I bought a 97 EL Futura and it has a few issues. the guy i bought it off said it doesnt start however when i got it home it started instantly. left it for the day and went to do some minor repairs the next day and the car didnt start. It turns to reds but goes no further (it doesnt show the odometer and none of the guages turn on) Smartlock only requires my key so its not a keypad thing, At first the car would start if i went and nudged my front bumper. The next day the bumper nudging no longer worked and when i try to start it the same thing happens except this time when i turn my car off the reds stay on... they dim a little but they are visibly on and sometimes even my fuel pump starts up and stays on even if i take the key out of the ignition, If i leave the car this way after about 30 seconds it starts to beep. If i move the gears the car turns off, fuel pump included.

I have taken out the BEM and inspected it, it doesnt appear to have anything noticeably wrong with it and bumping the dash where the BEM sits never worked either. I have tried new relays under the coolant bottle to no avail. Also when i was trying to figure it out tonight i popped the boot and my mate went around and slammed it shut which jumped the car into life... For about 3 seconds >< the odometer came on as did the familiar sounds of "activating" your car, They quickly turned off however... Any ides on what could be causing this?

u paid money for this?

bad earths??
think theres 3-5 in the engine bay, 1 on top of the dash under the windscreen-dash filler panel and 1 in the boot(r/h side).
probably a few more around the place too

Not much. originally i bought it as it would save me alot of money on parts for my EF however the EL is a lot nicer looking so if i can get it going it will replace my EF

Thanks for your reply XRfairmont. Im going to replace the BEM first just incase as on further inspection there are some rust looking spots and it looks like theres some sort of air bubble under a part of the metallic crap on the underside. If that fails to make a difference i will go through as many earths i can find. if that fails i might just take it to an auto electrician.

Perhaps related but perhaps not. I attempted to reset/retrain the BEM by turning the ignition on for an hour however nothing happened. The smartlock light doesnt light up either when turning the ignition on.

Can i test the BEM by replacing it with my EFs BEM? My EF has a black one while my EL has a blue one?

Thanks for your help.

Does it have a cd player/ radio in it?

Yes a CD Player

Sounds like a bad earth. Check the negative battery terminal and make sure it is tight and related earths nearby are tight, i would say the boot slamming, bonnet nudging was coincidental, also try a new battery, if aftermarket radio is installed it could be earthing or wired bad too. Good luck mate

s**t bad luck with the car mate - Im having a s**t load of trouble with my EF that I bought recently (Nothing like yours though) . . . hope you get it all sorted . . . sorry no help from me but thought id throw up a post anyway

Cheers
Grant

Thats just really really random, have you checked the ignition chamber? wiring could have come away from soldering

the bem's/bcm's are different EF-EL, so they wont interchange

Thanks for the replies guys, Ill check all your suggestions when i get home from tafe and let you know how it turns out. I really hope i can get it going as its such a nice car inside and out, Ill put up some photos when i get home.

as XRfairmont67 has said, check all your earths first

mine did the same thing, battery was stuffed and ecu buggered.

try a different battery if not try a differernt ecu.

Ok so ive checked all the earths i could find and they are all tight and appear to be ok. I tried a different battery and no improvement and the wiring on the CD player looks good. The only thing i can even think could be the problem right now is the BCM or the ECU. Is there a way i can test if the ECU is shot? is it a simple plug and play fix or is it more technical than that? Can i take the ECU out of My EF GLI and fit it to my EL Futura?

And also Pics as promised

The EF ECU is different to an EL ECU so will not fit and an EF engine uses a coil pack where as an EL engine uses a dizzy so the ECU's are not interchangeable