DIY - Retrofitting an M3 (or 135i/1M) Instrument Cluster

[Jeb_]

Alright, I'll give that a try. Thanks.

If that doesn't work it looks like 160D0WQ may need byte 70 0F, and all of line 80 "FF"ed to reset the VIN.

[Jeb_]

Okay, I can confirm that the 160D0WQ EEPROMs also also store the VIN in line -2E0.

The issue I had was caused by having INPA and NCS Expert running at the same time.

[ornicar]

Hi Chris chris_flies

first thanks a lot for this premium tuto!

I am going to swap my 125i Cluster (Without oil gauge) for the 135i one.

Can you please explain why is it Mandatory to use a cluster with less mileage?

In this thread : https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1179928

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showp...6&postcount=12

it is explaining that if you virginize the eeprom (VIN + ODO) everything will be OK.

Can you please give me your opinion? maybe there are some differences between 3 & 1 series Cluster / eeprom?

Thanks

[chris_flies]

Originally Posted by ornicar

Hi Chris chris_flies

first thanks a lot for this premium tuto!

I am going to swap my 125i Cluster (Without oil gauge) for the 135i one.

Can you please explain why is it Mandatory to use a cluster with less mileage?

In this thread : https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1179928

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showp...8;postcount=12

it is explaining that if you virginize the eeprom (VIN + ODO) everything will be OK.

Can you please give me your opinion? maybe there are some differences between 3 & 1 series Cluster / eeprom?

Thanks

You cannot roll back the odometer without the tamper dot showing, or at least that's what I gathered from what I've read. That's all

[blue135]

Think of it this way: the system figures out which (gauges or car) has the highest mileage and chooses that one to display. This is the way in a lot of vehicles these days. And as Chris says, you don't want tamper indicator showing up if you ever intend to sell vehicle.

[ornicar]

Originally Posted by blue135

Think of it this way: the system figures out which (gauges or car) has the highest mileage and chooses that one to display. This is the way in a lot of vehicles these days. And as Chris says, you don't want tamper indicator showing up if you ever intend to sell vehicle.

thanks for the answers.

my car has a low milage (~75Km) so it is difficult to find a Kombi with a lower mileage.

My understanding (cf bimmerfest post) was that it is possible to virginize the eeprom (odo & Vin) Before to fit the kombi in the car.

except the lost of money for the 135i Kombi, is there a risk to make a test?

[Ayhan]

Hello guys, is it possible to swap a wb6 cluster with the original bmw e82 one ?

[Ayhan]

Up! Nobody ?

[chris_flies]

Originally Posted by Ayhan

Up! Nobody ?

Bruh, you gave less than 2 days for a response

Also, no, no one has done it. AFAIK, Exx and Fxx electronics don't work with each other, save for some iDrive and DME parts. Not to mention, the instrument binnacles aren't even CLOSE to the same size and shape, etc.

There's a for-sale solution that does the same and then some more: https://customdigitalgauges.com/page...trofit-cluster

[Ayhan]

Ok great, i already have it. I know id4motion, 1K€.

Thanks.

[dzid_]

FYI
To make reading/writing 080D0WQ work I needed to do the following mods:

I removed yellow capacitor and replaced 100Ohm resistor with 1k.
http://blog.obd2diy.fr/2017/07/07/r2...dwrite-m35080/

Then, in order to fit M3 cluster to E82, I needed to do some filing:

Now I will have to figure out what to do with misaligned screws:

[karmatose]

Thanks for the excellent tutorial! Was able to pull this off in like an hour flat today and I was not in a rush. Super well documented.

[ResinThirteen]

Hey, chris_flies you didn't mention if the cluster housing itself needed any modification to fit in the 1-series. Those YT vids don't give me a lot of confidence about the quality of the fitment, so I was wondering what your personal experience was. Thanks!

[xtturbox]

Great information!! looking to change my 13 135i cluster to M3 but what years clusters are you using and i'm assuming that i need to use a DCT cluster also instead of manual.
Thx!!

[amg6975]

Originally Posted by ResinThirteen

Hey, chris_flies you didn't mention if the cluster housing itself needed any modification to fit in the 1-series. Those YT vids don't give me a lot of confidence about the quality of the fitment, so I was wondering what your personal experience was. Thanks!

