my odometer broke :crying:

i realized it after my trip odometer was at 208.5 for about 20 miles. of course, it took me 20 miles to figure out that i had been looking at the same number the whole time.

i went to odometergears.com and i see that there are four possibilities for what gears i may need. they suggest i look at the circuit board before ordering, but is there any way to tell which gear(s) i need without removing the cluster first? the build date on my 325is is 10/87.

thanks,
Daniel

Well, assuming your cluster is original to the car, I would think they can tell by your car's build date? If not, you can pull the cluster, disassemble it and run without out the cluster although it only takes a few minutes to plug it back in and insert the 2 mounting screws. You coulld leave the rest of the trim off until the cluster is repaired.

Be careful with the one gear on the metal shaft, you have to CAREFULLY pry that one off and you don't want to break the magnetic thing on the other side of the shaft.

alan

I went to repair my odometer 2 years ago. I was at that same site looking at gears. While there exists one gear in particular that usually breaks, you should definitely open up the entire thing and take a look at those gears. I made the mistake of opening up mine and only finding the gear with the broken tooth. I replaced that one gear and realized that ever gear in there was made out of jello. My odometer ran for 15 miles before it stopped working again, and two more gears had lost teeth. I think those gears were around $20 a pop when I was buying them, which is one of the big reasons I ended up going to ebay and buying a new cluster

So make sure it is just a single gear that has lost teeth and is melting down, otherwise you run the risk of buying a gear and still not having anything work.

~Tyler

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1989 - E30 - M20 - Manual. Approximately 270,000 miles
2000 - E46 - M52TUB28 - Manual. Approximately 110,000 miles

Quote
Earendil
I went to repair my odometer 2 years ago. I was at that same site looking at gears. While there exists one gear in particular that usually breaks, you should definitely open up the entire thing and take a look at those gears. I made the mistake of opening up mine and only finding the gear with the broken tooth. I replaced that one gear and realized that ever gear in there was made out of jello. My odometer ran for 15 miles before it stopped working again, and two more gears had lost teeth. I think those gears were around $20 a pop when I was buying them, which is one of the big reasons I ended up going to ebay and buying a new cluster

So make sure it is just a single gear that has lost teeth and is melting down, otherwise you run the risk of buying a gear and still not having anything work.

~Tyler

so i might as well replace them all, then?

from what i understood on the site, there are 4 different gear sets for different cars. maybe i read it wrong... are there just 4 gears, period?

I'm on an internet connection that is currently slower than a 56K modem, so I'm going to refrain from surfing around their website and looking around. However, yes, when I bought my single gear two years ago, I was able to do just that, buy a single gear. They may have them packaged as a set now. But it used to be they sold each gear at around $20 a pop. Perhaps they have started selling enough that they are packaging them as a set and selling them for more.

As for whether to replace all of them... I've read many stories online of people replacing just the one gear (the smallest one in there I believe). I was surprised when all of mine were on their way out. Though I'm not exactly sure what causes plstic gears to turn to brittle rubber bits either. From what I've read it had to do with the gear oil BMW used combined with 20 years of use? I remember someone else telling me that was BS though.

Just take a small screw driver and poke at the gears. If they brake with a little poke, they were on their way out anyway. If they bend, I would also guess that they are on their way out, as they are supposed to be pretty rigid and solid. Mine flexed all over the place

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1989 - E30 - M20 - Manual. Approximately 270,000 miles
2000 - E46 - M52TUB28 - Manual. Approximately 110,000 miles

yeah i just want to avoid taking out the cluster more than one time as it is 100 degrees here and the last thing i want to do is sit in my car in the sun and fiddle with stuff. maybe this is a good excuse to buy an m3 cluster...