E46 econometer feed...?

[Geeman]

My Mother's '00 E46 330i Touring has a swinging econometer on the dash, the same as some E30's.

Its now decided to stop working.

Before I start taking things to bits to investigate (not that it's a vital working part), I wanted to see if anyone knew where the feed for this came from.

Please only answer if you know for sure though!

Cheers,

Giles.

[stuartgallafant]

Gee, the econometer doesn't really get a specific feed as such...

The KOMBI (Instrument cluster control unit) recieves data from pretty much every control unit on the car, like a bit of a gateway. In this specific, it gets info from the DME (Digital Motor Electronics/engine management control unit) and converts it to relay you a message.

Theres the how, now the what...

The KOMBI will measure how long the DME pulses the injectors open, over a series of engine cycles. It then takes an average of those measurements and converts that into its own PWM signal to allow the needle to move, displaying you your 'MPG'. To be honest, that ones for looks really and the one in the On Board Computer which should be displayed in the rev counter iirc after selecting it from the indicator stalk is slightly more accurate

Hope that helps mate?!

[Geeman]

Cheers fella. Will try and make sense of that.

edit: Mum's just confirmed that it's working again now! Grrrrrr!

[stuartgallafant]

Women!!! She probably told you it wasnt working when she was sat at the lights!!

If you need a hand, just holler

[Geeman]

It had recently been in for some suspension work and coincidentally came out and the swingometer wasn't working... and now it is. Magic E46's!

Thanks again bud.