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09-23-2007, 11:15 PM #1

E30 Speedometer Repairs - Failure Modes

03IRM3
Member
E30 Speedometer Repairs
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: S. Nevada So it seems the E30 suffers from odometer failures from time to time and many people have
Posts: 54 inquired about them when it happens. Quite a few of the answers are to replace the gears,
however I have seen a number of them that did not suffer from the gear failure in the
forums. I just spent the last two days goofing around with several clusters and figured I
might as well share what I have found.

Several failure modes of the E30 speedometer when the odometer quits working:

1. Gears
2. Solder joints
3. Capacitor
4. IC (or Integrated Circuit)
5. Stepper motor
6. Coil wires (not ignition)

Symptoms: Odometer does not work, speed indicator works.

The first item is fairly straight-forward and seems to be the most common issue. However, if
the gears are fine and the needle still moves, some of the later items listed could be the
cause. The needle movement indicates we have a signal to the speedometer head which is a
good thing, otherwise a person would have to diagnose why there is no signal.

Solder joints. I had one solder joint that was cracked around a mylar type capacitor where it
was connected to ground. Not good. I re-soldered all the joints on the board as an assurance
that this would not become a problem for the next 15 odd years (cross fingers). A quick
check to make sure the connections are clean is also good while you are in there.

Capacitor failure. It is a common issue that occurs on the VDO speedometer. I don't know if
there is a history on the MotoMeter units or not but quite possible as they have some
commonality in the circuits, and this part being one of them. On the board of the
speedometer head lives a 220uF electrolytic capacitor. Often times this some-bitch will
decide to piss itself. If you notice a reddish looking or rust colored substance on the surface
of the board where most of the electronics resides, this could very well be the problem. For
some reason these particular caps have a habit of leaking which in turn means the circuit
will no longer function as intended. The remedy? Replace the cap and hope that nothing else
was damaged in the process. You will have to unsolder about five places to pull the board
from the body of the speedometer but not hard. There is only one like it so it isn't hard to
miss once you get the thing apart.

IC failure. This does happen sometimes. I replaced the cap on the board and still had no
functionality. So I checked the output of the IC on the two pins that drive the stepper motor
that runs the odometer. Square wave on one, not on the other. I wondered if the IC was
bad, so I swapped it out from the other speedometer head. Still no luck. In my case the IC
did turn out to be good, but is not unheard of to fail.

Stepper motor failure. Again - not real common however my take on it is that it can happen
sometimes. This motor is what actually turns the odometer.

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Coil wire failure. This may not be real common, however it did happen on the one
speedometer head I had that I also replaced the cap on it. I don't think there was a
correlation between the two, but don't quote me on that. After finding no output on the
other pin that drives the stepper motor even after replacing the IC, further investigation into
the circuit revealed that one of the tiny wires leading into the coil was broken from the post
it was supposed to be soldered to. I re-soldered it, and the odometer now works again. From
what I can tell, the IC that was used is fairly robust that when a load is not connected on the
output, it did not appear to damage the output. That is good. Or maybe I was lucky, I dunno.

I will say I have a preference o the MotoMeter units for some things. The circuit board
appears to be better as far as manufacturing quality. Also, the MotoMeter unit was far easier
to try to calibrate as they were good enough to include a trim pot on the board. Just input
the square wave at the correct frequency for the speed and adjust - this does take patience
though. I now have the needle about 2 MPH off at the most all the way to 140. I gave up on
the VDO unit for now - later I may investigate switching one of the resistors to a trim pot
and try to solve it. The values need to be very small increments and I didn't have the best
assortment, leading to large jumps in accuracy. I feel the gears may be made out of a better
material on the VDO units, but still not as good as they could be.

As far as interchanging the units - if you have an understanding of them it isn't that difficult.
My E30 is a 318is, and the other cluster I had was from an M3. Both have K=7784 stamped
on them, as well as on the part number sticker. What this means is the number of pulses per
mile the speedometer is calibrated to. Swapping to/from the M3 and 318is is easy as they
use the same constant K. Going between others would likely require changing the divider in
the IC which is done by pins on the board. I haven't looked at the numbers yet, but just my
guess that it can be done to re-calibrate to another vehicle, or, as I have been wondering,
the possibility to re-calibrate for different tire sizes...

