RE: E36 M3 "Econometer"

["Mark McHarry" <MarkMcHarry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jay Miller writes,

>> I seem to remember a guy that turned his into a Oil temp gauge.

That was probably me. In 1998 I swapped a Canadian M3 instrument cluster for
the U.S. one. The Canadian cluster has an oil temp gauge instead of the
ill-conceived fuel consumption indicator.

I wrote it up for the Roundel which ran it in March or April 1999. I can
send you an ASCII copy if you like, but you may want to dig out the printed
version since it has photos of a couple of other options: Alpina's cool
digital display and the VDO gauges in the little compartment ahead of the
shifter.

The route I took isn't for everyone. As alex f noted, it's not cheap. You
have to replace the entire cluster, plus in my case I bought a new oil
filter cap with which to take the temp rather than the more common drain pan
plug, which is susceptible to road debris and damage if torqued to factory
spec during oil changes. Also, you have to substitute a Euro or Canadian
ZCS -- Zentraler Codierschlussel, key software which controls a lot of the
car's other systems. You need access to a Euro or Canadian car from which to
read its ZCS. BMW NA doesn't make the ZCS available outside its dealer
network. I wasn't sure the transplanted ZCS wouldn't cause problems down the
road, but it's worked great.

- --Mark

Mark McHarry
95 M3 ITZTLI
Golden Gate Chapter, BMW CCA

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