is my e36 having a midlife crisis..

[philipo]

Hello guys, hope you can help me out..

My 1999 e36 323i vert, seems to be going through a 'the change'..

Its only done 55k, and still drives fantastically however some gremlins have appeared from no where..

1. I'm getting an ' EEP-1 ' code on start up on the cluster. Where the odometer is.. All that's working is the speedo everything elese is dead..

It used to go haywire a while back and would die as you were driving along, then flash back into life, with no change to the drive..

This code is new to me.. Any ideas? I have been looking and general concensus on threads on other forums is the cluster unit. I have seen some on ebay, but would love to know if there are amy fixes..

Secondly is a sporadic, heater, only working/blowing. Would this be realted..

Its so annoying as the car is a minter, but this is driving me ( and esp my bro who ran out of petrol today) insane..

Any ideas oh wise ones?

Thanks in advance..

[4rephill]

I'm afraid I can't help you with the error code you're getting except to say that having to replace the entire cluster due to a fault is, as you have already found, not that uncommon.

On the old E30 the batteries fitted to the service indicator board used to become discharged after @ 10 years and would cause all sorts of gremlins on the dashboard but I'm not sure if the E36 suffers the same problem.

As for your sporadic heater issue, the most likely culprit will be your final stage resistor: http://www.nm-motorsport.com/acatalog/BMW-E36-Fina...

Have a read of this: http://www.bmwland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=17...

[JJM]

Re the heater issue is it intermittent?

If so it could be the Final Stage Resistor...

Have a look at this link:

http://mobile.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=...

[fatboy69]

i think mine is also having a crisis. so far this week - one broken battery (to be replaced as its only 10 months old), one broken boot lock & the central locking has now failed so have to lock the sodding thing with the key which is a real pain in the ass.

cant find anyone interested in repairing the boot - to cheer myself up i called my local bmw main dealer who quoted me £250.00 + vat just to have a look at the lock...

i asked if they were having a laugh & the moron on the phone said that he wasnt laughing & he was being deadly serious.

told him to get stuffed.

called a couple of other local garages who didnt seem bothered & didnt seem interested in even having a look at the car.

anyone know of someone reliable/trustworthy in the gloucester area who can assist?

[philipo]

Thanks for the heads up guys.. I have a bit of a plan of attack..

1- pop my current cluster out and clean the connectors with some electrical cleaner..

2- if that fails, get hunting for the battery?? See if its the same on the e36..

3 - if that fails, new cluster from ebay it is..

With regards to the heater, the digital display does not light up all the time, and when it does the blower only works half the time..

Think the display is a seperate problem to the blowers.. Right pain in the arse..

Good luck fatboy with your gremlins, remeber not too feed them after midnight..

Cheers
Phil

[4rephill]

philipo said:

With regards to the heater, the digital display does not light up all the time, and when it does the blower only works half the time..

Think the display is a seperate problem to the blowers.. Right pain in the arse..
Cheers
Phil

The digital climate control units are known for becoming faulty so it could well be that.

(To be honest, if your E36 is anything like mine it'll be spiteful and require both the control unit and the final stage resistor replacing. I've found over the last five years of ownership that E36's can test your BMW enthusiasm a bit, but then I have to remember that she is 14 years old and probably hasn't had the quietest of lives from new I suspect, being a 328i sport!).

[philipo]

Well cleaned the connections, to no avail.. The cluster is super simple to pop out actually, maybe 10 mins.

Where would the potential problem battery be hiding? And would it be a diy fix?

Ebay is looking likely now..

[4rephill]

philipo said:

Well cleaned the connections, to no avail.. The cluster is super simple to pop out actually, maybe 10 mins.

Where would the potential problem battery be hiding? And would it be a diy fix?

Ebay is looking likely now..

Having had a quick check on the net it appears that the E36 does not use the same style service indicator board with batteries attached.

It seems the most common method to cure the problem is to change the entire instrument cluster. (That's progress in design for you, you no longer change one small part, now you have to change the whole thing!).

[philipo]

So i have an ebay cluster on order with 30k miles when it was removed, ready to pop in..

I have heard you can get the correct milage to display (59k ish) through some clever stuff, that is outlined in the bently manual, is anyone familar with this process.