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535xit gremilins

4K views 30 replies 14 participants last post by  p2abbott 
#1 · (Edited)
535xit gremlins

I was coming home from a meeting on the expressway today in a heavy rainstorm. Car had been parked in the rain for several hours today.

HVAC fan was speeding up and slowing down, radio staion changed once and then when I got off the hwy, stopped at a light, car shifted into park????

Pushed d and all was well. Checked spare tire area for water, didn't see any.

Seems OK now.

I'm supposed to take this car up into the mountains 3 hrs away tomorrow? Maybe ice, rain and or snow.

What do y'all think?? Just a computer hiccup or a real problem. How brave should I be?

Thanks,

Andrew
 
#2 ·
Sounds like it might be an electrical problem. Have you checked the battery to make sure it is fully charged? BMW's (specially the e60s) can act very strange when the battery gets weak.
 
#3 ·
Have not checked, but it is driven every day - had about 20 min of expressway driving today, but last couple of days it has been short trips with hgih electrical load - seat and steering wheel heaters, high heat blower.

We will see what happens. Friend ended up driving their honda van, now hopefully we won't get snowed in.

Thanks,

Andrew
 
#5 ·
Gremlins

Going to dealer next week to look at comfort access problem - I'll make sure that look at the entire electrical system.

Maybe it is all related.

I'll let you know.
 
#8 ·
I've heard issues of the big wide sun roof, first with X3, and with both 3 and 5 wagons. Check out the car thoroughly!
 
#9 ·
Flood, sunroof drain clog

I've read with interest about the issues with the panoramic sunroof. I own a 2006 xit 5 Series wagon. Following a recent downpour in So. Calif., my electronics went haywire while I was driving home from work. I was being warned not to drive the car. I took it to Steve Thomas BMW, where, after examination of my vehicle, I was told that I had left the sunroof open, and leaves had clogged the drains, causing flooding in the trunk, where the electronics are.
I took exception to the insinuation that I had somehow neglected to close my sunroof, and told the service fellow so. He said that the work would not be covered under warranty, and that I may get compensated by my insurance company. My husband found Bimmerfest, and, after reading the drain clog thread with interest, I'm ready to argue that this work should indeed be warranty-covered.
My faith in the integrity of BMW's service is shattered. Why wasn't the service dept. forthcoming about Technical Service Bulletin SI B54 0606? My car is still in the service dept., after I authorized 4 hours of diagnostic labor yesterday. With the information I now have, wondering if the Bimmerfest community can offer advice so that I can effectively deal with this.
 
#10 ·
Rear storage areas were dry, but that doesn't mean that isn't a small leak that caused the problem for me. We will see later in the week.
 
#12 ·
I got my 530iX wagon from them in Nov 09 and apparently they forgot to look at that stuff when the CPOed the car. All the connections were corroding in the back end electronics, and it was not due to the drains but to the seal it self on the roof. So this issue had been an ongoing issue , not some thing new, yet it was still CPOed....:dunno:

I had the car for less than 12 hours before it went in to the shop with 4-5 " of water in the rear end electronics areas from a tropical storm. There was a Minor electrical fire in the rear of the car when the shop guys here pulled the car inside to work on it due to all the water.

$3000 in parts and 25+ days of labor to fix, which took rewiring aft of the fire wall and relocating all 8 ecu/DMS/cpus in the rear of the car to higher up on the sides of the load area in the rear, new trim , new sun roof parts, new head liner, you get the Idea....:eeps:

Thank god the car still had the regular warranty in effect as well as the CPO one. The BMW dealer fixed every thing , and apparently it is a common problem on the E60/61 since there are TSB's on relocating all the Electronics out of the spare tire area to higher spots on the car that are less likely to flood or be submerged if the sun roof seal fails or the tire well fills up from underneath on the sedans. It happens on the X5's and x3 with the Panoramic sun roofs frequently.

When ever it rains now I check to see if there is any water accumulating back there now.
 
#16 ·
Hmmm. Interesting. I posted the contents below in one of the threads. I wonder if it has any bearing to what you guys have. It does make me very curious if wet conditions excaerbate the "gremlins"...

"It was raining cats and dogs the other day when I picked my daughter from ballet. Backing up I had to stop to let a furniture truck go by. PDC sensed the truck and beeped. I-drive showed the truck in very close proximity at the right rear of the car. The problem is the PDC grabbed hold of that signal and would not let go. It kept beeping long after the truck left the area. I cycled the gear shift twice, no dice... so I drove off hoping the speed sensor would close the doors and turn off the beeping at 10 MPH... 25, 40, 50... still there and my daughter was yelling starting to annoy me more than the PDC. I had to manually turn off the PDC to stop anymore damage to my sanity. Right before I got home, 20 minutes later, I turned it back on and it was still wailing away, so off it went again. As soon as I parked the car, I left it running to check the PDC again... silence. The garage door is ahead and shows yellow...

Could it have been the rain that caused it? And only reset by another signal from the front? "

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=413373&page=3
 
#15 ·
Here is the SIB and BMW is supposed to do with it

Here is the SIB that I had to take to my dealer after a water issue. Told me it was rusted and would have to pay for repairs. Had the car 1 week in the middle of Jan in Colorado, no way there would be any rust, way to dry.

Show them the SIB and get the service mgr involved if need be. From the bottom is of the SIB:

WARRANTY INFORMATION
Covered under the terms of the BMW New Vehicle Limited Warranty.
 

