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Ultimate DIY for 18 Button OBC Upgrade from 7 or 11 Button OBC Made Easy w/ Pictures!

48K views 33 replies 8 participants last post by  Delmarco 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Disclaimer:
"This is NOT a proper way to do this as it has been proven time and again that these wires will eventually corrode or separate. Please do so at your own risk or use a shrink tube butt connector, or solder with shrink tube at minimum as that is the industry safety standard"

-gotkraut

INTRO:

I wasn’t originally interested in this DIY because it looked monstrous (pictures of people’s dash ripped apart with yards of wiring pouring out did not seem inviting at all). Also the various DIYs on the internet all seem to say different things and tend to leave a LOT of prerequisite details out of their description (like the extra bolt under the glove box’s light that releases the glove box and is omitted in the Bentley’s Manual). So I took the time compiling lots of information from various DIYs and cross referencing them into my own complete DIY. In hindsight, this is just another monster write up for what is essentially a 3-4 hour simple DIY. So don't be scared. Do it!

SOME BEFORE PICS:

My old 7 Button MID/OBC Unit only displays TEMP and TIME/DATE info


Your 11 Button MID/OBC only displays TEMP/CHECK CONTROL and TIME/DATE info


A few key things I will add that I found whiles doing my DIY (these are helpful! If it's one thing you read here, please read these...)

1. The DIY itself is not difficult. Here is why; 90% of the total work is cutting and splicing wires. The other 10% is removing the old 7 or 11 Button MID/OBC, Lower Driver’s Side Panel, Odometer, Glove Box and Turn Signal Stalk. The hardest part was figuring out what the other DIYs I was following were telling me to do and matching their information up with what was actually in my car. Over all it’s not Rocket Science at all. When said and done it is not even Gym Class hard.

2. The 7 Button MID/OBC’s Black Connector and wiring is almost identical to the 11 Button MID/OBC's Black Connector and wiring. This has not been said in any DIY before, so I'm stating now as a fact! They both have the same Black connector with the same wiring layout. Only difference is the 11 Button MID/OBC has a 5 more wires connected to its Black Connector for Check Control features. That is it. Furthermore, both the 7 Button and 11 Button MID/OBCs’ wiring is overall 50% identical to the 18 Button OBC's overall wiring. The other 50% will in the new White connector’s wiring that is necessary for powering the 18 Button OBC. So even before you begin this DIY you will discover that 50% of the work is already pre-wired and done for you.

3. The wiring isn’t all that dramatic. DIYs that tell you to buy a mile of wiring and hundreds of splice connectors made me go out a spend money on stuff I ended up returning. I used Heat Shrink for everything and returned about 20 packets of Wire Taps that I didn’t even open.

4. Radio Shack is a cool place. They will have everything you need for
this DIY. Also a quick trip to Home Depot for plastic ties and a long neck Lighter for the Heat Shrink helped.

5. The Glove Box is actually a lot easier to remove and put back than I previously thought and than most people it make out to be. It’s just that darn hidden bolt above the light that the Bentley Manual never mentions can make it seem impossible if the DIY for this project don't tell you about it.

6. Upgrading the Turn Stalk really does make a difference. If you are using the previous DIYs you will realize that the writers of those DIY overlooked the fact that BMW made at least 3 different types of E36 Turn Signal Stalks over the years that each ground differently. So get ready for extra splicing if your new BC Stalk doesn't match the ground wire set up of your old stalk. Also as soon as I found the ease of going thru the functions whiles driving with a simple inward push of the stalk it made the entire DIY worth it. Because of that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND UPGRADING TO THE BC TURN SIGNAL STALK. Since you wouldn’t want to be playing with 18 tiny buttons whiles driving.

7. The ZKE IV Module as a module maybe connected in various places in the Electronic Module Section behind your glove box depending on the year of your vehicle and whatever the hell the engineers at your car's factory was smoking the day they made your 3 Series BMW. As a result finding the little bugger can be confusing because every DIY tells you different. But guess what? They are all right. Your focus is not really the Module itself but the mythical Green/Black wire that actually snakes around the Modules, going in and out of places and supposedly terminating at Pin 15 in the ZKE IV. However, you can tap into the wire itself in some places OR you can splice a fat female connector pin to a wire and find Pin Slot 15 on the Module’s itself and poke the pin in. Doing it either way may or may not work for you. Even I’m still trying to get it work for me.

