Dash problem? CONFUSED!

[Dan318-is]

when i put my lights on my IS, the dashonly just lights up, thelight is extremely faded, and the revometer does not work, but the speedo fuel gauge light etc do work?
whast going on!? HEL!P!

[astondg]

Have you tried turning the headlight pull switch thing around? The switch that you pull out to turn on the headlights can be turned side to side to adjust the dashboard light brightness.

If you tried this and it still doesn't work than I don't know how to help, sorry.

Aston

[Dan318-is]

i will try it m8 n let u no thanks for the tip

[Dan318-is]

that did the trick, but my rev gauge n temp gauge aintworking or lighting up

[Gwynleym10]

not lightiing up because the bulb on that side has gone.

Not working, probably because the SI battreys/board have gone

[Dan318-is]

ok bulb i can deal with, what du mean by battery/board?

is this a big job? or a hard one?

im useless with electronics

[Gwynleym10]

Go to http://www.unofficialbmw.com/main.html

and search under e30 under electrical for

BMW Service indicator lights FAQ.

or SI board battrey replacement.

it involves soldering. If your no good at that, ask some who is breaking a car.

[Dan318-is]

thanks for your help mate

[Brianmoooore]

The original SI board had NiCd batteries on it (similar in size to AA batteries). Sometime in 1989, AFAIK, these were changed to a board which uses shorter 3V Lithium batteries. Plenty of earlier cars will have had these boards fitted as a repair as well.
If you go looking for a replacement board, try to find one of the later type. I have never come across a faulty one of these yet.

[Dan318-is]

thanks a lot for your help, do you know how much these replacement boards are mate?

[Gwynleym10]

Are 4cylinder ones different to 6 cyclinder ones?

As for price, make someone an offer! look in the forsale for people braking cars

[Brianmoooore]

thanks a lot for your help, do you know how much these replacement boards are mate?

Last one I "bought" accidently fell inside the 7 series air box I was getting at the scrappies.
4 pot and 6 pot SI boards are all the same, as are complete clusters. Just the coding plug that's different.

[Dan318-is]

how hard are they to replace pal?

[Brianmoooore]

how hard are they to replace pal?

SI board?
Have to remove cluster from car - plenty of write ups on how to do that.
Unscrew about 10 screws to open it up, then the SI board is held into the front part by a single screw and plastic bracket.

[Dan318-is]

sounds easy.

so where do i start?

[astondg]

Follow this: http://e30m3performance.com/maintenance ... _Board.htm

It's for an M3 but I think it is all the same. Also I usually do this without taking the steering wheel off but it might be easier this way. The steering wheel never gets in the way for me, usually it's the steering column. I think my steering wheel is a little bit smaller than the standard one though.

Aston

[Brianmoooore]

No need to take the steering wheel off. Turn the cluster face down onto the column shroud as it comes out, and slide to the left.

[CaesarBob]

The thing you might want to check when you have the cluster out is that the earth screws are tightened up on the back of the fuel/temp gauges.

These can come loose over time and break the connection. Had this on my iS but to start with the dash lights flickered on and off as you went over bumps.

In my experience with faulty SI boards, the dials themselves fail rather than the illumination. They normally die in a certain order (but i can't remember what that is!). Something like rev counter/econo-meter, temp gauge, fuel gauge then speedo.

hth

[Dan318-is]

so far its just my rev gauge n tempo i think.

mite have a crack at the weekend

[Dan318-is]

hi all.

my clock recently broke, i was advised to replace fuse number 21 - 7.5 amp rating. i did this, aand to my suprise, not only did the clock work, all the rev fuel and lpg gauges sprung into life!

easier than i thought!

thanks for all the advise tho

AND IM WITH THE 4 POT MASSIVE