High OBC Retrofit in the year 2020

[Aubergine]

I'm subscribing to this. What an awesome way of building the retrofit!

[TiagE39]

Following this.

[amancuso]

Great thread. OP, the original NAV although old, if it is the MK4 DVD version with the last build 2015 map is still highly useful. Granted it does not give you traffic, it will get you to your location. I also have the bluetooth telephone set up and SiriusXM radio tuner. Feels no different driving my e39 vs. my F87/F32.

[//m320is]

For everybody interested, I have attained the parts to start building a retrofit harness. In looking at all the connectors/housings I only found one issue of compatibility. I believe I have a simple way of rectifying that however. How much interest is there in these harness's? Should I just start a new thread to gauge interest?

Thanks
Dave

sorry for the threadjack......

[Asbradley21]

I would be interested.

[Aubergine]

For everybody interested, I have attained the parts to start building a retrofit harness. In looking at all the connectors/housings I only found one issue of compatibility. I believe I have a simple way of rectifying that however. How much interest is there in these harness's? Should I just start a new thread to gauge interest?

Thanks
Dave

sorry for the threadjack......

Would this work even on early cluster low OBC cars? If so, i would probably be in for 2-3 of these adapters.

[//m320is]

Would this work even on early cluster low OBC cars? If so, i would probably be in for 2-3 of these adapters.

Just a quick look at WDS says no.....I don't know enough about the early cars to 100% determine however. I believe you could still use the plugs/connectors, but it would be wired different then what I would wire my car. By early I assume you mean 97 to 8 of 98 correct?

[Aubergine]

Just a quick look at WDS says no.....I don't know enough about the early cars to 100% determine however. I believe you could still use the plugs/connectors, but it would be wired different then what I would wire my car. By early I assume you mean 97 to 8 of 98 correct?

Yes, I would be looking to use this is 10/96, 11/96, 6/97, and 12/00 production cars currently with the low OBC.

[//m320is]

Yes, I would be looking to use this is 10/96, 11/96, 6/97, and 12/00 production cars currently with the low OBC.

From what I am gathering cars with a build date of 9/98 and forward are all wired the same, on the earlier cars it seems there are 3 different variations. So the harness I would build for my car (3/99) would only work in your 12/00. But like I said before I am pretty certain that the plugs/connectors are the same. If you can, take a look at WDS to see the variations, using the retrofit pdf and the correct plugs, it wouldn't be much to make it fit the earlier cars. I can forward the part numbers for the plugs/connectors/pins, etc once I have mine assembled.

- - - Updated - - -

[TiagE39]

5/99 here, would be interested

[TexasTouring]

I'd probably buy one too, at a reasonable price!

Now I'm thinking of making my own retrofit harness by cannibalizing a few SES jumpers I have, as they have the blue 26 pin receivers. I think we could just "unsheathe" the ELO-type pin block and slide in the Siemens-type pin block from the Low-OBC harness connectors.

Then it's just a matter of wiring the 3 High OBC connectors.

As my car sits right now, it just has a bunch of cheap quick splices making the High cluster work. I know this is shoddy, but I wanted to make sure this thing would even work before investing more seriously in a nice harness.

The great info/discussion above is exactly what I hoped I would get from starting this thread, so thank you!

[TerraPhantm]

I'd probably buy one too, at a reasonable price!

Now I'm thinking of making my own retrofit harness by cannibalizing a few SES jumpers I have, as they have the blue 26 pin receivers. I think we could just "unsheathe" the ELO-type pin block and slide in the Siemens-type pin block from the Low-OBC harness connectors.

Then it's just a matter of wiring the 3 High OBC connectors.

As my car sits right now, it just has a bunch of cheap quick splices making the High cluster work. I know this is shoddy, but I wanted to make sure this thing would even work before investing more seriously in a nice harness.

The great info/discussion above is exactly what I hoped I would get from starting this thread, so thank you!

You don't even have to unsheathe them. Just grind away some of the keyed portion of either the SES connector or the harness connector, and it'll slide in / lock in place.

[//m320is]

I'd probably buy one too, at a reasonable price!

Now I'm thinking of making my own retrofit harness by cannibalizing a few SES jumpers I have, as they have the blue 26 pin receivers. I think we could just "unsheathe" the ELO-type pin block and slide in the Siemens-type pin block from the Low-OBC harness connectors.

Then it's just a matter of wiring the 3 High OBC connectors.

As my car sits right now, it just has a bunch of cheap quick splices making the High cluster work. I know this is shoddy, but I wanted to make sure this thing would even work before investing more seriously in a nice harness.

The great info/discussion above is exactly what I hoped I would get from starting this thread, so thank you!

I have actual 26 pin connectors, they are actually headers that plug right into the two 26 pin connections the low clusters plug into. I have everything needed to build new harness's and the part numbers for the items. Now I just need the time to assemble.

[//m320is]

A little update.. I started to build a harness for my car. The problem is the connectors for the 26 pin plug that the low obc cars have are headers and need to be soldered to a protoboard. So I did just that. Used 2 new sockets from mouser, soldered to a protoboard and then soldered wires to the protoboard. There are a number of wires that the harness has and since I could only fine solid color wires I used sharpies to draw different colored stripes on the wires to distinguish the different wires and wrote them down to the corresponding pin numbers.