8. Some DIYs recommend 18 gauge wiring, others say 20 gauge wiring, most don’t tell you what wire size to buy. This turned out to be important since the Turn Stalk wire that you tap into is 18 gauge and most of the Modules behind the glove box use 18 gauge wires and pins, whiles the OBC unit and Odometer uses 20 gauge. So you will need to buy a small spool of 18 gauge wire and a larger spool of 20 gauge wire.

DIY PREP EQUIPMENT:

a. Everything you would need for removing the lower dash trim, Odometer, glove box, cutting wires, splicing wires, connecting wires (heat shrink worked the best for me).

b. Small (about 25 feet) spool of 18 gauge wire; $4.99 Radio Shack. Larger (25 to 50 feet) spool of 20 gauge wire (you can buy various colors-Radio Shack sells a three color spools (red, black, green; 25 feet for each color) in one pack for $6.99.

c. 18 Button OBC-Make sure it comes with both the White and Black connectors with pigtails on each connector.

d. BC Turn Signal Stalk; make sure it comes with the wiring harness and white connector. NOTE: BMW made 2-3 different BC Stalks that ground differently so if you want you can look inside your steering column trim and see how your current non-BC stalk grounds and buy the BC stalk that grounds similar to that (see pictures below). Also it is good to get a BC stalk anyway because you can easily recycle the female pin connector from your old stalk harness to connect your 18 gauge wiring going to the ZKE IV module and other Check Control Modules in the glove box.

e. Heat Shrinks, lots of them. For me these are slimmer, better, quicker and more secure that the wire taps.

OPTIONAL THINGS TO HAVE NEARBY:

a. Pack of 25-50 Small Tie Wraps
b. Long neck lighter for heat shrinks
c. White paper tape or Post-It-Notes to identify the end of the wires you splice. Important if you are using the same color wiring for your splice extensions.
d. Diagram of the wiring; it is best to make your own drawing (even if you are copying from another DIY) so you will KNOW what you are looking. Use color coding in your drawing if you can.
e. Camera; Helpful if you forget where things go when it’s time to put everything back.
f. Small Cup or Bag for keeping screws and bolts in.





 
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6
#2 ·
DIY:
1. Begin by removing your current MID/OBC. There is a hole in the roof of the storage pocket, stick your finger in there, feel for the back of the MID/OBC and push it out. You can use a dull butter knife to pry it out from the front whiles pushing from the back.
Remove lower kick panel (three star point screws), Remove Knee Bolster (three 11mm bolts) Remove the Odometer. In my car to do this I MUST REMOVE THE STEERING WHEEL. Most DIY say you do not and can simply squeeze the Odometer out behind the steering wheel. I can do that and trying means scratching the steering wheel and possibly breaking something I do not want to. Just unplug the battery and remove the air bag (two size 30 Torx head screws behind the wheel), then unplug the airbag, and remove the wheel bolt (marking it so you keep it aligned when you replace it), then slide the Odometer off and disconnect it's three connectors to release it from the dash.



2. Cut off your original 7 or 11 Button OBC Black Connector Harness from the wiring going into the car and get ready to spend the next few minutes splicing. As you can see the original 7 or 11 button MID/OBC harness has most of the wiring on it already so all you have to do is line up the wire colors (or pin slot #s if you marked them) of the wires going into the car with the 18 Button Black Connecter and splice them with the Heat Shrinks. These are ;

a. Pin Slot-10 and 11 (White/Blue and White/Red); Provides Chime 1 and 2 for CHECK warning, Freezing Temperature, Alarm Warnings for CODE and Door Open w/ key in Ignition.

b. Pin Slot 12 (Brown/Grey2); Provides External Temperature data

c. Pin Slot 13 (Black/White); Odometer-Controls the Dimming Feature on OBC so it dims in conjunction with Odometer and dash lights.

d. Pin Slot 14 (Purple/White) ; Fuse F45- Powers the OBC

e. Pin Slot 15 (Blue/Purple/White); X17 Pin 24 (Odometer)

f. Pin Slot 16 (Grey/Red); X16 Pin 2 (Odometer) Powers Lights on OBC

g. Pin Slot 3, 4 and 5 (White/Green, White/Blue, White/Grey) If you had the 11 Button OBC then this will also be prewired to the Check Control Module so just splice them here. If you had the 7 Button MID/OBC, then these wires going into the car are not present.

h. Pin Slot 1 and 2 (Brown/Grey1 and Blue/Red) if you had the 11 Button OBC with Check Control then these are already prewired to the Brake Lights so just splice them here. If you had the 7 Button MID/OBC, then these wires going into the car are not present.















