Re: E28 Intermittent Speedo, trunk condensation, amp mounting/wiring **Rob

["Rob Levinson" <always_coca-cola@xxxxxxx>]

>From: dg <davehg"nospam"@domain.elided>
>Subject: E28 Intermittent Speedo and trunk condensation
>Two questions about E28 (86 535i) problems of recent:
>
>1. The speedo and odometer is starting to cut out. A few times this week,
>the speedo would not work, nor would the odometer or trip odometer. Then,
>suddenly it would. What gives? Is there a speedo cable that may be going
>out, or is this a battery thing? I note the tach works fine all the time.


        There's no mechanical cable for the E28 instruments, they're all
electronic.  What you describe answers a few questions and suggests some
problems... Your tach always works - that means your instrumnet cluster main
board is okay.  The problem could be one of a few things:

1) your speed sensor at the diff could be bad or the connection could be
loose/corroded.  The speed sensor is the wired plug you can see going into
the back of the diff.  Check the connection and use some dielectric grease
on the contacts.   You can get to it easily if you back the car up a set of
ramps.

2) The connections at the back of the instrument cluster might be loose.

3) Your speedometer itself could be going bad.  There's an outfit in CA
called United Speedometer and Instrument (I have the number at the office,
not here at home) that does very good work at a reasonable price.
Alternatively, you could find a used one although correcting the mileage on
the odo might be a problem.


> Moisture is gathering in the form of condensation in my trunk,
>collecting on the top of the inside of the trunk lid and the rear shelf. Is
>this normal for this time of year (very cold recently) or is this the
>leaking tail lens gasket/trunk gasket thing?


    Sounds like your taillight gaskets.


>BTW, to Rob Levinson: How hard is it to install a new amp (in trunk) and
>rewire to all four new speakers? I have a 5ch amp and subwoofer to install
>(it will link up with my recently installed Blaupunkt cd player), as well
>as new speakers and new front tweeters. I've thought of doing the install
>since the dealer wants about $300 for labor and parts (for amp install w/ 4
>guage cable and fuses, plus RCA cable, and for speaker install front, rear
>and rewire, and replace the tweeters in the front door panel). And if so,
>where to bolt the amp? It's a Soundstream.
>The head unit install was a piece of cake. Is the amp and rewire doable
>without dissassembling half the car?

        It's easy, but will take some time.  Your amp is 5 channels, I
assume you're going to power each corner of the car and the sub from the
same amp, yes?
Rob's ultra-lazy way to wire the car:

1) Remove the rear seat.  Bottom is held on by one bolt in the center where
it meets the floor, back is held on by two bolts at teh bottom corners, then
lift it straight up off the clips.

2) First, mark all of these wires with tape at each end before running
them... run 4 RCA cables, two heavy speaker wires, one heavy power wire, and
signal wire (if required) from the head unit down the center of the car - go
underneath the center console (screws located under the blank switches by
the armrests), go under the carpet to the back seat, through the large hole
on the driver's side of the metal seat base.  Run the wires into the trunk
though one of the grommetted holes.

3) Bolt the amplifier to the bottom of the parcel shelf inside the trunk in
the same way the original amp was bolted.  You may have to drill a few new
holes to use the Soundstream brackets.  If you are going to drill, remove
the parcel shelf liner (inside the car) so you don't mar the fabric with the
drill.

4) Wire the two rear speakers and rear sub from the amp.  Connect RCA
cables.  Ground the amp to the chassis.  Attach the signal (remote turn-on)
wire.  Attach the power wire.  You should still have two unused speaker
wires.  That's good - they are for the front speakers. Connect those wires
to the amp.

5) At the front of the car, take the two wires that are left over for the
front speakers.  They should be in the dash behind the radio.  Hopefully you
left about another 4 feet up front for them!  Run them to each corner behind
the dash (use cable ties to keep them up there).  The carpeting pulls up
easily where the front speakers are mounted, you can get the wires behind
and connected to the speakers.

I assume the replacement tweeters are replacing the stock units in the door
(by the window).  If you're original ones are fine, you won't notice much of
a difference beween tweeters.  To get the old ones out, pry the assembly off
the door, it will pop right off.  You can try to get the tweeter units out
of the housing by prying from behind or with a hair dryer to loosen the
glue.  If the new tweeters will fit the same way, use epoxy to hold them in
place.

Good luck!
- - Rob Levinson
ex: '85 535i
soon-to-be-ex: '85 535i Turbo and '86 535i
coming this week: '88 M5 Turbo


www.shortshifter.com

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