Electrical Weirdness

Drove the coupe to work today so I could check out xenon beam patterns. After I left Boeing gym, the odometer read "33P_1" Except the 3's were backwards, facing the other direction. Gauge illumination OK. Trip odometer and all warning lights OK. Speedometer OK. Tach = 0. Fuel = 0. Temp = 0.

Anyone seen this before? I assume it's a blown fuse. Next question is why did it blow, but I can figure that out eventually.

I don't have any new mods in the last 6 weeks or so, so I don't think it's something I did directly anyway.

I once drove an E34 535i that was scrolling what appeared to be German text across the LCD screen where the odometer normally displays. Very strange.

I assume what you saw was a diagnostic code of some sort.

Pretty sure the cluster is bad. I ordered a replacement and received last night. I swapped the coding plug from the old cluster to the new one, installed new into LZ1. Diagnostic checks out fine. Unable to get into Test functions 15 (lock/unlock) and 9 (re-code). I am going to an independent next week to get help from a portable Modic. New cluster was $285 my price. No front or rear fog icons on US-spec M clusters. Andy needed a new face for his since the stealer in Ohio scratched his on his one and only dealer visit. This way one of us gets a cool item for our BMW cool stuff collections... a cluster. We will trade who gets to keep it every 5 years. Goes nice with our Coupe model collections and dealer leather samples and euro parts and M coupe watches.

Probably could have passed this off as a warranty item, but I would rather pay $285, take a day off work as vacation, and pay and independent for Modic time than go to one of the local Seattle stealers. Independent says modic is required to tell EPROM what country you are in and to reset the cluster to match coding plug.

Will post pics eventually. Replacement cluster came with a cool big red sticker: "Achtung! Do not sell to final end customers!! BMW authorised shops only!" Heh heh.

Jon hope that fixes your problems, i have a question if you purchased a euro cluster would it have the front and rear fog ports and then switch the faces so it reads mph. etc.. and have it coded(modic) for us spec but still have use of the fog ports and so on.

ohh and Andy i sent you a pm
my email addy is max7090@aol.com

Cluster now fixed.

Long story short. I replaced my cluster myself with a new one. Moved the coding plug over to new cluster, reconnected batt. No response. No mileage reading. Gauge function test 2 worked fine. Odometer tamper light was on.

Went to independent (Car Tender in Seattle) to have cluster coded. I like those guys. Way better than any of the dealers in these parts. Car tender unable to code cluster correctly. They got all the gauges to work, but could not turn off odometer tamper light. BMW tech help said new cluster was bad too. Car tender said they would warranty my cluster (nice of them since I installed it and BMW is ratty when it comes to electrical parts). Ordered new cluster. Cluster shows up and I am back at Car Tender (yesterday). On a whim, they try to use Modic one more time to reset odometer tamper light. Bingo. Light off.

No idea why modic was able to turn it off yesterday but not 2 weeks earlier. Nothing like driving 60-90 minutes each way in traffic on 2 separate days to get a bug fixed. Still, I woul rather do that than go to scratch-master dealerships of the Northwest.

Total cost of repair: $285 cluster, $200 labor.

I rewired my xenons with the supplied relays that came with kit. Previously I had them wired right into factory wiring. Odometer would flicker on xenon start. Still does that, even with a second relay in the series. I am going to replace the headlight switch and low beam relay with new ones to see if that can stop the flicker.

The folks at Car Tender are really good. I've known some of them since the time they worked at the stealership in the neighborhood. They were good people then and that hasn't changed at all, but now they get to work in a better environment.