Hello all.....new to the forums - United Bimmer Community

**alpine wiess 325is** · 03-10-2008, 01:40 AM

Hi, i recently joined this forum community, and I hope to be a common visitor to this site. I just got a 94 325is and it has two major problems and i was hoping you guys could help me. The first problem is the gauges inside dont work at all, nothing moves, however all the lights work. The second problem is that when floor the car, the engine starts to bog down at high revs as if its starving for fuel. If you can please point me in the right direction i would greatly appreciate it...

**Exilion** · 03-10-2008, 07:36 AM

Hey welcome to the forum. If all of your gauges stopped working at pretty much the same time I'd say the wire harness probably got disconnected or something of that nature. I think the back lights on it are on a different circuit, but I have not personally worked on it on my car and am definitely not familiar with newer cars.

denyo77 · 03-10-2008, 01:10 PM

have you checked all your fuses? I also only know about e30s...

edit: btw welcome to the forums, and we all hope you'll be another active member

btw you typed "weiss" the wrong way. Actually you even have to type it "weiß". but w/e

**celsdogg** · 03-10-2008, 01:15 PM

as for your engine issues, i would see about a new air and fuel filter, basically tune up items. aside from that, what octane of fuel are you using? maybe its retarding timing because of predetonation, but thats a wild guess.

**Exilion** · 03-10-2008, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by celsdogg

as for your engine issues, i would see about a new air and fuel filter, basically tune up items. aside from that, what octane of fuel are you using? maybe its retarding timing because of predetonation, but thats a wild guess.

Yeah that's a good place to start. You'd be amazed how much a fuel and air filter alone will change how the car runs. Also check when the last time you did a valve adjustment. For your particular situation it might get a little more fuel in and give you more power. It's pretty easy to do the valve adjustment so if it's about time I'd do it anyway.

nick_318is · 03-10-2008, 03:42 PM

Welcome, I would try what the others suggested 1st to solve your problem, then if that doesn't work let us know and maybe we can give you some more in depth suggestions.

**pswirley** · 03-10-2008, 05:13 PM

When the person you purchased the car from changed the odometer to make it appear as if it has less miles than it actually did, they probably forgot to plug in the harness that makes your gauges work. JK about all of the odo switching and whatnot, but seriously I would pull your gauge cluster and see if one of the harnesses isnt loose or disconnected.

As far as your engine it definitely sounds like an ignition problems. Start with air filter, new spark plugs. If that doesnt help itl, you could be looking at coil packs themselves.

OMG, when you say it sounds fuel starved at high revs, you arent bouncing it off of the rev limiter are you???

**alpine wiess 325is** · 03-10-2008, 09:02 PM

Cool, thanks for the info, however i already pulled the cluster out, and the wiring harness is connected properly (blue connecter), I was also holding it in firmly and turned the key on. The black and white connectors seem to be connected properly as well. So im pretty much stumped on why the gauges arent working. I did the gauge test where you hold down the odometer reset button with no luck. I also checked all the fuses and there all good. Is it possible that my cluster is dead? I hear thats a common problem on the e36's. Im pretty familiar with bmw's cuz i have an e34 as well. I really dont know where to go, now short of buying a whole cluster which i do not want to do yet. Does anyone have the wiring diagrams for the cluster?

**alpine wiess 325is** · 03-10-2008, 09:08 PM

Oh and on regards to the valve adjustment, the M50s do not need them as they adjust automatically, thats only on the M20, just fyi....but ya i need to get all the tune up stuff done, but i would like to fix this gauge problem first.

**pswirley** · 03-10-2008, 09:10 PM

Best I could find for you with minimal effort.http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...41&hg=61&fg=05

**alpine wiess 325is** · 03-10-2008, 09:16 PM

umm lol a lil more detailed one would be nicer....lol i meant more like a schematic of the connectors on the back, so i know which pin does what on each connector..but thanks anyway

**pswirley** · 03-10-2008, 09:20 PM

www.realoem.com

You should be able to find exactly what you are looking for in there after a few hours of searching. Maybe less.

**alpine wiess 325is** · 03-10-2008, 09:29 PM

Realoem, is a good place to find parts and part numbers, not detailed wiring diagrams, does anyone else know a good source? I only know the e34 sites, im new the the e36 scene...im sure someone has had the same problem. NO Gauges work, only lights work, such as signals, warning lights, and so forth...

**pswirley** · 03-10-2008, 09:52 PM

Does anyone have a Bentley manual or pdf file for the OP. This would suck to have to deal with.

**alpine wiess 325is** · 03-10-2008, 10:04 PM

Ive been searching google for 30 minutes and all i found was a complete german diagram for 1998 3 series models.....There has to be somebody with the same problem. Do you guys think it is more likely the wiring harness is bad, or the cluster is dead? Im in the dark on this one....