Non-functioning Directional Light

I hate when something is not working properly in my E30. I purchased my E30 with a lot of the electrical component not working. Many of the bulbs were burned out along with some of the fuses. These are easy fixes, obviously. The last annoying electrical problem I had in my car was the left directional would not emit light on the instrument panel even after I replaced the bulb with a new one. It simply plain did not work when the emergency lights or left turn signal was on. This is a fix if your turn signals work on the outside, but do not blink on the instrument panel.

Items Needed:

- #1 Phillips Head Screw Driver
- Wire cutters / Razor Blade
- Solder
- Soldering Iron

Procedure:

1. Detach the lower trim by turning the three plastic screws 90 degrees and pulling it down towards your feet. You may remove it completely or just let it hang depending on how big your hands are.

2. Detach the lower cover by reaching under and unscrewing the two aluminum fasteners. Again, small hands are better for this job, especially the one on the right side. Gently push the lower cover from behind toward you and remove. This will expose four screws holding the trim of the instrument cluster. Unscrew those four screws and the two on top screwing into the dash board. Remove the trim.

3. Remove the two screws holding the panel in place on top screwing into the dash board. Carefully pull the cluster toward you by pulling on the plastic brackets were the two screws were located. Unplug all the harnesses from the back of the cluster. Do not get nervous, the harnesses are color coded. Depending on the options your E30 has, there are extra lights plugged into the cluster. You will have to remember where these plug in. My car had three extra plug ins, one that plugged into the speedometer, one check engine light and one anti-lock brake light. I leave it to you to remember where these extra plug ins belong in your car.

4. Once you have the instrument panel out, you will need to remove the plastic housing on the back of the display panel. There are about ten screws all on the perimeter and one in the middle by the check light. There are other screws whcih hold the tachometer and speedometer in place, but do not unscrew those screws. Only unscrew the ten screws described above. This will expose the main circuit board to the instrument cluster. There is a propensity for cracks to occur around the corners where the screws place pressure on the board. These are good areas to search for hair line cracks in the circuitry.

5. Follow the path from the non-functioning directional to the first corner. The copper paths are covered with a protective coating so the hair line fractures in the copper paths are very difficult to see. It will appear as an indentation going completely across the copper path. Use the razor blade to scrape off the protective coating exposing the copper path of the circuitry over the area of the indentation.

6. Heat the copper path with the soldering iron and lay down a generous amount of solder on the copper path. Be careful not to raise it too high off the board, just make sure to bridge across the indentation. I found one indentation on the first corner. You can use a ohm meter to check the connection if you have access to one.

7. That is all there is to it. Use the reverse directions to reassemble the cluster.

Paul R. Contreras