I've been wanting an oil pressure sender and gauge since I bought the M. The S54 bearing shell failures in other cars increased my interest, particularly since the fix for the M3 included an oil pump replacement.

The problem boils down to looks. Jon Maddux looked into having a VDO Vision refaced to match our stock gauges, but North Hollywood Speedometer quoted him over $1000.

LeatherZ wound up having VDO NA put chrome-ringed bezels on a VDO Vision gauge. The chrome ring matches our stock gauges, but the VDO Vision gauges have a black face instead of gray.

So, as of yet, there's no inexpensive way to get a stock-matching oil pressure gauge or voltmeter. I'm debating tearing apart a VDO Vision gauge to see if I can get something to work with self-adhesive film intended for backlighting, but I'm also seriously considering just replacing all three center console gauges. I want a voltmeter anyway, I might as well replace the stock oil temperature gauge too.

I'd like gray faces, and black would be my last choice. I'd like backlighting, but I can probably live with side-lighting. I want chrome bezels.

I'm looking at 6 different sets of gauges:

• VDO Cockpit White
• VDO Contour
• VDO Vision
• ISSPRO EVM (Enhanced Visibility Marine)
• ISSPRO EVA (Enhanced Visibility Automotive)
• Classic Instruments Silver Series

I'm considering changing the whole color scheme for the lighting in my car. While the orange isn't bad, and in general the instrumentation in the M looks nice, I'd like to see something different just to know my options on overall color scheme. To do this, I'd need to replace or cover three 194-type bulbs in the instrument cluster, three 194-type bulbs in the gauges, the bulb covers in the A/C and recirculate buttons, bulb(s) behind the HVAC controls, bulbs in the heat seater switches, the bulb in the DSC button, and the bulbs on the window controls. Am I missing any?

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Stock Gauges

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ISSPRO EVM

The ISSPRO EVM are backlit. I suspect I'm not going to be thrilled with the look in my car. The font isn't like anything else in the car, the markings are blue, and the needle is blue. On the other hand, blue is a significant color in the BMW roundel, and two shades of blue are in the M logo.

Reviews seem to indicate these have the best backlighting on the market right now (December, 2003). They also have 270 degree sweep on oil pressure and oil temperature. The voltmeter is a 90 degree sweep.

If I go with these gauges, I'd want:

• R6720 electrical oil pressure gauge, 0-80PSI, 270 degree sweep
• R6759 electrical oil temperature gauge, 100-280F, 270 degree sweep
• R6760 voltmeter

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ISSPRO EVA

The ISSPRO EVA are backlit just like the EVM gauges. They're machanically the same as the EVM, but have a black bezel, black face, white lettering and white needle.

ISSPRO sent me three fold-on chrome bezels (for free!) to place over the stock bezels on the EVA.

If I go with these gauges, I'd want:

• R6720 electrical oil pressure gauge, 0-80PSI, 270 degree sweep
• R6759 electrical oil temperature gauge, 100-280F, 270 degree sweep
• R6760 voltmeter

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VDO Cockpit White

The VDO Cockpit White do not have chrome bezels, but Jon Maddux said he can get them with chrome bezels (but it'll cost more than the VDO Visions). With chrome bezels, these are likely the best match to the instrument cluster in terms of needles and font. I also like these for their minimalist, race-oriented look. Easy to read, no-nonsense gauges. They have traditional side-lighting.

If I go with these gauges, I'd want:

• 350 240 electrical oil pressure gauge, 0-80PSI, 90 degree sweep
• 310 242 300F oil temperature gauge
• 332 241 voltmeter

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VDO Contour

The VDO Contour have chrome bezels and domed glass. The font and markings will be a poor match to the instrument cluster. I'm mostly interested in the domed glass. Is it possible that LeatherZ could have it used on any of the same-sized VDO gauges?

If I go with these gauges, I'd want:

• 350 720 electrical oil pressure gauge, 80 PSI, 90 degree sweep
• 310 722 300F oil temperature gauge
• 332 720 voltmeter

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Classic Instruments Silver Series

The Classic Instruments Silver Series look to have a face color that would work well in matching the stock gauge face color, and would work well in my black/gray interior. From pictures, I'm not thrilled with the look or the needles, but on their web site it looks like I can choose the needles, as well as bezel and glass. They also appear to not have the ranges I want for oil pressure (I want 80PSI max, they have 100psi max) and oil temperature (they have a 160-280F gauge).

I've also been in contact with Classic Instruements about custom gauges. They do a lot of custom work, and they hand-assemble all of their gauges. Hence there is no setup fee, only a one-time customization fee of $400. I can send them the artwork (Adobe Illustrator file), and they'll also color-match to the stock gauges. I'd like the silver circle and red ring removed from the Silver Series, the function to be in white type instead of black, and the ///M logo on the gauge.

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Ports

The oil temperature sender port is M12 x 1.5. The unused port on the oil filter housing is also M12 x 1.5. Randy sent me a picture:

The VDO pressure sender that Randy has is M10 x 1.0.

