Help: Odometer and trip odo stopped working (NOTfrom bad gear)

[DaveInLA]

I'm sure I posted about this about a year ago, and now it's happened again.

A while ago, the trip and odo stopped working. I thought it was a bad gear, I took out the instrument cluster but noticed that all the gears were intact. When I twirled one gear, all of them moved and the odo moved. Not sure what else to do and needing to drive my car, I put it back in and noticed that the odo started to work again. I didn't actually do anything to my cluster except replace bulbs.

The odo had been working for about a year until now. Recently, I disconnected the battery for a couple of weeks while working on something. The car hadn't been driven during this time, but I would periodically connected and disconnected the battery over and over again to check on some electrical issues. I finally finished, connected the battery, and drove the car around. The odometer stopped working again.

I'm convinced that it's not from a bad gear because a year ago, the gear was fine, and the very day I disconnected the battery, the odometer worked fine as well. Now that I connected the battery again, it's broken once more.

I suspect that the motor that drives the gears is somehow messed up. Is there anything I can do to fix this? If it's not that, then it has to be the connector that goes into the cluster that tells it to drive the gears. It might be loose. Which color connector is the one I'm looking for? Thanks.

[kailuaboy]

You killed the battery on the Si board.

[Sean]

Did the plug in the diff fall out or somethin?

I know it's little and least-likely - but it's easy to check.

[MattE30]

Did the plug in the diff fall out or somethin?

I know it's little and least-likely - but it's easy to check.

Then the speedo would stop working too.

[Sean]

Then the speedo would stop working too.

HAHA...good point. Didn't even think fo that one.

Well...carry on. 8)

[DaveInLA]

If the SI battery/board is out, wouldn't everything else stop working as well? I doubt the plug fell out when the car was parked for 2 weeks. But I do wonder if one of the wires or the plug is broken.

[kowalski]

http://www.bimmerclassics.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1779

[DaveInLA]

Argh. During my trip to the Home Depot today, the odometer worked. On the way back home, it worked. When I went to go get food earlier tonight, it didn't work. It seems to be random...

[kowalski]

see the link and try it out.

[DaveInLA]

I'll try it out when I have time, but it seems that the capacitor in question regulates the speedometer, which in turn regulates the odometer. My speedo has no problems, so it's not too likely to be the problem. thanks, though.

[lordofthewaters]

OK. This is weird, mine started this last night, and has been working on and off all day today......................

Any ideas as of yet?

[DaveInLA]

Sorry dude, I still haven't figured it out. It seems to work about 1/4 to 1/3 of the time, and I haven't noticed any pattern.

[lordofthewaters]

That's what I noticed. It just comes and goes, like some kind of shortage........

[DaveInLA]

Yep. And it never changes status mid-drive. That is, when I start the car and the odo works, it won't stop working while the car is running. If it doesn't work, it won't all of a sudden start working, either.