Used Cluster In, New Problems

[ROBMPULSE]

I Replaced My Cluster Yesterday. I Didn't Change The Code Plug, Just Simply Replaced The Whole Assembly. Below Will List Problems Before Switch And After.....

Before:

Fuel And Temp Gauges Did Not Work At All.

Speedo Bounced Around A Bit, But Was Mostly Accurate

Tach Worked Most Of The Time, But Would Spaz Out From Time To Time

Lcd Displayed "coolant Temp" All The Time.

Shift Position Indicator Did Not Work At All Or Light Up.

After:

Fuel And Temp Gauges Work Properly.

Tach Works Properly.

Speedo Still Bounces Around A Bit

Lcd Display No Longer Displays "coolant Temp" And When Button Pressed, Displays "check Control Ok". However, Now It Displays "trans Program" When I Turn Car Off.

Shift Position Indicator Works For Only The First 10 Mins When Starting Car. It Also Displays An "e" In Front Of The Selected Gear. After Running For About 10 Mins, This Display Goes Completely Out.

That Said..........

I Was Worried That My Tranny Might Be In Limp Mode After Getting The Trans Program Displayed. It Is Not. The Tranny Works Perfectly.

Is It Possible That I Need To Unplug The Batter To Reset The Unit? Are The Problems I Am Still Having Due To An External Source Other Than The Cluster? Cant He Speedo Problem Be Related To The Sensor? Where Is The Speed Sensor Mounted?

Thanks......

[JD525IA]

but I experienced similar symptoms right before I had to get my tranny rebuilt. First, take the shifter apart and clean up the contacts. It's easy and can help eliminate a lot of dumb problems, like the dash indicator appearing and disappearing. Should have an "E" along with "R, N, D", unless you put it into manual mode. Dirty contact may cause the tranny computer to flake a bit and when you turn the car off you get TRANS PROG.

Also, check your tranny fluid level, and if it persist, get a mechanic to check the tranny for codes.

The way your tach is sometimes bouncing inda leads me to believe that your speed sensor (hall effect) is slowly going - also a cause of the TRANS PROG message.

Good luck.

JD

[ROBMPULSE]

Well, That's Just It. I Never Got The Trans Program Code Before. And It Was Instant With The New Used One. I Had Not Even Started The Car Yet When It Was First Displayed.

Where Exactly Is This Connector That I Should Clean? How Do I Get To It?

[Ross]

Speedo is likely sensor or other issue since the problem still exists.
Trans program ? Could be a problem, try Shogun reset. search this forum
E indicates economy mode of trans operation and is normal, s= sport M= manual
The two halves of the cluster may be loose causing the display to go off. Try pressing on the bottm of the cover to see if it comes back on.

[ROBMPULSE]

Trying The Shotgun Reset...... Will Post Back......

I Do However Refuse To Believe That There Is Something Wrong With My Tranny......... Maybe The Connector Referred To Above.

[ROBMPULSE]

Okay, Shotgun Test Is Done. Nothing Changed.....

[BobHarris]

Okay, Shotgun Test Is Done. Nothing Changed.....


I think you will find that it is the Shogun reset.

The ShoTgun reset is a little bit more drastic:D

[ROBMPULSE]

Ooops. My Bad.... You Get The Idea......

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

and which year is your car?

The difference and the coding plug could be the source of your problems.

[ROBMPULSE]

My Car Is A 1989. I Noticed My Coding Plug Is Brown...... The One In This Cluster Is Green.......

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

My Car Is A 1989. I Noticed My Coding Plug Is Brown...... The One In This Cluster Is Green.......

do you have a trans with the M selection?

The new coding plug could be looking for a M/E/S trans (later model)

[ROBMPULSE]

I Have The Two Position Switch (a And M). The Car This Came Out Of Was The Same Switch. Inless Possibly It Had Been Changed Before And Previous Owner Never Dealt With The Issue.........

I Am Calling Today To Get The Year Of The Car It Came Off Of. Will Report Back.....

[ROBMPULSE]

Came Out Of A 1991 Or 1992 535i. They Were Not Exactly Sure What Year It Was And Did Not Seem Inclined To Go Look....lol

[ROBMPULSE]

Okay, I spent some more time today changing out lights in the cluster. Finally got them all to work. I also took time to take apart all the connectors, including the connectors to the gear selection switch and cleaned them all as best I could with electrical contact cleaner.

1. I am still getting transprogram displayed only when ignition on (car of) and when I take the keys out after turning the car off. It DOES NOT come on while driving, nor does my transmission go into limp mode. My car has ALWAYS driven mechanically fine and has NOT shown any symptoms of any problems.

