Cheap and easy oil temp display on stock cluster

[Galapolis]

Just found this on the German forums. I'm at work and haven't looked at shipping and stuff but I had to share immediately because I've been dreaming of this for a long time. This is a module that you add to the back of your gauge cluster that will unlock displaying oil temp:

https://www.car-solution.de/produkt/ekombi-fuer-bmw-3er-e46/

[johnrando]

Interesting.

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[ZHPizza]

Nice find! I'm wondering if this would allow the data to be read from the OBDII port via torque....

[Oli77]

You have to pay for a dongle thing or for coding this?

[johnrando]

Nice find! I'm wondering if this would allow the data to be read from the OBDII port via torque....That would be good.

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[Galapolis]

According to the description (which isn't very detailed), you plug 5 cables into the back of the gauge cluster and that's it. It will add oil temp, water temp, digital speed and battery voltage to the list of items you can cycle through on your gauge cluster. By default, we get ambient temp, time, average speed and mileage I think. This will add those 4 extra items to the list.

Here is a pic of the item: https://www.ebay.de/itm/eKombi-Modul-Anzeige-von-Oltemperatur-Oltemperaturanzeige-BMW-3er-E46-E85-Z4-/132349874303

Not sure about the OBDII stuff, though I heard it works with Android radios as well via some OBDII connection or something. I wouldn't be the person to ask about that though. I'll see if I can get my hands on one of these.

[Oli77]

Appear similar to ultraguage II (http://ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/ultragauge_wired.htm) but without the OBD port needing to be occupied all the time.

The advantage of the ultraguage is that you can set alarms of temp and stuff. Comes in handy I think. But it is an extra display. This is more hidden.

[FungShui]

I'm skeptical on how accurately they can measure oil temperature without an actual thermocouple sensor.

They claim:

There is no additional sensors or sensor needed because the oil temperature is determined using the thermal oil level sensor, which is standard equipment on every vehicle!

[Oli77]

Are you talking about Ultraguage or what OP posted about?
If Ultraguage, it reads coolant temp and that is what I want more so than oil temp.
On a side note, I had to get used to an oil temp sensor on my display in my new-to-me e93. Takes a long time for that oil to get up in temp.

[ZHPizza]

Are you talking about Ultraguage or what OP posted about?
If Ultraguage, it reads coolant temp and that is what I want more so than oil temp.
On a side note, I had to get used to an oil temp sensor on my display in my new-to-me e93. Takes a long time for that oil to get up in temp.You can get the coolant temp to display on the cluster without buying anything bro!

Oil temp is measured (accurately) from the level sensor in the bottom of the pan. It has to be pulled through the canbus or similar as it isn't even sent to the obd port unless requested via inpa/pasoft/etc.

[FungShui]

I'm referring to the product on the OP's post. I don't see how they can correlate oil level to oil temperature.

Yeah, I use torque to monitor the coolant temperature.

[ZHPizza]

I'm referring to the product on the OP's post. I don't see how they can correlate oil level to oil temperature.

Yeah, I use torque to monitor the coolant temperature.

The oil level sensor in the bottom of the pan is also a temperature sensor:

https://forum.e46fanatics.com/picture.php?albumid=8774&pictureid=46813

https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=1106967&page=5

[Oli77]

You can get the coolant temp to display on the cluster without buying anything bro!



I know, but that is a lot of pushing the little knob on the left side a the cluster over and over and over again, every day.
The time you don't do it...

The reason why the Ultragauge was a life saver for me was that:

1) I needed coolant temperature read every second of every day while driving because my cluster display was wonky (needle sicking in the wrong position passed middle very often - freak out - stop the car - push the cluster knob to get to temp reading, oh its 93 C no problem!).
2) With my wonky temperature cluster gauge, I could not trust driving the car.
3) Ultraguage is on ALL the time and sends alarms if temps go too high.
4) ~80 and piece of mind to this day, all day long.

[Oli77]

The oil level sensor in the bottom of the pan is also a temperature sensor:

On the E90 platform, this same (or similar) unit measures oil volume using a real smart capacitance measure too.

[FungShui]

The oil level sensor in the bottom of the pan is also a temperature sensor:

https://forum.e46fanatics.com/picture.php?albumid=8774&pictureid=46813

https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=1106967&page=5Thanks ZHPizza. I read through the whole thread and I stand corrected. :)

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[ZHPizza]

Thanks ZHPizza. I read through the whole thread and I stand corrected. :)

Sent from my Pixel 3 using TapatalkLol I just read through it yesterday so the timing worked out nicely. I still don't know of anyone that has found the right PIDs to input to request the oil temperature data. That would be a game changer for all of us running Torque on our headunits or phones.

[Galapolis]

Some pics from a guy who recently installed the eKombi over at the German forums.

36385
36386
36387

[t.er]

New member here who has been lurking the forums for a while but finally decided to join. It was thanks to this thread that I found out about this module, so I went ahead with purchasing one. It recently arrived and installation was going fairly smoothly, but pin 17 at the 26-pin connector (X11175) at the IKE did not have the signal wire for the oil level sensor signal:

https://i.imgur.com/Gv0oeuLl.jpg

I talked with car-solution and they said to run the wire to where the DME is and splice into pin 39 of the 52-pin connector (X60003). But in my attempts to figure out the next steps on my own (before they got back to me) I was looking at the schematic (https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e46-330ci-cou_200404/wiring-functional-info/power-train/engine-electronics-ms45/engine-oil/oil-level-sensor/n8mwWd9), which tells me it should actually be pin 50.

