E38 INPA friendly OBD2 mod....

[951Dreams]

So, I got Bimmergeek's version of INPA up and running on my Windows 10 machine. Ordered up a 20-16 pin conversion cable, and a K+DCAN switchable cable. All was good in BMW diagnostic land. Except I was a little annoyed having to sit outside my car to read my modules (First world problems, I know). Really I wanted to be able to mess with stuff inside AND read the results. Out of the rain, and with the AC on if I choose.

I had heard there was a way to rig up the 20 pin under the hood so you could get all your INPA goodness from the OBD2 port inside the car. Google didn't disappoint, but it did take a bit of searching. This is nothing new, just a little bit more detailed than what I found with google. I'm sure there are some great write-ups out there, I just wasn't finding them. So I made this one.

**DISCLAIMER** This worked for me, I can't promise this will work for you. This is for E38 only, I have no idea if it will work for any other BMW of the era. If you break something, not my fault. If you car catches on fire, not my fault. If your ECU become sentient and enslaves you to force YOU to take IT to Walmart... not my fault. Use at your own risk **END DISCLAIMER**

Links:

Bimmergeek's "hacked" INPA to work with any Windows 64 bit install. Choose the "Standard Tools" download. Instructions on how to install are in a txt file in the download. https://www.bimmergeeks.net/downloads On a side note the current version is 5.0.6 with english menus and German error codes. He had a full english version but it had bugs so he pulled it. At some point he's stated they will repost the full English version.

Cable from Amazon I'm using (Bimmergeek also sells a high quality one, but I didn't know that till after) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You'll need:

Flathead screwdriver
90 degree pick, or something of the like
1" of wire or so
Soldiering gun
Soldier
More skill than me with using the last two
30-60 Mins of your life

There is more than one way to skin this cat. In the end the main objective is to link Pins 17 and 20 together in the 20 pin port CAP under the hood. One of them is used for the normal OBD2 communication (Engine codes and the standard OBD2 stuff) the other is used by INPA and the like for talking to all the other modules. Stock our cars only send the OBD2 data to the OBD2 port. But if you link them together it will start sending EVERYTHING to the OBD2 port. No more need for a 20-16 pin adaptor cable. You can just hook up to the OBD2 port inside for all the BMW Standard Tools to work! Back to skinning cats, there are multiple ways to do this. After considering my options I went with the below because I liked the idea the best. This just seemed the easiest "clean" way to do it. I spent several hours with INPA to verify it worked as expected. Worked fine for everything I tried. I didn't try programing or other tools. But I've read they all work fine with this mod. But I cannot vouch for anything but READING with INPA. The best part of this approach is that it doesn't "damage" or rewire your 20 pin or OBD2 at all. So you can always go back to a 20-16 pin adaptor if needed at any time. Take off the cap like normal, and presto! Back to stock setup again.

So on to it! The first thing is to get the cap itself off. Unless yours it broken, it should be attached to the port by a plastic teather. I found prying with a flat head screwdriver where it snaps into the middle of the cap worked well to remove it. Once you have it removed, if you turn it over you'll notice 5 pins coming out of a circuit board mounted into the cap itself. What we want to do is get the two pins in the picture below linked together:

Pic 1 edited.jpg

It's important we get the right ones!! At this point you could rig up something to just connect the two and be done. A paperclip, a wire, or anything else that conducts. However I had visions of other pins(the female side of the pins) in the port somehow contacting it, or a host of other issues with that solution. So we're going to dig a little deeper here. For my solution we need to get that circuit board out. It's held in with 4 plastic rivets circled below:

Pic 1.5 edited.jpg

I got it out by taking a small pair of needle nose pliers and "crushing" the ends of those rivets until I could pop it out. The board itself is pretty beefy, but I don't suggest just prying it out. Might work, might break your board. Once I had them to the point I thought I could get it out, I used a 90 degree pick to pry it out from underneath. If you don't have one then get inventive, my only suggestion here is try to get something under the board and pull up. There isn't tons of room on the side for a flathead so you'll mostly be forcing it sideways and not up. But might work. To me this is the only part with any risk. Just be patient and smart about it.

If all goes well, you'll have a nice unbroken board in your hand:

Pic 3 edited.jpg

Turn it over and I've marked the two you want to link together again:

Pic 4 edited.jpg

The easiest way in my head to keep it straight was to make sure I was working with the two that would have to cross over the pacman cutout in the center to link. All the others close by could be "linked" without going directly over it.

