Picked up the M3..

[Rat3d ///M]

..and I have to say, it is the best car I have ever owned, by far. I know that sounds cliché, and I am sure it has been said before, but it is the only thing I can say. In all honesty, I cannot think of a car I would rather have at this price point. I won't make this a long drawn out post about how amazing my car is. Almost everyone here owns one, so you all know what it is like. All I will say is, it is practical as a daily driver (even with a 9 month old), has all the technological features I could ever ask for (fully loaded with all the packages and options) and has the performance to keep a smile on my face all day. The exhaust sound (with OEM exhaust mod) is amazing and the car turns heads all day. I have come out of a store to see people crowded around it looking at it, and have watched people take pictures as I drive away. It is a good feeling.

Here is a quick pic from the morning after I picked it up:



I will be sure to post some more this weekend. I plan to detail it tomorrow (or Sunday) and take some better pictures and post them in the photo gallery section.

But enough of that. Now that I own the car, I want to get the tach issue solved, because needless to say, it drives me nuts. If people did not see my other thread, the car has an issue with the variable sliding tach. Basically, it has a mind of it's own, and doesn't reflect what the current redline is. It doesn't matter what the temp of the engine is, it will randomly move to a certain point when you start the car and stay there. It will not move once the car is started. I have to add, that you can still redline passed the point the tach is at, even though it stays at a lower point than it should. The dealer has supposedly tried reflashing the ECU twice, and it did not fix it. All other gauges seem to work normal, and the dealer is stating the cluster is bad, and wants €900 to replace it. I am not paying that much, but will probably pick up a used cluster and have it coded for much cheaper, but before I did that, I want to see if anyone has anymore ideas at all on what this could be caused by? Faulty sensor maybe?

Here are a few pics to show what I mean:

This picture shows where the redline sits pretty much all the time. Sometimes it will be lower, sometimes it will be higher, but 95% of the time it sits around this point and will not move.


Another picture showing it is fully warmed up, yet still sits lower than it should. Again, you can redline to the normal 8400 RPMS all day. The variable sliding tach in no way shape or form restricts the actual redline.


Last pic, showing what it has done a few times. It drops so low, that the upper range of the redline is passed where the fixed redline ends, showing grey. I am pretty sure it shouldn't ever even be that low no matter how cold the engine is. Again, I started the car, and the tach moved to that point and stayed there. Turn the car off for a second and back on, it still stays there. You have to turn the car off for 5 minutes or so, and then it may move to another location, but again, will stay there and not move, and will not reflect where it should actually be.


Any help would be great. If it is the instrument cluster, I will replace it, but that is a lot of money when it could be as simple as a bad sensor.

[Tracyis300]

Wait! I thought it was that white E90 that had this problem?

[Sinful]

Car looks great ! Congratulations. Get a warranty and take it in and get it fixed. This is just the beginning get used to the exaggerated price tags on everything. This is German engineering so it is fantastic, wonderful, expensive and ready to break down at any moment. Other than the car being perfect this is our only problem...

[Mvy]

Hope you get it fixed cheap...good luck and enjoy the new car.

[thekurgan]

Sounds like you might need a new gauge cluster.

[r1762]

Congrats and enjoy!

[Rat3d ///M]

Originally Posted by Tracyis300

Wait! I thought it was that white E90 that had this problem?

Nope. Blue one. The white one didn't have any issues, it was just way more than I wanted to spend.

Originally Posted by thekurgan

Sounds like you might need a new gauge cluster.

I am thinking so, just wanted to make sure before I spent the money on a new cluster and having it coded.

I thought I should add as well, that the car has all the stamps in the service book. If people remember, I was concerned about lack of service records. It even has the "break in service" performed around 1100 km IIRC (not sure why so early, but at least it was done)

[thekurgan]

Originally Posted by |||||||||

Nope. Blue one. The white one didn't have any issues, it was just way more than I wanted to spend.



I am thinking so, just wanted to make sure before I spent the money on a new cluster and having it coded.

I thought I should add as well, that the car has all the stamps in the service book. If people remember, I was concerned about lack of service records. It even has the "break in service" performed around 1100 km IIRC (not sure why so early, but at least it was done)

My records show an early change as well, but notes say the owner was taking a long trip and would have hit 1200 miles during that time.

