the factory nav screen is not high quality enough for me.

infact, i think its actually rather bad even for the nav.

The issue i have now is finding a 6.5in touchscreen that is preferably sunlight readable.... reward for whoever finds me one! :p

i would rip out my controls and move them all down, but i have a manual climate control system. meh.

-Ryan

 

By "center pod" you mean this central electronic module (an interface between the gauge set and the computers)?

I'm willing to drop the cash but don't understand the "possibility" of a bad coding - either the set of instructions coursing through the processor is correct and works, or it doesn't. If it works, it works 100% of the time UNLESS an outside factor is different. Wonder if anybody identified the differences between bad and good outcomes.

Also, let me try to distill what you said:
- you and your friend swapped center gauges, nav and speedo.
- both plugged in with no problem
- did they work? or did the steering-column gauge interaction get all unhappy and kept them from working?
- Do I have this right? the only hurdle is that you'd also have to swap the steering column set, but THOSE are coded to the VIN and are hit and miss with recoding?

I'm just trying to approach the problem in a way that all practical means will definitively lead to success or to failure with zero "potential/maybe" bits.

 

Alright... sometimes i am a bit unclear on things. maybe just the way i think.

yes, center pod i mean the one in the center of the dash. the interface between the ecu and you.

Everything, and by everything i mean the steering column gauges, nav system, brake lights, running lights and a few other auxiliary services are controlled through this stupid thing.

You would think that they would be able to just code it and have it work. None of the mini techs at the towson bmw/mini in maryland would touch it. thier view seems to be that if it did not come with the car, it will not work, and cannot be coded. I did manage to find a guy there who at least gave me a few useful nuggets of info and was willing to ask questions.

The steering gauges are not vin coded. they are dummy gauges, kinda like a dumb terminal.

The center pod is coded to vin, and is coded for the specific type of steering wheel gauge...

Ex:
Center speedo = coded for single steering tach
Nav = coded for dual speedo tach pack
chrono = coded for dual speedo chrono pack

the systems use the cars bus system, and yes... its possible to have two speedos going at once... if you remove the center pod, the steering pod will not work.

All ports are the same in the 2005 to 2006 r53 coopers. So, thier swappable, based strictly from a hardware point of view. Im pretty sure parts need to be coded for your mileage to work properly.

If your going to a Chrono, you need to have it programmed and your steering pod replaced with a dual cluster, or youll have no speedo. if you going back to the single speedo, single tach combination, youll need to replace the center pod(obviously) and the steering pod.

If you mix and match parts that are not coded correctly, youll have weird things happen. mostly like your indicators wont blink/display right(oil/batt blinks for turn). your mileage will also be wrong on center pod. pretty sure the mileage does not auto update since i tried to do a ecu rest, power off and back on etc..

Basically, you have to tell the mini dealer you understand that there is the possibility it will not work, and your willing to accept the risk. then find one who will code it.

lemme know if i can clear any more up.

-Ryan

 

That is a little more clear, Ryan - sometimes I interpret things incorrectly as well, so that was likely my bad.

So yes, I was thinking I'd get a central big speedo, and the steering column single tach, together. From what I gather now, plugging those two things in, instead of my chrono and dual gauge pod, is no issue, and having the tach pod read data from the car is no issue.

What *is* the issue, then, is the new center piece - in this case, the big speedo - will need to be coded to the car's VIN and stored computer data like the mileage and whatnot. However, finding a dealer to perform this action is tough, and there are parts of that operation that can fail (like the mileage reading). Yes?

And from what you said above, as long as I keep the speedo with a single-gauge pod, and the chrono with a dual-gauge pod, those will work together as a unit without the weird indicator wiring issues, correct?

 

yep.


the new big speedo will need to be coded to your car, and it needs to be new. they say a used one cannot be reprogrammed. since the steering gauge seems to be a dumb terminal, i don't think it matters if its used.

as in parts that can fail, i dont know what those failed parts in programming may be. maybe they could accidentally kick the programming cable out. .lol

and correct, as long as you keep the original parts together, there should be no issue.

the only issue you may have is with mileage and warranty. keep that in mind, if you have a warranty.

-Ryan

 

I think I read that someone had the big speedo coded to run a dual gauge cluster because he didn't want to have to look to the center mounted speedo to check his speed.

The key here is to find someone at a dealer (or an aftermarket shop that has access to the right tools) that will work on this for you.

