gonggg.....outside air temp!

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moots

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was driving at the national speed limits at the plus hiway when suddenly the gong sounded and the odo/trip meter lighted up bright showing an outside temp of -20'c!and here's the strangest part....the engine temp gauge immediately was slowly winding down and finally settled at the blue zone!stopped at the next RnR to chk...no smell,oil ok,coolant ok.called ah foo...he said meter koyat! so drove carefully monitoring the engine temp till reached my mum's place in shah alam.unlocked the obc and did the cluster christmas tree test...ok.did the outside air temp test ie test 7....temp shows -40.....hmmmm.....must be the temp sensor......wonder how that affects the engine temp indication....well.....i'll disconnect the temp sensor and see how it goes....
 
The sensor is right above front right wheel. When it show -40 means that the sensor dropped off. It will cause air cond to switch off intermittently.
 
this is definitely the outside temp sensor. In front of the right wheel well below the bumper.
 
my outside sensor also failed when i purchased the car..have been searching for the connection wire, still not found to date..bought the sensor for 60rm from my friend..the cluster shows -40 also..so far, air cond is working well, but only with manual mode..
 
ok i need to make myself clear.there are 2 issues here:
1. outside air temp is faulty
2. engine temp gauge is also faulty..............there......

ok no dice.i removed the outside air temp(oat) sensor and drove to and from work but the engine temp gauge is pointing at red at engine start up(engine cold) and goes down to blue scale at crz.me thinks engine/coolant temp sensor is faulty.

but for the life of me i cannot figure out the location of the engine temp sensor.this inputs the engine temp gauge on the instrument cluster.it is not on the lower hose at the radiator(at least not on my car).can someone verify if it is located under the intake manifold and is it a dual temp sensor that feeds the ecu as well?
progress.gif
 
ok some updates....

i replaced both the outside air temp sensor and the engine coolant temp sensor -> nil fix!

no change whatsoever.finally after numerous hooking up uf the pa soft scanner 140(thanks jarance),the dme output shows coolant sensor hard on fault when i disconnected the coolant temp sensor and fault goes away when i reconected but the ike(inst cluster electronics) is showing hard on fault all of the time...together with both lh and rh fuel level sensor fault.(my fuel gauge is now showing empty with the reserve light on even with a fuel tank).

the outside air temp,no change.ie always showing -20'c or -9'c....ikut suka hati dia aje.....!

anyways i think the fault lies with the instrument cluster,as ah foo has indicated to me the first time.....hmmmmmm....tough one!must find used cluster(mine is lo cluster)and somehow recode it to be used on my car...and hopefully the mileage tamper light will not illuminate....all this possible if i can FIND a used cluster....not cheap at rm700-800 a pop......

oh the joy of owning a bimmer i guess..........
 
moots;642408 said:
ok some updates....

i replaced both the outside air temp sensor and the engine coolant temp sensor -> nil fix!

no change whatsoever.finally after numerous hooking up uf the pa soft scanner 140(thanks jarance),the dme output shows coolant sensor hard on fault when i disconnected the coolant temp sensor and fault goes away when i reconected but the ike(inst cluster electronics) is showing hard on fault all of the time...together with both lh and rh fuel level sensor fault.(my fuel gauge is now showing empty with the reserve light on even with a fuel tank).

the outside air temp,no change.ie always showing -20'c or -9'c....ikut suka hati dia aje.....!

anyways i think the fault lies with the instrument cluster,as ah foo has indicated to me the first time.....hmmmmmm....tough one!must find used cluster(mine is lo cluster)and somehow recode it to be used on my car...and hopefully the mileage tamper light will not illuminate....all this possible if i can FIND a used cluster....not cheap at rm700-800 a pop......

oh the joy of owning a bimmer i guess..........

