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I checked the FAQ's but didn't see any reference to this. I recently purchased a 1985 735i and the speedometer & tach are dead. The rest of the gauges and lights appear to work (except the MPG gauge which I assume is tied to the speedometer). Also, there is no speed or mpg readings on the OBC. Again, I assume the OBC gets it's data from the instrument cluster. Also, the CHECK light blinks and the INSPECTION light comes on erratically.
I’ve checked eBay and replacement clusters are selling for over $100 and they don’t come up that often. My question is this: can I refurbish the cluster myself? Is there a step-by-step document to explain this procedure? A lot of the units on eBay are advertised as refurbished, so I’m guessing the instructions must exist somewhere.
Some of the units are also advertised as having a lithium battery instead of a NiCad. Could the dead gauges simply be due to a dead battery on the circuit board?
I ordered the ETK & TIS CD's from eBay as well, but the TIS doesn't include the E23 series.
Either this is a closely guarded secret or it is undiscovered knowlege. I guess its time to break out the multimeter and disassemble my instrument cluster. If my efforts are successful, I'll post the directions.
Ya, Sorry but I havent seen much info floating around the net on the e23 clusters. Theres info for e34/32 all over the place but unfortunately its a different cluster.
Good luck,
I want to give you an update on this. I pulled my instrument cluster and completely disassembled it to see if I could figure out the problem. Well nothing was visually wrong and I was starting to get discouraged until I removed the SI board (the circuit board with the battery pack). It looked ok til I turned it over to look at the circuit side. I found the board had rotted and separated several traces.
I like to think I'm fairly good with a soldering iron and this board was built before the days of miniaturization, so I broke out the soldering equipment. I bypassed the traces on the board by soldering 22guage wire directly to the solder points. Also, the NiCad batteries were reading less than 1V, so I removed them and left them off.
The end result is I now have a working instrument cluster!
I would post pictures, but I didn't think to take any until after I had reinstalled the cluster.
I want to give you an update on this. I pulled my instrument cluster and completely disassembled it to see if I could figure out the problem. Well nothing was visually wrong and I was starting to get discouraged until I removed the SI board (the circuit board with the battery pack). It looked ok til I turned it over to look at the circuit side. I found the board had rotted and separated several traces.
I like to think I'm fairly good with a soldering iron and this board was built before the days of miniaturization, so I broke out the soldering equipment. I bypassed the traces on the board by soldering 22guage wire directly to the solder points. Also, the NiCad batteries were reading less than 1V, so I removed them and left them off.
The end result is I now have a working instrument cluster!
I would post pictures, but I didn't think to take any until after I had reinstalled the cluster.
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