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      10-18-2013, 12:29 PM   #1
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DIY - Repair Instrument Cluster Needles

This is a DIY to repair or at a minimum provide insight into a malfunctioning instrument cluster. When I was attempting to fix mine, there was very little information and pictures to help me with, so here I am! If you would like to know the exact story of what happened and how I was led to create this DIY, read below. Otherwise you can directly skip to the DIY.

If you have decided to upgrade the look of your instrument panel by replacing your bland white needles with sportier “M3” needles (such as these: http://www.bimmian.com/M-Style-Red-N...r-E93-3-Series), then I would recommend not to do it. It is more of a pain than it’s worth, the risk too great.

My buddy got mine for me as a birthday gift and I followed these instructions:



However, when I did the last one (the tachometer), the needle was “free flowing,” while the others were relatively stuck in place (you want this). When I turned the car on, the tach didn’t work. Something was amiss!

After digging through the limited information that was on the internet, I stumbled across this thread: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=551804. Essentially, when you push down on the new needle to install, there is a worm gear that pops out of place, which allows the needle to flow freely. After discovering this, I noticed I needed to open up the entire unit to move the gear back into place.

And here is the reason for this DIY. If you find yourself stuck after upgrading your needles, this DIY is for you.

What you will need:
- Set of precision flat head screw drivers.
- Patience
- A beer or Mountain Dew, whichever you prefer.
- More patience.

I am no professional mechanic, electrician, or BMW expert. I am a simple guy trying to save myself $700 from buying an entirely new instrument cluster. That being said, there may be terms that are incorrect or a small step that was missed. Finally, this is a very tedious process. Think of playing “Operation” when you’re drunk. Let’s begin!

Let’s start with the unit out of the car. There are six clips you need to unclip to remove the panel from the housing:



After that you have the panel separated from the housing. You need to remove the white panel from the black casing by also pressing in on the clips and pulling apart gently but firmly. There are two on the top plus another on the backside.



Once you have separated the white from the black casing, you should be left with only the circuit board and the four motor housings on the backside of the unit (below). I placed mine on a towel to look at with a lamp on the desk for extra light.



Here is the tricky part. You need to lift the top of the white motor housing off of the bottom but be careful! There is a metal spring plate and worm gear inside that you could lose if you attempt to take it off with too much force or too quickly.

While performing work on the unit, I would recommend raising the entire unit to avoid damaging your panel. I placed mine on a stack of CDs (below).



On these motor housings, there are four more clips. I found it easiest to stick the small flat head screwdriver and pry the clips back while taking a second flat head and pulling upwards. I don’t know if this is the “official way to do it” but it worked for me!







After prying the top off, you will see the inside of the motor housing. In the picture I have included below, I opened up the one above it (oil temperature) to see what I was missing. When I originally opened up the tachometer assembly, a small metal plate sprung out at me and I wasn’t sure what to do with it; hence, me opening up the top one.



The most common issue when attempting to install needles is the worm gear slipping out of place (picture below - circled).



You have to position this back into both “grooves.” On the larger circular gear, there is a physical piece of plastic that acts as a barrier so the needle cannot move any further. The red arrow indicates the approximate area – it is underneath the actual gear. This is the stopping point for when the needle is AT REST. Test this by lifting the entire unit above you and attempting to move the needle. It should be at “0” and with the worm gear in place, should have very little play and should not move freely. Be careful when you are doing this – with the top of the motor housing off, it’s very easy to pop that worm gear out of place again!

After the worm gear is in place, the spring plate is on top of the circular gear, and the physical stop is aligned correctly, you must now put the top of the motor housing back on.

This can also prove to be tricky. What I found that works best is using the small screwdriver to hold the worm gear in place while I placed the top of the housing on. The worm gear has a tendency to pop out of place as soon as you position the top of the housing on and this helps prevent that.

After the top of the motor housing is back in place, put the black casing back on but leave the larger housing off and plug it into the car. The needles may position themselves out of alignment (see picture below). Don’t panic! We can adjust them.



Simply unplug the unit, adjust the needles the required distance, and plug it back in.



At this point, finish putting everything back together once you have verified the needles are working and you are good to go!

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      04-12-2014, 03:02 AM   #2
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I have a strange issue with mine, I had to split the servo and sort the shaft, now when i plug in, i get it all working perfect, but if i unplug and reconnect the needle stops working, i find if i pull apart, put main gear high, reconnect it winds itself down to zero, then all works fine until i unplug?