3. Now Splice the 18 Button White Connector to the remaining wiring going into the car that were on the old 7 or 11 Button MID/OBC’s Black Connector. These are;
a. Formally Pin Slot 17 on old Black Connector now Pin 8 on White Connector (Red/Yellow); This powers the 18 Button OBC.
b. Formally Pin Slot 18 on old Black Connector now Pin 13 on White Connector (Brown); This grounds the 18 Button OBC.


That is about 60% to 70% of all the wiring and 50% of the DIY. You are almost done and now its time to finish off splicing the remaining pigtails on the new White and Black Connectors of the 18 Button OBC.
 
#3 ·
4. Splice the remaining wiring. Start with the White OBC Connector since most of these go to the Odometer side of the dash board. I used Heat Shrink for all my splicing and connecting. To Splice: I stripped about ½ an inch off the ends of the two wires I wanted to connect together and hooked the copper strands together in a joint and heat shrink the joint. To Connect or Tap Into: I cut the wire I want to tap into and strip about ½ inch off each end then I take the wire that is tapping into that wire strip ½ inch off that and join the three ends in a joint and heat shrinks the joint. So you will understand what I mean when I say “Splice” and when I say “Tap Into/Connect To”.

I. For the White OBC Connector these are;

a. White OBC Connecter Pin Slot 4 (Brown/Red); Splice with 3 feet of 18 Gauge Wire and run it towards the space beneath the steering wheel. This wire will serve two purposes; because the 18 gauge wire is stiff like a coat hanger you will use it to pull thru the smaller, softer 20 gauge wiring going to the Odometer. This makes that task a lot easier. Second, this will serve to tap into the BC Stalk’s Pin 10 Yellow/Red wire.

b. White OBC Connector Pin Slot 5 (White/Purple); Splice with 3 feet of 20 gauge wire, run to the Odometer and tap into to the White/Purple wire going into Pin Slot 12 on the White Odometer (X16) Connector. This provides computer data for the OBC.

c. White OBC Connector Pin Slot 6 (White/Black); Splice with 3 feet of 20 gauge wire, run to the Odometer and extract a female pin w/ pig tail attached from your old 7 or 11 Button MID/OBC Black Connecter and splice this pin’s pig tail wire to the other end of the 3 feet of 20 gauge wire. This female pin will be inserted into Pin Slot 21 on the White Odometer (X16) Connector. The pin is slightly bigger than the hole so you can either file down the edges some and push it in or push it in sideways like I did. Also be sure to check before hand to see that the Pin Slot 21 on X16 is indeed empty and doesn’t already have a wire going into it. If it does have a wire you can just tap into that wire. This provides all your Gas data (refill, consumption rate, etc…) for the OBC.

d. White OBC Connector Pin Slot 7 (White/Yellow); Splice with 3 feet of 20 gauge wire, run to the Odometer and tap into to the White/Yellow wire going into Pin Slot 11 on the White Odometer (X16) Connector. This provides computer data for the OBC.

e. White OBC Connector Pin Slot 9 (White/Grey); Splice with 3 feet of 20 gauge wire, run to the Odometer and extract a female pin w/ pig tail attached from your old 7 or 11 Button MID/OBC Black Connecter and splice this pin’s pig tail wire to the other end of the 3 feet of 20 gauge wire. This female pin will be inserted into Pin Slot 10 on the Blue Odometer (X17) Connector. Be sure to check before hand to see that the Pin Slot 21 on X16 is indeed empty and doesn’t already have a wire going into it. If it does have a wire you can just tap into that wire. This provides all the Speedometer data (average speed, distances, etc…) for the OBC.

f. White OBC Connector Pin Slot 1 (Black/Green); Splice with 4 feet of 18 gauge wire and if you have removed the glove box already you can poke this thru to that area and leave it there for now. If not you can just set it aside for now. This has to do with the CODE feature. This connects to the Car’s Alarm for the OBC’s CODE feature to work in conjunction with the Central Alarm Brain.



