Check the stupid things first, Simple…. No wait…..

I spent most of my first weekend with the new car pulling the interior apart trying to sort some issues with an intermittent speedo. As I discovered during the first week, the speedo would work for a while then suddenly stop without warning and the best way to fix it was to give the whole cluster an almighty punch in the face.  Luckily I didn’t break the Perspex cover, but it must have been close.

Many thoughts were proffered online about the possible causes, but it was unlikely to be a dodgey connection at the sender as this was located on the diff and thumping the gauges would hardly make a difference. The whole housing was removed and I spent some time dismantling it. The very first thing I noticed was the NiMH batteries for the services interval memory had pretty much exploded covering everything in the vicinity with a corrosive powder.  I thought I had solved it first go.

Replacement didn’t end up working so a new cluster was the answer for now. We obtained a replacement and although it was from a different model, it provided enough of a platform to confirm the problem was the cluster itself. The car is currently running the later cluster with the original speedo and the speedo works perfectly, but coding board differences mean the tacho does not currently work until I can find the issue and fix the original cluster, by resoldering the circuit board.

When I went hunting for the source of my indicator issues….. (Hey, it’s a BMW, I should be immune from having to use indicators right? – no one else seems to).  I found the switch had a crack running from one corner to other and there was no way the stalk section was going back into that little plastic cube.    I believe it is the ideal time to invest in some Naarva shares, as I am going to be needing to do some electrical work.  It reminds of the James Leasor book, “Never had a spanner on her”. Must dig out and reread that one.  I am also trying at this point to remember the name of book where someone said to an auto electrician that electricity was a complete mystery to them and the mechanic responded with something along the lines of “The way I see it electrician is a job for a dummy like me, you don’t even need to be able to read, everything is colour coded”  Yeah, right.  I challenge anyone to find what they are looking for with a map and compass under the dash of this thing.

Not bad for only having owned the car for 4 days eh?

I also spent a good hour trying to find the issue with the cigarette lighter, not because I wish to smoke, but so I can charge my phone etc. I was hunting behind the dash, tracing wires trying to find where I could run some new cabling to get the lighter working.  Then suddenly it dawned on me…… I had owned the car nearly a week and I had not checked any fuses.  Sure enough… one broken fuse. And yes it was the one that worked the damn lighter.  All good.  Next step is finish stuffing up….. errrr……. rebuilding the original dash cluster, then start thinking about some other little items, such as the bizarre ideas I have for the interior and gauge faces.

My only other concern this week, was after getting a little feisty with the throttle (that’s a story for another day), I then drove to work the next morning and every time I accelerated there was an audible thump from the rear of the car.  What could I have done?  Popped a shocker out of the tower?  Nope, it was fine on bumps.  Busted something in the diff?  I doubt it, there was a delay before the bang.  Something in the boot? But I haven’t used the boot yet…….

I made it to work without completely losing my mind, popped open the boot to find my darling son (when he borrowed the car the day before) had placed a slide hammer for start droppers in the boot and not removed it.  So there was a 3kg steel cylinder rolling around in the boot………     !