Since you'll have to route around the packman slightly, you want to make sure your wire is long enough to go around it. I ended up with something like this:

Pic 5 edited.jpg

Continued on next post due to per post limit of pictures reached....

[951Dreams]

My only suggestion is to use the smallest wire you can find. I keep a roll of 16 gauge around, but that's too big. I cut some off an old stereo I had laying about, but it was still really too big for my taste. I'm guessing what I used was about 22 gauge? Ish....

I'll post the next one so you guys can make fun of me. I SUCK at soldering. So this is how I kept my wire in place:

Pic 6 edited.jpg

LOL, yeah... anyway...

So the joints on the board are very hard. I don't think I got even close to melting them, but I also had a little trouble getting my soldier to stick to them. After several attempts (as in, my soldier job didn't "stick", test pulls pulled it off easily) I finally got a decent job done:

Pic 7 edited.jpg

Not pretty, but it works. Putting it back together, my thoughts about using too big of a wire turned out to be somewhat founded. I could tell it was keeping the board from sitting 100% level. It was slight, but if I did it again I would have found smaller wire. This worked however. I thought about putting some JB Weld back over the rivet holes, but to be honest I didn't want to wait for it to set. So I used some brush on JB Weld "super glue" I had instead. I don't plan to ever need to take the cap off again now, but I'm pretty sure it will hold well enough.

Anyway. Tested and working, as long as my soldier job holds up.

[Timm]

Excellent work - and very useful in rainy England!

[951Dreams]

I don't know if anyone else cares, but I did figure out how to create a direct INPA menu for E38, so you don't have to go to "Older" and scroll down to E38. Set it up on F9 and moved E89 to <shift>-F4. If anyone is interested I'll post up how. Figured out on both vanilla INPA and Bimmergeek's INPA.

[georgebest]

This is interesting, thanks! I might do it.

[Sundaycruzer]

Sweet mod! What version of inpa do you have

[951Dreams]

Sweet mod! What version of inpa do you have

Bimmergeek's INPA 5.0.6. It's a "hacked" version to work correctly on 64 bit windows vista/8/10 ect. I'll link in the first post, forgot to do that.

[Roont]

Love this. Thank you for all of the great details!!

Sent from my VS501 using Tapatalk

[purplecty]

You can also just do what 7thDimension did as well...

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[Timm]

He's chopped off the Pacman in the middle!

[purplecty]

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...5-OBD-Port-Mod

And yes 951Dreams mod with the write up is a much more clean way to do it permanently...


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[Ctwide3project]

Anyone know if this will work for 06/2000 e46?

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[Sundaycruzer]

Old thread but found an easy way to do a clean jumper for this mod.


Simply solder a jumper, instead of using a piece of wire. Clean of protective coating and run a bead of solder to jumper.

[bymep]

Is this board inside of the plastic cap that covers the port?

[Sundaycruzer]

Is this board inside of the plastic cap that covers the port?

Yes, there are plastic tabs that you break off to release the circuit board, then I epoxied the circuit board back to the cap

[Haans]

I've improved my soldering skills over time. Having a small container of rosin flux helps greatly in attaching new solder to existing older soldered joints. All it takes is a dab. You'll also do well to use a small wire brush carefully or sandpaper or file to slightly rough up intended spot your wanting to add solder to. Lastly, when trying to heat up old soldered spot on pc board ect. having a spot of fresh flux & solder in your iron will attach to old solder very quickly. Seems that older dirty solder spot is in a caccoon of sorts and will not accept new solder until the dirt surface is penetrated.

- - - Updated - - -

Make sure you remember the orientation by marking how board sits in the cap prior to removal.

[Haans]

But wait....You've cut off the black plastic pin with the divit in the side used for orientation. Your not mentioning this for us newbies!

- - - Updated - - -

Should. All 16-20 pin plugs under hood are wired the same.

[buffer overflow]

Bravo @951Dreams. One quick question I have for you, in your sig it says you have a 2001 740iL, same exact one I do. Is that indeed the car you did this mod on? I'm just paranoid of breaking stuff

Edit: never mind, I found in another thread that all 96-01s are run the same way, regardless of facelift. Some 2001 E38s don't even have the 20-pin connector but mine does.

[Old525i]

Sorry for the silly question, but INPA 5.0.6 doesn't show an option for the E38. Is there a newer version that does? Thanks in advance.

[clarkitect]

Sorry for the silly question, but INPA 5.0.6 doesn't show an option for the E38. Is there a newer version that does? Thanks in advance.

Look under the “older models” tab?

[Old525i]

Found it! Thanks.