Swapping Clusters

[PrimeTimeSlime]

I am swapping the 328is cluster from my donor car into the ti right now. Does anyone know if I need to take the chip in the back of the ti cluster and put it in the 328 cluster? What exactly does the chip do?

I used the dme, ews, etc from the donor if that makes any difference.

[John Firestone]

The fuel consumption gauge is purely electrical and calculates the consumption rate from the road speed (from the differential speed sensor), the engine speed and injection time signal (both from the DME).

The instrument cluster coding plug appeared on later (post-9/96??) clusters. I believe it just keeps a second copy of the mileage for easy transfer to a new cluster.

Did you also transfer the 328i engine?

[PrimeTimeSlime]

Originally Posted by John Firestone

The fuel consumption gauge is purely electrical and calculates the consumption rate from the road speed (from the differential speed sensor), the engine speed and injection time signal (both from the DME).

The instrument cluster coding plug appeared on later (post-9/96??) clusters. I believe it just keeps a second copy of the mileage for easy transfer to a new cluster.

Did you also transfer the 328i engine?

Thanks, yes, I transfered the 328is engine and dme. The 328 engine has more miles on it than the my car so I wanted to keep the lower mileage.

[John Firestone]

The coding plug may only increase the displayed mileage: it assumes the replacement cluster was ordered with zero miles on it.

You probably only need to add the missing wire from the DME with the injection time (ti) signal to get the consumption gauge working.

[aznlonewolf135]

so it wiring and plugs from the ti will go right into the new 6 cylinder instrument cluster?

[John Firestone]

I'm not sure but I suspect this may be a case of the wish being father to the thought.

I mentioned 'ti' because that is the mnemonic name BMW gave to the injection time signal from the DME should a gentle reader find themselves perusing the BMW Electrical Troubleshooting Manual.

The clusters are very similar, but to be sure, I would probably have to spend a day or two comparing the instrument cluster section drawings in the ETMs. I think I wishfully read that into the "etc" in the opening post, or that he had swapped in the 328i wiring, when the OP wrote:

... I used the dme, ews, etc from the donor if that makes any difference.