Pre-facelift and facelift instrument clusters compatibility?

[bmwsport]

Hi all, I have just discovered since putting my car back on the road my temp gauge has stopped working and the brake warning light is on even though the brakes are fine. Sometimes by tapping the cluster the brake warning light would disappear.

Upon investigation it turns out my si board batteries have leaked and have corroded the circuit board.

My question is -

My cluster is out of an '85 pre-facelift coupe which was a 323i before having a Hartge m30 conversion. The gauges are in German with KM, litres on the fuel gauge and l/100km consumption gauge so will these be compatible with all UK pre facelift cluster circuit boards if I stick my coding plug in the back?

Also if the Ssss hits the fan will a facelift cluster work properly if the correct coding plug is in it as a temporary measure (the type with the coding plug located on the bottom right? and are any of my pre-facelift gauges compatible with a facelift cluster?

The car has the old l-jetronic engine management system so no motronic and no obc. I have two leads in the dash that plug into the facelift cluster the same way and ALL the gauges do work and warning lights behave as they should so this confirms my cluster is at fault, I just don't know if they will work properly and give me false readings.

The facelift cluster coding plug is BMW 04 1 377 364, I'm not sure if this is a 6 pot or 4 pot or if it will work regardless of what coding plug!

I have got both boards in bits, some parts appear to be interchangeable and others don't so am not sure which is the best way of going about it. Ideally a replacement pre facelift si board but of course it's finding one and don't want to risk buying a new one from the dealer In case the upper circuit board has also been damaged but it appears ok. As a temp measure I hope I can make a frankenstein cluster until I get the correct part.

Please help

[Gortour]

Should be fine with the correct coding plug.

[ajay]

A facelift cluster will work but you may need to swap the fuel gauge over from pre to faceligt (direct swap) if your fuel gauge reads wrong. Iv'e done this a few times.

[bmwsport]

Ah that sounds reassuring, the coding plug I have is 04 by the looks of it. It says BMW 04 1377 364 on the front, is this a 6 or 4 pot plug?

My speedo appears to be a straight swap as well as the temp and fuel gauge but the mpg/rpm is a different fit as the connection pins are on the bottom of the circuit board rather than on top like on a facelift board. So am I reading right as long as I have a 6 pot plug everything should be ok then? If I put my speedo which is a km unit will it count the same as before and not start counting in miles of anything daft on my odometer!? I would like to keep my speedo as its a hartge one which goes upto 260km/h so is pretty important to keep if I can get it to read right.

[polsta]

take your cluster out, swap the coding plug, speedo, fuel gauge, rev counter over from yours to the new one, jobs a goodun

fuel gauge is important incase the new unit you have is from a 4 pot and your car is a 6 pot , but if both cars the same it wont matter

[e30topless]

first off, about time the H28 graced the road again

you would ideally use a pre facelift cluster with your coding plug, that way your fuel gauge will fit direct (IIRC your car has the extra fuel tank ? ) and you speedo will slot in there,

I have many clusters from all models pre and facelift turds in good order, including a few from early 323i's let me know any serial numbers you have and i will compare,

[bmwsport]

My cluster is a pre-facelift with the long black coding plug that slots into the back behind the rpm gauge. I have no idea what coding plug I have, I have listed it above if anyone can help identify it

[bmwsport]

first off, about time the H28 graced the road again

you would ideally use a pre facelift cluster with your coding plug, that way your fuel gauge will fit direct (IIRC your car has the extra fuel tank ? ) and you speedo will slot in there,

I have many clusters from all models pre and facelift turds in good order, including a few from early 323i's let me know any serial numbers you have and i will compare,

Tell me about it it's been sorn since 09/11

Last summer was just way too hectic, new arrival, house renovation and moving etc etc. it would have just been a complete waste of money taxing and insuring it and it proved to be the case as I wouldn't have got to use it!

But in return I think with me leaving it for so long without a battery connected to it the si batteries must have given up!

