Fai-da-te: installazione della strumentazione ausiliare(VDO)

Queste sono le istruzioni per il montaggio della strumentazione aggiuntiva che comprende:

1) Pressione dell'olio
2) Temperatura dell'olio
3) Voltmetro

Gli strumenti usati sono dei VDO (consigliati).

Purtroppo le istruzioni sono in inglese e spero un giorno, quando avrò un po' di tempo a disposizione, di poterle tradurre.

Enjoy! 8)



Installation of VDO Gauge Cluster for BMW E46


While his instruction write-up was very helpful during my installation, certain parts were vague or could have used pictures to take some of the guesswork out of the installation. So, here's my humble attempt at it.

1) Prewiring of the Gauge Panel
2) Installation of Pressure Sender
3) Installation of Temperature Sender
4) Running the Signal Wires into the Car

Now, take a break and go wash your hands. The rest of the stuff happens inside the car so you want clean hands!

We're going to get into the wiring of the car so make sure you have your key is in the off position. That means no more radio from here on out. The other thing to
remember is that pretty much every piece of exposed metal in the car is connected to ground so be careful if you've got a hot wire near metal.

5) Removing the Front Console
6) Removing the Glovebox
7) Feeding Power to the Gauges
8) Testing Your Setup [/img]

 

Prewiring of the Gauge Panel
----------------------------
Tools/Parts Needed:

1 - VDO Gauge Panel
1 - roll 18 gauge (or thicker) wire
14 - 1/4" spade connectors
1 - crimper
1 - wire cutter
1 - wire stripper
1 - set of wire labels
1 - bundle of tie-wraps

You will need 14 1/4" spade connectors, wire, a wire cutter, wire stripper, and a
crimper for this part.

Wiring for GROUND. You will need to daisy chain 6 spade connectors together and
hook them up to the 6 (-) terminals on the gauges. At the end of the chain,
you should have a length of 6in. of wire tied to the last spade connector. We'll
splice this wire to ground later.

The polarity on the light bulbs doesn't matter so just pick one of the terminals.

Wiring for Switched +12V. You will need to daisy chain 3 spade connectors together
and hook them up to the 3 (+) terminals on the gauges. At the end of the chain,
you should have a length of 6 in. of wire tied to the last spade connector. We'll
splice this wire to a switched +12V later. Do not hook any of these spade connectors
up to any of the lights.

Wiring for the lights. You will need to daisy chain 3 spade connectors together
and hook them up to the 3 (+) terminals on the lights. At the end of the chain,
you should have a length of 6 in. of wire tied to the last spade connector. We'll
splice this wire to a light-switched +12V later.

Leave the 2 signal terminals (labeled "S") unconnected for now.

 

Installation of Pressure Sender
-------------------------------
Tools/Parts Needed:

1 - wratchet
1 - 10mm socket
1 - 24mm socket or wrench
1 - 19mm socket or wrench
1 - Flat-head screwdriver
1 - roll 18 gauge (or thicker wire)
1 - set of wire labels
1 - wire cutter
1 - wire stripper
1 - bundle of tie-wraps
1 - roll of electrical tape

(these come in the pressure sender set)
1 - angle adapter
1 - pressure sender
1 - 19mm bolt
2 - crush washers

Make sure your car is cool before working on this part.

Step 1. Figura 1

Remove the airbox. Use a 10mm socket for the two bolts and a flathead screwdriver
to loosen the airhose from the box. You need to disconnect the airflow sensor connector
on the airhose. Now, disconnect the part of the airbox that feeds from the grille. There is
a hook on the airbox that attaches to a hose. Unhook this. Then, to remove the airbox,
you want to pull up on the side closer to the back of the car. It takes a little bit of finessing,
but it doesn't require too much force to pull out.

Step 2. Figura 2

Once the airbox is removed, you should unfasten three more connectors. The first
is connected to the alternator. The second is inserted into the oil filter housing
pointing towards the passenger side. The third is also inserted into the oil filter
housing, but points towards the front of the car. This last connector is the one
connected to the factory pressure sender and feeds into the oil pressure idiot light
on your instrument panel. Remember this connector for later.
Now you should have acess to the factory pressure sender. You'll need a 24mm socket
or wrench to remove it. Once it's removed, clean it and put it away.

