odometer stopped at 300k

[Mendozart]

My brothers car (member uscharalph) hit 300,000 miles today, then stopped counting. I know he hasn't been posting much, so I thought I would post it. This really has me puzzled. It's an '89 525, so it has the digital readout. Anyone have a clue?

[Omega]

Thats the maximum mileage allowed. You've had your moneys worth. Please dispose of your e34 and buy another one!!!

The mileage and speedo are both electric and are driven from a sensor in the diff (I believe it's in the differential/rear axle anyway). Does the speedo needle still move? If not suspect the sensor or wiring.

Otherwise it's an electrical fault within the gauge itself

HTH

[myles]

Early E34s have an older design of cluster that stops at about 300000. If the car is built before about 02/89 it will be affected by this problem

[Dave M]

Early E34s have an older design of cluster that stops at about 300000. If the car is built before about 02/89 it will be affected by this problem


Fo real??

[Black 535i]

I have heard of this many times on Euro cars but not on U.S. version vehicles. Guess you have to buy another coding plug?

[tim eh?]

I have heard of this many times on Euro cars but not on U.S. version vehicles. Guess you have to buy another coding plug?

it's even more complicated than that i'm afraid... i have the same cluster and i've looked into this a bit. there is no coding plug on our clusters - i managed to find one with a white back that works in mine (from a 525 auto) and before i hit 299960km i'm going to try and recode the plug on it somehow following the info on this site...

go here look under 'electronics' and '299960km' .

http://bmwe32.masscom.net/

good luck!

*- if you get deep enough into that site you will come across a page translated from russian by a computer, it's pretty funny....

"One of the big problems arises at replacement and repair shitkov devices. I shall describe some nuances below.



1. BMW525i Simens ROM X2402PI

This machine has very whimsical character, for the first time we have collided(faced) such problem when to us there has arrived the machine with dead shitkom, with inscription CODE pleasing an eye. Running forward, I shall tell, the reason in long ignoring inscription INSPECTION, and chasikov before the person of the driver."

... oh yeah!

[Ross]

it's even more complicated than that i'm afraid... i have the same cluster and i've looked into this a bit. there is no coding plug on our clusters - i managed to find one with a white back that works in mine (from a 525 auto) and before i hit 299960km i'm going to try and recode the plug on it somehow following the info on this site...

go here look under 'electronics' and '299960km' .

http://bmwe32.masscom.net/

good luck!

*- if you get deep enough into that site you will come across a page translated from russian by a computer, it's pretty funny....

"One of the big problems arises at replacement and repair shitkov devices. I shall describe some nuances below.



1. BMW525i Simens ROM X2402PI

This machine has very whimsical character, for the first time we have collided(faced) such problem when to us there has arrived the machine with dead shitkom, with inscription CODE pleasing an eye. Running forward, I shall tell, the reason in long ignoring inscription INSPECTION, and chasikov before the person of the driver."

... oh yeah!


Shazbat!
I have an old cluster w/o the coding plug (grey back I think) somewhere for any one who wants to experiment.

[uscharalph]

Speedometer and trip counter are functional. The speedometer is occasionaly erratic (Seperate issue?).

[uscharalph]

Early E34s have an older design of cluster that stops at about 300000. If the car is built before about 02/89 it will be affected by this problem
Built 09/1988

[Morgenster]

The mechanic I used to go to with my e34 told me about this and said that in those case you'd need a different chip somewhere. He's done this before on a 7-series.

[myles]

I've successfully swapped my car's instruments and coding plug with a 1990 535im. The main trick is to make sure that the donor car is from the same market (US, ECE etc), has the same engine, transmission and fuel tank.

The early cars do have a coding plug, its just that it is very different to the later ones. The early one is a black thing that is embedded in the brown connector in the wiring harness for the cluster.

[Omega]

What about using a "mileage correction specialist" (as they advertise in the UK) to reset the speedo to 0000000 ?

Just a thought.

[uscharalph]

What about using a "mileage correction specialist" (as they advertise in the UK) to reset the speedo to 0000000 ?

Just a thought.
It's probably the last resort. I want to exhaust all other options first.

[uscharalph]

I'm still working on this problem.

[shogun]

Shazbat!
I have an old cluster w/o the coding plug (grey back I think) somewhere for any one who wants to experiment.

All grey cluster are without a coding plug. On the grey cluster the coding plug is located in the wire loom to the cluster.

In Germany on the E34 forum there are some guys which reprogram a cluster with blue or white backplate and the chip installed in the back from the data of the donor car to the correct data of the car where the cluster will be installed then. Even the mileage will be set to the correct mileage of the 'new' car.
But what they do not do is to program a mileage upon request. So one has to send in to them the old chip and the new chip which has to be reprogrammed. If they can do, you can do probably too.

[uscharalph]

All grey cluster are without a coding plug. On the grey cluster the coding plug is located in the wire loom to the cluster.

In Germany on the E34 forum there are some guys which reprogram a cluster with blue or white backplate and the chip installed in the back from the data of the donor car to the correct data of the car where the cluster will be installed then. Even the mileage will be set to the correct mileage of the 'new' car.
But what they do not do is to program a mileage upon request. So one has to send in to them the old chip and the new chip which has to be reprogrammed. If they can do, you can do probably too.
How do I contact them?

[shogun]

Maybe someone in the U.S. can help you, try this forum, these guys are specialized on electronics for BMW
http://www.bmwecu.org/

[tim eh?]

