speedo but no odometer

[mrLEE30]

looking at buying a donor car to resell, the speedo works but the odometer and trip meter dont. any ideas?

mr lee

[BIGMRLEE]

if the speedo works its a mechanical fault in the clocks, one of the gears arent connecting, a set of second hand clocks is worth a try then go from there

[mrLEE30]

cheers big fella, not gonna buy it anyway so its someone elses prob, but kinda figured the porblem is as you say.

(small)mrlee

[android]

Sorry to disagree, but this is typical of either

1) an SI board with dead batteries, (my experience)

2) dry joints on the circuit boards in the instrument cluster (from reading other threads)

These problems are typical of the e30, as you will find if you stick around!

They are very cheap to fix, although getting the instrument cluster out the first time is a pain.

[cros]

Ahem.

The speedo unit has 4 pins: +12, gnd, diff pulse in and cleaned up diff pulse out. A single chip drives the odo via a stepper motor & gearbox and the speedo via a current sink through the galvanometer.

If the speedo works, then the problem is either a broken/ceased gear or a dry joint on the speedo sub module (most likely the pins going up to the stepper coil).

[android]

Many apologies,

I think I read odometer as rev counter. It was probably to do with the vast amount of beer coursing through my veins.

Must learn to read these threads more carefully before inserting foot in mouth.

[donR]

I have this exact problem, speedo works but odometer and trip meter does not. I will be following up on the comments but would appreciate any further information that anyone might have before I pull the instrument cluster out. Having not seen the back of it before or inside it I am not sure what I will be looking for.

By the way, I just performed the intermittent wiper fix.
http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... wipers.htm
Worked perfect though also noticed a bad solder joint as well which ended up needing repair by the end of the job.

Many thanks for all the tips, a great resource!

[Brianmoooore]

This problem seems extremely common in the US, but almost unheard of in the UK.
Replacement gears are readily available in the US, but it would be easier just to fit a different cluster.

[donR]

Pulled out the instrument panel the other day and took the cover off the back. The 12 tooth gear had broke in half and the I think 48/12 tooth was missing a few teeth. These gears drive the odometer and trip meter.

Gears were very easy to source locally from a number of suppliers and replacement is very easy. I'll try and take a photo of the mechanism later for those who are interested. Still yet to put it back together.

[donR]

I finally performed this fix and works great and really not a difficult job (except for see below). I ended up getting the three gears locally for $60 including postage from neic@bigpond.com. Another guy who was very helpful was contact@ottoinstruments.com.au. FYI I've added a some before and after pics.

[donR]

My only problem now is that some how I have bumped the speedo needle such that it reads approx 20 km/h slower, you can see this by where it now sits very low down on the dial.

I assume there is some sort of adjustment but would appreciate any tips if anyone know's what I've managed to move by accident?

[donR]

Surely someone has a comment on this problem?? Would appreciate some advice before I go in and start bending things back.

[Brianmoooore]

Only way I know of is to pull the needle off and re fix it in the correct position.

[donR]

Ended up just giving it a push back the other way, seems to be as good as new now, must have knocked it when upgrading the gears.