You absolutely need to modify the cluster to fit, and the screw holes do not line up no matter what you do. I ended up cutting off the "brim" on the M3 cluster and gluing on the "brim" from the 1 series cluster. It doesn't look great if you look for it but you wouldn't notice if you weren't looking for it.

The other avenue that could be explored, which I tried, is putting the guts of the m3 cluster in the 1 series pod. This would require cutting out the black divider piece of both and fitting the M3 one in the 1 series cluster. The electronics and gauges and everything fit just fine, it's just the center parts that are different.

[ResinThirteen]

Originally Posted by amg6975

You absolutely need to modify the cluster to fit, and the screw holes do not line up no matter what you do. I ended up cutting off the "brim" on the M3 cluster and gluing on the "brim" from the 1 series cluster. It doesn't look great if you look for it but you wouldn't notice if you weren't looking for it.

The other avenue that could be explored, which I tried, is putting the guts of the m3 cluster in the 1 series pod. This would require cutting out the black divider piece of both and fitting the M3 one in the 1 series cluster. The electronics and gauges and everything fit just fine, it's just the center parts that are different.

Ooh, that’s an idea. I just might give that a shot. I really like the early e9x M3 gauges. Thanks!

[PDX.e82]

Hi there,

I've followed this guide step by step (great guide btw) but the coding part is not working for me.

First of all, INPA won't even say that my ignition is on, even when it's on, the door is closed, and I'm using the actual BimmerGeeks K+DCAN cable, not a knockoff unit.

Second of all, NCSExpert, after I hit "execute job," gives me a COAPI-2063 error and then a bunch of German about how the VIN #s don't match.

Anyone have any ideas?

Car is a 2009 128i. The donor 135i had less miles than my 128i, according to the seller. The EEPROM is the 080-type chip. All other steps went perfectly well.

[chris_flies]

Originally Posted by PDX.e82

Hi there,

I've followed this guide step by step (great guide btw) but the coding part is not working for me.

First of all, INPA won't even say that my ignition is on, even when it's on, the door is closed, and I'm using the actual BimmerGeeks K+DCAN cable, not a knockoff unit.

Second of all, NCSExpert, after I hit "execute job," gives me a COAPI-2063 error and then a bunch of German about how the VIN #s don't match.

Anyone have any ideas?

Car is a 2009 128i. The donor 135i had less miles than my 128i, according to the seller. The EEPROM is the 080-type chip. All other steps went perfectly well.

INPA not showing correct status is wrong. Do you have the correct COM port selected in device manager along with the correct serial settings for the cable?

[PDX.e82]

Originally Posted by chris_flies

INPA not showing correct status is wrong. Do you have the correct COM port selected in device manager along with the correct serial settings for the cable?

Yes, latency timer is set to 1 ms, COM1 selected in device manager, etc. etc.

I was able to successfully code my FRM3 to replace my FRM2 for my 135i xenon retrofit last night via Coding Tool and NCS Expert. It's just INPA that's having trouble.

And while using the BimmerGeeks SP-Datens files, WinKFP won't show "FRM3R" in the ECU family menu, just FRM2 and FRMPL2, any ideas? Do I need a more recent E89 Datens file?

[logancorado033]

I've been trying to verginiz the cluster but it's been running for like 17 hours saying wait decode. I don't know what to do

[Donkeyshins]

FWIW, I just did this with a 135i cluster that used the 160D0WQ EEPROM and ended up having to clear / overwrite with FF's both offset -000 as well as -2E0 in order to write to the EEPROM.

(I also had to remove the C1 tantalum capacitor from the SOIC8 test clip adapter to read from the EEPROM in the first place - so a bit of an annoyance there)

Next step is coding via BMW Tools. Hopefully I don't end up with a tamper dot when everything is said & done (although I'll keep my old 128i cluster, so theoretically I could put that back in if I ever was insane enough to sell the car).

[Donkeyshins]

Originally Posted by logancorado033

I've been trying to verginiz the cluster but it's been running for like 17 hours saying wait decode. I don't know what to do

Not sure if you ever solved this, but if you have the Amazon SOIC8 clip, you might need to remove C1 from the board.