E12 518i speedo/odo and rev counter not working!?

[Eben Bosman]

Help!
Speedo and odo and rev counter not working on 518i.
I bought the car a year ago with rev counter not working. Last month speedo and odo suddenly stopped working too. Checked fuses and took cluster out. Everything seemed OK. Everything else works. Computer guy told me circuit board must be buggered. Got another speedo cluster from the breakers, and exactly the same!? Coincidence, or is something else wrong?

 

[rodga]

I know the mileage is an issue as the plastic gears get brittle over time and break. It sure what the deal is the speedo and rev counter though.

Sent from my MI 8 using Tapatalk

 

[Peter@AEW]

Is it an e12/8 or an e12

E12 has a mechanical drive from the gearbox tail housing
E12/8 has a mechanical drive into a transponder which converts to electrical signal.
You will find it on passenger side on the crossmember and it has a serated grey plug on it.
Check that the cable is not broken by unscrewing the cable from the transponder and trying to twist it. It should not.

Computer guy is likely to be wrong given that when that car was made computers occupied a city block and had 1 megabyte of RAM.

 

[Eben Bosman]

Is it an e12/8 or an e12

E12 has a mechanical drive from the gearbox tail housing
E12/8 has a mechanical drive into a transponder which converts to electrical signal.
You will find it on passenger side on the crossmember and it has a serated grey plug on it.
Check that the cable is not broken by unscrewing the cable from the transponder and trying to twist it. It should not.

Computer guy is likely to be wrong given that when that car was made computers occupied a city block and had 1 megabyte of RAM.

E12/8.
What crossmember you talking about? Inside car or under bonnet? What about the rev counter not working?

 

[Peter@AEW]

The front cross-member in the engine bay

Could be a loose wire to the coil or a blown fuse typically the courtesy light in the cubby comes loose and it earths.
Power to the cluster is on the same circuit

 

[Eben Bosman]

Thanks Peter!
Found it, and it is broken!
Will check the rev counter connections too this weekend