Moots, just my thought, the Ike just merely display what's available on the can bus. If the Ike is faulty, you will get correct temperature on the can bus. I suggest connecting INPA and view the can bus first before buying a cluster
 
aidilj;642453 said:
Moots, just my thought, the Ike just merely display what's available on the can bus. If the Ike is faulty, you will get correct temperature on the can bus. I suggest connecting INPA and view the can bus first before buying a cluster

bro,

aidil is rite.u could sniff wuts the can bus broadcasting using navcoder.. if its displaying the rite temp, then most likely ur meter is busted.
 
bro aidilj and skin....how i came to this conclusion...when i hook up the scanner with the eng coolant temp sensor connected,the dme don't log any faults but when i disconnect the sensor,the dme records a hard on fault.
now,the ike module on the other hand,would record the coolant sensor fault for both occasion! ie regardless if the sensor is disconnected or not!

attached is the cluster....fuel gauge showing empty when the tank is full and temp gauge at hot when d engine is cold and the outside air temp indicating freezing temp....
 
moots;642643 said:
bro aidilj and skin....how i came to this conclusion...when i hook up the scanner with the eng coolant temp sensor connected,the dme don't log any faults but when i disconnect the sensor,the dme records a hard on fault.
now,the ike module on the other hand,would record the coolant sensor fault for both occasion! ie regardless if the sensor is disconnected or not!

attached is the cluster....fuel gauge showing empty when the tank is full and temp gauge at hot when d engine is cold and the outside air temp indicating freezing temp....

Can you do the test 2 or using the BMW Scanner 1.4 to full test your meter see is it full functioning or not. Or can you borrow a e39 meter and plug in to your car and see the result ?
 
moots;642643 said:
bro aidilj and skin....how i came to this conclusion...when i hook up the scanner with the eng coolant temp sensor connected,the dme don't log any faults but when i disconnect the sensor,the dme records a hard on fault.
now,the ike module on the other hand,would record the coolant sensor fault for both occasion! ie regardless if the sensor is disconnected or not!

attached is the cluster....fuel gauge showing empty when the tank is full and temp gauge at hot when d engine is cold and the outside air temp indicating freezing temp....

moots, kind of make sense as well. It is unlikely that two sensors go bad at the same time, both are temperature related. Try the cluster first before buying..

Or if time permits, visit skinhead for his IBUS interface diagnose method..
 
Here is a screenshot showing navcoder printing activities/info on ibus.

IMG_2748.jpg
 
Bro - sudah solve the problem?
From my experience with the e39, when the temp goes with that reading, it means your water pump is about to kaput..
i experienced that along fed hway when the temp max out t the red lamp..just park my car and call tow truck to my mech..
Hope that helps..
 
well yes and no.got a used cluster from ebay for rm460 plus shipping.fitted it and wow...all is back to normal...but short lived.took a drive from nilai to shah alam but on the way back home.....deja vu....the exact same scenario happened...this time got elect burn smell from the cluster.i guess either the oat sensor,engine temp sensor or fuel level sensor is somehow shorting the cluster.......

oh well...the saga continues......
 
Sorry to hear that moots, I think its time to plug in the diagnostic tool. Rm460 shipped is a good price. Let me know if there's anything I can help you with.
 
hello
Have you solved the problem? Im experiencing similar problem, I have swap IKE (meter) from another car, was fine for one day. Im also suspecting a short ciruct somewhere.
Regards
Piotr
BMW`99 540iA
 
howdy,well i'm happy to report that i've solved the issue.funny that you are facing this issue as well.a guy from canada in the bimmerforums is having the same issue and he has resolved this with my pointer.below is the extract of my reply in the bimmerforums:

if that is the case,then yr cluster has burned out.you will need a replacement cluster.the cause,in my case,is the fuel level sender unit.the wires for the level sender and the fuel pump is just next to each other.check that the fuel sender wires are ok and not touching the fuel pump power wires.in my case,one of the fuel level sender wires broke and touched the fuel pump power wire and this fried the cluster.

fix the cause first or you WILL fry another set of instrument cluster

good luck
 
You are lucky, it only burned your cluster not your car

thanks for sharing bro
 
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