Not cranking over (Bipes connection?)
 

Hey all,

I pulled my bipes today to futz with the settings and when I got back in the car neglected to plug the unit in (duh). Of course it just turned over and over, not starting. I plugged it back in and now it's not even cranking over. Removed bipes and it's not cranking over. Battery seems fine, not even getting the "clicking" sound of a low/bad battery.

Here's the question.

1) If the leads in the Bipes unit at the ECU have become disconnected would the car even turn over?

2) If so, I have another issue at hand obviously. What would I look for? Are there any fuses involved in the ignition process that could have blown?

Thanks for the info!

It should at least crank.

Where do you house your Bipes... is it in the glovebox? Did you have to get in the kickpanel or anything. If you pulled the floorboard and were messing around with the ECU wiring harness itself, it's entirely possible you simply shorted something out... that's why you disconnect the battery anytime you mess with anything electrical (especially something non-factory that you spliced into the harness... lesson learned).

The only thing I cold think of that would prevent it from cranking is a popped starter circuit breaker, bad solenoid, or bad starter. I've never heard of a Miata starter needing replacement, so I'd start with the breaker.

you have to reconnect the CAS signal (white). If the Bipes is removed the connection is broken (since you cut it, of course).

If the Bipes is disconnected, then like you found, it will turn over but not run. Reconnecting the Bipes should fix the problem. Since it has not, I would charge the battery and look at fuses.

If you disconnect the Bipes again, does the starter work??

When the ignition is turned to acc, do you get the fan and radio, etc??

The main fuse, in the fuse box under the hood, is where I would start to look if no accessories. If the accessories work and a battery charge doesn't help, then you need to look at the starter system. Were you just moving switches on the Bipes or doing wiring or something else with the electrical system??

All the bipes connections are intact. I only pulled the unit to adjust the settings, plugged it back in and nothing. Done it a thousand times.

The car should still turn over even w/the Bipes unit itself disconnected, that's what clued me in to the fact that I had set it on my seat instead of plugging it in initially. Brain overload from the holidays I guess.

All lights on the dash work, the Main 80A fuse is fine. I guess I'll start the tracking down of batter/starter/electrical problems.

Too fun! thanks for all your help. If anyone can think of anything else please drop me a line!

Thanks!

i think starter if so then you might as well do a clutch.

+1 on this. Double check the CAS wire. I have had two instances in the past few years where this has been a problem. The first time I couldn't start the car for over a month (then I figured out the bipes harness was disconnected). The second time I spent hundreds on towing bills, etc to find that the CAS wire was a problem (this was on a J&S box but it does the same thing as a bipes). It won't get me a 3rd time <G>!

But his starter does not work. The bipes wiring won't do anything there...

I'd look at the clutch interlock switch first.

Try putting 12 volts to the starter solenoid. That should tell you whether the problem is in the solenoid actuation or not.

OOPS, didn't read his second post. You might jumper across the clutch switch (the big one). That will tell you if it is bad (not sure why it would be) since it is not as hard to do as running a hot wire to the starter - you just have to be flexible and have a small piece of wire <G>.