Overhead check control panel on 318i?

[G-Man]

Has anyone ever retrofitted an overhead check control panel on a base model 91 E30 318i? The 318is coupe had the overhead control check panel but the sedan just had a check seat belt and airbag light. I disconected that when I converted from an airbag steering wheel to a M-Tech1 wheel.  If the wiring is already in place (i.e., foglight wiring in place for E30's that have foglight delete) I suspect it would be an easy install. 

G-Man

[1998ccc]

In the US, all we got was the seatbelt and SRS light. Were does the oil level sensor go in the M42 engine?

[bmwman91]

I looked into this years ago. Doing it will require a full chassis wiring harness from a 325 which came with the full check panel. The harness from the panel is hard-tied into the chassis harness, and there are various little relay modules which install all over the chassis to detect light bulb failures and whatnot. Trying to splice it in would be even more difficult than gutting the car to pull the harness. So, it would be an ENORMOUS job. Also, you'd need to do some custom work to install oil & coolant level sensors.

If you are really good with electronics, you could design a new PCB for it that uses a microcontroller or other solid-state logic, and thread new current sensing lines through the chassis to get the same functionality. But, you probably need an EE degree or equivalent experience to pull that off.