Just pull the pins out. I broke my old OBC Black Connector with a hammer to loosen the pins up some and pulled the ones I wanted to use out.










 
#27 ·
Iv connected everything as was described in Pelican HowTo and other numerous howto's. Iv got problem that no speed information is comming to OBC.
Iv descirbed that in that post:
FULL OBC Conversion DIRECTIONS HOW TO - Page 12 - Bimmerforums - The Ultimate BMW Forum
on the bottom of the page.
Got any clue?

e. White OBC Connector Pin Slot 9 (White/Grey); Splice with 3 feet of 20 gauge wire, run to the Odometer and extract a female pin w/ pig tail attached from your old 7 or 11 Button MID/OBC Black Connecter and splice this pin’s pig tail wire to the other end of the 3 feet of 20 gauge wire. This female pin will be inserted into Pin Slot 10 on the Blue Odometer (X17) Connector. Be sure to check before hand to see that the Pin Slot 21 on X16 is indeed empty and doesn’t already have a wire going into it. If it does have a wire you can just tap into that wire. This provides all the Speedometer data (average speed, distances, etc…) for the OBC.
I dont get it: You want to connect OBC PIN9 to X17 PIN10. What about that PIN21 of X16... I dont get it what do You mean: I can connect OBC PIN9 to PIN21 of X16 as well?
 
#4 ·
Part 4 Continued...

II. For the Black OBC Connector these are;

a. Black OBC Connector Pin Slot 6 (Blue/Brown/Yellow); Splice with 3 feet of 20 gauge wire, run to the Odometer and tap into the Blue/Brown/Yellow wire going into Pin Slot 26 on the Blue Odometer (X17) Connector .

b. Black OBC Connector Pin Slot 8 (Black/Green); Splice with 4 feet of 18 gauge wire, run to the Glove Box area or set aside. This wire goes to Pin 12 of the ZKE Module or Pin 12 the CBE Module X10182. This has to do with the CODE feature.

c. Black OBC Connector Pin Slot 9 (Green/Blue); Splice with 3 feet of 20 gauge wire, run to the Odometer and tap into the Green/Blue wire going into Pin Slot 4 on the Blue Odometer (X17) Connector or the Green/Blue wire going to Pin Slot 13 of the White Odometer (X16) Connector. I think this has to do with powering the OBC so either Pin Slot on the odometer connectors is okay. I choose Pin Slot 4 on X16.

d. If you have a 7 Button OBC and you want to install the Check Control then you will need to Splice 4 feet of 18 gauge wire each to the wires coming out of Pin Slot 3, 4 and 5 (White/Green, White/Blue and White/Grey) and run them towards the glove box area. Also Pin Slot 1 and 2 (Brown/Grey1 and Blue/Red) will have to be connected to your Brake Light wiring to activate the Check Control for the Brake Lights. I did not bother splicing these two wires with extensions since I didn’t know where to connect them and no DIY currently tells you how to wire them to the Brake Lights for Check Control. I will add info about this at a later date if I figure it out.







5. Open up your Glove Box and remove it, via a set of star point screws along the edges (two are hidden in the vents) and bottom and the 11mm Bolt hidden above the glove box light (not the flashlight the light). When you release that 11mm bolt the Glove Box will just come out.