To get to the unused port on the filter housing, I need an extension hose; the sender itself is too big to fit. I need to remove the air intake clamps, which are one-time-use (I need to order some).

The Classic Instruments gauges are American range: 240-33. Senders for this range are typically not metric, so I'll probably need an adapter on the extension hose if I use these gauges.

I believe the ISSPRO senders are 1/8" NPT? ISSPRO makes an M12x1.5 to 1/8" NPT adapter (P/N R7962), but it's brass; need to be careful to not break it. I don't think this is what I need anyway... I need an angle adapter on the oil filter housing. Randy says the VDO angle adapter mounts M12 (with a Banjo bolt) and has an M10 tapped port for the remote hose. I can get a steel M10x1.0 male to 1/8" NPT female adapter from McMaster-Carr (P/N 4936K153).

Randy has offered to make an angle adapter that's M12 to NPT. I might take him up on the offer if I go with American-range gauges.

For oil temperature, I'm not sure what I can do yet for senders that aren't VDO range. The ISSPRO and Classic Instruments senders are all NPT. Here I suspect I'm stuck with a part like R7962 from ISSPRO, and hope I don't twist it off installing it or find that it puts the temperature sender in a bad position (out of the oil flow).

The stock oil and outside temperature sensors are routed through the controller (A3984 in the ETM) behind the glove box. In the ETM, the oil pressure switch is B6231, and the M version is shown in 7100.0-45-1 (the Z3 version is in 7100.0-41-1). The oil temperature sensor is B6238 and shown in 7100.0-41-1. The thermal oil level switch is B6254, which has a hot-in-run-and-start lead on pin 1, a run to DME connector X60003 pin 39 (gray/brown wire), and a ground on pin 3. It is pictured in 7100.0-48-3 in the ETM. This is for future reference when I install the Turner oil temperature sensor flange.

Note the ETK only shows 'TEMPERATURE SENSOR OIL/WATER' and shows it inserted in the water 'RETURN PIPE'. It's part number 13.62.1.433.076. Look here for the page from the ETK.

Randy, ever the gracious individual, sent me yet another good picture: the senders.

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Log

• January 1, 2004
  
  • I ordered three voltmeters from egauges.com, to check out the look of a few gauges. I ordered a VDO Cockpit White, a VDO Contour and an ISSPRO EVM. The intent here is to decide which gauge's look I like most. In the case of the ISSPRO, I also want to check fitment since they're 2" instead of 2+1/16".

• January 7, 2004
  
  • The voltmeters shipped from egauges.com. UPS tracking #1ZE3F5490240307476. They may arrive by Friday January 9th, but I suspect I won't see them until after January 16th, since I'm out of town next week.

• January 8, 2004
  
  • The ISSPRO EVM, VDO Cockpit White and VDO Contour voltmeters arrived from egauges.com.

• January 17, 2004
  
  • I now have the ISSPRO EVA oil pressure gauge, chrome fold-on bezels for the ISSPRO EVA gauges, and the Classic Instruments Silver Series voltmeter.

    I ordered orange bulb covers for T-10 and T-5 bulbs. This is mainly to play with the ISSPRO EVA gauges to see what it looks like.

• January 20, 2004
  
  • The orange bulb covers arrived from egauges.com.

• January 25, 2004
  
  • I ordered a variety of 194-type LED bulbs from autolumination.com, all wide-angle: blue, super white, red, red/blue and amber (yellow). I also ordered super blue and super orange 194-type LED bulbs from LEDTRONICS.

• January 28, 2004
  
  • The 194-type LED bulbs arrived from autolumination.com. I haven't played with them yet, other than to try a blue one in the ISSPRO EVM gague, which looks very nice.

• March 28, 2004
  
  • While working on my alarm installation, I removed the outside temperature gauge and dropped in the ISSPRO EVM voltmeter to see what it looks like.

    

    I've decided I like the ISSPRO EVM gauges, and I'll be using them. They should go well with an alcantara shift boot and handbrake boot with blue stitching from LeatherZ. I ordered the 100-280F electrical oil temperature gauge and the 0-80 PSI electrical oil pressure gauge from egauges.com. I also ordered an alcantara shift boot and handbrake boot from LeatherZ.

    In order to take comparison pictures of the gauges with illumination, I should start working on making my new Sport mode harness, which will free up the illumination leads from the DSC button.

    I have the whole center console out now, so I can clean up some wiring and run the wires for the motion sensor. I took some pictures of different gauges next to the stock gauges, and added them to the existing pages of gauge pictures.

    For those who like pictures of a big mess revealed by removing trim, see this picture. It shows my center console just removed (glove box is still out and alarm dangling down for my simultaneous work on the alarm).

• March 29, 2004
  
  • The ISSPRO EVM oil pressure and oil temperature gauges (with senders) shipped from egauges.com.