Matthew (appletree) on here has lent me a facelift cluster to play about with and am doing so as we speak and all the gauges swap over bang on apart from the rpm/mpg gauge which is in l/100km as the circuit connections are different ie on the front of facelift cluster board and not behind itlike on my pre facelift version. I was thinking though that I may just be able to replace the card markings instead on that one though, do the needles just pull off?

Ideally a new si board would be the best bet and all will be ok! I can send a pic of my si board and you can see if you have one laying about. It's got the bigger AA size varta batteries on it and no coding plug in the usual place as that's in the rear of the main board instead behind the cluster (long and thin black plug).

Until I source one I will try and make a Frankenstein one out of this, does it matter if my stuff is in km, will they work and read the same if I plug them into a uk cluster ie mpg, odometer and speedo. Also I still don't know if it has a 4 or 6 pot coding plug. Cheers

[polsta]

as i said above fella.... just swap both dials, fuel guage, coding plug, from your one in to the new unit ...

[bmwsport]

Hope this works, different coding plugs, mine is the long black one that goes into the rear of my original cluster, my other cluster is a facelift version with the white coding plug that slots into the front.

[e30topless]

bit of a grey area this, hartge possibly may have altered the coding plug because the car has an m30 in there.. ? I have a few M30 clocks E28 E32 etc, I will check how they are

i can't really remember what the coding plug controls as per model, Poss temp /rev counter ? not sure about speedo I'm assuming there's no difference in KPH and MPH that could be just down to the clock face

I will have a dig around tomorrow I do have an M30 Hartge cluster and an Alpina M30 E30 cluster for comparison

[bmwsport]

Note different shape rpm gauge circuit board cutout and location of connections - Above is the facelift cluster with my prefacelift gauges apart from rpm as it won't fit, below is my original prefacelift cluster and si board, the black coding plug goes into the back of the rpm gauge through the slot you can see in the rear. This won't go on the new facelift cluster I have, so I have the white plug but I'm not sure if its a 6 pot one? Anyone know what plug it's for?

[bmwsport]

I assume maybe the odometer unit itself is geared differently to count km rather than miles and so i hope the boards are just universal, also looking at the speedo km layout it looks sort of inline with the km reading on the uk gauge so it may be ok at a guess, but my gauge has 20km more than standard 240km. Hmmmmm. Maybe if I can locate another si board like mine in the pic it should just slot in and jobs a goodun but in the mean time it would be good to get this facelift version working for the time being.

[bmwsport]

The facelift rev counter is on the left, my pre-facelift on the right. They are considerably different hence the coding plug going into the back of the unit itself as seen on the right. Maybe all the coding plug does is alter the rpm between the 4 and 6 pots and poss mpg? The temp gauge should be the same throughout i would have thought and the fuel gauges are different depending on the size of tank so putting my gauge on there should sort that. It just leaves the speedo/odometer in question and whether the coding plug does anything else?

[bmwsport]

Feck sake both photos are upside down

So pre facelift now on the left and facelift on the right

[Kedge]

Just saw this so nipped out to the garage and grabbed the 323i clocks I've got sat on the shelf.

They look the same but with different batteries. It's got the 5 green service lights though, whether that's because it's a late 323i I don't know.

[bmwsport]

Now that is interesting kedge

The term if it isn't broke don't fix it comes to mind! Why would BMW bother with that to then change it again (completely). Are those batteries defo the original spec or could it be a possible retrofit in place of the AA size batteries like on mine?

[Brianmoooore]

Now that is interesting kedge

The term if it isn't broke don't fix it comes to mind! Why would BMW bother with that to then change it again (completely). Are those batteries defo the original spec or could it be a possible retrofit in place of the AA size batteries like on mine?

That won't be the SI board it left the factory with. Most E30s will have had an exchange board from BMW many years ago, and they issued a mixture of repaired NiCd boards and new Lithium boards, like the one in the pic. Totally random as to which was fitted.
The batteries on any NiCd board will have likely failed again by now, although Lithium ones should be still OK, as long as they haven't been left disconnected from a car for too long.

[bmwsport]

Ah ok thanks for clearing that up Brian I left mine disconnected for 1 1/2 years, never again!