Attachments

#17 ·
I had this problem on my 2006 XiT for months. I was lucky in that the dealer replaced the electronics twice, and the battery, all under warrenty, and still missed that my rear drains were clogged.

Thanks to this forum I found the problem myself, and the fix was pretty easy. The test is to open the sunroof and standing on the door ledge, pour H2O into the OUTER track of the sunroof. It is important to stand on the doorsill to see it, or you might think the inner track is the outer. The outer track directs H20 to the drains, and when the drains clog, H20 overflows to the inner track. The inner track is not designed to drain water, and the water drains through C piller down the to the electronics and battery.

If things go well after pouring water into the outer track, H20 drains through the front door and rear (under bumper) drains. Obviously if you are parked on a hill the downslope drain gets the water. If things don't go well, water just pools in the outer track, or drains in the front or rear only (if on level ground should drain through both).

The fix I did was two part:
1) I had problems with the rear drains only, and the rear drains are pretty far tucked under the bumper. At the end of the rear drains is a flapper valve, presumably to keep stuff out. Unfortunately it acts to keep stuff in. I just pulled it off (came off easily). You can access it from under the car, or it can be accessed from the way-back compartment by pulling out the trim over the battery (right side) and tray (left side). It is the thick black rubber tube and dissapears through a lower hole.

2) there are drain plugs under the spare tire and battery. I pulled the one under the battery, but left the spare in place (don't ask me why I didn't pull that one, just lazy). I did this in case the drains ever clogged again, which they have not. I don't worry about water getting in with the gromets out, the undercladding seems to do that well.

Now I have had no trouble even in the heaviest of downpours.

Eric
 
#18 ·
My 08 E61, has been fine, no leaks or false readings and no problem with the fuel pump.

I did have the seal on the roof changes which was a noise problem that I had from day one. The dealer changed the seals and it is good now.

I did leave the car sit for a month and on start-up lots warnings went off (battery discard and no x drive). After driving it for a short while everything went back to normal.

I just love the car tons of power good handling and cargo space. It gets much better MPG than my old 4.4 X5. The X5 handled the pot holes better but the E61 handles so much better and is so fast and smooth.
 
#19 ·
I'm getting worried (paranoid??) about my 10 E61. It was wet as I mentioned when I had the problems. No water in spare tire compartment. Today, short trip, all was OK. I bet when it goes to dealer next week, they will not find anything.

But am I brave enough to drive this car on a long trip in the rain now??
 
#20 ·
I would just test the drains as i descrbed above, if they work you are fine. It's when they clog that you have trouble. Another area that fills besides the spare tire compartment is the battery. If you don't see water sloshing around in there you are likely OK too. Water stays in there for ages.

Eric
 
#21 ·
Another Problem Today

Came out from a Doc appointment. Car would not come out of Park?? It was a dry sunny day.

Had to restart the car three times to get the car to go into reverse????

Now what . Calling dealer in am. NOT waiting till service appoint on Wed.

Only had HPFP issues on 08 535. 2010 may be very troublsome...??
 
#24 ·
Comfort Access etc

So I finally dropped my 10 535xit at the dealer last tuesday. As I mentioned, I complained about the comfort access not working correctly and the car shifting into park on it's own.

They believe the two are related and are replacing two modules for the comfort access/ignition system. If the car doesn't detect key, it will shift into park??

Then they are going to run another diagnostic. Next step they advise is check door handles.

Miss my car... although I have an x5 loaner. Nice to have - 8 inches of snow on the ground. Maybe more tomorrow. Driveway has become the kids skislope!!
 
#26 ·
The Saga Continues

Going back to the original post, dropped off 2010 535xit on 1/26 for comfort access problems. They diagnosed a bad module, ordered, replaced. Called to check status. Now the Nav doesn't work and they have to check that out.

Next tues, car will have been at dealer for 2 weeks.

Read the article in the new Rondel about the 535xit - I just have to remember mine....
 
#27 ·
Did you get your problems resolved?

Had my first last night and it was a biggie. Got the yellow warning light on the dash and the message "Engine malfunction-reduced power". Had to be towed on a Sunday night from my in-laws house to the dealer- 40 miles.

Car is 6 months old and has 3,800 miles on it. I'm guessing HPFP. Arrgh!
 
#28 ·
We just had the same issue with our 2010 535 wagon with 5,400 miles on it. We had a few long engine cranks and then got the "engine malfunction - reduced power" message while driving. Took it in to the dealer the next day. They did various software checks/updates "as per SIB 12-55-06," but the car still ran rough and had the long crank when the tech tested it. They then got authorization from BMW to replace the HPFP, and did so. Car is running fine again...
 
#29 ·
Some of the problems have been solved, comfort access is still very troublesome. Sometime works, sometime not.

Had rough starts and they did a computer re-program. Seems OK for now.
 
#31 ·
Flood, sunroof drain clog

As you may recall, the drains were clogged in my sunroof. BMW USA denied any compensation whatsoever when modules in the rear of my car were flooded in a downpour. My insurance company did finally pay $500.00, but I was out of pocket the $500.00 deductible. In my humble opinion, there should be some indication in the service manual, or through BMW service departments to periodically check these drains, or to make it part of routine service. I do love my 535 xit, however, my opinion of BMW's excellent customer service has soured. To make matters worse, if you respond negatively to their survey, your service rep's paycheck will be negatively impacted. It really wasn't his fault, but our relationship has been damaged, maybe permanently; I believe the fault lies squarely with corporate.
 
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