Spotting a fake Alpina cluster

[MtechMick]

Hey all,

I may have just received a fake Alpina cluster from Germany. I'm hoping there are some Alpina gurus here who can identify it.

The speedo is 300k/hr but it looks like its stuck over an original 240km/hr speedo, and printed out at home. It's pixelated around the edges of the numbers. In the photo you can just barely see a 240km/hr depression in the black, just under the 300km/hr print. The original number depressions can be seen the whole way around, in the right light.

The Alpina emblem at the bottom is a sticker, and the right corner of the last A, is slightly cut off, and not the same as the first A.

It does have Alpina stamps on the top and back.

The black screws on the face are slightly worn, and some paint is missing from a few of their heads. There are lots of finger prints inside, and the back screws have previously been removed and reinstalled.

I have a 1990 325i with a VDO cluster, and this 1989 Motometer cluster doesn't work in it. The tacho sits at 0, the fuel doesn't work, nor does engine temp. Might not be a direct swap VDO to Motometer, or maybe shagged?

Cheers guys!

[sharky]

Alpina clusters had more of the brown surround like yours does than the more black that OEM ones did.

[MtechMick]

Cheers, yes it is more of a brown. My biggest concern is with the speedo that's been printed and stuck on. I can clearly see the old 240km/hr speedo underneath when the light hits it outside in the car.

[ChaseN]

Looks like the 'cluster' is real, but the speedo itself may be out of a non-'pina e30?

EDIT: sounds like SI batteries might be bad as well, the tach and temp gauge should at least work, I think.

[flyboyx]

man, i don't think you want to hear this, but i honestly don't think its real. the color of the gauge bezel looks about right, but the alpina letters look wrong. they look like white stickers to me. i have never seen a 300km/h speedo. the alpina cluster i had and the ones i have seen all came with 260km/h or occasionally 240km/h speedos. also, i have never seen a cluster that has any sort of stamp on the back saying alpina. it kind of looks like someone made a rubber alpina stamp at a stamp shop and just hit the sticker a couple of times with it at random angles. i am pretty sure the factory would have made it look more professional than that if they even put stamps on the back of clusters. the font is wrong. it should look more like the letters on the front of your bezel.

a pic of the tach would be helpful too. i am not trying to deflate your baloon, but just my honest opinion. did you pay with paypal, ebay? i have not seen that cluster on either german or uk ebay.

[MtechMick]

Thanks for the info. The tacho is original. Nothing really to photograph there. Yes the Alpina emblem on the front looks like its a sticker. Actually, I found the guy listing some other clusters on ebay, and asked him if he had an Alpina 300km/hr cluster, as I'd seen one years and years ago. He said yes, and then Emailed me a photo a few days later. probably took him a few days to print out the speedo sticker and Alpina sticker! hah. So, I just got raped for $600. I've opened a Paypal dispute and hopefully, after I ditch a few dollars sending it back to Germany, I'll get my money back. Fingers crossed.

[flyboyx]

i hope you can get it resolved. good luck. 600 is indeed a lot of money, but that is pretty much what originals go for these days. post up the name of this joker so the community can avoid him. too bad you didn't buy it from an ebay auction so you could leave him shitty feedback. unfortunately, overseas countries are about the only place you can find these parts if you really want them badly. i hope you don't get discouraged from buying international parts. most sellers are not like this butthole. whenever i get fucked on an overseas deal, i complain loudly until i one way or another get my money back. don't ever buy anything unless they either sell it on ebay, take paypal or better yet, both.