It appears that I need to change the capacitors in my instrument cluster. Has anyone written up a procedure for this? What about the batteries mounted on the circuit board? Can someone provide a link for these repairs? Thanks in advance. Greg
What makes you say that? What is not working? Here is what I found: http://home.comcast.net/~fongman1/repairpages/instrumentclusterrepair.html
1989 535i Instrument Cluster Thanks for your reply. I've found this writeup recently. I'm just looking for different perspectives on this problem. Problems are Service Indicator, tach, speedo, odometer, temperature, vacuum gauges are not working.
AFAIK these do not have batteries like the older cars. They have flash memory which is stable and doesn't leak all over and corrode your circuit board like the E28. http://www.bmwe34.net/Wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Dashboard capacitors If this does not work, you need a cluster motherboard. If so, I know someone that has a freshly remanufactured one for sale.
Looking for Feb 89 cluster info Great info here but how much different is the pre Feb 89 cluster caps? Same basic positions and quantities to replace? Will these caps be available at radio shack? Can you safely drive the car without the cluster in place since this repair may take me a week to accomplish?
I wouldn't do that if I were you. If you drive the car for more than a certain mileage without the odometer mileage being registered, the tamper dot will illuminate near the odometer, and it will think the mileage has been tampered with, seriously affecting the resale value of the car. Not only that, but your mileage will no longer be accurate and that might be very annoying (I would refuse to drive it if I couldn't put the cluster back in).
If the entire cluster is out, where do you think the data indicating that the car was driven will come from?
Being a newer car, I'd figure it would come from the speed sensor, and that somehow the computer or LKM should log this information... It is my understanding that a tamper dot is the result of a differing mileage from the cluster and the computer. Is this not true?
More on ICs All good points. This is an 89 535 with 265K miles on it so resale is not a big issue. I like the idea of spending about $15 on this fix. I have called KB motorsports in San Marcos CA but they have not given me an estimate yet, If it is more than $100 bucks I might try this anyway but it seems the safe bet is to not drive the car. Why wouldn't the alternator charge the battery?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All good points. This is an 89 535 with 265K miles on it so resale is not a big issue. I like the idea of spending about $15 on this fix. I have called KB motorsports in San Marcos CA but they have not given me an estimate yet, If it is more than $100 bucks I might try this anyway but it seems the safe bet is to not drive the car. Why wouldn't the alternator charge the battery?
'89 535 Instrument Cluster Inop. Gentlemen: I started a thread on this subject almost two years ago. In the meantime, the instrument cluster operation was intermittent and finally all functions stopped working. I changed the four capacitors as outlined on numerous posts and now, only the tach needle moves a little, in sych with the engine speed. In addition, the SRS light is now flashing. Anyone have any suggestions? I replaced the cluster with another unit that was supposedly operational. The original coding plug was installed in the "spare" cluster and that one doesn't work either. Anyone have any suggestions? Are there any schematics out there? The vehicle is an '89 535i with 5 speed and an 04/89 build date. Thanks in advance. Greg
I don't believe an 89 had RTS enabled... the later cars stored the data in IKE and LCM... but that came in 95+ cars? The alternator light circuit goes through the cluster, and is the reason why alternator won't charge if cluster is out. At least that's how it works in older BMW's (like e30s etc). If you look through ETM you can confirm if it's the case for an 89 535i or not and also what pins in the harness connector you can short while the cluster is out to make the alt. charge circuit work...
Greg, here's the link to the Electrical Troubleshooting Manual. Go to Section 6200. http://wedophones.com/Manuals/BMW/1989%20BMW%20525i%20-%20535i%20Electrical%20Troubleshooting%20Manual.pdf
Nff I also had this cluster problem. I did all the research and bought the capacitors but did not have use them. I removed the IC and just plugged it back in and it worked! Still working after 4 months!
Explanation of cluster issue with early clusters http://bmwe32.masscom.net/johan/dash_caps/dash_caps.html