6. Now if you had the 7 Button OBC you should have about 5 newly spliced 18 gauge wires coming thru from your new 18 Button OBC’s White and Black Connector. Three wires go to the Check Control Module (if you have it, if not you can just seal off the ends and leave the wires in there in case you want to add the Check Control at a later date)-for the folks with the 11 Button OBC your Check Control should already be pre-wired if you had Check Control and you should only have only 2 newly spliced wires, instead of 5 newly spliced wires, coming thru to the glove box. These other two wires go to the ZKE IV Module (More specifically the Black/Green wire that snakes between the modules and have to do with the CODE feature. If you had the 11 Button OBC, then you just have the two CODE feature wires to connect to the ZKE IV Pin 15 and Pin 12 or wherever you find the Black/Green wire. So far I haven’t any luck in this. I think I found the ZKE IV module and connected a fat female connector pin to the end of the Black/Green Pin 1 wire from White OBC Connecter and pushed it into Pin slot 15 on what I think should be the ZKE IV Module and my CODE feature has not worked. Also I have an aftermarket Alarm wired to my car so I’m not sure if that even effects it. At any rate, you can also tap into any Black and Green wire you see snaking thru there and see what happens. Although all the various DIYs all disagree on where the ZKE IV module is, what color it is and what to do with it once you find it, they all agree that the target tap in is a Black/Green wire. The Bentley Manual also backs that up. So that is my next step towards getting the CODE feature to work. If you find you ZKE IV module for sure then you can extract two Fat Female Connector Pins w/ pigtails from your old Turn Signal Stalk, splice on the wire coming from Pin 1 on the White OBC Connector and Pin 8 from the Black OBC Connector to the pigtails and push them into Empty Pin Slots 15 and 12 respectively on that module. Some DIYs also claim that Pin 15 and/or Pin 12 on the ZKE IV already had wires coming out of them. If any of those wires are Black/Green then your work is a lot easier because all you have to do is tap into them and you are done.







 
#5 · (Edited)
7. Once you get done with the Glove Box Area Modules. Then you can finish up the DIY by attaching the new remote BC Stalk. Your 18 Gauge wire that you spliced to the Yellow/Red wire coming out of Pin 4 on the White OBC Connector should still be there hanging out under the steering wheel. I did this part of the DIY the following day, only because I installed E36 Modular Cup Holder & Console LED Lights earlier in the day and I ran out of sunlight. For me the installing the BC Stalk was tricky since all the previous DIYs omitted that BMW made 3 different Stalks that each ground differently.



My BC Stalk was Type 1 and had a terminal loop on one ground and a black clip in connector on the second ground. My car’s original Stalk was Type 3 and had both the ground wires firmly connected inside a square, flat connecter that grounded behind the steering wheel's slip ring adjacent to the horn’s wiring. It took me a while to figure out what to do. But I ended up cutting the tip of both grounds off the BC Stalk wires and cutting the wiring in my car and spliced the ends of the new ground wires to the wiring of the grounds going to the square connector in my car. It was extra unplanned for splicing but it worked. Now you will remove the old stalk and insert the new stalk. My old stalk was plastic tie wrapped with a lot of other wires to what looked like the steering column brace. I clipped the tie wrapped and released the old stalk, wires and all. Now insert the new stalk body into the socket and find the Yellow/Red (NOT Brown/Red like other DIYs say) wire and tap into that. If you are confused as to what wire you need to tap into, just hold your old stalk next to the new BC Stalk and you will clearly see that the new BC has an extra pin slot and wire coming out of it. That is your target wire. Depending on which BC Stalk you pick up there may be and extra brown wire coming out a Pin Slot or rather there may be a Pin Slot that have two brown wires (Brown and Brown/Red) coming out of it. These are the ground. If your airbag and steering wheel are back in place, then you can plug back in your car’s battery and test the BC Stalk it should work immediately.













 
#7 · (Edited)
8. Tie Wrap all the wiring that you need to or that was previously Tie Wrapped. Replace everything (make sure you plug back in your Gong that connects under the Driver’s side kick panel), clean up and plug back in the car’s battery (if you previously unplugged it for the air bag removal). Turn on your car and your new OBC will light up in two sections; the OBC INFORMATION side and the CLOCK/DATE side. If one side is darker than the other then check and replace the bulbs. You can use the bulbs from your old 7 or 11 Button MID/OBC since they are the same size. If your Temp reading is stuck on -35 F and the F is flashing, it usually would mean that the temperature sensor is not working, but I found out that it was just the wiring on the Black Connector was loose, (I.E the Black Connector was loose and not all the way in on the OBC.) Just turn off the car and unplug and re-plug both Connectors. If your sensor is fine, TEMP should now work along with everything else.



9. CHECK Light. As soon as you start your car, if you didn’t connect your new 18 Button OBC to a Check Control Module, then the CHECK light will momentarily display on your Odometer for a few minutes before going out. This is good, because it lets you know your wiring going to the Odometer is working and your OBC is functioning as it should. Your OBC may also give off a chime to let you know that Check Control is not connected.









