gage cluster issues (temp gage, fuel gage, speedo, tach)

[superj]

well, after my fun day of replacing rear wheel bearings with my oldest son, I moved on to figuring out why my temp gage pegs to full hot. that became another day of working on the e30 because it became trace the brown/purple striped wire from sensor to gage cluster because the sensor tested fine.

so, I will document my fun here for the enjoyment of you, oh faithful reader.

what started this was me wondering if the car was running hot because the gage goes to full hot as soon I turn the key to run.
[img]https://s26.postimg.org/lqumyqvtl/20180318_162443.jpg[/img]

I checked the sender, it reads good. so I pulled the cluster and cleaned and tightened down the brass nut on the back. no-go, dammit.

I wonder if I can check the temp another way because I hate tracing wires so I stick a meat thermometer in the vent, start the car (gage pegs, check, dammit again), turn the heater on and the fan to 4. I sit and wait while the car warms up and I watch the thermometer climb from the low 80s at start up to the mid 90s. it stays there for a long time and the air temp feels luke warm but after 30 or 40 minutes the temp has creeped up to 120ish and the air is finally hot (not like burn your hand but definitely feels like a heater). this worries me because I don't know the actual temp and I only have one more engine to swap in if this one goes bad so I turn the car off and contemplate buying something else to drive around.

after checking craigslist for something else rear wheel drive and fun to drive I am back to thinking of how to fix the temp gage so that tells you what is on craigslist.

I decide its time to break down and trace the wire. yuck!

so, I get my trusty multimeter out and set it for checking for continuity and think of other fun things I could do like cut the grass with scissors or pull out my finger nails but those don't sound like fun either so I continue and put one of the leads into the sender plug and put the other in the diagnostic port by the air filter box. my meter drops to 0.00. dammit, so much for an easy fix. I follow the wiring harness and the c101 plug and find the pin for the temp sender and have a good reading at that point also.

so I unhook from the temp sender lead and pull the bezel and trim from the cluster, again.

I hook the lead to the other part of the c101 and run a wire so I can check continuity at the blue gage plug pin 26 and get the same faithful 0.0 reading so I am now happy the wires are good but wonder what is causing my trouble? why is the damn gage pegging hot when all is well from the blue plug to the engine?

now for the fun part, I say with zero smile at all.

I pull the gage cluster apart and start tracing circuits on the board and checking continuity on the gage. this, of course, leads to all kinds of annoyances and anger with wishes of having my good old 89 325i of old days (the one that got away) but leads to no new insight as to why my gages are not working. I start checking out my si board and notice that the new style board that goes to cluster for the car has some spots where the circuits are worn or broken.

joy, oh joy, I will finally have a good temp gage!!

but the devil is watching me work and laughing because after soldering in some new lines, my temp gage was still giving me the one pointer salute as soon as I turn the key. damn you, temp gage, damn you to hell! I will not be beaten by a stupid temp gage so I check my battery readings after some googling of what they should read. they are the new small style batteries and should be reading about 3.0v each, if I remember correctly, though they only read 1.8v and 1.9v.

so, I am now down to no temp gage because of batteries! of all things, batteries!! the one thing I cannot just swap out because I don't have any laying around. how will I defeat this new problem I ask myself?

day dreaming of knowing what my engine is running at and looking at my really messy garage full of e30 junk I drift of to previous purchases from people on here, on r3v, and from ebay and it hits me, I have another two gage clusters in the garage!! hmm, maybe I will win this battle ? i wander around blue comfort seats, tan comfort seats, around a cherry picker with the last good engine I have on it, passed the welder and the 87 wrangler 231 transfer case from my 302 swap in to my wrangler, around a creeper and some ramps and I finally get to the back rack. the rack that feels like the temple of doom. there are recaro seats from an e21, my trusty soldering kit, some bumper mount hellas from a 1960s Mercedes, lots of interior pieces to many cars, a spare electric fan, a set of 10" inch subs, a single 12" sub, a crunch amp from the good ol 89 325i, a set of zender stars in 4x100 with et0 and 8" wide and there they are, the lost gage clusters. the saviors of the current e30!!

I look at them and they look at me. what is the plan, what am I going to do? I think back to the times I went through them and which has had which parts removed and which parts were good and I settle on the one from the parts 325. it had the old style cluster that I was able to remove the leaking battery board from and solder the jumper wires into. for some reason though, I have this nagging suspicion that I put it back because something didn't work.

hmmm, well, now is the time to put the nose to the grind stone and fix or get fixed.

