Headlight washer pump wiring.

[Boggie]

Hi all,

I am restoring the LH engine bay wiring and there are two small loom legs under the washer bottle for which I need some help in identifying the last connectors / wires (picture below). I have the main washer pump (windscreen) and washer bottle level loom connections sorted but the second loom leg, presumably for the headlight washer pump, is causing some head-scratching and I cannot find a wiring diagram for the headlight washers.



Violet/Black stripe
This starts as blue as it exits the loom, goes into a white twin connector where it emerges violet/black and terminates in a single female spade.
Q: Am I right in assuming this is the +VE side of the headlight washer pump?

Brown
This starts as brown as it exits the loom, goes into the white twin connector where it emerges as black then into an inline black thingy and finally brown which terminates in a single female spade.
Q1: This is presumably then the -VE side of the headlight washer pump?
Q2: What is the black thingy? A diode?

Brown/Black stripe
I have a loose wire that looks like it has either broken away from or been pulled out of somewhere. Looking at its length it might have been pulled from the white connector, potentially joined with the brown wire at the connector but there is no obvious sign of this on the connector itself.
Q: Any ideas where this wire should go please?

The headlight washer pump itself was ceased but I have stripped, cleaned and reassembled and it now pumps fine. However, whilst I hope to be surprised, I am not expecting the headlight wash/wipes to work. I plan to take out the headlight assemblies to clean / paint etc and at that time I will be using Brucey's rather good guide to coax them back into life but getting the pump working and wired up is the first step.

Oh, and one last thing: What holds the washer bottle on its mounting bracket? Just gravity? Mine just lifts off, should there be something to lock it down?

Thanks,
Ian

[Brucey]

Not that there is much danger of it coming adrift once it is filled with water (it wedges harder once full) but there should be a large rubber band to help the washer reservoir stay put. It is indicated on the ETK, IIRC.

You can make the wiring functional by following a wiring diagram, e.g. see here;

viewtopic.php?t=2247&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

but if you want it to also look like it should, you need some pics of an unmolested wiring harness of a similar date. I have an early '87 build so yours might be the same, might be different; if no-one comes up the right thing I will take pictures if you like. I think that there may be small differences depending on whether the headlight washers/wipers were factory fitted or (much less likely) fitted later on.

Basically the intensiv system is standard but the headlight wash-wipe wiring is (being an option) just piggybacked onto the standard wiring. I don't think the standard wiring is that good TBH; salt spray enters this area and can easily rot the wiring/connections; I think you could do better quite easily, but it is a good idea to make it so that you can remove it in order that the system can be bench tested.

I am not sure what the black blob thing is; if it is a diode you can identify it using a DVM.

cheers

[ron]

The headlight washer pump gets its power from the R/H headlight wiper motor (but only when the lights are switched on) when it comes off the parked position.

You will notice that the L/H motor plug has 3 wires and the R/H motor plug has 4 wires.The extra wire (blue) provides the power.

[Boggie]

Thanks Chaps,
Very useful info but I cannot see where the brown with black stripe in my photo goes..

[Brucey]

Thanks Chaps,
Very useful info but I cannot see where the brown with black stripe in my photo goes..

as indicated in the diagram I prepared in thread I linked to the Bn/Bk wire connects

pin 85 on the headlight wiper relay
the 'low' side of the windscreen washer pump.

The wire is normally 'high' but goes low when the washer pump (which is 'switched low') is running. This provides the signal to start the headlight wash-wipe cycle, but is also conditional on the headlights being 'on' (thus pin 58 is high).

cheers

[ron]

Thanks Chaps,
Very useful info but I cannot see where the brown with black stripe in my photo goes..

There is a self-contained loom for the headlight wiper/washer system.It is plugged in to the wiper relay which is mounted

behind the R/H indicator unit. #12 below.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showpar ... Id=61_0029


I have a loom sat in front of me. If you'd like to give me a call, I can talk you through it.

[Boggie]

Thanks for that. Apologies for not picking this up sooner but been out of action for a little while. Back in the saddle now though!
Ron, I will send you a PM.
Cheers!