DIY E39 Instrument Cluster Secret Features Unlocked!

[Tranceshark]

You want some serious stuff?
Here's a DIY for you guys out there who always knew that their ICD's could do more than just show your speed and water temperature...


I take no responsibility of whatsoever problems will occur out of you following the described procedure! Please be careful, and don't do anything you are not sure of!

Okay! Take the blue pill now and follow the white rabbit!!!

Here ya go!
Once again: Plz excuse my faulty language! (Sorry! Marc)

You can have the Instrumentclusterdisplay show all of the following things:

You didn't know that, did ya?

01: Car ID, Hardware and Software Version Number, Production Date of Car
02: Instrument Cluster Test (All Digits, LED's, Lamps and Needles)
03: The actual fuel consumption (while riding) in Litre/100km or Litre per hour
04: Average fuel consumption in Litre
05: Range
06: unused
07: The actual amount of fuel in the fuel tank (in litre)
08: (My favorite! You can see that in many of my movies!) The actual speed in Km/h
09: Battery Power in Volts
10: Language (US, Spa, Ger, Jap, GB, Fra etc)
11: change am/pm
12: Average Speed
13: ETA
14: ROM Code of your Software
15: Diagnosis Information
16: unused
17: Car specific Data
18: Alarmtype
19: Lock/Unlock (This is the important point here!)
20: Fuel Consumption Correction Factor (Don't mess with that!)
21: Reset of Boardcomputer (ATTENTION:Will clear all stored Data!(Time,Date,Radio...)

The Displays are:

1. --
2. [Cluster Test]
3. Cons: x,x (Liter/h)
4. Range-Cons: x,x (Liter/100 km)
5. Range: x (km)
6. N/A 7. TMTL: x,x (Liter)
8. V: x (kmh)
9. UB: xx,xx (V)
10. Country: 2=USA, 3=I, 4=E, 5=J, 6=F, 7=CDN, 8=AUS/GOLF, 0=D, 1=GB
11. Unit 1: B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8, B9, BA, BB, BC, BD, BE, BF, B0, B1
12. VET: xx,x (kph)
13. ETA:xx:xx
14. ROM:
15. DIAG: 01 01 000 E3
16. PORT: 01 101010000, 02 101010000, 03...etc
17. PROM: 00 12, 01 37, 02 18, 03 E6, 04 02, 05 B3, 06 FF, 07 7E
18. HORN: DTON or [DTON flashing]
19. LOCK: ON
20. KVBR: 1000
21. RESET?

Okay... That's what you can see... Now how you can get that...

I set that on Saki's 740 on the Delaware Meeting of BMWCCA and it was a blast. Most guys never saw that before, and it's really cool!

Do exactly as described, and you will have some serious phun!

1. Put your ignition to level II.

Okay. To test if you system is already set to show that stuff, just press the left button on your cluster. It will show: LOCK ON or LOCK OFF. If it's on OFF, you can right away test the stuff above. If not, you will have to Unlock. To unlock do the following:

2. Push the right button. Hold it pushed in. Don't release it! Your display will change from whatever it showed before (That should be: Check Control OK) to: Test No.1

When it says: Test No.1

3. Push the left button (short push, like a mouse click). It should show your Car ID. (last seven digits of it, 2 letters and 5 numbers). You gotta add those five numbers up (e.g. DW57384 = 5+7+3+8+4 = 27)

4. Push right button till Test No.19 shows in the Display

5. Push left button as often as the number is you got (in my example 27times). The display should show 27!

6. Push right button again

Now you can use Tests 3 through 21. If anything went wrong , no sweat , because all you will get is another LOCK ON message . I'd suggest firing up the car and going straight to TEST No.8. You will now be able to see your corrected driving speed in realtime! It's way cool and I love this feature!

Enjoy! Marc

Oh, and btw, this will work on E39's, too! (But you will have to have the big BC. Small one won't be sufficient!)

[PENER]

what do you mean by BIG BC, the one line wide BC?

[Dan]

what do you mean by BIG BC, the one line wide BC?

i think he ment the high and low OBC's.

and i read the exact writeup on a site somewhere. i'll post it when i get home.

thanks for the tip though.. it's always a good to backup known information on a board so everyone would know; not everyone are internet junkies.

[fuddyduddy121]

Is the speed display part of a test mode only, or is this something that can be displayed on a regular basis during normal operation?

[Phat Ham]

Is the speed display part of a test mode only, or is this something that can be displayed on a regular basis during normal operation?

You can leave it on during normal operation. The only one that doesn't work while your car is running is test no. 2, for obvious reasons. There are also a couple more functions such as a real time digital tach.

When I unlocked my OBC the procedure was a little different. I didn't have to go to test 19. Either way, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out. You just have to remember that the magic number is the sum of the last 5 digits of your VIN.

[dejjisch]

sounds interesting, I'll try that tomorow,

[salnj]

Just followed the instruction here to unlock the OBC on my E39. Some real cool stats.

[Az636]

Trying tomorrow! Sticky?!!

[janikphoto]

Old thread, but a new 5 series owner... So, you would need to unlock it every time you start the car, or is it unlocked for good - until you lock it again? I'm going to try this when the car gets back home tonight!

[tortoracer]

Old thread, but a new 5 series owner... So, you would need to unlock it every time you start the car, or is it unlocked for good - until you lock it again? I'm going to try this when the car gets back home tonight!

what is meant by the big bc needed?

same as above, a new 5 series owner, e39 specifically, and i want to know if i can do this.

[edwin28]

Nice write up did it today on my E39..... Got some Kool stuff on my Dash....

[jamesdc4]

Old thread, but a new 5 series owner... So, you would need to unlock it every time you start the car, or is it unlocked for good - until you lock it again? I'm going to try this when the car gets back home tonight!

It stays unlocked until power is cut.

what is meant by the big bc needed?

same as above, a new 5 series owner, e39 specifically, and i want to know if i can do this.

Poster is referring to High as opposed to Low OBC.
How can I tell if I have the High or Low OBC?
From what I understand you can do these tests on either.
How do I unlock the OBC (Low and High)?

Nice write up did it today on my E39..... Got some Kool stuff on my Dash....

The link I posted above has the correct list unless I'm mistaken.

[Guam135i]

I'll give this a shot this weekend

[pegcity]

i have a low cluster, my options are different, 7 is Digital readout of revs and speedo

[Epedersen51]

Why would my production date be later then my manufacturing date? Vin tag says 11/99 hence I have a 2000 540i M series. But test 01 says my production date says 4/03 any ideas? Engine swap?

[TerraPhantm]

Why would my production date be later then my manufacturing date? Vin tag says 11/99 hence I have a 2000 540i M series. But test 01 says my production date says 4/03 any ideas? Engine swap?

Cluster was probably replaced at some point