How I Made My 20 Year Old BMW Look Modern Again (E46, E90, E60, E82, E70)

What we have here on the table is the final version of the ID4 motion digital cluster that's going to go on the E46 M3. The problem with my specific OEM cluster, it's just started falling apart. It's a high mileage car, 173,000 miles, the needles are losing its color. The LCD display started like burning up for whatever reason or melting. It's not working properly anymore. BMW would charge you like over a thousand dollars for one of these brand new. So this would be a perfect time, at least for me, to upgrade to an all digital cluster that is fully customizable and it really helps you stand out from the rest of the E46 BMWs out there. For those of you guys that didn't watch the first two videos with the prototype, it is a two-piece system. So you have the cover here. So you have the trim that fills the gap in the dashboard. And then you have the screen right here. As you guys can see, it has a matte appearance on the screen. I did slap on the included anti-reflective screen protector, which allows you to see the display and whatever lighting condition there might be where you're driving. The back of the unit here has these two ports. That's where you plug these two. And you have a USB section here. You have a thumb drive, so you can update the system in the future when ID4Motion decides to add new things to the cluster. You can also add an extended USB cable. So that way, once you install the cluster, you don't have to remove it in order to update it. And the top bracket is going to fall right on top of the plastic piece, where you would use the two little bolts to tighten it and install it properly in the dashboard. Best part about this upgrade right here is truly plug and play, no code necessary. You literally connect to the factory components behind the dashboard. And then you have this end that goes behind the cluster. And this last connection here, which is for the ID4Motion remote, that allows you to control the display, change themes, use added features, and stuff like that. But it's fairly easy. It's bolted on to the top here with two T20 screws. Then you fold the cluster down. You pull it out just enough so you get behind it and remove these two connectors. Then you adjust the steering wheel to make room. So you can pull it out, bring it down, and then you can just kind of wedge it off the side here. All right, so we have the first connector that goes in just like this. And then once you press it in, it locks into place right there. Then the second connector is very similar. You just line it up and it should just kind of lock into place once you push it in there. There you go. That's pretty much all you have to do. The rest happens on the digital cluster side. What I have back here is a USB extension cable that I ran with the prototype behind the air tube and it comes down under the kick panel. So if I ever have to update the cluster, this is how I'm going to go ahead and do it without having to remove the cluster once it's installed. As far as the wire for the remote, I'm just going to run it behind the dash here and kind of just move it to this side for now just to get the video done. When I have more time off camera, I'll probably route it somewhere underneath this area so it's a much cleaner look. All right, so we have the two plugs. It goes in the back here. We got the big one. It goes there too. That's pretty much it. Like I said, I have an extension cable, so we're going to go ahead and plug that into the back right here. And then that's it. Now the hardest part is actually just trying to get inside of the dashboard without ruining your very expensive $2,500 steering wheel. It shouldn't be that bad. So we'll wiggle everything inside and then it goes in. Okay, slide it in there. Slide in the other side and boom, you're already 50% of the way done. You got the main unit installed. You guys can see this lines up with the hose for the for the T20 screws. Now we just got to get the plastic cover in there and yeah, we're pretty much done. All right, so the plastic piece, the idea to make sure you install it correctly, you have the two little buttons right here. They're going to fit right into the bottom of the frame and then top portion right here is going to go right underneath the bracket up there. So go ahead and line it up. Position the bottom first. You hear it snap into place. There you go. Then you position the top part right there. So then we're going to go ahead and just put the T20 screw up top and hopefully it's lined up. I think we got it. What's really cool is that unlike the E90X clusters, you don't have to do any modification to the inside of the dash. E90X, you kind of have to cut like a template out of the the air tube. E46, nope. You just put everything where it goes, plug it in and you're good to go. Last thing to do is to plug in the remote, which is right here. Snaps right into place and that's it. You can kind of position this wherever you want. It has a sticky back here once you remove the 3M sticker. You can either place it wherever you want this way or even invert it this way because you can go into the menus of the cluster and invert it if you have to. I'm actually updating the firmware on the cluster. I realized I'm not at the latest one. That's where this extended USB cable came in the clutch because I don't have to remove the dash to update it. Just got to use this USB stick and it updates automatically after you start it. Alright, let's go ahead and switch it on. I'm greeted by the custom Vehicle Vials logo and we have what looks like the stock theme that the cluster comes with. Alright, so I changed quite a few things to match the prototype unit that I had. 180 miles per hour, so I did change it for kilometers to miles per hour. Put the top speed at 180. RPM red line 8200. The yellow line flux switch based on the engine temperature, but you can do it manually if you want to. The time, these gauges, you're able to customize them and change them as well. And then the last thing I haven't done, because I'll do it on camera since it's a very common question, is the