Jazzbass
01-12-2014, 12:56 PM
When my E90's water pump died, I had some time siting on the side of the road to do some google searching for "E90 display water temp dash". To my surprise there were a lot of results that said "it can't be done". That's crap, because it can be done. It's not very straight forward, but it is doable. Surprisingly, it took a significant amount of searching to find the answer, so I thought I'd write it up here for posterity.
So the E90 (and possibly others as well - don't know) has a special diagnostic menu you can get in to via the odometer reset button on the dash. Once in, it will show you the raw output values of many of the cars 8 million sensors, including coolant temp. Here's the process.
Step 1 - entering the diagnostic menu
With the ignition on (you can do this with the car running), press and hold the odometer reset button located to the lower left of the speedo:
39338
When you do this it'll scroll through some displays. First typically a warning symbol:
39339
Then an indicator of the next maintenance item (or something past due):
39340
And finally the diagnostic menu:
39341
At this point release the odometer button.
Unlock the menu items
For whatever reason, most of the diagnostic info in these menus is "locked" - i.e. not displayed by default. Don't ask why, I have not idea, but it is. So the first step is to enter the unlock code, which is different for each car.
Now the diagnostic menu in the car is made of menus and submenus. When you enter the diag menu, you'll first see a menu "01.__". This means its in a mode to allow you to cycle through the main menus. If you pause, it'll enter the main menu you are on an you can then cycle the sub menus under it. So we enter the diag menus and let it sit on "01.__" for a couple seconds and we'll see menu 1, submenu 0 come up:
39342
Press the odo button again and it'll go to menu "01.01" which is something the Germans understand I guess:
39343
Anyway, the first thing we want to see is menu "01.00". The numbers shown here are the last 5 digits of your VIN. This is important because it's using these numbers that we calculate the super-secret unlock code. The code is simply the sum of the last 5 digits of the VIN - in my case 1+5+6+7+9 = 28.
To unlock, get out of the 01 submenu by pressing the odo button for 3-4 sec and go back to main menu mode (displays "01.__"). Then press the odo button briefly until you get to main menu "19.__" (that would be 18 times for those counting at home). Once on "19.__" pause and let it go into submenu 19.00. This is where you unlock the other menus:
39344
Once in submenu 19.00, press the odo button enough times so "Code: " reads your unlock code (28 in my case). Sucks to be you if your VIN has a lot of 9s in it:
39345
Now the menus are unlocked. Once the menus are unlocked, it'll reset itself back to menu 01. Then follow the same process to naviate the main and submenus:
- If you are in a sub menu, press the odo button briefly to go to the next submenu
- If you are in a submenu, press and hold the odo button for a couple sec to go back to the main menu
- If you are in the main menu, press the odo button briefly to go to the next main menu
- If you are in the main menu, pause and the car will open the submenu for that main menu after a couple sec.
Display the info
Last step is to find the info you want. This is easier said than done, as the menu items are cryptic abbreviations in German. I'll post a table someone in the BMW universe figured out. The one I remember off the top of my head because of my recent water pump issues is the coolant temp menu, which is 7.00:
39346
The nice thing about this that it will stay on the display while you drive around, allowing you to see the values update in real time.
So the E90 (and possibly others as well - don't know) has a special diagnostic menu you can get in to via the odometer reset button on the dash. Once in, it will show you the raw output values of many of the cars 8 million sensors, including coolant temp. Here's the process.
Step 1 - entering the diagnostic menu
With the ignition on (you can do this with the car running), press and hold the odometer reset button located to the lower left of the speedo:
39338
When you do this it'll scroll through some displays. First typically a warning symbol:
39339
Then an indicator of the next maintenance item (or something past due):
39340
And finally the diagnostic menu:
39341
At this point release the odometer button.
Unlock the menu items
For whatever reason, most of the diagnostic info in these menus is "locked" - i.e. not displayed by default. Don't ask why, I have not idea, but it is. So the first step is to enter the unlock code, which is different for each car.
Now the diagnostic menu in the car is made of menus and submenus. When you enter the diag menu, you'll first see a menu "01.__". This means its in a mode to allow you to cycle through the main menus. If you pause, it'll enter the main menu you are on an you can then cycle the sub menus under it. So we enter the diag menus and let it sit on "01.__" for a couple seconds and we'll see menu 1, submenu 0 come up:
39342
Press the odo button again and it'll go to menu "01.01" which is something the Germans understand I guess:
39343
Anyway, the first thing we want to see is menu "01.00". The numbers shown here are the last 5 digits of your VIN. This is important because it's using these numbers that we calculate the super-secret unlock code. The code is simply the sum of the last 5 digits of the VIN - in my case 1+5+6+7+9 = 28.
To unlock, get out of the 01 submenu by pressing the odo button for 3-4 sec and go back to main menu mode (displays "01.__"). Then press the odo button briefly until you get to main menu "19.__" (that would be 18 times for those counting at home). Once on "19.__" pause and let it go into submenu 19.00. This is where you unlock the other menus:
39344
Once in submenu 19.00, press the odo button enough times so "Code: " reads your unlock code (28 in my case). Sucks to be you if your VIN has a lot of 9s in it:
39345
Now the menus are unlocked. Once the menus are unlocked, it'll reset itself back to menu 01. Then follow the same process to naviate the main and submenus:
- If you are in a sub menu, press the odo button briefly to go to the next submenu
- If you are in a submenu, press and hold the odo button for a couple sec to go back to the main menu
- If you are in the main menu, press the odo button briefly to go to the next main menu
- If you are in the main menu, pause and the car will open the submenu for that main menu after a couple sec.
Display the info
Last step is to find the info you want. This is easier said than done, as the menu items are cryptic abbreviations in German. I'll post a table someone in the BMW universe figured out. The one I remember off the top of my head because of my recent water pump issues is the coolant temp menu, which is 7.00:
39346
The nice thing about this that it will stay on the display while you drive around, allowing you to see the values update in real time.