Step 3. Figura 3

You should assemble the VDO pressure sender. Screw the pressure sender into the
angle adapter and tighten until it's snug (don't overtighten). Now, you'll need
to cut two wires and attach them to each terminal of the sender. The first one should
be about 1.5 car lengths and the second can be 6 inches. The longer one will feed into
the oil pressure gauge and should be fastened to the "G" terminal of the sender. Then,
fasten the shorter wire to the "WK" terminal. Next, take the bolt that goes through
the angle adapter and put it through one of the crush washers. Then, put the bolt through
the angle adapter and put a crush washer on the other side of the adapter so that it
looks like (in order): bolthead, washer, adapter, washer. Now that the sender assembly
is complete, position it so that you can bolt it into the oil filter housing. I was only
able to find one position that fits. Once you've positioned it, screw the bolt in by
hand, but don't tighten it yet. The position I found gets close to blocking the alternator
connector so you want to put the connector back in before tightening the sender assembly
down. Once everything is ready, use a 19mm socket and tighten the bolt on the sender
assembly. There is a torque spec. for this bolt, but I have no idea how you can get a
torque wrench in there to begin with so I just tightened to the point where I could feel
the washers begin to crush (that's why they're called crush washers).

Step 4. Figura 4

The next thing to do is to splice the shorter wire into the idiot light connector. You
can strip the wire and push it into the connector contact and glue and tape it all together
with electrical tape.

Step 5.

Now, put all the connectors you've removed back in and reinstall your airbox.

 

Installation of Temperature Sender
----------------------------------
Tools/Parts Needed:

1 - wratchet
1 - torque wrench (11 ft.lbs.)
1 - 17mm deep-socket
1 - roll 18 gauge (or thicker wire)
1 - set of wire labels
1 - wire cutter
1 - wire stripper
1 - bundle of tie-wraps
1 - roll of electrical tape
1 - clip

You should do this during an oil change since it requires replacing the factory drain plug
with the temperature sender. Remove the factory drain plug from the oil pan and screw in
the temperature sender. Make sure you put the washer on the sender too. The sender has
a lower torque spec. than the factory plug, so make sure you remember this when torquing it
down. (The torque spec. for the sender is 11ft.lbs)

Now comes the wiring part. Cut a length of wire about 2 car lengths. The oil pan is on the
right side of the engine so you may be tempted to drop the wire down that side, but don't.
That side of the engine gets really hot! What I did was drop the wire down near where
the airbox and airhose meet and run it along the stress bar (red) that passes under the oil pan (blue).
I used tie wraps to fasten the wire to the bar. Strip the end of the wire and crimp a
clip onto the wire that fits the temp. sender end. Ok. So I lied. I'm still waiting for my
oil change to be due up so I haven't done this part yet, but what the picture shows is that
I dropped the wire down as described and coiled up enough wire to run along the stress bar to the
oil pan and just tied it off to the suspension in this picture.

Figura

 

Running the Signal Wires into the Car
-------------------------------------
Tools/Parts Needed:

1 - roll 18 gauge (or thicker wire)
1 - wire cutter
1 - bundle of tie-wraps

I used blue-colored wiring so it's pretty easy to see where the wires go in these pictures.

The wires for the oil temp and oil pressure should conveniently meet up near the driver side shock tower so I ran the wires together from this point.

Figura1

I ran it around the driver's side shock tower and into the DSC box. Then, I ran them through the wire harness that crosses over the engine and over into that empty compartment in front of the passenger side firewall.

Figura2

Figura3

Now, if you look into this compartment, there is some large rubber circle on the firewall that has a large rubber cylinder that protects some wire and next to it are three smaller nipples (red). You will need to cut a small hole into one of these nipples and feed the two wires through.

Figura4


Now, take a break and go wash your hands. The rest of the stuff happens inside the car so you want clean hands!

 

Removing the Front Console
--------------------------
Tools/Parts Needed:

1 - Philips head screwdriver
1 - roll electrical tape

Step 1. Figura1

Move the shifter boot out of the way by squeezing the sides in and gently pulling it up.

Step 2. Figura2

This should expose 2 Philips head screws that hold the shifter console panel down. Remove these and pull the panel out. Disconnect the 2 window control connectors from the panel and put the panel aside.

Step 3. Figura3

Now, you should see 2 Philips head screws holding the ashtray console
area down. Remove them.

Step 4. Figura4

Now, you want to remove the storage compartment between the ashtray
and the climate control panel. To do this, just put your thumbs against the two inside
walls of the compartment and pull it out. It takes a little bit of jiggling and pulling,
but it doesn't require too much force.

Step 5. Figura5

Once you get the compartment removed, there are two more screws
at the top of this console that need to be removed. Once this is done, you can pull out
the console.

Step 6.

Remove all the connectors on the backside of the console. Some of them may
have already popped out when you pulled the console out so make sure you note how many
connector sockets are on the back of the console. Disconneting the two wires from the
cigarette lighter is a little bit dangerous since the +12V wire is hot all the time. It
does have a big white plastic cover to protect accidental touching with ground, but I just
wrapped some electrical tape over it to make sure.

