Yep your dash marks move... what year is your model?

I'm the OP'er and I have a '08

 

Me: 2004

 

On my 04 530i it used to move every time i started the car in the morning. On my 08 550i it doesn't move at all. There is about 3-4 dashes and they stay put. I have asked the SA at my dealer and they say that it doesn't move for the 08 and up LCI models. It's kind of annoying to have something so useful in the pre LCI but get rid of it post LCI. Now the LCI e60's have no way of telling when the car is warmed. It's up to you to guess. :thumbsdown:

 

This makes no sense at all, but it does make some sense because the dashes once settled in it's final resting place after about 5 minutes become totally useless. So I guess they said, why even bother when prolly no one even notices them anyway.

Coming from an e39 as many of you know has a horrible cooling history, I kept an eye on the temp guage more than the speedo, if the guage moved so much as a notch past 12 o'clock, that meant there was an issue, even if it was just air in the system.

When I first jumped in my e60 my expansion tank was busted and the only way I knew was when I happened to see coolant on the ground after I parked. Then I was shocked to learn that there was no temp guage, how could BMW of all people do this? Now I know the idrive may tell you when the engine is overheated, but isn't it too late then? the only option at that point is to stop the engine, at least with a guage you have a warning when the temp starts to creep up.

 

My 545i is a 2004. My baby girl will be 6 years old in 2 days!

 

The dashes don't function on LCI models. 2008+

A Tony Mac, this topic has been previously discussed many times.

 

Mine is 2005 and also moves between 5.5K to 6.5K.

But yours seems a bit strange in the idle rev. I assume the first pic is the cold start and the rev is below 1K. The idle rev of mine is about 1.5K when cold start (dash is 5.5K), then the idle rev drops to below 1K when the engine warm up and at that time the dash will be at 6.5K.

this is a special function of BMW and it is stated in the user manual.

 

Well it was 90 degrees when I started the car here in NYC yesterday, that me be why the idle rev was below 1K at startup. The dashes started to drop almost as soon as the engine turned over.

 

Alright, so Mookish beat me to the photo uploads - I shan't bother then. I think that the reason behind the moving dials is to keep a uniform instrument cluster across the range. I believe that different engines have different red-lines, and the moving cluster enables a single dash to go on everything from 520 upwards.

 

So how do you know if your car is warmed up for the 2008 models?