Cluster woes, unsure where to part with my money

[Andy348]

Upon my M20B25 swap into my 8/86 eta, I picked up 3-4 clusters from locals for very cheap and swapped out my 5.5K tach for a 7K one. Now that I've got the car running, I realize that the cluster has multiple problems:

1) Speedo works only sometimes; it will die while driving and then sometimes come back on. The speed sensor in the diff looks good, and I hear it's rare that the speedo would just break so I'm leaning towards SI board cracks.

2) Half of the backlights are out. I tried replacing the bulbs but to no avail - maybe I replaced the wrong bulbs, I'm not sure.

3) Temp gauge occasionally screws up. Just yesterday I turned the car on (cold) and the temp gauge went right into the red and stayed there until I shut it off and started it again (returned to the blue). This leads me to believe SI board problems again.

4) Tach sits at 0 at idle. Right now I think this is more related to vaccum leaks, which I will rule out next weekend.

I have talked to GregM who offers great refurbishing services and found that a full look over and resoldering my SI board (and I think change the batteries) is $200. A new SI board from Blunt is ~$237 and then some money back for a core deposit. A used cluster can be found for $50-100, but once again I have no way to know if it works.

Basically, is there a way to get a working, reliable cluster for under $150-$200? I'm on a very strict budget and would prefer to save as much as possible.

[jlevie]

If the original cluster didn't have these problems, swap in the 7k tachometer from another cluster.

[dnguyen1963]

New SI board from Programma is $169.00.

[StereoInstaller1]

First, get yourself a can of "electrical contact cleaner", a couple of pencil erasers and some good quality pipe cleaners.

Clean every contact everywhere, the inside of the contacts of the plugs, between components on the cluster itself (like where the speedo plugs in) and anywhere you see any connections at all.

You can swap parts to some extent, but there are minor compatibility issues in a few.

GL, and what JLevie said is correct, just swap the tach over to your old cluster if it all worked good.

[nando]

New SI board from Programma is $169.00.

you can get it rebuilt from a guy here, Greg or something, for probably less, and support the community at the same time.

maybe he'll chime in, I apologize for not remembering his name.

[agent]

Gregs///M

[dnguyen1963]

you can get it rebuilt from a guy here, Greg or something, for probably less, and support the community at the same time.

maybe he'll chime in, I apologize for not remembering his name.

Greg///M has been contacted by OP. The cost for re-flow and new batteries is $200. I have not worked with Greg, but he sounds like an honest person. For a few more bucks, I would give the business to Greg///M. Programma costs $169, but then you have to add tax and shipping.

[Gregs///M]

Hey Andy,

Send me the cluster, I'll give you a break on the price. Send me another PM when you are ready.

Greg

[Gregs///M]

I would say you have a combo of dead SI board batteries and solder joint cracks on the cluster main board. I also re-flow solder on the speedo assembly itself, which could also give you intermittent operation.

SI board only affects temp, mpg, tach and service gauges. Not speedo or odometer or gas. Those problems are probably cluster main board, gauge failure, or vehicle wiring.

[lowsodium]

Pull the thing apart first and do a continuity test on the board. Takes like 20 minutes. I fixed a major issue on mine doing that. I just made a jumper cable to the two bad connections. Fixed all my lighting issues.

[e30construction]

send it to greg..he fixed mine

[Andy348]

If the original cluster didn't have these problems, swap in the 7k tachometer from another cluster.

stupidly, when I moved I threw away three clusters apparently only good for parts. Really wish I would have kept them.

First, get yourself a can of "electrical contact cleaner", a couple of pencil erasers and some good quality pipe cleaners.

Clean every contact everywhere, the inside of the contacts of the plugs, between components on the cluster itself (like where the speedo plugs in) and anywhere you see any connections at all.

You can swap parts to some extent, but there are minor compatibility issues in a few.

GL, and what JLevie said is correct, just swap the tach over to your old cluster if it all worked good.

I'm going to go with Greg on this, but I'm definitely picking up some contact cleaner to clean the connections anyways. It can't hurt (unless I fuck it up of course)!

Hey Andy,

Send me the cluster, I'll give you a break on the price. Send me another PM when you are ready.

Greg

Hi Greg,

Thanks for that, it means a lot. I will hit you up with a PM once I don't need my car as a DD, should be around May.

I would say you have a combo of dead SI board batteries and solder joint cracks on the cluster main board. I also re-flow solder on the speedo assembly itself, which could also give you intermittent operation.

SI board only affects temp, mpg, tach and service gauges. Not speedo or odometer or gas. Those problems are probably cluster main board, gauge failure, or vehicle wiring.

Seems like you're the man for the job. Also forgot to mention that the efficiency meter waves at me and is completely inaccurate.

Thanks for the advice everyone

[poopin04]

Did you figure out your issue? I'm having some of the some of the same issues. I'm thinking of giving it one last shot before I give up and send it to Greg.

[EVillalonRN]

Don't know if this applies with a full M20 swap, but for my i head swap I had to wire up the tach as seen in this page: http://www.strictlyeta.net/technical/328i_8.html

Hope that helps