[Helmsman]

Nice ride - welcome bro!

What year is it built?

Cheers

[jdamore]

Wait.. new cluster for that feature?!
If you want this to work then spend the cash and get a new cluster. What I would do, (because that is really not worth it to me) is just open it up and disengage the gear that moves the outer ring so it always just shows like it is warm.

If you have like I have, the cruise control feature has a similar ring that moves to the set cruise speed. If you know how to solder, then maybe switch the motors around and sacrifice the cruise side if it is the motor (it says it on the LCD anyway).

Maybe there will be something obviously visually wrong you can fix. Maybe the gear is slipping..

Here is a DIY you can use to open it up and troubleshoot it your self.
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1044425

Congrats on the new car bud!!

[mhuynh]

I also picked up an m3 earlier this week and Ã*ts better than I could have ever imagined.

[Rat3d ///M]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Nice ride - welcome bro!

What year is it built?

Cheers

It has an October 2010 build date I believe (2011.5 model)

Originally Posted by jdamore

Wait.. new cluster for that feature?!
If you want this to work then spend the cash and get a new cluster. What I would do, (because that is really not worth it to me) is just open it up and disengage the gear that moves the outer ring so it always just shows like it is warm.

If you have like I have, the cruise control feature has a similar ring that moves to the set cruise speed. If you know how to solder, then maybe switch the motors around and sacrifice the cruise side if it is the motor (it says it on the LCD anyway).

Maybe there will be something obviously visually wrong you can fix. Maybe the gear is slipping..

Here is a DIY you can use to open it up and troubleshoot it your self.
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1044425

Congrats on the new car bud!!

Thanks for the advice. I had no idea it was so easy to take the cluster out. I will definitely take it out and see if something is physically broken inside. You are right, it may just be a gear is slipping or something, in which case maybe I can buy a cheap broken cluster and switch parts over and not have to worry about coding.

A couple more questions about the car:

1. I use my iPod hooked into the USB slot for music. It is quite a pain in the ass changing the "Artist" category to the artist I want to listen to and then searching for a song, clicking start track, etc, and I am getting bored with my current playlists. Besides making a new playlist on my iPod, is there a way to just shuffle through every song on my iPod in random order?

2. My rear trunk button (and door lock "buttons" for CA) sometimes don't work as well as they should. It seems to do it more in the rain, and my wife's Charger has the same issue where the outside door lock button won't work well when it is raining. Is this just an unfortunate side effect of the rain with these cars, or could there be something more to blame? I feel like an asshole standing there wasting time trying to lock the car by touching the door handle and having it not work, and the trunk button not working is just flat out annoying. Sometimes it will lag when unlocking the doors too, where I will pull the handle, and 3 seconds later it will unlock.

3. I have noticed that there is a noticeably louder idle for maybe 15 seconds when I start the car. Not just on cold start, but even when I start the car after driving for awhile. Then it goes back to a normal sounding idle. It is hard to explain I guess, but is this something normal that these cars do?

[gsmooth33]

It has an October 2010 build date I believe (2011.5 model)

OP your car should be under factory warranty unless its over 50,000 miles?

[Time Lord]

You bought it with no warranty? That's bananas.

[Rat3d ///M]

Originally Posted by gsmooth33

It has an October 2010 build date I believe (2011.5 model)

OP your car should be under factory warranty unless its over 50,000 miles?

Originally Posted by Time Lord

You bought it with no warranty? That's bananas.

I live in Germany. Unfortunately factory warranties and Free Maintenance do not apply, so while it is still under warranty (in the US) it does me no good.

[gsmooth33]

Originally Posted by |||||||||

I live in Germany. Unfortunately factory warranties and Free Maintenance do not apply, so while it is still under warranty (in the US) it does me no good.

Wow thats crazy! Sorry to hear

[Time Lord]

Originally Posted by |||||||||

I live in Germany. Unfortunately factory warranties and Free Maintenance do not apply, so while it is still under warranty (in the US) it does me no good.

Thats crazy, if you need help getting anything over there let me know.

Miss crestview much? LOL

[Rat3d ///M]

Miss crestview much? LOL

Like a hole in the head