New 318is owner

[Erik the Red]

Greetings everyone...recently bought a Brillantrot 91 318is after having owned an eta '87 325 for 10+ years.  So I've been doing a little adjustment to my driving style--they're like two different cars.  

Couple of new owner questions:

1.  Is there a sneaky way to tell the VDO from Motometer speedos without pulling the instrument cluster?  The odo died about five miles after I bought the car.   Had this happen to my '87; the speedo still functions so it must be the gears.  

2.  Is there a common problem with the horn pushes on the airbag steering wheel not functioning?  The horns don't work, and before I go into troubleshooting, it would be nice to know if it was the steering wheel contacts.  And is there a safe way to remove the airbag?  I may want to substitute a "regular" steering wheel.

3.  Passenger window is inop--not the switch, and there's no sound from the motor, so the regulator mechanism is probably OK (I've repaired them before).  Is there a common problem on late E30s with either the motor or the wiring?

TIA, Y'all

mike

[DanOKC]

1. I have 2 Motometer clusters & they both have MotoMeter in raised letters printed on the faceplate. Look between 140 on the speedo & the 0 on the tach to see it.  There maybe a VDO on the faceplate elsewhere.

2. & 3. I Don't know.

[DesktopDave]

Welcome to the 'club!  Hope you find some answers here.  On to your problems...

1. Yep, look for the logo in the cluster.  The parts can exchange, so it's possible that you have a VDO speedo in a MotoMeter cluster...they're electrically identical from what I've seen.

2. I''ve had trouble with the horn contact slip ring.  It's not separate as later e36's are...just a copper ring on the rear of the wheel.  Check the horns/relay and fuse to be sure first.  You can absolutely trade a non-airbag wheel for your airbag one.  Unfortunately, you'll get an SRS light until you take it back to the dealer (or use CarSoft 6.5 to reset it from what I've heard).  You'll also need the non-airbag control stalks, as their "pullback" is shorter to match up with the shorter non AB wheel.

3. The rear window lift motors can rust solid.  I've never rebuilt one myself as swapping the switches always did the trick...opening them up to clean up the contacts with a bit of 800 grit and some dielectric grease usually works wonders.  If you do pull the motor, straight apple cider vinegar is an excellent rust remover.