I was halfway through the install yesterday, but cold weather has encouraged me not go continue, and I also want car-solution to confirm my thoughts. But, I also want to get this install done so I may just finish it up. Will update once I have it working

[t.er]

Well, I just spent about 2 hours getting this thing in, and the 1 wire through the firewall and spliced into the DME harness:

That brown/yellow dotted wire:

https://i.imgur.com/mRDCJRzl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zfBxs43l.jpg

Perhaps I shouldn't have wrapped everything up so nicely, because nothing works, and my BC button is unresponsive. Removing the two plugs for the BC button and connecting them back to how it was stock (unsurprisingly) returns functionality of the button, but it's as if the module isn't even there. Maybe pin 39 on the X60003 connector was where I was supposed to splice per Car-Solution's suggestion, but that makes no sense, as that pin is for the secondary air pump. Unless the schematics on newTISinfo (https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e46-330ci-cou_200404/components-connectors/components/a-control-units-modules/a6000-control-unit-digital-motor-elecronics2/YeeGVsL) are incorrect? Either way I'm a bit frustrated right now, I guess I'll just leave it and see what they say.

[Galapolis]

This is a wild guess but your car is MS45 right? The MS45 was never sold in Europe. All E46 came with MS43 there, even the 6 speed models. Maybe that has something to do with it?

[t.er]

Correct, my car is a Canadian-market car, so MS45.1 I believe. IKE is a common part between MS43 and MS45 with the same pinout. I checked the X60003 connector pinout for MS43, and pin 39 is unused, so I'm not quite sure why Car-Solution would say to connect up to that

[t.er]

Alright, so I further diagnosed the issue and have made progress. I probed pins 1 and 6 on the X11175 connector, which is for 12V power to the IKE. Then the brown and red wires from the module which are hooked in parallel, so there should be 12V as well, but there was 0. Turns out I did not fully compress the wire taps all the way, so I re-compressed all of them and the module now works.

However, oil temperature is still a mystery - the instructions mention that if you see 3 bars, you should press + hold BC until "OILTEMP SET" shows up, then scroll through 1 of 3 settings. But if I do that, "BC CONFIG" shows up, then the options are "TÖNS" (4 settings), "MENU ENDE" (to go back), and "SENSOR TEST". None of the 4 "TÖNS" seem to do anything, nor does sensor test. So at least there's some progress, but the primary reason I bought the module (oil temp) still does not work.

https://i.imgur.com/BDjaDsXl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LGpyzlUl.jpg

[t.er]

Okay, I've fixed it. The seller still said to splice into pin 39 on the DME, and in my car it's unused. I re-checked the wiring diagrams and the wire colour for the oil level sensor signal is grey/blue, which is what my car has. So I was confident at that point that my pinout was correct.

Unfortunately, instead of checking, then making any mods, I cut the wire tap (as it appears one-time use), then re-checked the wiring diagram. :swiss

So as I didn't have any wire taps left, and I was hella frustrated and just wanted to get this done (and didn't want to break out the soldering iron) I just butt-crimped it in like so:

https://i.imgur.com/ht8sQARl.jpg

Definitely not my finest work, but it passes the pull test, and I re-wrapped it in fabric insulating tape like the pic in my previous post so there shouldn't be any issues. This might sound a bit stupid, but previously I had not started the car - I assumed the oil level sensor would display oil temp, as the other 3 parameters (water temp, batt voltage, vehicle speed) were all displaying with no issues with just the electronics on. So I'm not sure if it was because I hadn't started the car (and did now), or if the wire tap just didn't have good contact (man, those things suck). But everything seems to be working fine now.

I took this pic before putting the gauge cluster back for the umpteenth time. That module ain't going nowhere:

https://i.imgur.com/xHlrqZ2l.jpg

All working:

https://i.imgur.com/BD4IDPNl.jpg

Although this mod didn't go as planned (required hours of diagnosing) I'm still glad to have it in my car, as it'll come in handy with the track days I had planned for the summer (lolz). Indicated oil temp seems very reasonable - lags by coolant temp about 30-40 deg until both are at operating, where during normal driving it stays around 98-100 deg. Haven't had the chance to push the car yet, but I'm curious as to what peak oil temps would be without an oil cooler.

[Galapolis]

That's awesome! Definitely getting one of these when I'm in Germany again. Not looking forward to the wiring stuff though. Thanks for walking us through your experience.

[t.er]

Are you headed back to Germany pretty soon? Due to the virus it did take about a month to arrive to Canada. Postage was 9 Euros, but then I was refunded 16 Euros as I did not have to pay German sales tax, so it's possible that it may be more expensive over there.

I really hope you won't have to run the wire through the firewall like I did. It wasn't too bad, but the entire upper half of my body was stuck in the driver's side footwell routing and taping the wire down.

https://i.imgur.com/snqba7Kl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/yVetV31l.jpg

[Galapolis]

Are you headed back to Germany pretty soon? Due to the virus it did take about a month to arrive to Canada. Postage was 9 Euros, but then I was refunded 16 Euros as I did not have to pay German sales tax, so it's possible that it may be more expensive over there.

I really hope you won't have to run the wire through the firewall like I did. It wasn't too bad, but the entire upper half of my body was stuck in the driver's side footwell routing and taping the wire down.


Things are looking uncertain again. Maybe in July. Maybe not. The unit seems like a pretty good deal either way. I like wrenching but I haven't done electronics or wire stuff apart from plug and play replacements. I might just have one of friends do it who is more experienced.