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Michael9218 · 02-13-2020, 08:41 AM

After installing my new carbon fiber dashboard, I now needed to install my AiM MXL2 display dash.

Some background:
Before starting this process, spend plenty of time studying the information available from the AiM-sportline.com website (https://www.aim-sportline.com/en/products-all.htm). Here you’ll be able to review the many dashes they offer and download the RS3 configuration software. The RS3 software will help you decide which dash is best for your situation. In this software you can mock up configurations on what you want to display and how you want it laid out. After a lot of consideration I decided on the MXL2.

The RS3 software will also let you see the data the dash can pull in through the CANBUS from the MSS70 ECU and MK60E5 ABS. Probably one of the coolest features is the ability to set up alarms. You can use them for many things, from low oil pressure to predictive lap compared with best lap in session. You can also set up multiple variables for alarms. Like oil pressure below 40 if rpm’s are above 5,000.

The configurations aren’t fully customizable, so some may see that as a limitation. I also didn’t like the RPM display options. With a redline of 8,200 on my S54, I wanted an RPM scale that went to 9,000. They only offer 2,000 increments, so 8,000 or 10,000. 10,000 made the scale too small, so I opted for 8,000 and have set up the shift lights on the top of the display to light up to 8,300. Hopefully this will suffice.

Physical Install:
For my application, I wanted to mount the AiM dash on the steering column immediately in front of the steering wheel. Bimmerworld sells a mount for the E46 that uses the four screws that mount the column stalks and such. While the bolt pattern on the Z4 is the same as the E46, the steering shaft must be different as the BW part doesn’t fit. But for $25 it was worth it to use this as a template to make my own bracket to mount the AiM dash as the bolt holes are the same. If you make your own bracket, you’ll want to use a 1/8” spacer on the top mount to the AiM dash so it tilts a bit. The BW bracket is bent to accomplish this, but I wanted a more rigid bracket and so bent the edges over making it impossible to bend the bracket for tilt.

Wiring:
Basic installation of the wiring harness is pretty simple. All the wires you’ll need to tap into are on the instrument cluster plug. If you’re planning to keep your instrument cluster in place, than you’ll want to splice into the wires so you can still use the plug. Before starting, I would strongly suggest studying the wiring diagrams here: https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e86-z4-m-3.2-cou/

Rather than cut the wires, de-pin the wire from the plug and strip back the insulation and solder the jumper wires and use heat shrink (this is why you de-pin it so you can get the heat shrink on).

For the instrument cluster plug pin locations, reference this list: https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e....2-cou/YXCyggk
Pin 1 (brown) is your ground wire.
Pin 3 (violet/yellow) will give you power in the key position 1/2/3 (acces/run/start). Pin 5 (green/yellow) if you only want to power the dash when the key is in 2/3.
Pin 16 (yellow/brown) is CAN low.
Pin 17 (yellow/red) is CAN high.

If you plan to leave your instrument cluster plugged in, than fuel will be available on the CANBUS and your AiM will display fuel level. If not, than things get a bit more complicated…

If you remove your instrument cluster like I did, than you will need to use an ohm to voltage converter that you can get from Iron Canyon Motorsports (http://www.ironcanyonmotorsports.com/icm-fuel-sender/). Installation instructions are included, but don’t include specific wiring instructions for a Z4M. After a bit of trial and error, and talking to Mark at Iron Canyon (very helpful!), I determined the wires you need to tap for this module are pin 24 (black/red/white) and pin 25 (black/red/yellow). Connect both to the bare lead from the ICM. You’ll also need to ground the two wires in pin 11 (brown/black/white) and pin 12 (brown/black/yellow). Now your AiM should be able to read the voltage from the fuel tank. You’ll still need to drain the fuel tank and go through the ICM procedure to translate mV to liters or gallons for the display.

To drain the tank, I referenced this DIY from Pelican Parts: https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...mp_Testing.htm

For oil pressure, I used the AiM pressure sensor. Simple plug and play.

