[Game]

Made a quick stop to the post office, drove away and a minute later the entire gauge cluster (including the tachometer) went out. The middle section that shows the time, mileage, temperature and etc was blank but illuminated orange. The car ran fine.

I pulled over, turned the vehicle off and the middle section remained glowing red. I turned on my hazards and they worked both on the cluster and on the exterior of the car. I turned the car back on everything went back to normal.

I replaced my battery last year.

Any ideas?

[Game]

Anyone think it could be the alternator on its way out?

[e90_Nick]

It could be a fuse on its way out. have a look under the fuse panel.

[bmwmsport]

I thought BMW's gauges were analog

[mike@x-ph.com]

Originally Posted by Game

Made a quick stop to the post office, drove away and a minute later the entire gauge cluster (including the tachometer) went out. The middle section that shows the time, mileage, temperature and etc was blank but illuminated orange. The car ran fine.

I pulled over, turned the vehicle off and the middle section remained glowing red. I turned on my hazards and they worked both on the cluster and on the exterior of the car. I turned the car back on everything went back to normal.

I replaced my battery last year.

Any ideas?

My alternator went out last month, symptoms were not similar to yours.
I would check fuse box

[Antetokounmpo]

Originally Posted by bmwmsport

I thought BMW's gauges were analog

Not like the good ole day analog. They look analog, but I'm sure they're taking a digital readout from sensors to show rpm and speed. After all, on European cars, you can code the speedo to read true speed as opposed to bmw speed. Sadly this doesn't work on US cars

[1QuikWS6]

There is a cube relay in the fusebox that has something to do with gauge power, I had mine act up when I was retrofitting a M3 gage cluster in my 328 & it exhibited the same problems

I bought a new one, but then the original decided to work again, haven't had a problem with it since then.

The relay may have to do with the module that controls the gage cluster

[Game]

Originally Posted by mike@x-ph.com

My alternator went out last month, symptoms were not similar to yours.
I would check fuse box

Originally Posted by 1QuikWS6

There is a cube relay in the fusebox that has something to do with gauge power, I had mine act up when I was retrofitting a M3 gage cluster in my 328 & it exhibited the same problems

I bought a new one, but then the original decided to work again, haven't had a problem with it since then.

The relay may have to do with the module that controls the gage cluster

Thanks guys, I'll have a look.

[Blackhawk36]

Have you had the battery cable recall done?

[Game]

Originally Posted by Blackhawk36

Have you had the battery cable recall done?

Yes.

[Blackhawk36]

I just had a similar issue in my car and the BT program told me there was signal loss from the cluster. I removed the cluster and disconnected the single connector. Cleaned the pins with a pipe cleaner soaked in electrical cleaner spray and put it back together. Problem gone. Worth a shot. Only 2 screws hold in the cluster. This is the report stored in the ECU when my dash lights went crazy.

CDA8
CDA8 Message (Status KOMBI, 1B4)
Error will cause a warning light
Error is not currently present
Test conditions have been completed
Timeout

Freeze Frame Information
Event 1Odometer 174408kms 108372miles
Engine speed 1,280.00 rpm
control unit inside temperature 11.25 °C
voltage Kl. 87 11.58 V
status motor control 2.00 0-n

Event 2Odometer 174408kms 108372miles
Engine speed 1,696.00 rpm
control unit inside temperature 18.00 °C
voltage Kl. 87 14.62 V
status motor control 2.00 0-n

Event 3Odometer 175920kms 109311miles
Engine speed 1,728.00 rpm
control unit inside temperature 22.50 °C
voltage Kl. 87 14.62 V
status motor control 2.00 0-n

[Game]

Originally Posted by Blackhawk36

I just had a similar issue in my car and the BT program told me there was signal loss from the cluster. I removed the cluster and disconnected the single connector. Cleaned the pins with a pipe cleaner soaked in electrical cleaner spray and put it back together. Problem gone. Worth a shot. Only 2 screws hold in the cluster. This is the report stored in the ECU when my dash lights went crazy.

CDA8
CDA8 Message (Status KOMBI, 1B4)
Error will cause a warning light
Error is not currently present
Test conditions have been completed
Timeout

Freeze Frame Information
Event 1Odometer 174408kms 108372miles
Engine speed 1,280.00 rpm
control unit inside temperature 11.25 °C
voltage Kl. 87 11.58 V
status motor control 2.00 0-n

Event 2Odometer 174408kms 108372miles
Engine speed 1,696.00 rpm
control unit inside temperature 18.00 °C
voltage Kl. 87 14.62 V
status motor control 2.00 0-n

Event 3Odometer 175920kms 109311miles
Engine speed 1,728.00 rpm
control unit inside temperature 22.50 °C
voltage Kl. 87 14.62 V
status motor control 2.00 0-n

Thanks.

The issue hasn't popped up again, but thanks for the reply for future use.

[Nitrousbird]

Originally Posted by bmwmsport

I thought BMW's gauges were analog

They sweep analog but are digital fed. As pretty much every car built this century.

Originally Posted by Heel Toe

Not like the good ole day analog. They look analog, but I'm sure they're taking a digital readout from sensors to show rpm and speed. After all, on European cars, you can code the speedo to read true speed as opposed to bmw speed. Sadly this doesn't work on US cars

If you code your cluster for digital speedo, you can also code the speedo corrector to nicht_aktiv which will give you the true speed. When I put my needles back on my M3 cluster, I positioned it slightly below 0, which has made the speedo fairly accurate. Cruise control needle/cruise digital speed display is still way off.

I've never heard of Euro-sold cars being able to correct the "analog" gauge.

[shadow191]

When you say your dash lights went crazy, did your gauges go crazy as well? On my way in to work this morning, I get a warning message for "Electrical Fault" on my idrive screen and the gauges start sweeping back and forth. All the warning lights on the dash go on and my idrive resets. Then it went away for a couple of minutes before it came back and did this a couple of more times until I pulled into the parking deck and shut it off. Restarted the car just to be sure and of course it was still there. Pulled the code U112B which indicates an issue with the cluster. But can't really find any information on it when I search other than people replaced random parts or it went away on it's own.

Battery was replaced 2 years ago but alternator is original I think. Not getting a charging system error or anything like that, just the gauge cluster.

So the connector you cleaned was on the back of the cluster? Will have to try that when I get home. Just weird for this to randomly pop up - I would have expected to blow a fuse and have the entire cluster go out or something.

Originally Posted by Blackhawk36

I just had a similar issue in my car and the BT program told me there was signal loss from the cluster. I removed the cluster and disconnected the single connector. Cleaned the pins with a pipe cleaner soaked in electrical cleaner spray and put it back together. Problem gone. Worth a shot. Only 2 screws hold in the cluster. This is the report stored in the ECU when my dash lights went crazy.

CDA8
CDA8 Message (Status KOMBI, 1B4)
Error will cause a warning light
Error is not currently present
Test conditions have been completed
Timeout

Freeze Frame Information
Event 1Odometer 174408kms 108372miles
Engine speed 1,280.00 rpm
control unit inside temperature 11.25 °C
voltage Kl. 87 11.58 V
status motor control 2.00 0-n

Event 2Odometer 174408kms 108372miles
Engine speed 1,696.00 rpm
control unit inside temperature 18.00 °C
voltage Kl. 87 14.62 V
status motor control 2.00 0-n

Event 3Odometer 175920kms 109311miles
Engine speed 1,728.00 rpm
control unit inside temperature 22.50 °C
voltage Kl. 87 14.62 V
status motor control 2.00 0-n