AE43B5BB-9E0D-4702-B938-78EEBC9A4F3C.jpeg
DF7D0714-FBA5-49F9-93B0-9FAD3C637896.jpeg


The board is a little long, and I will refine if there is enough interest in building these and I decide to do so, this took me a little over an hour to do
The blue connection is the one the black connector from the car will plug into, the yellow connection will be for the white connector in the car, however the exterior casing of the plug will need to be changed to plug into the socket, as they no longer, or atleast I couldn't find the correct socket for the white 26 pin connector to plug into.

I have not yet installed the 3 connections for the High OBC yet as I am waiting for some more pins to come in sometime this week. Those connections will match the colors of the cluster itself. I also ordered the correct coolant level sensor for the overflow bottle that has not shown up yet so I still have to build the harness for that as well.

If any of you guys have any ideas, please let me know. I may start a new thread to gauge interest and document the install into my car.
Sorry its taken so long guys, too many irons...…….. well you know..

[Aubergine]

A little update.. I started to build a harness for my car. The problem is the connectors for the 26 pin plug that the low obc cars have are headers and need to be soldered to a protoboard. So I did just that. Used 2 new sockets from mouser, soldered to a protoboard and then soldered wires to the protoboard. There are a number of wires that the harness has and since I could only fine solid color wires I used sharpies to draw different colored stripes on the wires to distinguish the different wires and wrote them down to the corresponding pin numbers.


AE43B5BB-9E0D-4702-B938-78EEBC9A4F3C.jpeg
DF7D0714-FBA5-49F9-93B0-9FAD3C637896.jpeg


The board is a little long, and I will refine if there is enough interest in building these and I decide to do so, this took me a little over an hour to do
The blue connection is the one the black connector from the car will plug into, the yellow connection will be for the white connector in the car, however the exterior casing of the plug will need to be changed to plug into the socket, as they no longer, or atleast I couldn't find the correct socket for the white 26 pin connector to plug into.

I have not yet installed the 3 connections for the High OBC yet as I am waiting for some more pins to come in sometime this week. Those connections will match the colors of the cluster itself. I also ordered the correct coolant level sensor for the overflow bottle that has not shown up yet so I still have to build the harness for that as well.

If any of you guys have any ideas, please let me know. I may start a new thread to gauge interest and document the install into my car.
Sorry its taken so long guys, too many irons...…….. well you know..

Awesome! I am definitely interested and following. If you decide not to sell these, a DIY with part numbers of what you've used and some photos would be awesome!!

[MRX9989]

Hi, just chiming in to say that I successfully did this very same conversion about a year ago with just soldering/splicing wires and purchasing base components from mouser. You'll also need to complete the coding with NCS Expert and purchase a high MID (available pretty cheap on ebay). The trickiest part is getting the wiring diagram right, but the BMW installation guide for the now-out-of-production factory conversion harness is helpful. More than happy to answer any questions.

[TerraPhantm]

Awesome! I am definitely interested and following. If you decide not to sell these, a DIY with part numbers of what you've used and some photos would be awesome!!

Yellow: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail...%252BiuQ%3D%3D

Blue has the part number 953472-2, but I'm not seeing it in stock.

Personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable relying on a prototyping board with wires soldered directly long term. I'd either just splice the harness at that point or go all the way and design a PCB that connects everything to the appropriate connectors.

Unfortunately short of buying the SES jumper modules I mentioned earlier, it doesn't seem like the male header -> wire version of that connector is easily purchase-able.

[MRX9989]

If I remember correctly, I overcame the unique plugs from the BMW kit by purchasing a the 28-pin "inner" plug sleeves from a BMW parts site and purchasing the pin plugs form Mouser (part #571-1-928918-1-CT). I mated the inner 28-pin plug sleeves against the low obc plugs, pushed the Mouser pins through inner sleeves and into the low OBC plugs, and then taped them together. The rest was just splicing and reading the wiring diagram. Has worked without an issue for over a year now.

[TerraPhantm]

Yeah that would probably work.

The other thought I had was instead of using a prototype board, you can still crimp female MQS contacts (or any contacts that are the right size) onto your wire, mate those contacts to the 26-pin headers' backside, solder everything up, and heatshrink each wire. Should keep everything under less mechanical stress than using a prototype board, and should still be an adequate connection electrically.

[TexasTouring]

I was able to find 2 SES jumpers at the junkyard, so I might try using those to make a harness.

Of course, I need to figure out the pin situation, does BMW sell individual male pins for this application?

[MRX9989]

I purchased all of my pins from Mouser, and they worked perfect for this conversion. Mouser stocks the same pins from the company BMW used.

[TerraPhantm]

I was able to find 2 SES jumpers at the junkyard, so I might try using those to make a harness.

Of course, I need to figure out the pin situation, does BMW sell individual male pins for this application?

They might, but they'll be much cheaper from mouser.

[TexasTouring]

I purchased all of my pins from Mouser, and they worked perfect for this conversion. Mouser stocks the same pins from the company BMW used.

Gotcha, thanks. What tool did you use to crimp the pins on the wire?

[NIKKOF40]

They might, but they'll be much cheaper from mouser.

Hello sir! Any chance I can communicate with you regarding an instrument cluster?

thank you

[MRX9989]

Gotcha, thanks. What tool did you use to crimp the pins on the wire?

I elected to use a pair of needle nose pliers. Crude, but effective. I had more than enough pins to just re-do them if I messed one up.