instrument panel disappearing

bmwperson · Oct 10, 2003

Hey,
I have a problem with my bimmer, sometimes when im driving everything shuts off on the display panel, i cant see anything, no speed, no rpm, no odomeret, like no power at all, and then it comes back after like 5-20mins, my abs light also came on, but i dont think thats related. Anyone experienced simmilar problems? or knows how to fix it?

Thanks

carcus · Oct 10, 2003

bmwperson said:

Sounds like a electrical problem...but pop the hood and check the fuses first.

bmw4life13 · Oct 10, 2003

definitely check your fuses as carcus mentioned....you may want to check out this link...it sort of freaked me out when i read it.

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=79896

bmwperson · Oct 10, 2003

hmm but it does off and on, would it do that if a fuse was bad? or would it just go blank and never come back?

andreyiv · Oct 10, 2003

Well, if the fuse went bad than it would just shut off ad never come on unless it's a really wierd case. It's probably the connections. Sometimes when I turn the left turn signal on, it flashes twice as fast because the rear one is not working. I thought it was the light bulb, but it turned out to be a bad contact, cleaned it and everything is fine now. I almost got a ticket once, I was about to make a left turn and the damn thing stopped working, as soon as I realise that, I see a cop behind me, ones he got closer it started working again. If it comes on and off it's probably either a relay or a bad contact somewhere but check the fuses also it case something wierd happened. It also could be that a heater or A/C turns on and for some reason the power goes out, then when it turns back off, it comes back. Electric stuff is wierd, someone just posted a thread where his car opens the rear window under specific conditions.

bmwperson · Oct 10, 2003

PS which fuse would that be?

andreyiv · Oct 10, 2003

Have no idea at all. Just pop the hood, find the fuse box, open it and there should be a chart of which fuse does what. Or you could just check everyone of them. Just look at the top of it, if you see a metal piece connecting the two sides of the fuse then it's fine, if not, it went bad.

mostwired · Oct 10, 2003

bmwperson said:

I had exact same problem on mine after installing and then removng deffective battery. I checked all the fuses - all OK. In fact, airbag light is on - means panel is getting power. I hit the panel a few times on the plastic cover and the lights came back up. Can't explain why it happened though.

bmwperson · Oct 10, 2003

how would i go by checking the connectors and the relays? ( waiting for my bentley manual to get here ;> )

andreyiv · Oct 10, 2003

I would check the realys first since it's easier because they are in the fuse box but I don't know how you do that. The connectors are kinda tricky. All I can say is that you'd have to take out the whole cluster but please don't listen to me, I sometimes go so far away from the truth that I can't understood how I came up with it. On the other hand, sometimes the ideas turn out to be really good. Well, just don't blame me if you take out the cluster and can't put it back or something even worse happens.

You know what, something tells me it's the heater or the A/C or something like that. Next time when it happens, turn everything off and listen to the noises under the hood. If you hear it become quiter and immidiately the lights are back on, then you will just have to find out what that thing was that turned off, much easier now but you still have so many things that could have turned off. It would be more helpfull if you describe what you are doing when it happens, at what speed you were going, were the headlights turned on, the temp settings on the A/C / heater, you know, all that stuff.
BTW try doing what mostwierd said, it could work, if it does then it's probably a connection somewhere behind or in the cluster. Anyhow, I'm going to bed now, way to sleepy to type. Hope I have helped you in any way.

bmwperson · Oct 11, 2003

mostwired, it looks like we have the same problem ;> my abc light stays on tho, and everything except that shuts off, when it first happend i was going like 80+mph i think i had my AC on for the whole time. I know that after the instruments shut off, all the other things work fine, i think, well i havnt really looked at the AC but the lights on the console were on.
Ill see tommorow, thanks so much for the advices hopefuly it turns out well.
night

bmwperson · Oct 11, 2003

this morning i checked the fuses, i noticed something werid when i pressed on a couple of fuses belonging to the instrument cluster they clicked. I still dont think that was the problem, so i decided to change the relay, i just dont know which one is that anyone knows? and i didnt see a relay for the instrument cluster on ebay or binparts. i noticed that they have different sizes are they interchangeable?