Since my instrument cluster was removed, I also needed to have an alarm for ABS fault. This also proved a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, a friend had a homemade module that used a powered 2.7k ohm resister. Essentially you will need to tap the wire at pin 8 (green/black/yellow). This is the signal wire from the ABS unit (pin 44). I then used pin 5 from above for the power to the resister. Works like a charm. Here’s a clip of the alarm I set up. Both oil pressure and ABS will flash red. Should definitely get my attention!

Another cool thing that the AiM can do is send a powered signal out. Unfortunately AiM makes you buy the expansion cable to use this feature. I decided to eliminate my light control module and use the brake switch signal from the ABS to have the AiM power a relay for the brake lights. I put my running lights on a simple rocker switch (I have no headlights). I also used this feature to power my Spal radiator fan. It’s set to come on at 175 degrees and turn off if mph is over 35. Very cool!

The one thing I wasn’t able to figure out was how to display the DSC status. Since I run my car without DSC active, I decided this just wasn’t worth the chase.

I should also mention that some of the idiot lights are also not available to display (SES, TPMS, highbeams...). If you don't see the data element in RS3, than you can't display it.

Hopefully, someone will find this info useful…

AiM update:
Unplugging the instrument cluster caused an issue with EWS. Everything was fine for a while until one day the motor just wouldn't fire. Took a lot of time and effort from many sources to figure out that it was simply the instrument cluster being unplugged. The instrument cluster is a gateway to many things, including reading various modules.

So, I removed the front face of the instrument cluster and tied it up under the dash. A bonus to connecting the instrument cluster is that the fuel read out is much better than using the Iron Canyon Module. I never could get a useful read on fuel when the car was in motion. If you leave the instrument cluster plugged in, you can disregard the instruction above about wiring in the ICM and calibrating your fuel.

I’ve done numerous track days now with the MXL2 and can say it’s a fantastic little display. All the info you need is staring you in the face. Makes monitoring your gauges so simple. Highly recommended!

