Do all e30s have a finnicky gas gauges?

[Rsully70sev]

I want your interior.

[5Toes]

Mine has fine until last week. Now it randomly reads full until I tap the cluster. So now I have finicky gas gauge and temp gauge. :-(

Sounds like bad cluster grounds

[Herr Faust Schinken]

Mine reads about 4 gallon low I'm cool with that I should never run out of gas then

[freeride53]

No LBV.
It is a pain in the ass.
I cracked my lens while doing it, and no one was there to hear my cries.

[jlevie]

The gas gauge needle flicking is usually caused by a bad connection where the gauge fastens to the PCB in the cluster. Tightening the nut works sometimes, but the best fix is to disassemble the cluster and reflow solder around the contact pad. Do the same for where the temperature gauge attaches.

Other problems, like the gauge indicating plenty of fuel when the warning light comes on will be caused by a bad level sensor or a ground in the wiring between the cluster and gauge, or the gauge not matching the car's level sensor configuration. Early cars have a single sensor and later cars have two, that are wired in series. If an early cluster is swapped into a late car or vice versa the gauge won't read correctly. The fix in that case is to change the gauge to the correct one.

[nando]

echo everything jlevie says

the E30/E36 gas gauges are 99% exactly the same FWIW. BMW didn't get out of the bronze age until the E46 (with the stone age being a mechanical float/gauge, yuck!).

[spike68]

Mine tends to fluctuate slightly every now and then, but i think its because of all the big hills here in birmingham. My temp guage used to flicker and show that the car was over heating every now and then. I never believed it cause it would twitch, so one day it pissed me off so i punched dash and presto! Its been fine ever since :D

[dnguyen1963]

my '88 has the tube sender type. I cleaned it be removal from the pump assembly then sprayed carb fluid into a small hole in the tube. Shook the floater up and down vigorously. Repeated this step 4- 5X until there was no more brown flecks coming out of the sender tube.

[dnguyen1963]

Mine tends to fluctuate slightly every now and then, but i think its because of all the big hills here in birmingham. My temp guage used to flicker and show that the car was over heating every now and then. I never believed it cause it would twitch, so one day it pissed me off so i punched dash and presto! Its been fine ever since :D

It is time to replace your SI batteries or board.

[nando]

the gas gauge has nothing to do with the SI board.

[LowR3V'in]

When it's over half full it stays pretty stable.
When it get's down some it'll sometimes read allot lower, then after a minute go up maybe 1/4 or jerk left and right for no reason.

[Kozworth]

When it's over half full it stays pretty stable.
When it get's down some it'll sometimes read allot lower, then after a minute go up maybe 1/4 or jerk left and right for no reason.

Mines like that, but there really isn't many hills or anything too crazy.. its just annoying

[dnguyen1963]

the gas gauge has nothing to do with the SI board.

It is related to his temp gauge problem!

[jw 325ic]

Replaced both level senders, works perfect.

[burlmays9]

Out of the three I've had I have only had one problem and that was in a 1984 318 that had a bad fuel level sender, pulled one from a salvage car and fixed the problem!