Tech Talk From Oakville Starter Alternator MAZDA 929 TRANSMISSION TROUBLE Are you wondering what this is doing in a newsletter from a company that sells electrical components? Read on. The complaint is that the vehicle has no fourth gear or that the vehicle cycles back and forth from fourth to third to fourth, etc. The problem could be a starter with a bad solenoid. If the solenoid is drawing too much current it can dam- age the inhibitor switch, causing the transmission to act up. The real fear here is the potential for mis-diagnosis. If you get a vehicle in with these symp- toms and find that the inhibitor switch is defective, replacing it may result in the vehicle again coming back with another defective switch. What is your next step? Unfortunately, the next step for some techs has been to change the transmission! BMW PROBLEMS ON THE INTERNET A customer purchased a car six months ago and at that time we no- ticed the ignition lock switch was a little stiff and that the car already had a re- built starter installed. Last week the car got towed in with a rattling noise while driving and then a no-crank situation. We replaced the starter with a BMW reman unit and test drove the car—no rattling noise and the starter worked fine. Two days later the car got towed in again— same customer complaint— arattling noise while driving and then no-crank. The starter was burnt out again! We told the customer we thought the ignition lock was sticking and engaging the starter while driving; ie, new ignition switch, new ignition lock cylinder and another BMWre- man starter. Everything worked fine again. Five days later the car got towed in again. After two days the ignition lock switch was stiff and then three days later noise was heard while driv- ing. After that the car would not crank any-more. We tested everything and could not find anything wrong with the wiring, but it seems that after a couple of days driving, somewhere a short appeared, which engaged the starter and then burned it out. Has anyone ever heard of this prob- lem? The solution was found ina ser- vice bulletin from BMW. You have to install a wire harness, a starter inter- lock relay and, on certain models a diode. Also suggested: replace the ig- nition lock assembly, lock cylinder and switch. Are you sending information like this to your customers? If not, you could be your worst enemy! Help educate. FEBRUARY, 2000 Page 1 of 1