02-13-2020, 08:41 AM	#163
Michael9218 Lieutenant 595 Rep 484 Posts Drives: 2007 Z4 M Coupe Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Woodstock, GA iTrader: (0)	AiM MXL2 install After installing my new carbon fiber dashboard, I now needed to install my AiM MXL2 display dash. Some background: Before starting this process, spend plenty of time studying the information available from the AiM-sportline.com website (https://www.aim-sportline.com/en/products-all.htm). Here you’ll be able to review the many dashes they offer and download the RS3 configuration software. The RS3 software will help you decide which dash is best for your situation. In this software you can mock up configurations on what you want to display and how you want it laid out. After a lot of consideration I decided on the MXL2. The RS3 software will also let you see the data the dash can pull in through the CANBUS from the MSS70 ECU and MK60E5 ABS. Probably one of the coolest features is the ability to set up alarms. You can use them for many things, from low oil pressure to predictive lap compared with best lap in session. You can also set up multiple variables for alarms. Like oil pressure below 40 if rpm’s are above 5,000. The configurations aren’t fully customizable, so some may see that as a limitation. I also didn’t like the RPM display options. With a redline of 8,200 on my S54, I wanted an RPM scale that went to 9,000. They only offer 2,000 increments, so 8,000 or 10,000. 10,000 made the scale too small, so I opted for 8,000 and have set up the shift lights on the top of the display to light up to 8,300. Hopefully this will suffice. Physical Install: For my application, I wanted to mount the AiM dash on the steering column immediately in front of the steering wheel. Bimmerworld sells a mount for the E46 that uses the four screws that mount the column stalks and such. While the bolt pattern on the Z4 is the same as the E46, the steering shaft must be different as the BW part doesn’t fit. But for $25 it was worth it to use this as a template to make my own bracket to mount the AiM dash as the bolt holes are the same. If you make your own bracket, you’ll want to use a 1/8” spacer on the top mount to the AiM dash so it tilts a bit. The BW bracket is bent to accomplish this, but I wanted a more rigid bracket and so bent the edges over making it impossible to bend the bracket for tilt. Wiring: Basic installation of the wiring harness is pretty simple. All the wires you’ll need to tap into are on the instrument cluster plug. If you’re planning to keep your instrument cluster in place, than you’ll want to splice into the wires so you can still use the plug. Before starting, I would strongly suggest studying the wiring diagrams here: https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e86-z4-m-3.2-cou/ Rather than cut the wires, de-pin the wire from the plug and strip back the insulation and solder the jumper wires and use heat shrink (this is why you de-pin it so you can get the heat shrink on). For the instrument cluster plug pin locations, reference this list: https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e....2-cou/YXCyggk Pin 1 (brown) is your ground wire. Pin 3 (violet/yellow) will give you power in the key position 1/2/3 (acces/run/start). Pin 5 (green/yellow) if you only want to power the dash when the key is in 2/3. Pin 16 (yellow/brown) is CAN low. Pin 17 (yellow/red) is CAN high. If you plan to leave your instrument cluster plugged in, than fuel will be available on the CANBUS and your AiM will display fuel level. If not, than things get a bit more complicated… If you remove your instrument cluster like I did, than you will need to use an ohm to voltage converter that you can get from Iron Canyon Motorsports (http://www.ironcanyonmotorsports.com/icm-fuel-sender/). Installation instructions are included, but don’t include specific wiring instructions for a Z4M. After a bit of trial and error, and talking to Mark at Iron Canyon (very helpful!), I determined the wires you need to tap for this module are pin 24 (black/red/white) and pin 25 (black/red/yellow). Connect both to the bare lead from the ICM. You’ll also need to ground the two wires in pin 11 (brown/black/white) and pin 12 (brown/black/yellow). Now your AiM should be able to read the voltage from the fuel tank. You’ll still need to drain the fuel tank and go through the ICM procedure to translate mV to liters or gallons for the display. To drain the tank, I referenced this DIY from Pelican Parts: https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...mp_Testing.htm For oil pressure, I used the AiM pressure sensor. Simple plug and play. Since my instrument cluster was removed, I also needed to have an alarm for ABS fault. This also proved a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, a friend had a homemade module that used a powered 2.7k ohm resister. Essentially you will need to tap the wire at pin 8 (green/black/yellow). This is the signal wire from the ABS unit (pin 44). I then used pin 5 from above for the power to the resister. Works like a charm. Here’s a clip of the alarm I set up. Both oil pressure and ABS will flash red. Should definitely get my attention! Another cool thing that the AiM can do is send a powered signal out. Unfortunately AiM makes you buy the expansion cable to use this feature. I decided to eliminate my light control module and use the brake switch signal from the ABS to have the AiM power a relay for the brake lights. I put my running lights on a simple rocker switch (I have no headlights). I also used this feature to power my Spal radiator fan. It’s set to come on at 175 degrees and turn off if mph is over 35. Very cool! The one thing I wasn’t able to figure out was how to display the DSC status. Since I run my car without DSC active, I decided this just wasn’t worth the chase. I should also mention that some of the idiot lights are also not available to display (SES, TPMS, highbeams...). If you don't see the data element in RS3, than you can't display it. Hopefully, someone will find this info useful… AiM update: Unplugging the instrument cluster caused an issue with EWS. Everything was fine for a while until one day the motor just wouldn't fire. Took a lot of time and effort from many sources to figure out that it was simply the instrument cluster being unplugged. The instrument cluster is a gateway to many things, including reading various modules. So, I removed the front face of the instrument cluster and tied it up under the dash. A bonus to connecting the instrument cluster is that the fuel read out is much better than using the Iron Canyon Module. I never could get a useful read on fuel when the car was in motion. If you leave the instrument cluster plugged in, you can disregard the instruction above about wiring in the ICM and calibrating your fuel. I’ve done numerous track days now with the MXL2 and can say it’s a fantastic little display. All the info you need is staring you in the face. Makes monitoring your gauges so simple. Highly recommended! Last edited by Michael9218; 11-03-2020 at 06:52 AM..
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