• March 30, 2004
  
  • I made the illumination wiring pieces for the new gauges, to run them all in parallel. They're all 18 gauge wire, one side is white (positive) and the other is black (ground). Each lamp connection is terminated with an insulated .25" female tab disconnect, which fit right on the tabs on the ISSPRO gauges for illumination. At the end of each parallel wire is a male disconnect, so I can plug the whole thing in to femal disconnects connected to illumination and ground. I will likely tap the cigar lighter lamp wire for illumination, and the cigar lighter ground wire for ground. Here I'll fork form the harness wires with a female disconnect. This way I can add things to illumination and ground later on by just inserting a Y-cable with disconnects.

    The EVM oil pressure and oil temperature gauges (with senders) arrived today from egauges.com, I took a picture of them just sitting in the center console (not fastened):

    

    If I can get the gauge amplifiers installed on top of the SRS module, I'll probably tap pin 5 (violet/blue) of connector X74 for hot in accessory, run and start. This will power the gauge amplifiers, and will also be used for the voltmeter.

    I suspect I'm going to mount the amplifiers on the HVAC box behind the center console. I can use velcro or foam tape, it doesn't really matter since I don't expect them to be removed once installed. Here's a picture of the box I'm taking about. the face of it (where the labes are located) has more than enough room to hold both amplifiers.

    It's worth noting that the harness for the head unit goes under the carpet over the tunnel on the driver's side. So it's just as easy to tap power from there as the SRS box. So I'd prefer to do that, since I consider my airbags a critical element. :-) The wire of interest in the head unit harness is pin 5 on the X18126 connector, which is violet/white. This wire runs to a 15A fuse (#44), with a bunch of other things (telephone connector, wiper/washer stuff and clutch switch). It is hot in accessory, run and start. Q: do I have any violet 18 gauge hook-up wire left? I just checked, looks like I have one unopened 100-ft. spool. Pin 15 on the head unit harness (brown wire) could be tapped for ground.

    Here's a picture of the gauges installed, from behind. The illumination wiring is connected.

    

    I mounted the signal amplifiers, and cut the wires from the signal amplifiers to the gauges to length. I tinned the end of these wires where they go into the amplifiers, since it uses terminal blocks. The signal amplifiers are mounted on the HVAC box with velcro. The hook side is on the amplifiers, in case I want to move them to the carpet.

    I added wires with disconnects to the voltmeter for the voltage reading. These can go to the head unit taps too. I wrapped them a bit with friction tape, and also wrapped a bit of friction tape on the illumination wire tail.

    I received the oil distribution block from Randy. Here's a picture of it with the ISSPRO EVM oil pressure sender and temperature sender. Note I won't be mounting my pressure sender like this, it'll be on a remote hose. This is just for illustrative purposes.

    

• March 31, 2004
  
  • 8 rolls of 22 AWG hook-up wire (each a different color) should arrive from Mouser Electronics. I need this to extend the wiring for the power ragtop buttons before I put my center console back in.

    The intake clamps are not in yet, but hopefully will be in by Friday. I picked up oil and an oil filter change kit.

    I ordered a 24" teflon hose with -4AN ends and 1/8 NPT fittings from Stack Car Products.

• April 1, 2004
  
  • I ordered Oetiker clamp pliers from the local NAPA store. They're NAPA part number 3374. I need these to remove and install the Oetiker clamps on the air intake. $25 or so for the pliers.

    Just to have a backup for the Oetiker clamp pliers, I also ordered CV boot pliers from ZDMAK, which will probably work on the intake clamps. Those were $16.99 plus shipping. Unrelated, I also ordered the subframe bushing tool kit from ZDMAK. Expensive ($361), but it should pay for itself in one or two uses.

    I cut the wires for the power ragtop button and soldered extensions on one end, so I can move the power ragtop button to the front of the console. I used my nylon fish tape to feed them under the carpet in the tunnel. I then cut the extensions to length (about 12 inches) and soldered them to the harness.

    I tapped the cigar lighter illumination for gauge illumination. I put female disconnects on the end of the tap wires, so I can always fork for other things in the future w/o soldering or tapping again.

    I made tap wires for voltmeter and amplifiers. Hot is violet with male ends, and I tapped the violet/white wire of the head unit harness. Ground is black, and I tapped the brown wire of the head unit harness.

    I ran wires through the firewall to get from the senders to the amplifiers. I did this by opening up the fusebox and pushing my nylon fish tape through the hole for the large bundle into the cabin. Right now I've only got two colors, red and blue for each sender. That was probably a bad idea. Not a problem under the hood, but it could be a problem under the center console if I ever want to disconnect and reconnect the amplifiers (I might forget which is which).

• April 2, 2004
  
  • I went to the NAPA store today, but unfortunately they didn't have my Oetiker clamp pliers yet. The warehouse still shows that they have a set, it just didn't get sent out. The woman at the counter (who is the same person that took my order over the phone) tried calling the warehouse but got no answer. She apologized profusely. I'll call them tomorrow before driving over there again. While I was there, I picked up a new set of Mechanix original gloves since they were on sale and I mangled one of my old ones last fall with a Dremel boo-boo.

