All Activity

Morning Steven I actually posted pictures of the cause for K-bus faults The problem is in the boot mainly so the first thing needed is to fix the bus faults, only then will you be able to clear down faults and find the cause of the issue if indeed you have one. Then of course there is the uncomfortable conversation with the garage about who should pay for all the unnecessary works and component changes. So again In the pictures you can see cable splices in the main wiring loom in the boot the loom is located on the boot floor below the Fuse board in the right hand cubby you will need to remove a bit of trim to get to it BMW make these splice/joints by twisting and compressing the join then covering it with a clear plastic sleeve. Moisture gets in and the black stain you see through the clear plastic is corrosion. The pic Cable splices shows the K-bus on the left of the picture Yellow/green Orange with mine they just fell apart so I remade them with soldered joins and shrink wrap after digging I re-made all the joins you see in the pictures That is where you need to start Your Garage seem clueless show them these picture tell them that is where the issue starts and hopefully ends then they can clear the K-bus and you may have a chance of sorting any issues that remain. If the control units they have changed have not been registered to the chassis they may need doing but start with the K-bus Personally I would DIY so you know its done Dave

Morning JC Bit of a history lesson coming up 😅 A generic scanner won't help much as it will only read Key components DME maybe Transmission etc, most of the high end manufacturers use a dedicated Bus system to allow communication between control units. Due competition laws in the US Manufacturers had to allow some access hence the Generic scanners can see the key components indicate a fault not necessarily the cause. Early systems often ended up with people changing parts until the issue was fixed or they got rid of the car. As an example a Misfire could be a sensor issue, an Air/Vacuum leak or a fuel pressure issue. I have always enjoyed maintaining my own cars so have gathered a comprehensive tool kit since the late 80's diagnostics became more and more important so In my home garage I have an old Windows 7 laptop that now runs diagnostic programs for cars I have owned Mercedes Star, Volvo, Range Rover, Toyota, Subaru, and of course BMW. Early BMW's used I-bus communication so I brought a copy of BMW 1.4.0 (£20) which was a revelation, it showed my 2001 4.4 X5 had 70+ control units several with attendant sensors it also allowed me to alter or set Comfort functions that normally were Dealer only and charged appropriately £££ 🤣. When BMW moved to K-bus and MOST (2006>) it required an upgrade in Diagnostics to INPA (nothing to do with restoring Dealer exclusivity of course) Happily the hackers soon had copies available and the same is true of the latest iteration ISTA which lives on my laptop in the garage 😁 My current E70 X5 has 97 control units plus sensors (I believe your X3 is similar) with my TPMS on the cars screen it will warn if a tyre looses pressure but with INPA/ISTA I can see and set pressure differentials by % INPA/ISTA will tell me if it is a sensor problem or control module problem. I can interrogate individual sensors and get Part numbers etc. The program also has WIS (workshop information system) TIS (technical information system) and Wiring diagrams. New or exchange control units can be Programmed to the car so all Dealer functions are covered. My copy of INPA/ISTA cost £100 if I recall and over the last 10 years has saved me and friends and family many times that. My last issue was a rear suspension problem ISTA told me Rear Left ride height sensor continuity on inspection the plug had started to disintegrate so replacement plug and re-pinned total cost £11 and a couple of hours of my time There are many systems available now Autel, i-Carsoft, Foxwell and several others all are around the £100 mark though as always if you have deep pockets you can pay more 😁 Good Luck hope the above is helpful Dave

Thanks for the reply, Greydog. I also have a generic ODBC scanner. I am going to give it a try to see if I could find more details of the error code. Since I have already replaced all 4 new tire sensors and a used RDC, I am not sure if the issue is the RDC. I am also interested to learn more about the BMW INPA/ISTA. Do you have a link by any chance? Many thanks!

Hi guys back again i posted about 10 weeks ago with error on the dash 4x4 dsc ebv abs failure had loads of faults come up alot where kcan line communication took it to the garage and it's been there for the last 9 weeks they changed the transfer case module and the dsc module and it cleared the faults but when they started the car 1 air bag wouldn't inflate so they decided to change the airbag and the compressor once they've done this they start it up again and both airbags won't In flate they said they plugged it back in and it yet again has kcan line faults so they've decided to change the bcm module but that has done nothink im lost with this car and it seems the garage are just chucking any random module at it they have said there is 7 more modules on the kcan line they can try but my bill.is racking up any help I would appreciate

Afternoon Dave, Thanks indeed fort the great forum and the quick very informative reply. If you add a "0" to the price of the motors you arrive at the quote we had from BMW - so that is going in the bin. I'd seen a couple of videos a while back and thought it might be more than I'm happy to bite off and chew, but I will get some tools as you suggest and see how painful the trim removal is for my rather Clarksonesque skill set.. For my info, is the spindle drive the entire ram and I will be simply switching those over/is there anything more complex on the electricals/does anything need to be re-programmed when the new spindles are plugged in? Thanks again for the reply - much appreciated. All best GAH

Hi Gary I did the exact job for a friend of my wife, I did a search of www.realoem.com for the correct part numbers left/right then she searched Google and brought both spindle drives for £110 delivered with 2 year warranty. Changing them requires trim removal so a decent set of trim removal tools and a Torx set will be needed. I did use a garden rake with a towel wrapped around it to support the tail gate as neither of the girls could reach 😅. The rest is straight forward, though getting all the trim out of the way is fiddly the job is plug and play. Couple of good Videos on line About 21/2 hrs work with Tea and biscuits 🤣 Dave

Hello We have a LHD X3 we use mainly from driving from UK to Greece - the tailgate lifts perfectly well but on closing it stops halfway down - it will continue and close properly with some gentle assistance on the way down. The car was MOT'd at a BMW main dealer a couple of days back, we had a free visual inspection and I asked them to investigate the issue. As per BMW the 'motors are on their way out'. Given that their quote was shall we say rather strong (I appreciate it is a quite tedious job to replace them) my question is are the rams serviceable or are they really a replacement job?

Morning JC Look like you brought a scanner that just does TPMS systems ?? I have 2 Diagnostic scan tools (1) BMW INPA/ISTA which is the same as BMW Dealers use and (2) iCarsoft both systems will give me a code that indicates which wheel sensor is at fault or if it is the Controller. Plus of course they also read all other control units on the car. With your monitor what does the Instruction book say? does it give a list of codes and their meaning? TP sensors do fail some have batteries in them they are not expensive to buy online (Ebay, Amazon etc) the costly bit is to fit them, obviously tyres need to come off and be refitted. If it was me I would wait until tyre change time Dave

Thanks Greydog! I have not tried the battery unplug. But I have purchased Autel TS508 to try out and it found the error below from the ODBC scan. I tried to erase the DTC from this menu and the TPM is working again until I left the car for a few hours. Does anyone know what is causing the error? Thanks!

Morning Jim A Seat owned by a neighbours wife from new but only used for school run duties was completely clogged at lower miles than yours. Predictably the Dealer said new Turbo new EGR and a swathe of other parts £££, a local Diesel specialist stripped, cleaned and rebuilt everything and gave her the advice to give the car a good run at motorway speeds once a month. Years ago my son had issues with his Toyota pickup the dealer mechanic told him an "Italian Tune Up" (engine up to temp and keep revs over 2.5k for half an hour) needs doing every few weeks. As a Tree Surgeon he tended to be trundling around off road at slow speeds and low revs. With luck it's just the actuator mechanism Dave

Many thanks for your input Dave. My car does have twin turbos. I checked for play on the cold side of the larger/bottom turbo by removing the air intake but I take your point about the hot side taking more of a hammering. I can feel the actuator move at the vacuum box but I can't access or see the point where it connects to the turbo. I don't know if the flap moves freely - maybe the hot side is full of carbon as I tend to do short trips. Time to dig deeper so I've just dropped it off with a local turbo specialists who say they can run diagnostic tests and do a route cause analysis. The car has only done 55,000 miles, full service history with oil/filter changes every 4000 to 5000 miles so I'm hoping the turbo hasn't failed already 😟 Thanks Jim

Anyone selling a E30 Touring? Pref Black.

