Expert: Don Berlan - 7/23/2006

Question
The red wire is brown so that is ok. Any ideas as to what could be causing this? It only takes a few minutes to drain the battery. Is it possible that the starter is bad? It will roll start and run ok. I am thinking short because of the guages and the test system lights will all come on and stay on sometimes.
-------------------------

Followup To

Question -
1985 325e The battery runs dead if you leave it hooked up. Is there a common electrical short on theses cars? Is this a positive ground system? The battery has a short red wire going to the 2 bolts on the body and a black wire going along the floor towards the front. the black is on the positive battery and the red is on the negative. Is this correct? There are some glitches in the guages and the temp guage sometimes works and sometimes doesnt. my fuel pump is noisy but seems to work OK is this a concern?

Answer -
I have never heard of a common short in these cars.They are negative ground as (positve ground went out years ago)And the wiring is NOT correct.In BMW's the ground wires are brown,so something is totally wrong with your wiring.Somebody may have changed the wiring so get a testlight or better yet a volt/ohm meter and check them.

Answer
Do a starter draw test and that will tell you if it is the starter.It probably is that seeing it runs fine other than that..the car is twenty years old and the starter probably has never been replaced.Check also for a good ground to the block,if a new starter does go in make sure it is not painted as the paint will insulate it from the cars battery.