So here's what I wanted: a Euro 3.0 M3 cluster (Oil temperature in Fahrenheit, 7000-7200 redline, 170mph speedo, no red line at 55 mph, etc.) but with my mileage.
Here are some issues I had to solve. First of all, if I wanted to use my US cluster rear, the oil temperature gauge would not work and the speedometer would be inaccurate unless I found someone with a DIS44 to reprogram the cluster rear from US to UK. This is time-consuming and not simple. So I decided to use a Euro rear. However, my Euro 3.0 cluster had 68K miles, and my car has 73,500 or so, so that was not an option. The third option was to buy a Euro 3.2L M3 Evo cluster with less than my current mileage, and swap my coding plug into it and synchronize the mileage.
This was the best plan, but I'd end up with a Euro 3.2L cluster with a 7400 rpm redline (ugh) and a oil temperature gauge in celsius (ugh), so I decided to swap the Euro 3.0 gauges over to the 3.2L cluster.
I used my US plastic front piece with my original cluster stickers, the Euro 3.2L pictogram row (the Euro 3.2L is slightly different from the 3.0 - the only change that would affect me is that the 3.2L says Check Control instead of just Check), the Euro 3.0 gauges/oil temp gauge, and the Euro 3.2 cluster rear with my US coding plug.
I swapped my US coding plug into the newly rebuilt cluster, ran test #15 to unlock test #9, and then synchronized my mileage and SI data to the cluster, and the odometer tamper dot went away and I was good to go.
One funny thing is that the US cluster starts at 0 mph, and the Euro starts at 10 mph. This confused me and made me think that my speedo was broken when I reversed out of my driveway to test it.
Before: (my old US cluster - see if you can spot ALL the differences between the two)
After: FRANKENCLUSTER, RISE!
(The cluster is dirty from finger/handprints - I will clean it later.)
Cluster test #6 (analog gauge test):
The oil temperature gauge is not yet hooked up, the pin is already installed in the cluster connector, and I just have to wire it to an oil temperature sender (I'll probably do that in July, when I get back from my month-long trip to Italy).
I'm very very happy.
UPDATE: Hooked up the oil temp gauge - here's the info copied from another thread about it I made on bf.c:
Here are some issues I had to solve. First of all, if I wanted to use my US cluster rear, the oil temperature gauge would not work and the speedometer would be inaccurate unless I found someone with a DIS44 to reprogram the cluster rear from US to UK. This is time-consuming and not simple. So I decided to use a Euro rear. However, my Euro 3.0 cluster had 68K miles, and my car has 73,500 or so, so that was not an option. The third option was to buy a Euro 3.2L M3 Evo cluster with less than my current mileage, and swap my coding plug into it and synchronize the mileage.
This was the best plan, but I'd end up with a Euro 3.2L cluster with a 7400 rpm redline (ugh) and a oil temperature gauge in celsius (ugh), so I decided to swap the Euro 3.0 gauges over to the 3.2L cluster.
I used my US plastic front piece with my original cluster stickers, the Euro 3.2L pictogram row (the Euro 3.2L is slightly different from the 3.0 - the only change that would affect me is that the 3.2L says Check Control instead of just Check), the Euro 3.0 gauges/oil temp gauge, and the Euro 3.2 cluster rear with my US coding plug.
I swapped my US coding plug into the newly rebuilt cluster, ran test #15 to unlock test #9, and then synchronized my mileage and SI data to the cluster, and the odometer tamper dot went away and I was good to go.
One funny thing is that the US cluster starts at 0 mph, and the Euro starts at 10 mph. This confused me and made me think that my speedo was broken when I reversed out of my driveway to test it.
Before: (my old US cluster - see if you can spot ALL the differences between the two)
After: FRANKENCLUSTER, RISE!
(The cluster is dirty from finger/handprints - I will clean it later.)
Cluster test #6 (analog gauge test):
The oil temperature gauge is not yet hooked up, the pin is already installed in the cluster connector, and I just have to wire it to an oil temperature sender (I'll probably do that in July, when I get back from my month-long trip to Italy).
I'm very very happy.
UPDATE: Hooked up the oil temp gauge - here's the info copied from another thread about it I made on bf.c:
So I've got my Euro cluster installed. I installed a BMP design oil filter cap (actually a Ruff product) with two 1/8-27 NPT bungs for senders. I plugged one with the correct pipe plug and installed a VDO 300F/150C (10-180 ohm) standard oil temperature sender. I then wired that sender to pin #13 on the X16 (white connector) going to my instrument cluster.
Fired up the car, drove it around, nothing. Oil temperature gauge does not move at all. I figured it might be my cluster, and since I have two euro clusters, I figured I'd pop in the unmolested '94 cluster, and that one doesn't work either. It's not my cluster.
I then proceeded to test the wires and wiring and make sure everything was connected properly. I get continuity from the spade terminal on the sender all the way to the pin on the X16. I get a correct resistance reading between the base of the sender (ground) and the spade terminal on the sender (I got around 100 ohms once the car was fully warmed up).
So the question is... is there something not working right at the terminal of the sender? Should I be getting resistance across the wire all the way to the cluster? Or could it be that the cluster isn't making a connection at pin #13 (I have a correct OEM pin installed in that pin, it should definitely work).
Update: I fixed it. The problem was a bad ground - the sender wasn't grounded properly. I ran a wire that I secured to the base of the sender over to the grounding point behind the driver's side headlight, and boom, gauge works perfectly. Tidied it all up, sewed the car back together, and done!
Fired up the car, drove it around, nothing. Oil temperature gauge does not move at all. I figured it might be my cluster, and since I have two euro clusters, I figured I'd pop in the unmolested '94 cluster, and that one doesn't work either. It's not my cluster.
I then proceeded to test the wires and wiring and make sure everything was connected properly. I get continuity from the spade terminal on the sender all the way to the pin on the X16. I get a correct resistance reading between the base of the sender (ground) and the spade terminal on the sender (I got around 100 ohms once the car was fully warmed up).
So the question is... is there something not working right at the terminal of the sender? Should I be getting resistance across the wire all the way to the cluster? Or could it be that the cluster isn't making a connection at pin #13 (I have a correct OEM pin installed in that pin, it should definitely work).
Update: I fixed it. The problem was a bad ground - the sender wasn't grounded properly. I ran a wire that I secured to the base of the sender over to the grounding point behind the driver's side headlight, and boom, gauge works perfectly. Tidied it all up, sewed the car back together, and done!
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