Expert: Dan Roberts - 9/4/2006

Question
Hi,

I recently bought a 1994 325i convertible.  The speedo sometimes stop working, and other times it fluctuates wildly from 0 to 160 mph, then it may go back to normal or not.

Any ideas on what to check?

Thanks,

Jose


Answer
That is pretty typical for older e36 vehicles. The quick answer is there is a capacitor for one of the power circuts that is bad, the instrument cluster is essentailly losing power during operation. The unfortunate part is I am not personally aware of how to repair it. My best advise would be to look at the forums on bimmerfest of BMWforums or even ebay. There are people out there who can fix it and usually for pretty cheap. If you have automatic climate controls in your e36 and it starts turning off during operation that is the same problem so maybe somebody that fixes that can fix the cluster too. If you take the cluster out and send it for repair don't drive the car because when you put the cluster back in and it sees a mileage change between itself and the engine computer it will turn on a little orange dot next to the mileage that means the mileage has been tampered with. It will also do that if you put a cluster from another car into it. Sorry I can't give you more help on this. Good luck.