    I took a quick picture of the gauges illuminated. These are with the blue bulb covers removed, to neutralize the blue color a little bit. It's worth noting that the lighting is different between the 270-degree gauges (oil temp and pressure) and the 90-degree gauges (voltmeter). The 270-degree gauges use a pair of T5 bulbs mounted diagonally (at 10:30 and 4:30), while the 90-degree gauges use a single T10 bulb mounted at 12:00. The voltmeter winds up appearing brighter.

    It's also worth noting that my power supply here was just under 12V, so the gauges will be brighter when the car is running and the dimmer is all the way up.

    

    Finally, it's worth noting that a blue LED bulb in the voltmeter makes it easier to read, but very blue in color. I'll take some pictures with different colored bulbs in the voltmeter.

    I soldered the oil pressure sender harness wires (in the engine compartment) to the wires I ran through the firewall. I did the same for the oil temperature sender harness. Each joint got 2 layers of heatshrink tubing, but I have not wrapped things up yet. I have HALAR braided sleeve and clear 3:1 dual-wall heatshrink tubing coming from cableorganizer.com.

    I pulled the leads in the engine compartment to what I think is roughly the correct length, and put my relay/fuse box back together. I used my fish tape again to route the wires in the cabin under the carpet that covers the transmission tunnel. I'm almost ready to put the center console back in place.

• April 3, 2004
  
  • I picked up my Oetiker clamp pliers at the NAPA store. I think they'll work fine on the air intake clamps.

    I routed the sender wires in the cabin and put fire-retardant braided sleeve around them.

    I made a new harness for my SportMode/DSC module, incorporating the second Apem IP for DSC and using its LED for alarm status.

• April 5, 2004
  
  • The HALAR braided sleeve shipped from cableorganizer.com.

    I ordered a silicone-cushioned stainless steel strap from McMaster-Carr, to mount the oil pressure sender.

• April 7, 2004
  
  • The oil pressure sender mounting strap arrived from McMaster-Carr. I picked up the 13 air intake Oetiker clamps from the BMW dealer. I also received the 24" hose for the oil pressure sender, but it didn't come with 1/8 NPT to -4AN adapters. I ordered those from Pegasus today and requested overnight shipping. That's one 1/8 NPT male to -4AN male fitting (for the dist. block end of the hose) and one 1/8 NPT female to -4AN male fitting (for the sender end of the hose). It looks like they'll be here tomorrow.

• April 8, 2004
  
  • The 1/8 NPT to -4AN adapters arrived from Pegasus. The HALAR braided sleeve arrived from cableorganizer.com.

• April 9, 2004
  
  • I drained my oil, removed my air intake, and started looking at how best to locate the senders. The ISSPRO temperature sender is really long; I don't think it's going to work when placed in the distribution block port that faces the back of the car. It conflicts with the hose and the air intake. I thought of rotating the distribution block down some to put the pressure sender hose in that port and run the hose under the airbox hose, but it really doesn't work. So I am trying it with the pressure hose running over the airbox hose. From a test fitment of the airbox, it looks OK, and I can mount the pressure sender in a decent location. Now I just need to figure out how long I really want my hose to be, and order a Kevlar one from egauges.com.

    Ultimately I'll want a slightly longer distribution block, because the temperature sender bottoms out in either port of the distribution block. Randy offered to make another one, I'll take some measurements and pictures for him. I'll owe him for this, I think he could probably use another one of the lights that Andy sent out this week, and I'll have two to give away. I'll also give him 50' of the HALAR braided sleeve he wanted, at no cost.

• April 10, 2004
  
  • I put things back together temporarily. I have not yet put the clamps back on the air intake, because I may need to take the intake off one more time. I'll also probably need to pull it when Randy puts the nutsert in, and I'll definitely need to pull it to install the Kevlar oil pressure hose.

    I put new oil and filter in, but only put 5.24 liters of oil in. I will check and top off when I'm done.

    Testing the gauges, I thought the pressure gauge was reading high. It was reading about 32 PSI at cold idle, and would go over 60 PSI when revving to 4500 rpm. After the oil warmed up to 160F, things looked normal; 20 PSI at idle, and 60 PSI at 4500 rpm and above.

    Idling in the garage, the temperature gauge levelled off at 185F. This is roughly what the VDO said in these ambient temperatures, so I think I'm good to go. With the oil at this temperature, the pressure gauge read about 12 PSI at idle.

    No leaks found. I started putting the center console back. I put the Sport/DSC module and gauge signal amplifiers in place. I reinstalled the hazard button and reconnected the window buttons. I put the gauges in the console and connected them, but have not yet fastened them. I connected the seat heater buttons, and the cigar lighter and its illumination. I pulled my new DSC and Sport button setup through its hole in the center console.

• April 13, 2004
  
  • It looks like my alcantara boots are on the way from JonM at LeatherZ. They should be here before the weekend.