Everything worked fine for 1 week, now it stopped again.

Any suggestions?
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      07-01-2015, 08:08 PM   #3
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Thank you. This was very helpful. Almost thought my gauges were toast
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      11-27-2015, 02:38 AM   #4
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I have s strange problem with my gauges. The spedometer and rpm needle are bouncing about half a mm up and down. It doesn`t matter at what rpm or speed the needles ar bouncing a bit. What can I do? I have tried with another instrument cluster and it was ok, but the swapping instrumet was not coded for my car. So i returned back to the old one(with problems) Thank you!
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      07-13-2016, 10:25 PM   #5
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Great thread.
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      09-08-2017, 11:17 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marshall834 View Post
This is a DIY to repair or at a minimum provide insight into a malfunctioning instrument cluster. When I was attempting to fix mine, there was very little information and pictures to help me with, so here I am! If you would like to know the exact story of what happened and how I was led to create this DIY, read below. Otherwise you can directly skip to the DIY.

If you have decided to upgrade the look of your instrument panel by replacing your bland white needles with sportier “M3” needles (such as these: http://www.bimmian.com/M-Style-Red-N...r-E93-3-Series), then I would recommend not to do it. It is more of a pain than it’s worth, the risk too great.

My buddy got mine for me as a birthday gift and I followed these instructions:



However, when I did the last one (the tachometer), the needle was “free flowing,” while the others were relatively stuck in place (you want this). When I turned the car on, the tach didn’t work. Something was amiss!

After digging through the limited information that was on the internet, I stumbled across this thread: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=551804. Essentially, when you push down on the new needle to install, there is a worm gear that pops out of place, which allows the needle to flow freely. After discovering this, I noticed I needed to open up the entire unit to move the gear back into place.

And here is the reason for this DIY. If you find yourself stuck after upgrading your needles, this DIY is for you.

What you will need:
- Set of precision flat head screw drivers.
- Patience
- A beer or Mountain Dew, whichever you prefer.
- More patience.

I am no professional mechanic, electrician, or BMW expert. I am a simple guy trying to save myself $700 from buying an entirely new instrument cluster. That being said, there may be terms that are incorrect or a small step that was missed. Finally, this is a very tedious process. Think of playing “Operation” when you’re drunk. Let’s begin!

Let’s start with the unit out of the car. There are six clips you need to unclip to remove the panel from the housing:



After that you have the panel separated from the housing. You need to remove the white panel from the black casing by also pressing in on the clips and pulling apart gently but firmly. There are two on the top plus another on the backside.



Once you have separated the white from the black casing, you should be left with only the circuit board and the four motor housings on the backside of the unit (below). I placed mine on a towel to look at with a lamp on the desk for extra light.



Here is the tricky part. You need to lift the top of the white motor housing off of the bottom but be careful! There is a metal spring plate and worm gear inside that you could lose if you attempt to take it off with too much force or too quickly.

While performing work on the unit, I would recommend raising the entire unit to avoid damaging your panel. I placed mine on a stack of CDs (below).



On these motor housings, there are four more clips. I found it easiest to stick the small flat head screwdriver and pry the clips back while taking a second flat head and pulling upwards. I don’t know if this is the “official way to do it” but it worked for me!







After prying the top off, you will see the inside of the motor housing. In the picture I have included below, I opened up the one above it (oil temperature) to see what I was missing. When I originally opened up the tachometer assembly, a small metal plate sprung out at me and I wasn’t sure what to do with it; hence, me opening up the top one.



The most common issue when attempting to install needles is the worm gear slipping out of place (picture below - circled).



You have to position this back into both “grooves.” On the larger circular gear, there is a physical piece of plastic that acts as a barrier so the needle cannot move any further. The red arrow indicates the approximate area – it is underneath the actual gear. This is the stopping point for when the needle is AT REST. Test this by lifting the entire unit above you and attempting to move the needle. It should be at “0” and with the worm gear in place, should have very little play and should not move freely. Be careful when you are doing this – with the top of the motor housing off, it’s very easy to pop that worm gear out of place again!

After the worm gear is in place, the spring plate is on top of the circular gear, and the physical stop is aligned correctly, you must now put the top of the motor housing back on.

