What year did they change this?

Sun Feb 04, 2007 8:49 pm

Hi. just wondering when they changed the electrics in the dials. I have a 1986 325 and the temp gauge has stopped working. Went to my local breakers and took the dials from a G reg 325 touring. Noitced when i took my dials out they had a different part no. and that the later one has a blue back cover. Plugged them in only to find that the rev counter/ mpg dial won't work. Did they change when they went to face lift model or later?

Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:27 pm

The main change in the cluster happened in January 86 (build date, not registration date). Before this date, the coding plug that tells the tacho how many cylinders the car has etc, was a pin that inserts into the rear of the cluster. After this date, it uses a small coding chip that plugs in the bottom right corner of the cluster at the front.

I suspect the wiring also changed at the same time to account for this. You probably need to find another early cluster.

Ian.

Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:22 pm

Also there are VDO and motronic (Spelling?) clusters not sure the internals are interchangeable...

Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:24 pm

E30Mark wrote:Also there are VDO and motronic (Spelling?) clusters not sure the internals are interchangeable...

Mark,

It's VDO & Motometer, and the parts are interchangeable.

Ian.

Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:31 pm

Motometer! that's what i was trying to write...

I tried using a VDO speedo in a motometer cluster and it didn't work properly... both were the post '86 type.

Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:33 pm

E30Mark wrote:I tried using a VDO speedo in a motometer cluster and it didn't work properly... both were the post '86 type.

Strange

My original SI board was VDO, but the replacement from the dealer was Motometer and it works fine.

Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:44 pm

Individual assemblies that make up the cluster should be fully interchangeable. Must have been a board fault or similar in the cluster you were putting the speedo in.

Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:52 pm

Brianmoooore wrote:Individual assemblies that make up the cluster should be fully interchangeable. Must have been a board fault or similar in the cluster you were putting the speedo in.

It must of been a freak then, the VDO cluster all worked OK together, and the motometer cluster worked together OK, just couldn't get the VDO speedo to work properly in the motometer assembly. But then it wasn't my car, so it wasn't my problem