2. The gear selection indicator (to the right of the check control display) always comes on and works as designed. However, it only stays on between 1-5 mins, then turns off and goes black.

I am starting to think that this is what could possibly be what's throwing the code. Is that possible?

3. I noticed that after shutting and locking the car, that the window switches go from the normal bright setting, to a very LOW but still on dim setting. I am sure this is not normal. I waited 5 mins to see if they would eventually go off, but they have not.

this has broght another question into play. Could it be possible that it is draining the battery to the point that it is on the cusp of being too low to start the car, causing inadequite voltage to the tranny computer, causing the transprogram to be displayed? The car doesn't ever act like it's low on charge. always starts up fine.

Has anyone ever had their switchs not go completely off (lighting that is)?

I plan on taking the car to get the battery and charging system tested, but I suspect that it will come back as being fine as I will have to drive there, and the battery always seems to be fully charged when I start the car.

Any thoughts???

[Johntee540]

Dude!!!!! The Coding Plug needs to match your car! Change the CODE PLUG now! and all will be good! The code plug stores information about YOUR car and how all the systems need to work. If you install a diff code plug for a car with different options et al you are going to experience problems. - Jt

[ROBMPULSE]

That's Kind Of The Problem. One Code Plug Was Green. The Other Was Brown. I Tried To Switch Them, But It Didn't Seem To Fit.

Are These Two Plugs Interchangeable? Or Was I Just Being To Much Of A Pussy To Put It In? Lol Those Plastics Are So Dry Rotted, That I Was Scared I Would Break It Not Knowing If It Would Fit Or Not.....

[ROBMPULSE]

Oh, And If This Is The Case, Can The Code Just Be Cleared If I Can't Change Them Out?

[Johntee540]

Okay - I am asking to be corrected here if I am wrong. It is my understanding that the code plug is specific your car and its VIN. It contains info about the build of your car. Things like - type of transmission; Odometer reading; types of options your car has; and the like.

Its like the basic DNA of your car stored in a chip

It feeds this information to the ECU which uses it to make things in your car work the way it was originally set up. Can the code plug be cleared? Yes - but only with a Dealer computer (they cost around $125k?) and then you still need to have the odo info certified.

What I think is happening is that you did not get a cluster out of a like car to yours. Maybe you have a 525 and you are running a 535 cluster - something like that. Is there a Vin# on the back of the Code Plug you currently are experiencing problems with? I would take that number and do vin # check to see what car this code plug came from. If it comes from a Manual transmission car then yes you are going to get errors as the ECU is not looking for or aware of the Auto Tranny. If the code plug is for a different Auto Tranny than the car is equipted with then yes you are going to get errors as the ECU does not recognize the signals coming from YOUR tranny.

The plugs should be interchangeable. Just move slow and carefully. Dont force anything and things should be right.

Guys - If I am smoking nylon rope here - please tell me - but the only variable in this whole thread was that the code plug is different after he swaps out the Cluster. That to me is a huge redflag. -
JT

[myles]

Johntee is on the right track.

I haven't been following your posts and you don't have your model details in your profile. I will assume you have a 525 or 535 but I have no idea if you have a manual or an auto trans. Did the donor car have the same transmission as your car has? If not, then thats the problem. You need to get a coding plug from a car with the same trans/engine/fuel tank for a plug and play cluster change to work.

Your car originally has a brown code plug (3/89 to 9/90) and your old cluster should have a white back. I've never seen a green code plug before but I have seen a blue one. Are sure it's not blue?

If your new code plug is the blue one, it actually has a different chip(flash ic) inside it to your old brown one and the plastic assembly it sits inside is differently keyed so that you can't swap a blue and a brown one. If you have an eeprom reader you can use it to transfer some of the data from your old code plug to the new one to make it store the correct data for your car.

Give us some more info and I will try to help further.

[ROBMPULSE]

my car = 1989 535i automatic

cluster donor car = 1990 or 1991 535i automatic

If I said green, I meant blue. sorry, lol

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

give it a try

I mentioned it eariler in this thread

[ROBMPULSE]

give what a try? the coded plugs can not be swapped.....

[myles]

It sounds like you have the right cluster/code plug combo for your car.

You've got two options that you can look into.

1. try to repair your old cluster. I don't know if its been suggested before, but you could have some dead capacitors on you old cluster circuit board. Easy and cheap to do. You might have some connectivity problems in there, dirty connectors or even a bad solder joint. (I would be doing this first myself)

2. diagnose the new cluster's trans prog message. there are many different causes, ranging from a slightly tired battery, a bad contact, a bad transmission, or even a misfiring engine.