• April 15, 2004
  
  • My alcantara boots arrived from JonM at LeatherZ. They're nice, I can't wait to install them.

    I plugged everything back in for the center console except my head unit, just to make sure it's all still working. Looks good. I temporarily fastened the gauges, and test fit the console with everything in place. I'm set to put the center console back together. I installed the alcantara handbrake boot, it looks very nice. I have not yet installed the shift boot.

• April 16, 2004
  
  • Since I was still working on my center console, I shortened the knob of a dark gray anodized Ichibahn lighter and installed it in place of the plug in my center console. I don't really like the look of it, but it's better than chrome and better than just having a plug.

• April 17, 2004
  
  • After reinstalling my head unit, something got shorted. The fuse for the radio is popping. I checked the voltmeter connections, they look fine. I need to check the leads for the gauge sender signal amplifiers, they're the only other additional thing powered from the violet/white wire in that harness. That means the center console has to come back out.

    I installed the ETK and TIS on the newly-loaded Windows XP box in the basement (old PIII dual-CPU rackmount). I once again have access via RDP so I can use the ETK and TIS from anywhere.

• April 18, 2004
  
  • I checked the wiring for the gauge signal amplifiers, and it looked fine. I suspected the UGDO wiring, since it was the most hokey of the wiring. Sure enough, that was the cause of fuse popping. Since I'll never put factory cell phone crap in this car (esp. since the factory head unit is gone), I cut off the cell phone connector and installed female disconnects on the power and ground used for the UGDO. I taped up the other cell phone connector wires individually, then taped them together and labelled the harness.

    The center console is back in but for the screws in the back. I unscrewed one of the flanged plastic nuts holding the rubber to the firewall, so I could tuck my gauge and footwell lighting wires between the rubber and the firewall around the gas pedal. That's nice and tidy now. I also zip-tied the slack for the wire going to my in-dash jack for the V1 remote display. I then replaced the driver's side knee bolster, and am now working on getting the trim panel that covers it back into place (pain in the rear). I also reconnected the brake signal to my alarm so I can have autolocking (which needs to be programmed into the alarm).

    I finally realized that with the design of the HVAC duct in the trim panel in the driver's footwell, the knee bolster makes any work involving removal of that panel too difficult. For now I'm going to leave the knee bolster out. I will look into redoing the way the HVAC duct connects. I have to buy the whole panel to play with, P/N 51.45.8.399.807.

    I fastened the Oetiker clamps on the throttle bodies. This was a piece of cake using the CV boot pliers from ZDMAK. I reconnected the condensation return line, connected the other hoses, and fastened the lower mount points of the airbox. I then zip-tied the oil pressure sender to a hose using the silicone-cushioned strap. This is temporary until Randy installs a nutsert, but is in the desired location. I fastened the heat shield and the dipstick guide.

    I secured the oil temperature and pressure sender wiring under the hood. I used teflon tape with silicone adhesive to seal up the connector a bit on the oil temperature harness, just so it's not inundated with water. I'll probably wrap it more thoroughly after nutserting the oil pressure sender in place.

    I coated the fastened contacts on the oil pressure sender with liquid electrical tape, just to help prevent corrosion.

    I wiped up dust from under the air filter box and then reinstalled the air filter box and duct. I think reinstalled my Strong-Strut and the cross-compartment wiring cover. I'm now in a drivable state under the hood.

    I fastened the forward trim panel under the dash on the driver's side. The driver's side is now ready.

• March 24, 2004
  
  • I drove to Randy's place, and he nutserted my oil pressure in place for me. This project is done. Some more pictures of the final results:
    

• January 3, 2005
  
  • I ordered an oil temperature sensor flange from Turner. This will let me get my oil temperature from the sump. I need to figure out what to do about the stock thermal oil level circuit to the DME. My order number was 12222.
    It's worth noting that Classic Instruments is now making polished radial stainless bezels for their gauges, available with domed glass. They cost more ($50 each), but I'd bet they're pretty nice looking.

• January 4, 2005
  
  • UPS tracking number for the Turner oil temperature sensor flange is 1Z15708W0370074845.

• June 11, 2005
  
  • It's been a long time since I've made an update here... now I have a reason.

    This week my oil temperature gauge has been reading differently. On Wednesday, it was fluctuating wildly on the highway, 10 minutes into my drive. 10 minutes later, it was pegged at 280F. I suspect a short near the sensor, which means my intake needs to come off to check things out. Last night on the drive to Randy and Sue's, it was read a steady 220F. This is well above my normal highway reading (200F or less). On the return trip, it read the usual 190F. I don't know whether to think I've got impending kaboom, or to just chalk all of this up to a wiring insulation issue. Oil pressure has been normal and stable. Oil and coolant levels are normal. The water temperature gauge was centered when I had the 280F reading. Not that I trust that thing, it's almost useless. When I stopped after the trip to Toledo last night, my aux fan was not on. So I think I've just got a sender or sender wiring issue.

