Gauge Cluster

[chase]

Ok, so I've been having lots of trouble with my gauge cluster over the last year or so. At first, the speedo would randomly die, drop to 0. Hitting the dash pretty hard sometimes made it pop back up, sometimes not so lucky. Also, the gas tank meter would randomly flicker sometimes, or jump from full, to half full, or something like that. Additionally, the temp gauge cluster hasn't worked sinc I got the car. From reading posts and talking to people, I was lead to beieve that my SI batteries were going back. I replaced the batteries with some new ones, and the problem still occurred.

Later, a month or so after, I had my engine swapped with a used one I bought from BMR. After which, some problems, but in addition, my Odometer no longer functions. At first I thought they messed something up, but Jordan said they are unrelated, since the connection for the Odometer is in the transmission, not the engine. So I finally went to a junk yard and pulled a cluster from another car. I put it in, but the temp sensor still doesn't work, and the odometer still doesn't work. I'm at a loss as to what could be wrong. I suppose there is a chance that the odometer on this one was broken as well, but the car had 176k miles on it and i find this hard to believe.

Has anyone had any experience with this problem with solutions I haven't tried yet? I would greatly appreciate the help, this is really ticking me off. Thanks!

[Digitalwave]

The first time my odometer went out was at 93k, then I replaced it and that one went out at 108k. You can either get another speedo or replace the gears on the back.

[chase]

Thanks. Can you give me some more information on replacing the gears? Or where you could buy just a brand new odometer.

[Digitalwave]

www.bmwgears.com sells them. You basically just slide the old ones off and the new ones on, it isn't too hard.

[AdamF 88iS]

Don't push the reset button while the car is moving. Thats why the gears break.

[chase]

Don't push the reset button while the car is moving. Thats why the gears break.

Whoops :-/ Wish I had known that....

And as for the temp reader still being non respondent? Thanks

[CGDoig]

hmmm i didn't know that either, good advice though, wish they guy before me knew that too. Mine does the same thing, Only things that function still are the tach and fuel gauge. Everything else is intermitant until the car gets nice and toasty.

[86325e]

Odometer not working = usually bad gears.

Speedo not working = bad sender in the diff or all the solders on the back of the speedo circuit board need to be reflowed with a soldering iron, time and vibrations over time can cause hairline cracks, reflowing the solder fixes that. Oh and your odometer won't work if your speedo isn't working.

Intermittent gas and temp guages = usually a loose ground, there is a nut on the back of the guage, if you tighten that then most times the intermittent jumping dead and coming back on goes away. You said both temp guages are dead on both guage clusters you have, buy a new temp sender they're only like $10. There are 2 get the water temp sender that goes to the dash and not the coolant temp sensor that goes to the DME.

Tach/economy guage dead or intermittent = usually means bad SI batteries

[chase]

Ok, so taking apart both the old tach and the new one from the junkyard, I have discovered the tiny broken gear in each of them. Wonderful.. The link you gave me above doesn't work, takes me to another place which I can't find anything about gears on it. Found another place through googling, sells the gear for 25 dollars....? wow. Thanks

[Digitalwave]

The place with the $25 gears is the correct site, sorry for the bum link.

[86325e]

Ok, so taking apart both the old tach and the new one from the junkyard, I have discovered the tiny broken gear in each of them. Wonderful.. The link you gave me above doesn't work, takes me to another place which I can't find anything about gears on it. Found another place through googling, sells the gear for 25 dollars....? wow. Thanks

Tiny gear in the Tachometer or the Odometer?

[chase]

The odometer. It's the 12 prong piece. It's just busted in both, getting a new one. Never had any trouble with the Tach.

No problem about the link, atleast I found it.

[chase]

Got my gear. How do you remove the metal piece that is left over from the old broken gear, still on the metal piece. Is it screwed on? Thanks

[86325e]

It's pressed on.