Used Cluster In, New Problems

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

My Car Is A 1989. I Noticed My Coding Plug Is Brown...... The One In This Cluster Is Green.......

do you have a trans with the M selection?

The new coding plug could be looking for a M/E/S trans (later model)

[ROBMPULSE]

I Have The Two Position Switch (a And M). The Car This Came Out Of Was The Same Switch. Inless Possibly It Had Been Changed Before And Previous Owner Never Dealt With The Issue.........

I Am Calling Today To Get The Year Of The Car It Came Off Of. Will Report Back.....

[ROBMPULSE]

Came Out Of A 1991 Or 1992 535i. They Were Not Exactly Sure What Year It Was And Did Not Seem Inclined To Go Look....lol

[ROBMPULSE]

Okay, I spent some more time today changing out lights in the cluster. Finally got them all to work. I also took time to take apart all the connectors, including the connectors to the gear selection switch and cleaned them all as best I could with electrical contact cleaner.

1. I am still getting transprogram displayed only when ignition on (car of) and when I take the keys out after turning the car off. It DOES NOT come on while driving, nor does my transmission go into limp mode. My car has ALWAYS driven mechanically fine and has NOT shown any symptoms of any problems.

2. The gear selection indicator (to the right of the check control display) always comes on and works as designed. However, it only stays on between 1-5 mins, then turns off and goes black.

I am starting to think that this is what could possibly be what's throwing the code. Is that possible?

3. I noticed that after shutting and locking the car, that the window switches go from the normal bright setting, to a very LOW but still on dim setting. I am sure this is not normal. I waited 5 mins to see if they would eventually go off, but they have not.

this has broght another question into play. Could it be possible that it is draining the battery to the point that it is on the cusp of being too low to start the car, causing inadequite voltage to the tranny computer, causing the transprogram to be displayed? The car doesn't ever act like it's low on charge. always starts up fine.

Has anyone ever had their switchs not go completely off (lighting that is)?

I plan on taking the car to get the battery and charging system tested, but I suspect that it will come back as being fine as I will have to drive there, and the battery always seems to be fully charged when I start the car.

Any thoughts???

[Johntee540]

Dude!!!!! The Coding Plug needs to match your car! Change the CODE PLUG now! and all will be good! The code plug stores information about YOUR car and how all the systems need to work. If you install a diff code plug for a car with different options et al you are going to experience problems. - Jt

[ROBMPULSE]

That's Kind Of The Problem. One Code Plug Was Green. The Other Was Brown. I Tried To Switch Them, But It Didn't Seem To Fit.

Are These Two Plugs Interchangeable? Or Was I Just Being To Much Of A Pussy To Put It In? Lol Those Plastics Are So Dry Rotted, That I Was Scared I Would Break It Not Knowing If It Would Fit Or Not.....

[ROBMPULSE]

Oh, And If This Is The Case, Can The Code Just Be Cleared If I Can't Change Them Out?

[Johntee540]

Okay - I am asking to be corrected here if I am wrong. It is my understanding that the code plug is specific your car and its VIN. It contains info about the build of your car. Things like - type of transmission; Odometer reading; types of options your car has; and the like.

Its like the basic DNA of your car stored in a chip

It feeds this information to the ECU which uses it to make things in your car work the way it was originally set up. Can the code plug be cleared? Yes - but only with a Dealer computer (they cost around $125k?) and then you still need to have the odo info certified.

What I think is happening is that you did not get a cluster out of a like car to yours. Maybe you have a 525 and you are running a 535 cluster - something like that. Is there a Vin# on the back of the Code Plug you currently are experiencing problems with? I would take that number and do vin # check to see what car this code plug came from. If it comes from a Manual transmission car then yes you are going to get errors as the ECU is not looking for or aware of the Auto Tranny. If the code plug is for a different Auto Tranny than the car is equipted with then yes you are going to get errors as the ECU does not recognize the signals coming from YOUR tranny.

The plugs should be interchangeable. Just move slow and carefully. Dont force anything and things should be right.

Guys - If I am smoking nylon rope here - please tell me - but the only variable in this whole thread was that the code plug is different after he swaps out the Cluster. That to me is a huge redflag. -
JT

[myles]

Johntee is on the right track.

I haven't been following your posts and you don't have your model details in your profile. I will assume you have a 525 or 535 but I have no idea if you have a manual or an auto trans. Did the donor car have the same transmission as your car has? If not, then thats the problem. You need to get a coding plug from a car with the same trans/engine/fuel tank for a plug and play cluster change to work.

Your car originally has a brown code plug (3/89 to 9/90) and your old cluster should have a white back. I've never seen a green code plug before but I have seen a blue one. Are sure it's not blue?

If your new code plug is the blue one, it actually has a different chip(flash ic) inside it to your old brown one and the plastic assembly it sits inside is differently keyed so that you can't swap a blue and a brown one. If you have an eeprom reader you can use it to transfer some of the data from your old code plug to the new one to make it store the correct data for your car.

Give us some more info and I will try to help further.

[ROBMPULSE]

my car = 1989 535i automatic

cluster donor car = 1990 or 1991 535i automatic

If I said green, I meant blue. sorry, lol