And yes, the steering mounted gizmo is a bit of a dumb terminal. What's funny here is that it seems to me to make MORE engineering effort to have different codes for the two units (it has to do with what's sent over the can bus) for the various indicators. If I were the MINI engineering god I would have had a complete set of information sent to the steering wheel guage, and have the guage just use what it needed. Less revisions and combos to keep track of.

German Engineering! More complex than it needs to be (ask me how I know, my business partner is German!)

Matt

 

If you ever do a tear-down on him, I'd like to come watch. I've always been curious what makes those things tick.

 

well, if you are still curious, and want to see what just may happen, my offer still stands

-Chase

 

well im the guy who swapped out the cluster with wyefye if you want you can come over and we can demonstrate it for you guy for proof of concept we both live in MD the Baltimore area

 

I'll think about it - just got my Mini tonight (!) and am going to take any major surgery slowly...

One question for you, though, bio and wyefye - how did you get the big speedo populated with the mileage and other data (like, say, service interval)?

 

well as far as we went all of the mileage is stored in the big speedo and the chrono so ether get a nw speedo or hope you get speedo with ruffly the same mileage the service interval should be on there too but you can reset that with a scan gauge

 

Are you sure the Speedo stores the Mileage? i would double check that

 

Yeah, definitely not going to do it unless I can ensure the installed big speedo has exactly the data from my car. if that means I need a speedometer that is *new*, then let me ask: is there a source for brand new speedometers?

 

Only MINIUSA (i.e. any MINI dealer). Ask Classic MINI for a price quote. The MSRP appears to be over $700: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...92&hg=62&fg=05

 

dave you just want to meet up some time me and wyefye would be fine with showing you what we are talking about and explin more in person used electronics and i can get 20% off of the speedo from mini anyway if you want just let one of us know

 

I cant say for sure about if the big speedo stores the information, what i can say for sure if I have the nav package, with the speedo and tach on the steering wheel. I sent them out to have the LEDs changed and used my scan guage set up on RPM and Speedo modes. I had no issues, when I put the speedo and tach back, the miles that I drove were correct, the information was not stored in the speedo, i believe it was stored in the ECU.

 

We have just finished doing some extensive testing with swapping parts between a 2005 cooper s and a 2006 cooper s. Results are not promising.

Video Quality is very poor. its dark, were sorry.

Center Speedo with dual steering tach/speedo on bmw mini cooper


dual gauge cluster fitment on steering coloum


dual gauge with nav center console. bmw mini cooper


ECU Reset on dual gauge/nav combo.



This should be correct based on what the mini dealer told us. your center console is matched to your vin. so it should reset. we will test this shortly also.

-Kevin/Bioshift
-Ryan/Wyefye

 

Wow, thanks for the testing - what this tells me is definitely that installing a center speedo will screw things up if you try to leave the dual gauge pod atop the steering column. I can't tell though, if the lights would have been correct on a single tach pod, and if that center speedo with the 49k on it picked up on the odometer from the ECU or had the 49k in it - was the 62k mile car the same car and was the 62k miles correct for that car?

Also, my local dealer has agreed to look into it for me - no arm-twisting necessary, either.

 

Daveonbass,

All testing was done in 2006 cooper s with 49k. The center speedo does not pick up the new mileage reading from the ecu, on either car even after an ecu reset, or cycling the car on and off a few times. the big speedo continuously reported 49k, while the nav continued to report 62k, irrespective of whatever car they were in.

the lights are not technically "screwed up" since its displaying what it thinks should be correct. the center speedo/nav is programmed for whatever steering colum gauge is there. mini(towson) says that they cannot be reprogrammed because they are vin is burned in, which should not matter to anything but thier system.

let us know what your dealer says. towson mini is not interested in mods.

-Ryan/Wyefye
-Kevin/Bioshift

 

If anyone has any ideas on resetting the gauges, or getting them to reread some how, ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks!
-Ryan

 

So, did Daveonbass ever accomplish this mod?

 

Sadly, no - the dealer never got back to me, and it seems that wyefye and bio illustrated the exact problem perfectly.

That said, I've accepted that my current Mini just doesn't have a big speedo. My next one will though =0)

 

Well, for what it's worth, I think the chrono pack is pretty cool. But, I get what you're saying, the big speedo is kind of the trademark of the Mini...

 

I agree that the big speedo is the trademark, I have the Nav and was going to try and put the Chrono pack in, but since I had the updates done and picked up a new disk I am happy with the nav, so putting the Chrono pack in now is pretty much on hold unless I get bored.

 

So, if I wanted to replace the chrono pack directly for the nav pack, everything would work correctly except that the mileage would be wrong to the car (right to the nav pack-donor car) correct? If so, is there any way to make it right?