quickly followed by the airbag light. I drive on thinking it can't get much worse but then the dials on the car start behaving very strangely jumping about all over the dash whenever I start pressing the brake pedal and my indicators have packed in.
We finally got the the game just as the car started to misfire as I was parking it up before finally dying altogether.
So there's me thinking that in some way the rear window going must have shorted something and knackered the battery but no, as it turns out, AA man (great samartin he was too) diagnoses it as a faulty alternator and complete coincidence.
think I must just have been massively unlucky today but on the plus side we did win the game so not a completely wasted journey.
Now have the difficult decision of whether to fix it or bin it. It's a 1995 328 that I bought for £500 quid and have only had it a month. Trouble is, Autoglass want £500 for the windscreen and it'll be another £200 or so for an alternator, hardly seems worth it really does it?
Sigh
Fast forward half an hour... we've done our best to tape the glass together and bag up the rear windscreen from the inside to stop the imminent showering of glass which has done little to stop the inevitable so I'm now driving the last stretch of the journey to the game with the rear windscreen caved in. That's when it all got a bit more strange as the ABS light came on, quickly followed by the airbag light. I drive on thinking it can't get much worse but then the dials on the car start behaving very strangely jumping about all over the dash whenever I start pressing the brake pedal and my indicators have packed in.
We finally got the the game just as the car started to misfire as I was parking it up before finally dying altogether.
So there's me thinking that in some way the rear window going must have shorted something and knackered the battery but no, as it turns out, AA man (great samartin he was too) diagnoses it as a faulty alternator and complete coincidence.
think I must just have been massively unlucky today but on the plus side we did win the game so not a completely wasted journey.
Now have the difficult decision of whether to fix it or bin it. It's a 1995 328 that I bought for £500 quid and have only had it a month. Trouble is, Autoglass want £500 for the windscreen and it'll be another £200 or so for an alternator, hardly seems worth it really does it?
Sigh
0a said:
Your 328 has an interesting engine. Post more!
Nothing wrong with the engine, just dodgy alternator not charging the battery. AA bloke charged it for 2 hrs and then I drove it home after the game so it's defo ok aside from that.Just a shame I can't claim for the glass as I have it on 3rd party insurance given it's actual value.
Breakers yard is a good idea for an alternator. What about rear windscreens, can they be cut out of one car and put on another easily enough?
Before you go spending cash on a new alternator, have a look at the alternator belt, it may be slack. I had the same thing happen (not the rear screen!) last year, warning lights coming on and then everything shutting down. Ten minutes with a couple of spanners next morning and it was fixed. No problems since. It does seem a bit of a coincidence that your screen shatters and is then followed by these problems. Are you sure that it isn't a short circuit involving the screen heater wires which are then draining the battery? Might be worth having a good look at the wiring and connections that are involved.
t luck mate. 
Hi All,
Many thanks for the suggestions - quick update on where I am currently.
Managed to find a local fitter that would do me a new rear screen fitted for £220, still a lot of money but miles better than my original quote from Autoglass so I can live with that. I did find one suitable replacement on ebay but it was tinted which kind of put me off as would look silly given none of the other windows are! that was going to be £50 plus I'd have had to pay aroound £100 or so to have it fitted so all in all I thought just as good to opt for a new one. I didn't realise it originally but there are various different types of rear screen depending on whether there is space in it for a rear break light or not (some cars had rear wings with the light in that instead I think)
In terms of an alternator, that was also fun and games. I took the other one off the car on Sunday, couldn't for the life of me work out how to slacken off the serpentine belt to take the belt off so in the end resorted to a bit of brute force. Did the job anyway and that allowed me to find out what part number etc I needed to look for.
Apparently, for those that care, there were various types fitted to my particular version including both Bosch and Valeo. Mine was the latter and it took me a while to track another down that was the same type but managed it in the end. £30 from ebay so fingers crossed that turns up tomorrow and ends up working when I fit it at the weekend.
£250 all in to fix it and I will be happy.
Tom
Many thanks for the suggestions - quick update on where I am currently.
Managed to find a local fitter that would do me a new rear screen fitted for £220, still a lot of money but miles better than my original quote from Autoglass so I can live with that. I did find one suitable replacement on ebay but it was tinted which kind of put me off as would look silly given none of the other windows are! that was going to be £50 plus I'd have had to pay aroound £100 or so to have it fitted so all in all I thought just as good to opt for a new one. I didn't realise it originally but there are various different types of rear screen depending on whether there is space in it for a rear break light or not (some cars had rear wings with the light in that instead I think)
In terms of an alternator, that was also fun and games. I took the other one off the car on Sunday, couldn't for the life of me work out how to slacken off the serpentine belt to take the belt off so in the end resorted to a bit of brute force. Did the job anyway and that allowed me to find out what part number etc I needed to look for.
Apparently, for those that care, there were various types fitted to my particular version including both Bosch and Valeo. Mine was the latter and it took me a while to track another down that was the same type but managed it in the end. £30 from ebay so fingers crossed that turns up tomorrow and ends up working when I fit it at the weekend.
£250 all in to fix it and I will be happy.
Tom
tomwoodis said:
I did find one suitable replacement on ebay but it was tinted which kind of put me off as would look silly given none of the other windows are! that was going to be £50 plus I'd have had to pay aroound £100 or so to have it fitted so all in all I thought just as good to opt for a new one.
All the windows in your car will be a standard (green) tint. There is no clear glass option for the E36. Only on the earlier E30 models. Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff