[oem.plus_440gc]

Ok. Update time.

Just got everything installed today. Not everything as smooth as I had hoped, but about as smooth as I expected...

1. Adapter harness. Works great from cho_tedd on ebay and he was helpful today in trying to get a glitch figured out. It seems as though the speed limit info (in both cluster and HUD) are not compatible with the adapter. I can't confirm if this is only an issue with the adapter from ebay, or if this would happen with the adapter from bimecu as well. I reached out to MoeTE87 and he unfortunately does not have speed limit info on his car to compare. If anyone else gets the bimecu adapter and has speed limit info working, I'd love to know. UPDATE: Tried removing the adapter and plugging the cluster direct to the car and the speed limit info worked. So the adapter I have is not compatible with that option. I'm speaking to bimecu as well to see if theirs would be compatible.

2. Virginization/coding. I don't think I would not recommend the ebay seller I used for this. They were quite slow in the process and in the end, the coding needed to be redone so I ended up using coding dynamics who got me up and running in about 10 minutes. Full disclosure. Virginization was advertised as $130 (was advertised for 6WB). After sending the cluster he asked if I wanted him to code it as well so it would just be plug and play when I got it back. I said sure as long as he knew the coding for the F8X cluster to F3X. He said no problem. $50. He had my cluster for about 2 week to virginize and code and when I got the final invoice it showed $180 for virginization and $50 for coding. Apparently, clusters after 2015 have a newer chip that take longer to virginize and are therefore more expensive. Figured, whatever, I'm not getting the cluster back without paying, so I paid. Got my cluster installed this morning and nothing was working right coding wise. Got on the laptop with coding dynamics and had it up and running in 10 minutes, so that was another $50 down the drain for coding that didnt work.

Overall, I'm super happy with the upgrade. But if anyone else wants to do this, my recommendation would be to reach out to coding dynamics on IG directly and have them send you a fully coded F8X cluster (and have him for live support when installing if you have any issues). All in here's my cost breakdown.

Cluster - $175 +$20 shipping (cluster has a few scratches in the lens, but I'll swap it with the lens from my stock cluster to make it look brand new).

Coding/Virginization - $130 + $50 (2015+ cluster) + $50 coding (didnt work) + $150 coding from coding dynamics

Adapter - ebay cho_tedd - $200 + $50 shipping. Definitely would recommend (especially if you don't have speed limit info). Again, not sure if speed limit info would work with the bimecu adapter so source may not matter.

All in, about $830. Granted I could have saved $50 by not having the ebay seller "code" the cluster, but I don't think you can really do this properly for much under $800. Take that for what its worth. To me, it was worth it to gain what is, IMO, a much nicer cluster and the addition of the M HUD features.

If I were to do it again, I would probably just buy a virginized/coded cluster directly from coding dynamics, the adapter from ebay, and know it would be a 10 minute hassle free install once I got the cluster and adapter. Should still be right in the $800-$850 range I believe.

Still cheaper than a 6WB, and for me, I prefer the looks of the cluster and the features of the M HUD to the 6WB. Others may not.

Couple more things I figured I'd mention (SPECIFIC TO HAVING THE ADAPTER).

Eco/Comfort/Sport/Sport+ modes. When flipping through they do display in the center portion of the display the way they do on the 6WA, however there is no Eco mode so it only displays 3 options, but you center idrive screen allows you to scroll through all 4 modes. Where the DCT shift aggressiveness indicator is in the cluster will go through the 3 modes and fill the blocks there accordingly. Again, with 4 modes on the F30, but only 3 modes on the cluster, you end up with slightly different alignment between. I never use eco, so that doesnt matter to me. Comfort/Sport/Sport+ is all i need and works just fine in the cluster.

S/D on the shifter. This works just find as well, however, once you take manual mode, there's no way to tell the difference between manual and sport shift.

Thanks to MoeTE87 for answering some of my questions along the way. If anyone has any questions, feel free to hit me up as well. I can share pics/vids/etc as needed, but didnt post any for now as mine looks pretty much identical to Moes.