Third Gen Black Faced Meter (BFM) Information - 2015-01-09

[Pandamonium004]

Hi guys, been reading through this thread and you all seem like a brainy bunch so would love to try get some assistance, i have a 2000 b4 legacy revision c with the black face cluster, now the other day i noticed that my ring lighting was not working in some areas so went to replace the bulbs. I used some out of another cluster but i think now that they were the wrong sort, i plugged it all back in and could smell a bad burning smell so switched it off and now i have no ring lighting at all, the clock no longer holds memory and resets to 1:00 every time the power is off, the trip meter also resets when the power is off and the door open display no longer works... Does anyone have anything i could try to attempt to fix it, i suspect i need to replace something on the pcb but im not sure what to look at or for... Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks! 😊

[Barbbachello]

Sounds like youve fried the constant power source.

If you have a spare cluster id swap that in

[Pandamonium004]

Yeah that was my next plan, was just hoping I could maybe replace whatever I fried to save some money and keep the same kms etc, but it might be too far gone I dont know lol. Thanks for the reply!

[rkrenicki]

Yep, without seeing some high-resolution pictures of both sides of the board, it would be hard to say what went for sure.. but if could be repairable if it were just a burned up trace. Perhaps you can find someone local with some electronics experience who can jumper out any burned traces.

[Pandamonium004]

Yeah when it happened I took it out and had a good look over the pcb but couldnt see any visual damage, traces looked okay, all the caps etc looked fine with no bulging or leaks. I suspect maybe a transistor or resistor issue maybe? Or any of the other little ones (not quite sure what those are called) But I'm not 100% sure on how to test them... I could pull it back out and grab some photos, but its not sounding too promising lol

[Pandamonium004]

**Update** all is fixed now, it turned out to be a fuse on the pcb, it looked like a capacitor and is orange in colour. Since it looked like a capacitor I never tested it previously, but once I did, it failed a continuity test. Desoldered it and replaced it and now everything is back to normal!

[motorshed]

I'm really impressed by the skill level and workload that's gone into these mods, very interesting reading, thanks for posting it up. Have to say, a lot of it goes over my head as electronics aren't my strong point.
I'm having trouble with my car, it had a BFM from the factory, a C type I believe. Anyway the cluster melted itself around the larger A plug/socket and now it doesn't work anymore. I have repaired the loom and plug but can't find a replacement cluster anywhere. All the ones I can find are type D. I have been sent a type D one in error and have bought a non BFM unit to see if it worked so now have quite a collection but still can't drive my car!
Does anyone have any ideas,either where I could find a type C cluster or if it's possible to modify the wiring for a type D to work? Or is it easy to wire up the non Bfm to get me back on the road? The wiring diagram I have doesn't show pin outs for the turbo non Bfm. . . .
My burnt unit is part no 85015AE020, it's a manual car but I believe a type A,B or C cluster from an auto would also work .
Any advice/ pointers very welcome
Thanks Joe

[rami]

Hi all an awesome job you have don all, i'm doing the same convertion on my legacy 2002 4cyl but i have a problem with the connection of the 3 illumination wires the 5v one and the ground and the input do thy have any thing to do with the halo lights blinking.
any help and thank you in advance

[rkrenicki]

Hi all an awesome job you have don all, i'm doing the same convertion on my legacy 2002 4cyl but i have a problem with the connection of the 3 illumination wires the 5v one and the ground and the input do thy have any thing to do with the halo lights blinking.
any help and thank you in advance

Blinking halo lights generally indicates that it is missing a ground or a power wire. There are more of these wires on the BFM than the normal cluster, so you need to split/add more.

[rkrenicki]

Does anyone have any ideas,either where I could find a type C cluster or if it's possible to modify the wiring for a type D to work? Or is it easy to wire up the non Bfm to get me back on the road? The wiring diagram I have doesn't show pin outs for the turbo non Bfm. . . .

There are wiring charts at the start of this thread for every type of cluster, so you could do a conversion from the A-C type BFM to D type BFM based on those.

As for where to find one, Yahoo Auctions Japan will likely be your best bet. Use a proxy service to buy from there and have it shipped to yourself.

[rami]

thank you very much and it works as you said.
And it works very nice but another thing happened that the door opening indicators keep telling me that the left front door is open... i tried to open the other doors but it does't indicate thy are opened.

What do think the problem is

thanks

best regards

[jhill1977]

I've got a question or the OP and other's who have already completed this project. For those who used JAE connectors on the "JDM side" of the interface board, what sort of crimping tool did you use for the IL-AG5 connector ends?

I was lucky enough to snag the last prototype board from Hupshall (many thanks), which has the JAE connectors on both ends.

I suppose I COULD splice two ends together that already have the crimped ends to complete my plug to plug ends, but I'd rather NOT have 62 soldered splices to troubleshoot down the line if something goes wrong.

I've read some stuff about the Engineer PA-09 and PA-10 crimping tools, as well as the PAD-01 KIT. I'm just not sure which crimp tool will work for the JAE IL-AG5 ends.

A Million Thanks in Advance...

[rkrenicki]

I highly recommend the Engineer PA-09. You can get them on Amazon.co.jp for cheaper than anywhere else, and they will ship worldwide.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B002AVVO7K

[jhill1977]

Thanks for the recommendation Rkrenicki.

I just ordered the Engineer PA-09 crimp tool from Amazon. I went the US route, as it will be here by the weekend, along with my IL-AG5 pins and 18 pin socket from Mouser.

It's only taken me TWO YEARS, but I can FINALLY see the finish line for this project.

[jhill1977]

Well, I've got my adapter board all soldered and my adapter harnesses fully assembled and tested. My cluster will be installed tomorrow...wish me luck.

[rkrenicki]

If anyone else is looking for one of the UK market 85015AE110 clusters.. I just stuck the one from my "RS30" project up on eBay. This does include my PCB adapter too.

I am open to some reasonable offers, and I am more apt to accept it if it is done outside of eBay and do not have to pay their fees. You can PM me here, or message me on facebook.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304047742173

[Adro92]

Thanks to this awesome thread I was able to do this in my 2002 liberty RX. Managed to pickup some white LED's to make the rings look nice. If i was to do this again I would have extended the wires as it does become a tight fit once you add on more wires.