RE: E-30 instrument cluster and OBC questions

["Fadeev, Alex" <alex.fadeev@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

JHahn22@domain.elided [mailto:JHahn22@domain.elided] wrote:
> 
> The other night the lighting behind my speedometer and fuel 
> guage went out. Now I can't see how fast I am going at night.

Replace one of the two bulbs that light up the cluster. The dealer will have
the correct bulb for under tow bucks.

> I know I've heard of other problems with things going bad in
> the instrument cluster on these cars (mine is an 89 325i) and
> I'm wondering if there is anything else that I should replace
> while I'm in there. Service indicator battery thingy or
> something like that seems like it keeps getting mentioned from
> time to time on here. . .

There is nothing in the E30 clusters that 'goes bad'. 
SI's batteries require periodical replacement, so you might want to swap
yours depending on when the current batch was put in.
Also, if you temp gauge is 'jumpy', tighten the big hex nut the holds it to
the board and also doubles as the ground. That should fix that.
If you have any other problems, chance are you will be shopping for a
new-used cluster.

> I haven't checked Bentley yet, but I think I saw the process 
> described in there before.  Are there any GOTCHA's that aren't
> covered in the Bentley book?

Nope. Take it out, remove the cover, swap the bulbs. 
The cluster can come out with the steering wheel still on (at 10 o'clock
position). It will be tight, but it will come out.
Should be done in under 30 minutes second time around.

> The second question is just a curious one.  What is my OBC 
> trying to tell me when I push the 1 and 1000 buttons at the 
> same time? It popped up some display that said something 
> like 30L (+ or -). 

That's how much fuel (in liters) the OBC thinks is left.

> Also, there was some other combination of number keys that 
> I pushed and it showed some other weird display. . . 4.6 

Pressing two other keys (forgot which one) will show you the type of the
coding plug which interprets OBC inputs from different model year cars.
Yours should be TYP 4.6

> . . .and some other stuff that I can't recall.  Are these 
> some sort of fault codes?  Or is my car possessed?

you are fine.

alex f 

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