Speedometer problems

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Cody318

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Like many other E30 owners, I have no working speedometer in my car. It hadnt worked in about 2 years, until recently it jumped into place and worked for about 5 seconds before quitting again. I have my instrument cluster out and the speedo off the main cluster part. I notice that the gears are in tough shape, but dont understand why it would work a little bit and then stop because of gears, and am thinking more of an electrical/wiring fault. I was fine w/o the speedo for awhile, because I could tell speed from the tach reading, but now the tach isnt functioning either. I was coasting into a town and glanced at the gauges when I noticed an RPM readout of about 4500, which I knew wasnt right. Then the tach needle started jumping around before settling at "0." The fuel gauge works sometimes, but usually reads a full tank even if it is empty. The temp gauge is dead. When disconnecting the plugs in the rear of the cluster, there are only 2 connectors that plug in, but 4 plug-ins at the rear. Also, about the same time the tach went my radio started cutting out. Maybe they share a ground connector of some sort that is coming loose...anyway very frustrating to have so many electrical problems, and no working instruments or radio. help me!! [idea]
 
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f1racer77

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my speedo will do the same thing in my E30. I found it was the speed sensor on the back of the diff. I still haven't replaced it, just some duck tape over it and now it works fine
 
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budhall088

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My mpg guage thing stops working when ever it feels like it. I'm hoping other things don't start doing the same. Seems like the guage cluster is a pretty consistent problem with E30's. Isn't there anywhere that someone could get a new one?
 
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averageed

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speedo trouble

undefined
Cody318 said:
Like many other E30 owners, I have no working speedometer in my car. It hadnt worked in about 2 years, until recently it jumped into place and worked for about 5 seconds before quitting again. I have my instrument cluster out and the speedo off the main cluster part. I notice that the gears are in tough shape, but dont understand why it would work a little bit and then stop because of gears, and am thinking more of an electrical/wiring fault. I was fine w/o the speedo for awhile, because I could tell speed from the tach reading, but now the tach isnt functioning either. I was coasting into a town and glanced at the gauges when I noticed an RPM readout of about 4500, which I knew wasnt right. Then the tach needle started jumping around before settling at "0." The fuel gauge works sometimes, but usually reads a full tank even if it is empty. The temp gauge is dead. When disconnecting the plugs in the rear of the cluster, there are only 2 connectors that plug in, but 4 plug-ins at the rear. Also, about the same time the tach went my radio started cutting out. Maybe they share a ground connector of some sort that is coming loose...anyway very frustrating to have so many electrical problems, and no working instruments or radio. help me!! [idea]
Click to expand...
i had to change speedo something in the circuit board was amis. got one used and had to change the plug in front to keep tach reading correct
 
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averageed

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fuel pump relay

can anyone tell me the location of f,p relay on an 89 325i iwent to start the car and it fired for a second and quit. now it will not start at all
 
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Cody318

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budhall088 said:
My mpg guage thing stops working when ever it feels like it. I'm hoping other things don't start doing the same. Seems like the guage cluster is a pretty consistent problem with E30's. Isn't there anywhere that someone could get a new one?
Click to expand...
I have seen a few on ebay once in a while, the only reason i havent bought one is because I wasnt completely sure if the cluster was the problem or not. I checked the sensor on the diff, which looked fine. I re-soldered the joints on back of the speedo and checked the wiring for the cluster. I dont know if the problem has been solved by any of this or not, because what i thought was a little speedo issue has mushroomed into a full-out electrical nightmare. Turn signals, headlights, etc interfere with the tach reading, the battery goes dead for no apparent reason, radio cuts out constantly...theres more im not thinking of and some i havent yet discovered. wonder if its shorting out somewhere or something...
 
jrt67ss350

jrt67ss350

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budhall088 said:
My mpg guage thing stops working when ever it feels like it. I'm hoping other things don't start doing the same. Seems like the guage cluster is a pretty consistent problem with E30's. Isn't there anywhere that someone could get a new one?
Click to expand...
You can get new ones from the BMW dealer. However, they are very expensive. It is over $200 for just the speedo itself.
 
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bddog

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There are rechargable batteries located on the S I Board, inside the speedo cluster.They go bad and this is often the cause of speedo cluster, as well as other problems
You can buy and replace the S I Board , or go to radio shack, buy new batteries , and solder them in yourself.
There is also a way to set up remote batteries .so that when they go out ,and they will, you can replace them easily.
 
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