10. Fuel Consumption & Range features may need to be calibrated as my numbers were way off during the first week or until I filled up my gas tank. The Range was super low and Consumption was between 6 and 9 MPG. When I refilled the gas tank my Range went up as it should, but because Consumption data is the Rate that affects the Range data the Range went down really quickly after fill up. I’m not sure if I have to manually calibrate the Consumption data, but my Consumption data has improved on its own over the week of driving to 10 to 12 MPG which is still not even close to my normal 20 to 30 MPG consumption. I’m still reading up on it to see if t will automatically adjust or if I have to calibrate it. There are a few websites that show the secret codes for unlocking, calibrating, resetting and testing all the data and computations on the 18 Button OBC. Also the Speed feature is not your current instantaneous speed (that is what your Speedometer needle is for) it is your average speed for all the driving you do until you reset it back to 0.







Everything else on your new 18 Button OBC should be common sense or can be easily Googled. Even I'm still trying to figure out all the secret Calibration and Test Data stuff. I will add more info to this DIY later on as I progress with the ZKE IV CODE Feature hook up. Like I said, I have an aftermakrket alarm in my car and none of the other previous DIY say whether that affects what wire you need to hook into whether it be the wires on your Aftermarket Alarm or the infamous Black/Green wire.

Also I will try to find out if I already have a Check Control Module in my car, or if I don't I will see if I can connect one (if it is not too hard) and make the CHECK features work. So look out for those additions coming in the near or far future.

Until then, enjoy your new OBC!
Cheers,
Delmarco
 
#8 ·
Actually, I forgot to finish mentioning in the INTRO section. The main reason I became interested in this OBC upgrade project recently is my new HU that I ordered a few weeks ago will be the Clarion DXZ845MC (seen below) and I wanted the amber text dash to all match up in both color and font style.
Since the 18 Button OBC Font is much more amber and pixellated than the Pocket Calulator font styles used on the lesser 7 and 11 Button OBCs.

 
#9 · (Edited)
that has got to be the CRAPPIEST splice i have ever seen in my life....even Mcgiver would slap you for that...wow...i give it about 6 weeks before your car catches on fire :rofl

in fact i have half a mind to delete this DIY as it is unsafe...that is hands down the shoddiest work i have ever seen...in my life...

BTW unless that OBC was made for a 318i it will be off as the calibrations for fuel and range are set for whatever car it came from
 
#11 · (Edited)
How is it unsafe? For a moderator you not being helpful if you just rant, rave and hate like a baby without explaining yourself properly. I'm no electrician or wire splicing expert, but that is how I've seen wire splicing done before. If what I did is unsafe please let me know ASAP. If anything simply add your input to this thread instead of deleting it because you don't like me. I put alot of work into it and any intellegent help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

BTW: All the Bimmerforum folks (and there is like a biillion times more traffic over there) applauded my work so you really need to tell me what I did wrong.

Ultimate DIY for 18 Button OBC Upgrade from 7 or 11 Button OBC Made Easy w/ Pictures! - Bimmerforums - The Ultimate BMW Forum

BTW: shifter is backwards
I've been driving and modding my car for nearly 5 years so it pains me to still have to tell you that I already know it is reversed. I've done it that way simply because I can. But thanks for moderating my thread and pointing out the obvious...
 
#12 ·
If I had a e36 without a 18 button OBC, you bet your ass it would stay that way. IMO, it's not worth spending that much time retrofitting something you hardly ever use. Good job nonetheless.

Honestly, the only features I ever use on the OBC are time/date/temp and sometimes range ... maybe the hidden features that display current consumption and that's about it. Distance, arrival time, max speed ... never in my life have I needed to use those. And I've used the code feature once just to see how it works.
 
#13 ·
twisting wires then shrink tubing them is a joke....come on, you didn't even solder or butt splice at minimum...that's is just begging for shorts and possible even leading to a fire....there's a reason manufacturers don't just twist wires together, it doesn't work!

the reason i went off on you is you are posting this as a safe thing for others to do when its NOT...i apologize if i came off a bit emo but i just cant BELIEVE you are trying to pass this off as acceptable work

as far as BF.c there's a reason why no reputable mechanics lurk there anymore, its over run by children these days...