    Coincidentally, I had ordered new gauges this week, the ISSPRO EVA gauges which they now offer with red needles. Unfortunately the voltmeter has multi-color graphics that I don't like, egauges.com sent me a 'trans oil temp' gauge instead of 'oil temp', and the oil pressurge gauge is being shipped directly from ISSPRO (it's not here yet). I think I'm going to keep the 'trans oil temp' gauge and use it for my transmission and differential. I've got a sender for the differential now, I just need to pull my diff cover and drill/tap a larger sender hole (1/4 NPT). I wish I had thought about this before I changed my transmission fluid last week. :-( In any event, I'll order a transmission drain plug this week so I can drill and tap it for a sender. I suspect I'll delete the voltmeter in the console for now, and have oil pressure, oil temperature and transmission/differential fluid temperature. I may later put an EGT and water temperature gauge on my A-pillar.

    Today I enlarged the hole in the Turner oil temperature flange (using a 10.8mm drill bit), and tapped it 1/4 NPT. This lets me use my ISSPRO 1/8 NPT sender with a sleeve adapter bushing. Fitment looks good. Now I just need to figure out what my DME is going to say with the stock sensor removed.

    I also received a 24" kevlar hose to replace the stainless braided one on my oil pressure sensor.
• June 12, 2005
  
  • I adhered a chrome bezel to the ISSPRO transmission oil temperature gauge. I just used clear silicone, and I'm not sure it'll hold. If not, I'll hot glue it.

    I looked at the signal from the stock thermal oil level sensor. It's PWM, with a frequency of 2.5Hz. I also found some information on how it works. Unfortunately it's used as input to VANOS, so I'm reluctant to replace it with the Turner piece and my ISSPRO sender. The same source inf information says that the coolant temperature is used as a backup, but I'm even more leery of disconnecting the thermal oil level sensor now.

    I asked Randy if he had some pictures of the inside of the oil pan and the sump cover. Sure enough, he did. The sump cover has a conical screen for one of the inlets of the oil pump. I'll order one, along with a gasket. Then we can look at putting a bung in it for my sender.

• June 13, 2005
  
  • I took some more measurements of the signal from the thermal oil level sensor. It looks like it's using PWM (pulse width modulation). Before I started the engine, the width of the positive part of the pluse was 15ms. When my gauge read 130F, it was 31ms.

• June 18, 2005
  
  • The ISSPRO EVA oil pressure gauge with red needle arrived this week. Sort of a bummer that it's 0-100 PSI instead of 0-80 PSI, but it'll do. I adhered the chrome bezel to it today.

    egauges.com shows this gauge as 24V. Hmm, I hope they're wrong. I do have more chrome bezels on order from ISSPRO, so worst-case, I wind up with a white-needled EVA gauge for oil pressure (I already have one in my box of gauges).

• June 24, 2005
  
  • The ISSPRO oil temperature gauge arrived. I adhered a chrome bezel to it. Sadly, the bezel I used here has a slight kink in it. Fortunately I have 5 more of the chrome bezels on the way.

    The new sump cover and other parts arrived from Jay Lilley. I'm not sure this is going to work out for a sender, but we'll see. I won't know until I pull the existing sump cover off and get a look at the draw tube for the oil pump. If I can stay out if its way, this should work fine. There is no orientation to the sump cover, so I will be able to spin it around after Randy welds the bung in place.

    A funny thing about the screen attached to the sump cover; if anything big enough to be screened made it into my oil pan, I think it'd mean my motor was toast. :-)

• June 25, 2005
  
  • I drove the car to Southfield to visit my grandmother in the hospital. I still get erratic oil temperature behavior when the oil thermostat opens. I haven't seen this happen when warming it up in the garage, but I might just be missing it. It settled at 190F and creeped up to 195F on the highway. Considering that the radio said it felt like 97F outside, this is not bad. I wasn't pussyfooting, there were plenty of downshifts to 4th and third for passing. So maybe I don't have a wiring problem snd I'm just seeing erratic readings when the oil thermostat opens. This makes some sense, since my sender isn't in the direct flow of oil, it's in the adapter block that Randy made for me.

    No matter anyway, since I'll be replacing the gauge and sender soon, and hopefully the sump cover trick will work. This will let me trust the sender reading a little more, and I suspect it'll be much less erratic when the oil cooler thermostat opens since it'll be in the oil flow.

• July 1, 2005
  
  • I picked up my modified sump cover from Randy. Have I mentioned how much I love him for doing things like this for me? He did a beautiful job, like he does on everything he does for me. Having friends like Randy is a true blessing. Not only do I learn a lot from him, but he turns out parts for my crazy ideas w/o batting an eye!

• July 2, 2005
  
  • Driving to my grandmother's today, my oil temperature gauge was erratic again. I haven't narrowed down the problem yet, but I suspect an electrical issue under the center console. At times it read 250F, but would then quickly go back down to 200F. Since we know temperature can't go all over the place quickly, it's got to be an electrical issue of some kind. If it's not wiring, there may be a problem with the gauge amplifier. Since all of this is goint to get redone with the sump cover trick (assuming it works), I'm not too concerned about it at the moment. I won't be using the existing setup for long...