I'm still working on this problem.

i want to try this on the white-backed cluster i have (need to add about 100km), but you could try resetting to zero on yours... i've got a couple years to go tho before i need to worry...

from the site i linked previously...
"Reset the plug yourself: I haven't checked it yet, but I was told by someone you can clock in a speed signal of 100 kHz. This equals a very high speed (about 60 000 km/h). The plug should then store the mileage in it's RAM. As it can't write settings over 300K in into the ROM area 300K you will have to wait until it's been around 1 000 000 km. It should then write 000 000 back into the odometer. This costs about 0 Euro. Highly recommended. If you have tried this and it works I LOVE to hear from you!!! "

not sure what kind of a device you would need to do this but it's guaranteed to be way cool!

[Qube]

Ahhh... so stay away from earlier cars advertising "only" 300k :)

[ahlem]

So what does it mean if my '90 just hit 310,000 miles? Do I have later guages?

[shogun]

Read the whole thread! Then you will know that the problem clusters are the ones built up to 02/89, and they have a grey backplate.

[uscharalph]

So what does it mean if my '90 just hit 310,000 miles? Do I have later guages?
It means your BMW was manufactured after 02/89.

[nirvana19]

i want to try this on the white-backed cluster i have (need to add about 100km), but you could try resetting to zero on yours... i've got a couple years to go tho before i need to worry...

from the site i linked previously...
"Reset the plug yourself: I haven't checked it yet, but I was told by someone you can clock in a speed signal of 100 kHz. This equals a very high speed (about 60 000 km/h). The plug should then store the mileage in it's RAM. As it can't write settings over 300K in into the ROM area 300K you will have to wait until it's been around 1 000 000 km. It should then write 000 000 back into the odometer. This costs about 0 Euro. Highly recommended. If you have tried this and it works I LOVE to hear from you!!! "

not sure what kind of a device you would need to do this but it's guaranteed to be way cool!

AHHH. nooo. When I left my car was at 296k km and its an 8/88 build. Now I' wishing my gauges were in mph.. my odometer is going to stop at 186k :-( My cars only going to be driven about 5 miles a week for most of the year so I have a little time but I really hope someone finds a resolution.

[uscharalph]

I've successfully swapped my car's instruments and coding plug with a 1990 535im. The main trick is to make sure that the donor car is from the same market (US, ECE etc), has the same engine, transmission and fuel tank.

The early cars do have a coding plug, its just that it is very different to the later ones. The early one is a black thing that is embedded in the brown connector in the wiring harness for the cluster.
When you swapped clusters, did you swap same color back cluster for same color back cluster? Mine has a grey back.

Were you able to change the mieage to what your car actually has or does the new cluster, just continue from the mileage it was at when you installed it?

[myles]

When you swapped clusters, did you swap same color back cluster for same color back cluster? Mine has a grey back.

Were you able to change the mieage to what your car actually has or does the new cluster, just continue from the mileage it was at when you installed it?


When I swapped I went from the grey back cluster to a white back cluster. The donor car had less miles on the clock than mine did, but mine had been sitting at 300000 since I had bought the car and for some time with the previous owner(s). I'll never know what the true number should be, but I would guess that it would be over 400000. The new cluster reads 190k-ish. I'm not bothered by the number on the cluster, more interested in how many miles I put on the car over a year. I don't have any intention of selling the car so I don't think that I've got any reason to worry about the incorrect number.

[ArnZ!]

oh gay, so another thing to fix later on for me.

im at 297xxxkm so better start looking for a cluster and have it ready to change out.

[uscharalph]

When I swapped I went from the grey back cluster to a white back cluster. The donor car had less miles on the clock than mine did, but mine had been sitting at 300000 since I had bought the car and for some time with the previous owner(s). I'll never know what the true number should be, but I would guess that it would be over 400000. The new cluster reads 190k-ish. I'm not bothered by the number on the cluster, more interested in how many miles I put on the car over a year. I don't have any intention of selling the car so I don't think that I've got any reason to worry about the incorrect number.
So as long as the donor car is american, had a M20 525i engine, automatic transmission and how do I tell the gas tank? the white back cluster will plug into my BMW?

[tim eh?]

So as long as the donor car is american, had a M20 525i engine, automatic transmission and how do I tell the gas tank? the white back cluster will plug into my BMW?

(i think) the white back cluster will plug in anyway but display faulty values if any of those things are different to your old car.

the one i used came out of a '90 525 auto so i think that's still an m20 (i have an m20)... works fine except the fuel and temp guages are dead (i think they're really dead and it's not a compatibility issue but i don't know for sure) and of course the car is suddenly 100,000 km younger.

to check gas tank... maybe www.realoem.com? i thought they were all the same... good luck ralph, hope you can get it done!

[myles]

So as long as the donor car is american, had a M20 525i engine, automatic transmission and how do I tell the gas tank? the white back cluster will plug into my BMW?

Thats right. The fuel tank side of things is not so hard to match up, just that some E34s had plastic tanks and some had metal tanks and therefore had a different sender unit. There was also the option on some E34s to have 90L tank rather than the standard 80L tank. I've seen a cluster from an E32 735ia used in an E34 535ia and everything worked correctly except for the fuel gauge as the E32 had a 100L tank.

You might also want to check that the donor car has the same type of auto transmission. The electronic and non-electronic options on the trans might make make a difference.

Make sure that when you get the new cluster that it does come with the code plug otherwise you won't achieve anything.

If you get the right match everything will work exactly as it should. Remember to do the cluster self test to check on the fuctionality of the unit and all of its gauges.

Good luck with your hunt for a donor car.