That is what to look for. I can now repair my speedometer heads after many hours of
tinkering and developing an understanding of how they work. Quite a fun venture to
undertake. And. The odometer can be changed, it just takes patience but is not hard. The
reason I changed one is so I could put it in the car with the exact same miles on it as the
other I was taking out but then I decided I didn't need the extra 10 MPH anyway compared
to having a more accurate speedometer. So I just swapped the needles over until I tinker
with the circuit on the M3 speedometer to see if I can get it calibrated a little better.

I am looking into the tach functionality. The SI boards use the same part numbers, so that
means everything is in the coding plug and the tach sweep. I think I can adjust the output
from the frequency to voltage converter on the SI board to compensate though. That is for
another day.

Next I want to tackle the OBC and cluster coding plug. I can duplicate OBC coding plugs I
believe but I have to build on to replicate it. Then figure out what all the contents are. The
cluster coding plug is a little more difficult as I have to build a test circuit to read the plug
contents and I m not sure which protocol it is using yet, but might have narrowed it down to
two with 9 combinations of connections.

So that is it for this weekend. Until next time, keep the shiny side up.
Last edited by 03IRM3; 09-23-2007 at 11:21 PM.. Reason: speeling... I hate laptops keyboards...

09-24-2007, 01:22 PM #2

Clusters
Bmjpv
Wrencher
Very well thought out,, keep us updated , thanks

Join Date: Mar 2007

Location: Knoxville Tn
Posts: 265

09-24-2007, 01:59 PM #3

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BDSax this should be in the FAQ section.

Junkyard King you got any pictures of the Motor Meter adjustment??
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09-24-2007, 10:58 PM #4

03IRM3 Thanks - as soon as I find out more about the electronics I'll put info out. I am trying to
Member finish up my diagnostics interface at the moment but once I get that done I'll get back to
this.
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: S. Nevada
Posts: 54
For pics - I don't at the moment, but I'll pull out the camera tomorrow evening and get a
picture of it before I start putting it back in.

09-25-2007,
#5
08:42 PM

03IRM3 Okay - I attached the image of the MotoMeter unit. The arrow is pointing to the potentiometer used to adjust
Member the calibration of the speedometer. This does not change the odometer reading itself - just the needle position
in relation to input frequency generated by the speed sensor.
Join Date:
Aug 2007
There are four contacts on the opposite end of the board as follows:
Location: S.
Nevada
Posts: 54 + - Power (+12V)
A - Signal output
31b - Signal input
31 - Ground

To adjust, connect a power supply to ground (31) and the +12V input (+) to power up the unit. Connect a signal
generator to the signal input (31b) with a square wave of about +10V. The frequency in Hz to input is based on
the constant K divided by 3600 times speed in MPH:

Hz = (K / 3600) * MPH

So in my case, I would input a value of (7784 / 3600) * MPH to check the indicated speed. I played around with
trying to input a frequency in 10 MPH increments and adjust but found this to be fairly difficult. So I ended up
setting the input frequency to 140 MPH, adjust the pot, and then check the indicated speed across the sweep.
This provided a much closer overall difference between the indicated speed and what the actual speed should be.

It may be because of the circuit design itself does not provide an exact linear change with input to the IC the pot
is connected across opposed to the value of resistance it sees. Plus they are using a somewhat high resistance
that makes it difficult to adjust with a pot. Just remember after making the adjustment, turn the pot back the
opposite direction just a touch and let the circuit settle for a few seconds before making another change.

Anyway, that should help. I don't know that all the MotoMeter units are set up in this manner, mine was which
made my work easy.

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Attached Images

03-03-2008, 04:15 PM #6

Kilawin So a M3 cluster into a 318is is a direct swap or does the code plug still need to swaped out.
E30 Modder

Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Lathrop, CA
Posts: 955

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