 

Removing the Glovebox
---------------------
Tools/Parts Needed:

1 - Philips head screwdriver

There are 6 Phillips heads screws holding the glovebox in place (red). Remove them and carefully jiggle and pull the glovebox out. Disconnect the 2 connectors attached to the box (one goes to the flashlight charger and the other goes to the glovebox light. Put the glovebox aside.

Figura1

Figura2

Figura3

Now, if you look close enough at the firewall, you should be able to see that big rubber circle you pushed the 2 signal wires through from the engine compartment (Look really far back in the section circled in red).

Figura4

Pull the wires through. Feed them behind the right wall of the center console (red) and pull them out the front of the console area (blue arrow) you just ripped out in the previous section.

 

Feeding Power to the Gauges
---------------------------
Tools/Parts Needed:

1 - Voltmeter
1 - Philips head screwdriver
1 - roll 18 gauge (or thicker wire)
1 - set of wire labels
1 - wire cutter
1 - wire stripper
1 - bundle of tie-wraps
1 - bundle of butt connectors to splice wire ends together
1 - roll of electrical tape

Have a voltmeter ready just to verify voltages here and there.

For splicing two ends of a wire, I used butt connectors. These have two ends. Insert
the stripped ends of each of the 2 wires into each end of the connector and crimp them
down. Wrap it with some electrical tape to give it a little more support.

For doing a T-style splice (where you just want to tap into an existing wire), take
wire strippers and make 2 cuts about 1/8" apart into the wire's covering and use a
knife to remove that section of covering. (Be careful not to cut the actual wire!)
Take the other wire and strip the end. Wrap it around the exposed section you just
cut out of the other wire and hold it all together with electrical tape. You could
also be fancy and use the tap connector that comes with the Valentine One to do this.

Step 1. Figura1

Ground. Splice the ground wire of the gauge panel to the ground wire you pulled out of
the cigarette lighter. (The brown one with the exposed metal connector.) Wrap the
splice point with some electrical tape.
Light-switched +12V. This power source provides +12V only when the switch on your headlight/
dimmer panel is on. It will be used to power the lights in the gauge panel. Unfortunately,
the only source I could find for this is the tiny wire that powers the ashtray light. After
reading some ampacity charts, I estimate this wire can carry between 1 and 2 amps of current.
The lights on the gauge panel together take about .6 amps at 12V and .8 amps at 14V (which is
how much voltage is present when the engine is running). The ashtray light doesn't take
too much so I the wire should be thick enough, although I wouldn't try adding much more to
this wire in the future. Ok, so splice the positive terminal of this wire to the light-switched
+12V wire on your gauge panel.

Step 2. Figura2

Switched +12V. This power source is controlled by the key. When you have it in ACCESSORY
or the ON positions, this provides +12V. When the key is off, this source is at 0V. There
are plenty of wires in the car that have this property, but what I did was hook a wire up
to the fuse box. The fuse box is above the glovebox compartment. There are two white tabs
that, when twisted 90 degrees, will allow the fuse box to drop down. There is a little white
card at the bottom of the box that shows the layout for the fuses. I used the one labeled
"Instrument Panel." Use the orange tweezers found at the middle of the fusebox to remove the
fuse. Now, cut some wire about 3 feet long and feed one end behind the right wall of the
center console and pull it out the front of the console. Strip about 1/4" off the end and
stick it into the bottom terminal of the fuse socket and push the fuse back in. I also
tie-wrapped this wire to the fuse box to make sure it holds in place nicely. Splice the
other end to the switched +12V wire on your gauge panel.
Step 3.
Signal wires. Strip the ends of the two signal wires and crimp spade connectors to them.
Connect them up to the "S" terminals of the appropriate gauge.

 

Testing Your Setup
-------------------
Ok, now it's time to test everything! Turn on the ignition, but don't start your car yet. Make sure the voltage gauge goes up to 12V. Now, turn on your headlights. You should be able to see the gauge panel light up. If things are working so far, go ahead and start the engine. The pressure gauge initially climbs up to ~60psi at idle and drops as your car gets warmed up (The pressures may be different for those who don't have the 2.5L engine.). The temperature gauge should read something. As long as the needle isn't resting against the needle stop, it should be ok. If everything seems to be working, turn off your car and headlights.

Tie-wrap the slack behind the gauge panel so that everything is nice and neat. Put your front console back together (except don't put the empty compartment above the ashtray back in). The wires going to the gauge panel can run either on the left or right side of the console-- there's enough room for them to go through. Once you're ready, push the gauge panel into place. It should be a tight fit as it uses the friction to hold itself in place.

Figura1

Figura2