    I drove the car to warm it up, then took a sample for analysis with the topsider. I then drained most of the rest of the oil with the topsider. I didn't wait at all for the oil to run into the pan, since I knew I'd be pulling the sump cover.

    I removed the x-brace and the sump cover. I got maybe 100 ml to 150 ml more oil out. No measurement since I just had a pan under the car. It looks like a lot of this oil is due to sump cover removal letting the pump inlet completely empty out. The sump cover holds a bit of oil too (much to my chagrin because I didn't think about it before I tipped it and covered my forearm with dirty motor oil).

• July 3, 2005
  
  • I did the work I needed to do to get the sender in deep enough to avoid putting it at risk of being snagged in an accident. The lowest part of the brass is now just above the bottom of the x-brace. To do this I had to run the 1/8 NPT die further up the sender body, and the 1/8 NPT tap deeper into the bung. All is well now, time to button up and start looking at wiring.

    Note that the distance from the bottom of the x-brace to the bottom of the sump cover is about 1.17". So that's about how much room there is to work with without having the sender sticking out further than the x-brace.

    I removed the air intake, in preparation for tomorrow's work. I also think I found the cause of my sometimes erratic oil temperature reading that cropped up a couple of weeks ago. The water pump/valve on the shock tower had come out of its mount and was stressing my sender wires.

• July 4, 2005
  
  • I removed my old oil pressure sender and installed the new one. I'm re-using the old wiring here, the harnesses are the same. I loosely routed the harness for the new oil temperature sender, I was able to re-use the existing harness there too. All good news.

    I replaced my braided stainless steel oil pressure hose with a Kevlar hose. There wasn't any trouble with the old hose, but the Kevlar one is more flexible and won't abrade anything. It's also lighter. :-)

    I put everything back together and started the car. The new oil temperature sender works well. I still have the interior work to do (replacing the gauges).

• July 5, 2005
  
  • I need P/N 51.16.7.890.015. It's the frame for the hazard warning switch. It cracked while removing the hazard switch. I think this the 6th or 7th time I've removed my center console, so I guess I should expect some pieces like this to give way. I can't believe BMW wants $9.94 list price for this piece. What a scam. I place an order for two of them, along with more trim screw caps and a pair of differential cover gaskets.

    I also ordered a case of Redline 80w140 for the differential work.

    Center console is out.

• July 6, 2005
  
  • Felt like mud today, but at the end of the day I managed to mount the new gauge amplifiers for oil pressure and oil temperature. This time I used VHB tape instead of velcro. There's no need to make these things easily removable. I've no room under the center console up front for the differential/transmission gauge amplifier, but that's OK; I'll probably put that one behind the carpet in the trunk.

    I tested the new oil temperature sender. Idling in the garage, it peaks around 190F. It gets there faster than the old sender did. All good news.

• July 8, 2005
  
  • The replacement hazard warning switch frame arrived, along with differential cover gaskets and trim screw caps.

    I replaced the oil pressure sender that I broke, with a new one that arrived from ISSPRO today. Works fine, underhood work is done.

• July 9, 2005
  
  • I added a 4-pole disconnect to my hazard switch so I won't have to take it out the next time I need to remove the center console. I used the usual BMW parts here: shells 61.13.8.380.696 and 61.13.6.925.611, pins/receptacles 61.13.0.005.197 and 61.13.0.005.198.

    I'm running the wiring for the differential and transmission temperature senders. Up through the grommet in the trunk, etc. I'll probably mount the gauge amplifier in the trunk too, on or by my driver's side crossover. I'll probably put the switch or button to toggle between the two senders in the rear of my center console.

    I removed the differential cover, drilled and tapped the sender hole to 1/4 NPT (was originally M10x1), and installed the sender.

• July 10, 2005
  
  • I reinstalled the differential cover, using a thin film of silicone on each side of the new gasket. Bolts on the differential cover get 45 Nm of torque.

    I'm in the process of running the differential temperature sender wiring. The usual pain in the butt of coming in through the trunk. I'm through the trunk, under the ragtop liner, under the rear console and into the cabin now. I used PET braided sleeve around the wires. I'm essentially out of room for wiring in the driver's side grommet at this point. If I add any more wiring through there, I'll likely remove the grommet and install some edge trim on the sheet metal.

    While I was under the ragtop liner, I tried a little trick with the nylon bearing I'm using the protect my ragtop from the shock adjustment tab: I filled bottom half of the bearing with RTV silicone. I wrapped splicing tape around it first, so silicone wouldn't spill out. I'll be keeping an eye on this trick, since I know the top of the shock moves up and down and side-to-side. This is temporary, I still intend to use a better solution coming off of the reinforcement plates at some point in the future. In fact I have more Rogue reinforcement plates on the way for my intended sulution.