Please del put some form of advisory on these that you do not recommend people doing this without professional assistance
 
#15 · (Edited)
Okay so I should have soldered the joints before splicing them. That is what you meant.

I did consider that, but one of the better DIYs told me that there is a reason most Automobile makers do not use lots of soldering inside of cars (around the dash area and under hood especially) is because the heat degrades the soldering joint over time. With heat shrinks, the hotter it gets the more tight the heat shrinks get.

So that made sense to me and I decided not to use the soldering since the heat shrinks I used are of high quality and secure once shrunk over the joint.
No wiring was exposed or will be exposed unless someone goes in there and cut them.

Also trust me as an Engineering grad, safety and "double and triple checking" was hammered into my skull again and again, so I made sure to safety check everything before sealing up the dash again.

Kraut! By the way you are a freaking genius! It never occured to me that the OBC I got came from another 3 series like a 328i or M3 that gets worse consumption and range than my 318i!

I will definately see about adjusting the input calculations for a 318i!

Thanks buddy.

Also be sure to look out for my Alternator Swap DIY and FCA/Tie Rod DIY coming later this month!
 
#16 ·
Kyle,

how would soldering make things any different? You're still gonna put shrink tubing over it and that's gonna be it. What's it gonna do being twisted together? Come apart? It's not gonna be subjected to space shuttle thrust.

Besides, it's 12 volts and there are fuses ... at the very worst, it's gonna start blowing fuses some day and he's gonna have to take it apart to find what's going on. Not really an issue since apparently he likes tinkering with this stuff.
 
#20 ·
Thats fine, he can wreck his own car...the problem is he is passing it off as a HOW TO DIY thread...thats not a proper way to do it...i still would prefer some kind of disclaimer saying something to the extent

"this is not a proper way to do this as it has been proven time and time again that these wires will eventually corrode or separate so please use a butt connector, solder with shrink tube as that is the industry safety standard"
 
#17 ·


honestly solder will hold up better that those kingergarden twist splices...even a damn shrink tube butt connector...yes they do make those...except that when you heat them it MELTS it all together...no room for oxidation, wear, etc this is what most dealers/manufacturers use now
 
#18 ·
I didn't read through the DIY, since I already have the 18-button OBC, but I know several people are looking for a good guide for this job.

I have two EE degrees and, personally, prefer soldering. However, if your wires are well crimped using the right hardware, you should be fine. When I installed my Sirius receiver in my 328i, I didn't solder anything. Good ole crimping and some electrical tape is what I used.

Thanks for writing all this up. I know I never have the dedication to document the work I do on my car.

Anyone who reads this must understand that you are not a mechanic and that you are simply sharing your experience with any others interested in doing the same work on their cars.

Oh, and environmental engineers aren't really engineers ;)
 
#23 · (Edited)
that is 100% factually untrue..i could care less...if you posted this DIY i would rip into you also, hell if the Prof or Trigg posted this i would flame them...talk to any mechanic who doesnt work in some shade tree garage and they with slap their forehead as soon as they see twisted together wires with a shrink tube over it...i know you like to instigate emir but this time you fail

Nothing personal Olaf if i really hated you i would have just deleted this write up...but its close enough to good aside from the splicing that i figured it would do more good than bad here
 
#24 ·
#26 ·
so that's why you are soo offended...because you are a wire twister too... :rofl

the problem with bimmerforums is a bunch of kids doing shady work and passing it off as good...thats why i dont post there..

get your panties out of your butt and get over it Emir...i am, i just wanted a disclaimer on there and im happy
 
#34 ·
Brown must connect with brown. and red/yell to red/yell. The color of the wire must match even if the pin come out different.

Calevra18 said:
Hey I would like to say great post about the 18 buttoan conversion obc. But I had a quick question. On your post its says the first two wires to connect to the white connector are black connector pin 17 to white connector pin 8, and black connector pin 18 to white connector pin 13.

on mine the black connector pin 17 is brown and my white connector pin 8 is red/yellow.
My black connector pin 18 is red/yellow and my pin 13 is brown.

My question is am i supposed to connect brown to brown and red yellow to red yellow and my pins are just a little confused. or am i supposed to connect brown to redyellow and red yellow to brown?

Thanks for your time,
Nick
 
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