BMW Blog

looking for the VSS wire, someone anyone please help (this can't be a very difficult question)

vehicle speed sensor?
pins 3 and 4 of connector C on the instrument panel. Connector C appears to have 12pins, but only 4 are used, as follows:
1: Brown/yellow ("fuel tank sensor" and "board computer")
2: empty
3: Brown/Black (VSS)
4: Brown/Red (VSS)
5 Yellow/white (for headlights)
6-12: empty

Thats from the bentley, I have no idea what that looks like in the car.

black_box
Thank you for looking that up for me, you are a life saver (or at least a person that has saved me $250).

I am looking for the Vehicle Speed Sensor wire for a navigation input. Why are there two VSS pins ? Are they both comming from the sensor in the Differential? Is one speed and the other Tach?

I assume the two wires are positive and negative leads. the Brown/Red is unique to the VSS, but the Brown/Black is shared with another set of sensors (Fuel Level Sensor and Fuel Tank Sensor II, which are connected in series), so I'd guess that the brown/black is the ground.

In one of your other threads, Croak mentioned that the wire is also in the stereo harness. He said it was a white wire, bentley has it as BLK/WHT. I haven't messed with the wiring, I assumed that blk/wht meant a black wire w/ a white stripe, but if Croak is correct then maybe it is a white wire in a bundle surrounded by a black casing? It will probably make sense when you get in there.

In the radio diagram, its called the "VSS output" and it is a single wire, so that may be the one you want to tap in to.

black_box again you are bringing very good news to the table. I thought that was the wire but wasn't sure. It is all black with a white stripe I will post a picture of it l8r tonight:atom

pics won't do me any good, I'm going strictly by whats in the bentley. I haven't opened any of that stuff up on my car yet. The black/white wire should go into pin 10 of the radio. There are two different schematics, one for a 6 speaker setup, and another for the hi-fi 10 speaker, but both have pin 10 as the black/white from the VSS.

If you need more info tonight, you can reach me on AIM too ("bvalenzo").

great! I just checked my wiring harness it is on #10 blk with a white stripe just like you said. I am a very happy man about right now!