    Since I'm now officially out of flame-retardant PET braided sleeve, I ordered some more from cableorganizer.com. This time I ordered normal gray PET, black/red spider flame-retardant, and some more Halar (white with black tracer). I still have some black with white tracer Halar.

    I torqued the front bolts of the x-brace to 22 Nm using the new small Snap-On Techwrench. I torqued the rear bolts of the x-brace to 45 Nm using my larger Techwrecnh.

• July 11, 2005
  
  • I filled the differential with Redline 80w140 gear oil. I'll let it sit a day and then check for leaks by the sender. I didn't use any thread tape or sealant, since brass and aluminum are both soft and ths fluid isn't under pressure. It's not leaking now, and I don't expect it to leak. It's amazing how much fluid the differential holds with the Rogue cover; it's over 3 quarts, almost 3.5 quarts.

• July 13, 2005
  
  • There was a tiny leak between the sender adapter bushing and the differential cover. One drop. I emptied the differential, and removed the sender with the adapter bushing. They came out together, which indicated to me that I hadn't tightened them enough. I put Teflon tape on the outside of the adpater bushing and screwed it back in the differential cover, snugly. I was then able to get the sender to screw out of the adapter bushing. I put Teflon tape on the sender threads and screwed it back in snugly.

    I put the trunk back together.

• July 14, 2005
  
  • I checked the differential, no leaks. Time to start putting the cabin back together.

    I ran the harness for the transmission temperature sender. It comes into the cabin via a small hole in my shifter boot. It was either that or a new hole in the firewall; I'm out of space for more wiring via the hole in the firewall for the fusebox. Under the car, the harness is between the tunnel sheet metal and the tunnel insulation, so it can't ever touch the driveshaft or conflict with the selector rod. The braided sleeve is just flame-retardant PET, I don't think I need Halar here.

    I made a new harness for the connection from the new amplifier to the transmission oil temperature gauge. I used gray PET braided sleeve here.

    I double-checked the positioning of the harnesses behind the console, as well as my old labels on each connector to make my life easier putting the console back in. I'm ready to put the center console back.

• July 15, 2005
  
  • I loosely positioned the center console, then pulled each connector through its corresponding hole. Order is somewhat important here; I like to connect the AC/recirc button first, because it's the biggest cable with the least slack. I then connect the remaining buttons, but don't insert them in the console. I then connect the cigar lighter wires and insert the bulb for the cigar lighter. Finally, I reinstall the chime and run the OBD-II connector through the hole in the side of the console.

• July 16, 2005
  
  • I drove the car to Toledo to have dinner with Randy and Sue. We had a nice dinner, and it was nice to drive the car! Oil temperature setup is working fine, though I need to cut and replace some of the undercover to make more room for the sender wires. Dan will help me, we'll probably just use Kevlar. It doesn't need to be any deeper than the bulges that are already in the undercover for the x-brace. I'll lose the oil change door, but I never use that door anyway. It's easy to take the cover off completely with the air ratchet, and I always use the topsider for oil changes anyway.

    I wasn't getting a reading from the differential temperature sender, but it was just an issue with the plug near the sender.

• July 17, 2005
  
  • The differential temperature sender is now working. With an ambient temperature in the mid-80's, the maximum differential fluid temperature seems to be 190F to 192F. That's on the highway. It takes a long time to get to that temperature; _much_ longer than it takes the engine oil to come up to temperature.

    I corrected my head unit issue. It wasn't seated in the alarm post receiver. Worth noting for future head unit removal/installation... with all the wiring back there for my head unit, not to mention the DC-DC converter, it's easier to installthe head unit and sleeve at the same time, angling it down below the alarm post receiver until the sleeve is in to the point where about half of the retaining fingers are past the front edge of the console. Then pull the head unit out of the sleeve a bit and angle the back of thehead unit and sleeve upward and push the sleeve in the rest of the way, then puth the head unit in. This keeps the wiring out of the way of the alarm post receiver.

• May 31, 2008
  
  • I keep having problems with flakey connectivity at the connectors for the differential temperature sensor. I ordered some black 2-pole AMP Universal Mate-N-Lok plugs (1-480698-9), receptacles (1-480699-9), pins (350552-2) and sockets (350551-2) from Digi-Key with wire seals (794270-1) and interface seals (794269-1). I'll replace the existing connectors with these. Digi-Key sales order number 22143676.

• June 4, 2008
  
  • The new connectors arrived for the differential temperature sensor. I'll be using the gold-plated contacts on each end: 350552-2 pins, 350551-2 sockets. These fit MUCH more snugly than the connectors that are on the car right now, and with the wire and interface seals they should survive much better with no splicing tape to protect them.

    I installed the new connectors. Much better, I now don't need splicing tape around the connectors. This will make rear subframe removal easier in the future. I took the car for a test drive, all is well; gauge read 145F after about 15 minutes, which is normal.

To-do list:

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