I still love my BMW :>

Tigas Bud · Oct 11, 2003

I'm lookin' in the Haynes manual and it doesn't show any identification of anything that would be the instrument panel relay. None of the words even say something in the instrument cluster. The only one that has a name I don't know off hand is a "DME" relay and that's number 3 in the main fuse box under the hood.
Also, all relays are not the same even the same size relay can be different in function.
I think you have an short in the system. Pull the instrument cluster and check it's wires and connection. The manual says you should remove the steering wheel and then the instrument panel.

bmwperson · Oct 11, 2003

iv seen people change the whole instrument clusters, which makes me wonder if ill have to do the same. I heard that bmw charges 300$ for the cluster and another 100$ for the labor, not that bad, but proly i would buy the cluster and do it myself. I changed the fuses around i dunno which one is 3 or how they label em, but i changed em around provided that i switched em with the same colors/symbols, I drove a little while, like 20mins. It works, but i dunno if its just luck or is it really fixed.

Thanks for the responces.

Tigas Bud · Oct 11, 2003

The clicking noise you heard when you pushed in the fuses might have been the short. RELAY 3 is in the corner of the fuse box toward the firewall, it's the third relay in a row of only 3 relays, it's not next to any fuses and I still have no clue what it does or what DME is.
Best of luck with keepin' going w/o further trouble.

bmwperson · Oct 11, 2003

i dont see my post for some reason, so sorry if im posting it again. The DME is something that has to do with the fuel pump, so i guess its not it. I went to reprogram my OBC just now, and i tried checking all the different codes for obc, as i turned on the status test on my obc i started seeing 000000a and then the instrument panel went off and the status changed to 000000b, it came back on and it changed to 000000a so i started playing with it. 000000e means that the engine is on or smth. I also noticed that when the instrument panel shuts off the obc light gets lighter, maybe the problem has to do with the battery? but on the other hand, the car did the same thing when i was driving on the highway and so the battery wasnt needed it had plenty of power from what the engine generates. I`ll be getting my manual pretty soon and then next week ill try to take off the cluster see if i can do anything to it, if not ill order a new one.
PS anyone has a list of codes and their meaning? those OBC codes 000000a and so on

Tigas Bud · Oct 11, 2003

I've got a friend that has a '92 525 that was doing something weird with the dashboard and he had to have his alternator replaced. I 'll see him at work Monday and ask him to refresh my memory as to the problem and solution.

bmwperson · Oct 11, 2003

That would be great, Thanks.

andreyiv · Oct 13, 2003

It could be the alternator but when I my dad had a Corsica and his alternator went bad, the power for absolutely everything was coming from the battery and nothing turned of, the engine stalled after a while when the spark plugs didn't get enough power. Maybe BMWs have a protection system that lets you drive as far as possible when the alternator dies and turns off everything that needs power from the battery. Did your radion stay on? BTW you say that some fuses clicked when you pushed them in, maybe they were not in completely and resulted in a bad connection. See if it occurs again, maybe you fixed it already.

bmwperson · Oct 14, 2003

ok, here is what i did already, took out all the fuses cleaned em with alcohol, same with relays i also started hitting the dash board when the instruments went off ( no result, i thought maybe some contacts were loose ), now i got my electrical diagram, there are only 4 things on my dash that turn off ( the most important ones, tachometer, digital trip counter, odometer, rpm ), on the diagram all of the ones that mess up have the same ground, E12- behind RH footwell trim, i still have to find that. Ill probably just run the ground from the instrument cluster to some other ground and see how that works, altho i found many people that had the same problem, all of em ended up replacing the instrument cluster.

instrument panel disappearing

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