so a few days ago i was gettin low on gas, start my car in the morning and it said i had 2/3 tank. after driving about 10 miles, gas light came on, put more gas in, gauge stayed at the 2/3 mark for 3 days. start the car today and it's in the off position, well below empty. anybody know what it takes to fix this minor issue?

5/21/2008 7:09:57 PM

wait for it.

5/21/2008 7:34:59 PM

well you have the gas part down

who has a match?

5/21/2008 7:52:06 PM

this brings me to the idea that a lot of e30 owners dont realize they are e30 owners.

5/22/2008 3:30:38 AM

they don't. they're just bmw owners.

5/22/2008 5:12:08 AM

These cars have a gas light?

5/22/2008 10:02:08 AM

i think there are some electrical grounding issues int he cluster that are common failure points for a lot of the guages.

p.s. my E30 track car for sale has all fully working guages.

5/22/2008 10:23:03 AM

^ What's the solution for that? Replace the cluster or find the faulty ground?

I ask because I have a problem with the tach and temp gauge on one of mine. Shit goes wherever it wants.

5/22/2008 10:42:07 AM

I think its a simple as taking the cluster out and just fiddling w/ some brass nuts or something. like just loosen and retighten them. not sure though, i never had to do it.

5/22/2008 10:58:20 AM

replace with autometer gauge

5/22/2008 11:03:31 AM

^^ I saw the brass nuts on the back of the gauges. I'll research it a little when I get the time.

Long story short, previous owner painted gauge surrounds a tan color to match the seats. I re-painted them gloss black which looked like crap, but everything still worked fine. Took them out a second time to paint them flat black. The paint looked great, but the temp gauge started flaking out on me. Took them out a third time to re-seat everything and now the tach is flaking out as well as the temp gauge.

[Edited on May 22, 2008 at 2:31 PM. Reason : l]

5/22/2008 2:30:46 PM

definitely seems like a wiring issue.

after the gauge was off for 3 days, i start the car last night and it goes back to that 2/3 mark, then starts bouncing around like crazy. i swear it went with the music for like 30 seconds, now it's steady at the 2/3 mark though there is no where near that much fuel in the tank. . .

5/23/2008 11:08:57 AM

bimmerforums.com
e30tech.com
r3vlimited.com

its a common problem, just search on it.

5/23/2008 11:15:51 AM

^^Vibrations of the music causing the wiring to connect when the bass hits, then finally coming loose enough to stay at 2/3 tank? Diddle with your brass nuts and see what that does.

5/23/2008 11:19:31 AM

i like fiddling with my nuts

5/23/2008 12:54:35 PM