Removal & Fitting Coding Plug - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

shuggy47 · 26th June 2007, 14:29

I have recently been having problems with my gauges which i thought i had fixed by replacing the capacitors - no such luck.
I have managed to get my hands on a similar set of guages from a non M5 E34 which means the revs/MPH and oil temp gauges are different however believe that changing the coding plug with my M5 one will fix this.

So to my actual question how do i remove and fit the coding plug on my guages (blue plastic rear with plug attached) and will it work ie different RPM/MPH reading (i will obviously change the backgrounds over as well).

Cheers

Phlem5 · 26th June 2007, 23:12

Alright Al, Have you checked the wiring loom where it passes over the rear subframe?? I know Farrell and Alan Archer (iirc) have had some problems there before. Have you tried removing and checking all you relays make sure you have no corroded terminals ??
Changing the gauges seems a bit extreme, are the gauges known to be faulty?

shuggy47 · 27th June 2007, 11:32

Phil i took my gauges out and checked the circuit board and one of the capacitors has blown - but turns out the guy that changed them over for me didn't use a high temp capacitor.

However i've took the circuit board off the non-M5 set (looks exactly the same) and put that on my M5 gauges whilst also changing the coding pin over - not a big job. So will try putting the new assembly in today and see how things go - fingers crossed.

shuggy47 · 27th June 2007, 18:21

Put the gauges back, everything looks good except some of the bulbs are out on the left hand side so will take out again and replace with the bulbs from my old unit tonight and check that all is well.

I must say having wonky gauges is a real pain in the ar$e.

If this does work, i certainly can't complain at £25 for the new gauges from a 535 Touring from a scrappy instead of the £135 for M5 ones that i've seen on ebay.

Phlem5 · 27th June 2007, 18:39

As long as the M is still in the binnacle evrything should be cool ! Got say, I cant think of hearing about this kind of problem before Alan, weird. Maybe explains why there's not been a torrent of helpful replies, either that or there's a thread of nonsense - possibly wheel related that is of greater technical interest / use to the forum........