Hi Darren Think about how much you have saved at Main Dealer hourly rates 😁 Plus the satisfaction of a job well done Modern cars not designed to be DIY friendly 😅 the cynic in me thinks it is a ploy to drive us towards the dealer network. They will probably tell us they would never do that, yeah right 🤣 Well done Dave

Could also be a stuck idle control valve. Remove it and give it a shake… it should click clack noise opening freely.

Borrowed from another site… unplug the maf and clear the codes… see what happens. i think me and greydog are on the right lines

I have an old scanner hand held I had a body shop that I deliver paint to they ordered me a BMW MASS AIRFLOW SENSOR I replaced it on Saturday morning I did not disconnect the battery the car idled good so on Sunday morning I went for Gas and the car started to idle erratic and the service light came on so I put the old Sensor back and cleared the codes 1415 the car runs fine just erratic idle when stopped at a light Any Ideas thank you very much for getting back to me I appreciate it anything you can think of that I did wrong 😑

Hi Ronald. What scanner are you using? I have a cheap 110 obd unit, an autel eu705 (or something ) and a pc with bmw 1.4.0 programme on it. all give me an option to reset adaptations in the dme menu.

Thanks for the reply Dave, I’ve managed to get as far as the new cover on today. Couldn’t find my 1/4 to 3/8 torque adaptor to complete the cover so had to order another one. what a job to do, lots involved like you said. my gasket had tons of cracks in it so I’m not surprised it leaked.

Good morning thank you for reaching back to me I don’t know how to reset the perimeters and adjustments unless it is only to Disconnect the battery for 15 to 30 minutes is that something that I need to do thank you please let me know 🙏

when I put the new sensor in I only cleared the codes with my scanner did I have to disconnect the battery for 15 to 30 minutes so the computer would adjust to the new sensor I don’t know about any adjustments thank you for getting back to me

My thought is that the maf sensor is working correctly. did you reset the adjustments and parameters after replacing it? I agree with @Greydog. check the inlet pipe between the maf sensor and the throttle body for any cracks, especially on the elbow part. Throttle body could also be the issue. my x5 has the 3.0i engine and was all over the place with idle and cutting out etc. it was the throttle body which was faulty , but while I replaced it, I found the inlet pipe had little splits in it at the elbow folds and was leaking in air, confusing the mixture as the new maf sensor was saying one thing and the air ratio was another. The old maf sensor was reading a lower value and the engine had over compensated for it. Check for splits, reset the values and see where it goes.

Morning Jamie Welcome to the Forum I would think you need a feed from the Boost relief valve. Are there no instruction with your kit ? Take a look at www.realoem.com put the last 7 digits of your Vin into the search box it will call up your model then check the engine section/inlet/turbo Dave

Morning JIm If memory serves your car has twin turbo's a small one for low/mid range and the bigger one below for mid/top end boost. The vacuum drive shifts boost to the larger turbo, so when you felt for any wobble which turbo were you feeling? and which side remember the exhaust side really does take a battering. From your description the Vacuum drive is working but the flap it operates into the large turbo or the turbo it's self needs some investigating Those are my thoughts Dave

@phill Thompson How did you get on with the Z3 - did you buy it ?

Morning Ronald Welcome to the Forum First it would be unlikely the a Starter would cause this fault code as the starter is underneath and the issue you have is at the top. A fault code indicates a problem it isn't necessarily the cause, start by looking for leaks in any of the Vacuum lines and hoses on the Inlet side after 13 years the hoses on your car will quite probably be dry and cracked in places. Also check all wiring and plugs if cleaning use a good electrical contact cleaner. The replacement you brought, is it correct for your model ? As an after thought check the engine mounts I am not sure whether your mounts have a vacuum link Dave