erratic instrument cluster
 

I just put my 95 318ti back on the road; after driving for a while the gauges intermittently die, then come back to life. This also happened last year (the dealer said I needed a new cluster) and then the problem stopped but now it's happening again.

The battery is 2 years old; do you think I indeed need a new cluster or could it be simply a bad ground? Where would the instrument cluster ground be located? Any other ideas?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I can tell you on a 1993 BMW 325 the ground for the cluster is on the pasenger side under the floar mat area against the firewall. My cluster went bad last year. I bought a used one for around 100 on ebay. Hope this helps.

I would check the ground point first. Make sure there is no resistance and it has a good connection to the body. Usually, intermittent gauges are fixed by re-grounding the cluster.

Thanks for the replies.....as I said, the car had been sitting all winter and I would start it once a week or so. After driving it for a couple days I checked the battery; it was quite low on electrolyte, so I topped it up with water and everything seems fine now. Maybe the cluster is voltage-sensitive? Anyway, we'll see what happens!

Gary,
I'm not sure about the 318s, but on my '98 328 if you hold the odometer button in, turn ignition to the "on" position, wait a few seconds, it goes thru a self diagnostic test including the gauges.
kutch