Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexandre VTS  Great!
If you can do this DIY for oil temperature work, I'll be very thankfull.
I track my car sometimes, and this is something that is missing.
Other options are Z3m coupe and roadster cluster, but this ones don't come with oil temperature.
I'll be waiting, thank you vey much |
This DIY describes how to make the oil temperature indicator work when one has installed an e36 m3 instrument cluster in a non-m3. The DIY is based on experience with installing the e36 m3 instrument cluster in an e36 323ti. It is believed that this procedure will work in other e36 non-m3 with 6 cylinder engines.
The oil temperature has to be measured, and that job is done by the oil temperature sensor. The dimension of the oil temperature sensor is M12x1.5, and the original BMW oil temperature sensor could be used. The part number is 12 61 1 404 699.
Then, one needs to determine the location of the oil temperature sensor. There are several options. Two of them are mentioned here. Since the oil drain plug (at least for the euro M52B25) is M12x1.5, the easiest solution is to replace the oil drain plug with the oil temperature sensor. Another option is to use an oil distribution block, and locate the oil temperature sensor in it.
Next, one has to install and route a cable from the oil temperature sensor to the instrument cluster. The main obstacle is to find where to go from the engine bay and in behind the dashboard. I found it convenient to demount the glove box on the passenger side, and used a passage already there.
Then it is time to remove the e36 m3 instrument cluster. To do this one also need to remove the steering wheel. If you don’t know how to do it, please look on the web how to do it!
The last part is to attach the new cable to pin 13 on connector X16 (make sure it is not used i.e. no pin in the position). I used a pin taken from a female D-sub and soldered the new cable to the D-sub pin, and inserted it in the empty space at pin 13, connector X16.
Then it is time to mount every thing back again, and the oil temperature should now be working. Please notice that it may take up till 30 min. before the oil is hot enough to make the needle move.
Location of the connector x16:
Oil distribution block:
