Odometer Broken! Need HELP!!

[Greg325]

Hello

I have a 87' 325es. i bought the car and a week later the Odometer stopped working (all other gauges work). Is there anything I can do to fix it? I know this is a common problem i just need help from someone who has had the same problem=/

Thanks, Greg

[ZM Blue Devil]

common problem yes, replace the gears to repair. If you search im sure you will find a diy.

[Wh33lhop]

I wouldn't exactly call a broken odometer an urgent problem, but you can take apart the gauge cluster, figure out which gears are broken and replace them. It's expensive though, generally like $25 per tiny plastic gear.

http://www.odometergears.com/ price is still an arm and a leg IIRC but it's a source.

[Jean]

You can also get them on ebay as well, for about 1/3 the price if you aren't willing to pay $25 per gear.

[ZombiE30]

....or you can surf junkyards pulling every gauge cluster you can find in the hopes of getting one with good gears.

[Jean]

....or you can surf junkyards pulling every gauge cluster you can find in the hopes of getting one with good gears.

That makes a lot of sense, considering the time you'll waste pulling 20 year old gears....

[ZombiE30]

....takes me about 5 minutes per cluster. That's even if they're still there. The first things stripped here (at least at this particular pull and pay) are instrument clusters, plastic bumpers and sport seats.

But then again, I like messing around in junkyards in general....

[reelizmpro]

Find out which gear or gears you need. Most of the time it's just the small 11-12 (i forget) tooth drive gear.

[DJB]

Do you have a VDO or Motometer cluster? (The brand is embossed on the cluster face.)

If it's just the drive pinion, you can get a '12 tooth 0.5 module 1.9mm bore' gear at the local hobby store.

[Greg325]

Okay thanks for all the help guys.

Do you have a VDO or Motometer cluster? (The brand is embossed on the cluster face.)

If it's just the drive pinion, you can get a '12 tooth 0.5 module 1.9mm bore' gear at the local hobby store.

Its a Motometer why does that make any difference? how hard is this going to be to fix? are the gears WAYY in there or right behind where the odometer numbers are? im about to go out there and open it up, i hope its as simple as undoing those 2 screws i saw on the top part of the cluster ?

Thanks
Greg

[ZombiE30]

....it's easy to get these things out.

Undo those two screws you mentioned, then all of the clips on the back of the cluster. There's 4 screws holding the speedometer in place on the back and ALSO UNCLIP THE GREEN CONNECTOR. It has 4 prongs going into the bottom of the speedo, which won't come out until you pull the green part, which is just held on by a clip on each side.

Then the speedo will lift right out, and the gears are sitting there out in plain sight, behind a little plastic cover.

Also make sure to remove any gear fragments floating around. Most of mine that stripped the drive gear then mushed its remnants into other gears and stripped them too.

[Jean]

Greg325 - Vdo and MotoMeter use different gears.

Picture so you can see where they are.

[flyboyx]

in my experience, all miles per hour motometer clusters have bad gears. all motometer clusters with kph gears that i have seen are fine. vdo clusters never seem to have an odometer gear problem. unfortunately, most e30's seem to have motometer clusters. shit. that almost sounds like a nursery rhyme.

the offending parts mentioned above seem to turn to mush over time likely from sitting in the heat. if you have a gear in your cluster that seems to be only missing a tooth, you may think it will still work. throw that sucker away. it will spin around to that point and quit on you.

also, the gears are NOT interchangeable between motometer and vdo. they are sized(ratioed) very different.

[scottinAZ]

I had to replace the small drive gear in my VDO set (my spare speedo also needs all gears) it isnt a hard job, but the gears are expensive for what they do. I got mine off Ebay, and they work just fine.

[Greg325]

ILL Get to work on it. TY for all the Help!