mileage. It does carry over the mileage. As you guys can see, 176,000 miles. Sometimes you have to confirm the last three digits, which is in this menu right here. So I'll go ahead and set the odometer. You can increase or decrease it in case it's off by a little bit. Normally, like I said, it's the last three digits, but mine is pretty accurate, so we're going to leave it just like that and then we'll confirm. I'm going to go ahead and change the theme and the color of the cluster to match my setup on the E46 M3. I won't go over all of them in this video because I already covered it in the last two videos, but I will leave links to those videos down in the description below if you guys want to check them out. You can also head to my website where I sell the cluster and you can see all the options there. There are three different themes though. You have matrix out, which is like analog style for your purist. Cool thing is you can change the color to match whatever setup you have going on in the interior of your car or exterior. Then there's hypergrade, which is my personal favorite. It's very modern, a little bit of analog, a little bit of digital. There's an orange colored one that I love. These are all very, very dope though. Very, very cool and very responsive when you drive as you'll see later on. Yeah, you see this is the theme that I like the most. This one right here for sure. So I'm going to go ahead and select that one and then I'll quickly show you orbit drift, which is probably the most modern skin that we have. That one's very cool. So you have the tachometer in the middle with the speed as well. All the information you want to include in the cluster theme, you can do that on the sides, left and right side. Very, very cool. Alright, so here's what my current setup is. I have the fuel gauge on the left hand side, average speed, miles per gallon. You get all the regular BMW warnings at the bottom, which is very cool. Outside temperature here, distance till empty and the right hand side oil temperature. All fully customizable through the menus, which is very cool. So whatever information you want displayed, that's the information you get. Added touches, open the door, this warning pops up, driver's side door open. It's individually censored, so we got the passenger side door. Even if you turn on the headlamps, check out the animation. That's very cool. And my assumption is if you have a four door E46, it'll show each individual door when they're open. Same with the trunk, which I tried it off camera and the same with the hood. I went ahead and swapped in the G-Force meter right here, which is a very cool thing that this cluster unlocks. When you're driving, you can actually see G-Force readings. Let's say you take the E46 to the track, you can kind of look at that, which I'll show you guys a little bit later as well in action. Shift indicator lights is another thing you can enable in the menus. You can adjust it however you want as far as the colors, the blinking status and stuff like that. Maintenance related stuff is there too. Air filter, battery, brake disc, brake fluid. You can turn off or turn on their alerts, set time, send dates, so that way you can monitor when to do the next maintenance interval. Cabin filter, coolant flush, everything guys. So you pretty much have all the features that your stock cluster has plus more in a glorious digital form. I'm not going to cover everything in this video, but if you guys have any questions or concerns about the cluster before you guys make a purchase, you can always reach out to me directly at Vehicle Virals Instagram or you can shoot us an email support at vehiclevirals.com and we're very responsive. We'll get back to you guys and let's go ahead and take the car for a drive and see what it really looks like in action. So I think I'm going to switch themes from Orbit Drift to Hypergrid. Orbit Drift still seems to have a little slight delay like the prototype unit. I think it has to do something with the information being transferred from the car itself to the cluster because the E90X, E70, E60 clusters don't have that issue. Here I'll show you guys. The rev is not bad. It's not terrible. It's actually once you start driving that you see a slight delay when it comes to the speed. So there's like a very slight delay, it's not massive. Yeah you can see it right there when it went from 42 to 45. So yeah Hypergrid is actually a lot more responsive. I think it looks kind of cooler too. Quick note, I don't have an issue with my AC working but there has been reported issues with some E46 drivers that after installing the digital cluster the AC unit seems to bug out and it doesn't work properly. That's a fix that ID.4 Motion is working on relentlessly every day to fix and they should have a solution for it very soon. So just because it is a new cluster it's going to have its bugs and updates are going to come very frequently. Here's what a cluster looks like from the distance. Definitely gives the car a very nice modern look within the interior. I do have the shift indicator lights activated which you can see there on the bottom left and right hand side. Look closely you got the g-force meter in the middle. So let me turn the wheel and you can see it kind of move around. Yeah so it's pretty much tracking it. I'll turn those up so you guys can hear more of the car and see the cluster a lot better. I went ahead and changed it to the analog style which is matrix out so I can show you guys how that one functions. Rev it a few times so you guys can see the latency. You guys can see it's not bad at all with this theme. With the orbit drift it needs a little bit of work but I'm sure the ID.4 guys are going to provide an update for that very soon to fix that but this one is pretty good. So that's pretty much it guys. If you guys have any questions about the E46 cluster or for any of the other BMW e-chassis cars like the E90, E60, E82 make sure and reach out directly. Before you guys leave the video I really appreciate it if you guys hit the like button it really does help out the channel and as always thanks for watching until next time.