Your symptoms with the new cluster are interesting. It sounds a bit like the selector position switch might have poor contacts. If you have the car in Neutral(rather than Park) before starting it do you get the trans prog message as you turn the ignition on?

[632 Regal]

#2 seems normal, mine does same.

[ROBMPULSE]

If you have the car in Neutral(rather than Park) before starting it do you get the Trans prog message as you turn the ignition on?

YES

[Bill R.]

Here's the factory service bulletin

[ROBMPULSE]

ensure With The "same" Or "later"

Doesn't That Mean This Cluster Should Work?

That Doesn't Really Make Sense To Me. It Seems The Cluster Will Work, I Just Can't Use My Old Code Plug. Which I Am Not. I Am Using The Code Plug That Came With Th Newer Cluster.

[myles]

I read that bulletin the same as you. The newer blue circuit board must be used with the new blue code plug. So I think you are on the right track.

This is a bit off track but interesting -
The contents of the code plug a much the same, there is just more blank space in the new one. I've copied a brown plug into a blue plug and made it work just by buffering out the extra space at the right memory segment. From memory (pardon the pun), the first quarter of the contents contain all of the specifications of the car, the second and third quarter are blank, and the fourth quarter contains the odometer and service interval info. The brown plug has only half the memory capacity so the first half is the specs and the second half is the odometer and service interval.

This is a dump from a 90 735ila - (brown plug)
:020000040000FA
:10000000FF0EBF7E82C847E500F2FF138D26734FB7
:100010002B6E00D3164AE9F9C25A3CADD55378008D
:10002000000064FF1A0020FF6ECA2D4C0F10DDC8BF
:10003000FCEE140462CB0413FFFF246331E96187F3
:10004000383109FFC81F401A4A1A541A5E1A681A32
:10005000721A7C1A361AA2800000FFFFA280841B4D
:10006000841B841B841B841B841B831B831B831B9B
:10007000831B831B831B831B831B831B831BFF002F
:00000001FF
This is a dump from a 91 520ia - (blue plug)
:020000040000FA
:10000000FF0DB66374692DD700E5FF138D26734F7E
:100010002B6E00D3164AE9F9C05A3EAD15B37800ED
:1000200000006CFF1A0023FF78A028500D12B9645D
:10003000E5D7532363CB1424FFFF748233E53418D0
:10004000353819FF21F7E8F3FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF40
:10005000FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFB0
:10006000FFFF9045FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFC9
:10007000FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF90
:10008000FFFFFFFF4C0DFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF25
:10009000FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF70
:1000A000FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF60
:1000B000FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF50
:1000C000011B12FF12FF12FF13FFFEFFFEFFFEFFD8
:1000D000FEFFFEFFFEFFFEFFFFFF0D820000700A25
:1000E000700A700A700A6F0A6F0A6F0A6F0A6F0A45
:1000F0006F0A6F0A6F0A6F0A6F0A6F0A6F0AC70EDC
:00000001FF

You can see the blank space in the middle of the later plug.

[ROBMPULSE]

well, I am poretty exhaustged trying to figure this one out. Car drives fine. I'm over it for now.

I plan on getting the capacitors fixed in my old cluster anyway, so I will just eventually do that and swap them back out.

thanks for any help along the way...

[89_525i_PhoenixAZ]

I am having the same problem. How do I get the info off of my brown code plug and get it on the blue code plug so it will have all of the info from my 89 model?

[myles]

You need a seeprom reader compatible with 93c46 and 93c56 seeproms. Ive got an old warp13a pic programmer which does the job well, but the company that made it have since closed so they are nla. I don't know what other programmers work with the 93c46/56 chips.

[ROBMPULSE]

holy thread revival, Batman!

Well, for an update, I never got around to fixing my older cluster. New cluster still give me the trans program message, but only after the car has been driven it will display once the ignition is turned off. and it doesn't do it all the time. car drives fine, though......

Just last week the cluster started doing same thing the last one did..... the check control display starts doing the alien flashing stuff.....

Time to blow the dust off the old one and get it repaired!

[525i winter driver]

don't be mad i think i just totally lucked out - i bought a cluster today for cheap at a scrapyard (i was there for the windshield). i was just going to use it to compare readings with the one i have but it has the brown plug and i checked the vin and i think i can do a straight swap! both cars are 525 autos, mine built in 06/88 the other 11/89. assuming this one works i might have my old one kicking around which works great except the capacitor for the gas guage i think. i will post results and maybe offer my old one if all works ok.

[ROBMPULSE]

let us know how it works out!!

congrats