'96 840ci Instrument Cluster LCD display

[AlienOscillator]

Hi all.

I've lurked here for 6-7 years and this is my first post.

I have an Oxford green metallic 1996 840Ci (04/96). I've had this car for seven years and have returned it to its original state as the previous owner tried to turn it into an Alpina E31 clone. Oddly, the previous owner had a fetish for green because all the interior bulbs were that colour... and so was the instrument cluster LCD display. I just assumed that the previous owner had slipped a piece of green film in front of the display. While servicing the car today, I decided it was a good time to finally restore the display to orange, pulled the instrument cluster and to my surprise, the LCD display IS actually green. The BMW part number on the module is 819.802.10/2 but I can find no reference to this part number. New displays are over $800 new. What to do, what to do?

Thanks,
Clive
DSC00185.jpgDSC00184.jpgIMG_20201016_163126644.jpg

[Timm]

He seems to have fitted an assortment of coloured tungsten bulbs in there! Have you had the metal cover off of the dot-matrix display? He must have fiddled with that in some way. The module is part number 62118354452 - but there must be something that can be done to return the lower matrix display back to the right colour.

[AlienOscillator]

Hi Tim

I did take the LCD assembly apart yesterday to a point but stopped because it was clear the mask behind the LCD glass was green which is what surprised me and I didn't want to go further in case of possible damage with vintage electronics. That said, I have a used 850 cluster arriving next week and will just transfer the LCD over from that unit.

As an aside, I'm also English but live In South Carolina.

Here it is...
Clive

IMG_20201017_142454444.jpg

[Timm]

I love South Carolina - Myrtle Beach was great fun!

[rjbaren]

I'm not English nor do I live in SC but I do have an Oxford Green 840Ci. I was in Charleston just before Covid and loved it. My dash gauge lights are orange.

[ArnoNym]

Hi Clive,

I just took a look at an LCD-Modul. The orange colour-filter sits right behind the LCD. I guess you can bend open the metal tabs to replace the green filter with an orange one.

Good success,
Joachim

LCD03.jpgLCD02.jpgLCD01.jpg

[AlienOscillator]

I've resolved the issue with a replacement LCD out of an 850 cluster. Here's the interesting bit, -- the green display has a part number of 619.802.10/2 and the orange display has a part number of 619.802/10/1 (same as yours). The green display doesn't appear to have a film I think it's coated on the display glass as with the orange, -- it just looks like a film. The green display has not been tampered with. I'm assuming the /1 denotes orange and the /2 denotes green, the mystery is, what is the green display out of?

IMG_20201022_152402042.jpgIMG_20201022_153812346.jpgIMG_20201022_152539904.jpg

[AlienOscillator]

Well, I decided to take the green display apart and the colour is neither a coating or a film, it's a patterned piece of green fiberglass much like a blank circuit board! The question remains, what's it out of?

IMG_20201022_160730067.jpg

[revtor]

Interesting find.

The BMW part number on the display is 8 345 452 while the E31 equivalent is 8 354 452 (successor of 1 383 328). The green display part number is not found in the BMW electronic parts catalog (ETK). Going by the date on the display (1996) I wonder whether this may have been for a car model of the Rover Group that BMW had purchased just a few years before that. I remember getting a lift in a Rover 75 and it had exactly the same rear view mirror as the BMW E36. It probably shared a lot of components with BMW models. I don't know which model the instrument cluster LCD could be from, though. Definitely not a Rover 75. Maybe Land Rover? They had green dash lighting around these years. But I couldn't find instrument cluster pictures with that particular display.

[AlienOscillator]

Yeah, it's a mystery. Interestingly, the date on the display (4/96) is the exact build date of my 840ci.