I make my retreat and emerge back into the warm south texas sun feeling like the hobbit coming from under the mountain. my eyes are squinted and I just stand there enjoying the warmth and sun. after a few second though, the humidity and mosquitos smack me back into reality and I have to spray some more off bug spray and so I lay out everything and start unscrewing the gage cluster.

I make sure my soldering is good from the time I did the si board delete and put the cluster back together so I can plug it in and see what works. I install the cluster into the car (which now feels like all I have done is install and remove clusters from e30s for all of my spring break, no chicks in bikinis for me because no temp gage to cruise padre island and check out the chicks with, but I am getting off topic) and turn the key and joy, the temp gage doesn't peg!!!!

I start doing my mini happy dance when I notice some other light is missing. what is going on? how can I now be mocked with something else after all this work?! I turn the key off and turn it to run but not to start so I can go over the lights. what in the hell!!! where is my battery light?!?!?!

now, I feel despair creeping into my soul. I must fight it! there is still life to be lived and cars to work on, there are pizzas to eat and life to live, I still have bicycle races to compete in and 100 mile rides scheduled for this year. I cannot give up over a damning light bulb!

so I pull the cluster (arrgh, again, again!) and open it up. I take my handy dandy multimeter and start checking circuits lines that look worn and I find a dead one. I cut some wire and solder the repair in and now have good continuity across all points checked so I check the bulbs and find the alternator light is not lighting.
[img]https://s26.postimg.org/lqumyriyx/20180318_174814.jpg[/img]
its good but its not working so I pull the bulb and look into the contacts. hmm, a little corrosion so maybe that's it. I scrape it off and put the light back in and put the whole cluster back together, again. (again, again, again, forever again)
[img]https://s26.postimg.org/yi8t5anm1/20180319_200039.jpg[/img]


so, I once again (again!!!!!!!) install that damn cluster. I tilt the steering wheel to that little angle where you can slide the cluster in and out without removing the wheel and hook up the blue plug, push in the abs light, hook the yellow plug, and last but not least (never last, not dang ever) I plug in the white plug.
[img]https://s26.postimg.org/6uw3r6mzt/20180319_194039.jpg[/img]


my fingers feel aged a million years and my back aches with the weight of planets being carried, my eyes burn and the mosquitos attempt to feast, yet I push through the pain. I feel like a ghost of myself as I tilt the cluster up and reach to turn the key. I feel each notch on the key tumbler as I turn towards the run and start positions. its like a mighty cylinder is fighting my attempt to turn, yet I turn. turn I must because I must know if I will have a temp gage and alternator, or will I end the day in defeat. will I limp home carrying the weight of loss as I prepare for the next days overtime.

so, as the key engages each position and I feel the anxiety of possible defeat, I keep turning. click, click, click and the lights light up. click and the engine turns over and catches. that inline 2.7 is such a good motor, so smooth and joyous to drive. it idles right up and sets smoothly purring while I watch the temp gage not jump to hot. good, still have a temp gage. I jump out and grab my multimeter and touch the battery terminals.

what will I see? will I have 13v and all will be good? will I show 12 or 11v and be beaten at dark?

the meter reads 13.3v!!!!! joy, oh long lost joy, how I have missed your smile!!

now I have a temp gage and the car charges but alas, no trip meter! well, you have to take the wins that god gives you and move on from there.
[img]https://s26.postimg.org/twcowy9sp/20180319_200106.jpg[/img]




so, I guess I will have to order another set of odometer/trip gage gears from garagistic to do this set because I think I tried changing the speedo from the new style cluster to this older one and something was a no-go. I will check later though

[323i E30]

[superj]

well, I cannot get the images to work so that sucks

[superj]

well, I went home yesterday and pulled the cluster out again to recheck the speedo versus the newer style cluster and it did swap out. I guess it was the tach that wouldn't swap out? anyways, I actually made my youngest son do everything since this car will be his when he gets his driver's license but, he pulled the trim and bezel and then the cluster. I got the newer cluster from the garage of doom and told him which screws to take out and how to open the cluster.

while he was doing that, I changed the oil pressure sender because that sucker must have been spraying a direct stream onto the exhaust. every time I drove anywhere, when I turned the car off, there would be a smoke cloud rolling out from under the car and people kept telling me they thought my car was on fire or something was wrong. I got tired of random people stopping me and worriedly looking at the car.

so, my youngest son got the cluster opened and I showed him the differences between the clusters and what to check and instructed him on how to swap the speedo. he got that done and closed the clusters up because he wanted to go riding in the car and I told him to reinstall the one into the car. so, he gets that done and we go for a test ride and half the lights are not working now, DANG IT!!! what in the heck?! at least the odometer and trip meter work so I can keep up my info for fuelly.com.

I will have to pull it out again sometime to fix the lights so I will keep you guys updated