Takecare14

went to bmw to have this battery recall done. after receiving car back noticed gauges weren't working until a minute after start up, then worked fine. after bringing it back and being told I need to pay 1400 for a new gauge cluster, I decided to do some searching. I cant find much a few posts said it needs to be replaced which I am ok with but if it works sometimes, as opposed to taking a minute to start up every time, then I'm leaning more toward some type of electrical problem(battery, fuses, connector somewhere) then the gauge being completely broken.





as you can see in this video upon start up it does not work, after turning it off and immediately restarting it works. if the car sits for a few hours it wont work. ive even drove around for 30 min, parked the car for 6 hours came back and it works fine. most of the time however it doesn't work if the car sits for extended period of time.


any insight would be much appreciated.

svre46

Hmmm. Do you have INPA or NCS expert? I would reset the coding on the KOMBI and see if it goes back to normal. If you don't have these tools take it back or go to an indy familiar with BMWs instead of the dealer. Also I am sure you can find a used cluster for less and have the vin recoded/cluster recoded.

Takecare14

I do not have these but I do know someone who has the tools and ability. Is there a step by step process or write up I could show him? Or if I just tell him to reset the coding on the kombi he should know what I'm referring to.

svre46

He should know what you mean. The KOMBI is your gauge cluster. You can test all functionality via INPA. Going into NCS expert you can recode the KOMBI to default settings based on your VO (vehicle order). Maybe there is some setting the dealer changed that is causing this delay you see. I figure it is worth a shot just to reset it and go from there.

gchild

I think i may have a similar problem to you. I can hear a clicking sound from around/behind the cluster that increases frequency, then after a minute or so, the needles move from the rest position and all is OK again.

no idea of what the cause is, but are you having the same symptoms?

Takecare14

Yeah pretty much I haven't heard any clicking but the dealer did reset my airbag light I had on so I wonder if something got messed up when they were getting into that.

M A

Any new update on the KOMBI?

Takecare14

I had someone I know reset my kombi and everything but it didn't fix it. I cant figure out any other way to fix this other than buying a new cluster unfortunately.

H F

Maybe a long shot here, but what if u disconnect the battery for a few . It might reset . Worth trying