This can also prove to be tricky. What I found that works best is using the small screwdriver to hold the worm gear in place while I placed the top of the housing on. The worm gear has a tendency to pop out of place as soon as you position the top of the housing on and this helps prevent that.

After the top of the motor housing is back in place, put the black casing back on but leave the larger housing off and plug it into the car. The needles may position themselves out of alignment (see picture below). Don’t panic! We can adjust them.



Simply unplug the unit, adjust the needles the required distance, and plug it back in.



At this point, finish putting everything back together once you have verified the needles are working and you are good to go!


Any chance you could re-upload the pictures or email these across at all?
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      01-11-2018, 10:12 PM   #7
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Hi
Great info.
Are you able to repost pictures or email them. I have same problem with Tach. Should never have tried to change needles!
newton12c@gmail.com
Thanks,
Kevin
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      03-08-2018, 08:03 AM   #8
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I just ran into this exact issue. don[t buy these stupid needles, I spent way too much time trying to fix this issue and there's not a ton of issue.

I used a solidering iron to melt the locks on the servo. after i got the worm gear back in, my speedo then decided not to work. ended up taking the needle off, letting it cycle a bit and then it was fixed.
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      03-12-2018, 09:13 PM   #9
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Would love if you could repost the photos as your embedded links to photobucket are broken..
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      03-24-2018, 08:37 PM   #10
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The links are broken but you can go to the photobucket site and see the album. it won't let you get large pictures, but it gave me the overview which was perfect to repair it.

If the OP still visits and wants to give me the originals, I'll be glad to put them in my google photos.
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      03-24-2018, 08:43 PM   #11
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http://s161.photobucket.com/user/mar...0repair?sort=3Another way to cheat is to open the album as a slideshow - then the images are large:
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      07-29-2018, 09:25 AM   #12
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I've obviously been offline for awhile. Went to post in the 2addict forum (driving a 228 now) and noticed there was some activity here.

Are you all able to see the pics? They are loading for me - not sure if that's because I'm OP or not...but let me know
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      08-01-2018, 07:09 AM   #13
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Great DIY, very helpful. Thanks
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      08-01-2018, 08:46 AM   #14
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I'm glad this has received such a positive response! Reading through this brought me a few memories!
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      02-25-2019, 11:22 PM   #15
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      04-29-2019, 06:34 PM   #16
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Bimmian Needle

Quote:
Originally Posted by blau iii View Post
I just ran into this exact issue. don[t buy these stupid needles, I spent way too much time trying to fix this issue and there's not a ton of issue.

I used a solidering iron to melt the locks on the servo. after i got the worm gear back in, my speedo then decided not to work. ended up taking the needle off, letting it cycle a bit and then it was fixed.
I having a problem to make my Tach needle work again after M3 bimmian needle install. I open up the servo unit and placed back the worm gear to circular gear and still no sucess. What do you mean by "cycle a bit"? just plug the cluster back in WITHOUT the needle and wait a bit?
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      04-29-2019, 06:39 PM   #17
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M3 Bimmian Needle Problem

Anybody want to share how to make cluster tach needle work again after Bimmian M3 needle install.
I think I push it hard down during re-install and misalligned it. I tried numerous times to placed into position the worm gear to circular gear inside the servo unit, still no success. I'm so frustrated. HELP !
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      05-01-2019, 08:28 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jarvis View Post
I having a problem to make my Tach needle work again after M3 bimmian needle install. I open up the servo unit and placed back the worm gear to circular gear and still no sucess. What do you mean by "cycle a bit"? just plug the cluster back in WITHOUT the needle and wait a bit?
I had to get the worm gear positioned correctly. then plug the cluster in but dont screw it in place yet. put the key in and let the gauges re acclimate to the car. you'll hear them try to move. it took me like an hour of monkeying with it.
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      06-02-2019, 10:16 AM   #19
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Default Counter-Clockwise

I recently had to remove the needles when I opened my e92 cluster.. now that everything is back together, I'm seeing the needle idles at 10mph, and then as it accelerates, it moves COUNTER-clockwise!! It eventually hits the gas gauge needle.. and if I remove the can-bus data, it immediately goes back to 10mph.

It would seem like I must have hit a switch that causes the stepper motor to go in the opposite direction? Is that possible? Has anyone seen such damage from removing the needles?

Not for the e92, but I don't see any mention of direction on replacement stepper motors on the e38/39/53:
http://www.bestpixelrepair.com/stepp...t-cluster.html

What else could it be?
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