tell-tale lights fixed

[redhunter]

I have recently purchased a 2007 BMW G 650 X Country for my wife to do a direct access course on.

Soon after getting it home I noticed the tell-tale light for the right indicator did not work, a small price to pay for an otherwise perfect low mileage bike I thought!

I set about removing the instrument panel expecting to be able to replace a bulb, someone had been in there before as tape over screws was disturbed. Anyway I should have known better, I found surface mount electronics which are not user serviceable are they.

My local dealer 150 miles away quoted me nearly £250 for a replacement unit!
So it was time for a re think, my schoolboy electronics tells me that these tell tales are surface mount LED’s fed with a current reduced by a resistor. On further inspection I found and tested the feed to the LED with a multimeter and found a break between the resistor and the led.

This was caused by corrosion from water entering via a fixing point and is difficult to see in my photos. It caused a connection between both sides of the circuit to become open circuit.

<a target='_blank' title='ImageShack - Image And Video Hosting' href='http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/200/pencilpointingtofault.jpg/'><img src='http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/4175/pencilpointingtofault.jpg' border='0'/></a>


The fix was to solder a link wire between the tiny surface mount resistor and the led with the finest wire I could find. It looks massive and crude in the photo but it works.

<a target='_blank' title='ImageShack - Image And Video Hosting' href='http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/221/closeupofwirelink.jpg/'><img src='http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/824/closeupofwirelink.jpg' border='0'/></a>

Partly assembled.

<a target='_blank' title='ImageShack - Image And Video Hosting' href='http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/803/assembledshowinglink.jpg/'><img src='http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/6904/assembledshowinglink.jpg' border='0'/></a>


I hope this is of use to you it was a kill or cure situation for me and therefore worth a shot.

 

[Nobu]

Hallo redhunter,
great, the first picture from the inside of that instrument i have seen. There are a lot of questions. Did you have any problems to open it? Is it completely sealed, or is there anywhere a vent for breathing?
I think this is one of the most changed parts here in Germany (mostly under guarantee). Most of them got wet, some had a crack in the screen. Because of price, there is still a pending question: Is it possible to repair. And i see it is.
Greetings from Bavaria Germany
Nobu

 

[redhunter]

Hallo redhunter,
great, the first picture from the inside of that instrument i have seen. There are a lot of questions. Did you have any problems to open it? Is it completely sealed, or is there anywhere a vent for breathing?
I think this is one of the most changed parts here in Germany (mostly under guarantee). Most of them got wet, some had a crack in the screen. Because of price, there is still a pending question: Is it possible to repair. And i see it is.
Greetings from Bavaria Germany
Nobu

Hi Nobu
Its screwed together, each screw having a washer and an o-ring to seal it with a rubber gasket between the cases.
I did not see a vent any where.
I was lucky an LED is a simple fix everything else on the circuit board is not and a replacement would normally be required.
Regards
Allan

 

[drimcong]

familiar

thanx for the write up.
Italian rubbish which should have never...
Can't you get a new one from the dealer, since a lot of the units were faulty?
Maybe a call to bmw customer service might help you along?

There is a warning sticker not to opent the unit, but I went ahead.
I might be wrong, but thought there was a vent.

When I saw the LEDs, I didn't look further for a fix, got a warranty replacement.
However the new one developed a crack on top right corner, thought I got hit by a stone on the way back.
The dealer is 190km away, too much hazzle trying to prove it wasn't me.
Hope your repair will hold.
By the way, some people conserved the unit, but can't remember where I read about it.
regards
Josey

 

[powroll]

previous monkey fix ?

Just a thought
If the previous re assembly was botched with tape and the units o ring disturbed this is why theres corrosion.
Electronics are sensitive to the elements , try sitting out in the rain with your laptop see how long it lasts
so "Italian electronics " aside I reckon the units pretty good if a monkey hasnt had a go at it allready!

 

[drimcong]

the units were made in Italy and were never good enough to be used in normal conditions for Western Europe.
The dryer conditions in the Med. might let the units live longer, and therefore there are less complaints within the warranty periods.
The same thing could have happened to parts manufactured in any other country, I haven't researched who builds this type of units, VDO might have.
However these cheaper parts were used by BMW instead of more robust bits.
I never had a problem with the units on the CS, nor have I read about constant F/GS problems.
The units fail without being opened or tampered with.
The problem is, that some people are on the 2nd replacement, and any self help advice and 'how to dos' it is appreciated.
Buying a new unit is rather expensive.
regards

Jo

 

[powroll]

instrument cluster

The housings quite well made and as long as the o ring seal is good holds water out quite well.I have had pressure washer on it and no water gets in.
I did have one electronic fault occur where an error code was displayed and it wouldnt reset.I resoldered the main multi pin connector with a fine tip iron and fault cleared (plugged the pcb straight into the connector to check before re assembling into housing) so maybe the circuits arent that well flow soldered to begin with.