650i 2006 - Throwing ACZ error... Steering wheel sensor. Brake light Fix

Ok, so I think I messed up the calibration on my ACZ. After a DIY brake pad job i was troubleshooting a brake sensor error. I entered the dash menu by holding down the trip rest button, and as I was cycling through the menu I must have accidentally changed a setting in there. After i restarted the car, the traction control light + BRAKE light warning appeared.

From what i have read i have somehow killed the ACZ calibration. I tried the following procedure:

"sit in car,
start engine,
have steering wheel in straight ahead position
without pausing, turn wheel slowly all the way to the left and pause at the end for a second or 2
without pausing, turn all the way to the right and pause at the end for a second or 2
repeat the last 2 steps and end in the straight ahead position.
turn off car, wait a minute, restart, and drive away for a few hundred feet.
you just calibrated your SZL ( steering wheel sensor to tell dsc if wheel is turned and to what degree)"

It did not work. Is anyone familiar with the "Trip Reset" menu? What the heck did i do? Is there any way to reverse this through the same menu?

=[

I don't think that you could have damaged anything by playing with the reset button. My guess would be that possibly that you damaged the speed sensor. It would be hard to believe that you damaged the steering sensor, doing a brake job.


Good Luck!

I'm with Herb. The steering angle sensor is in the steering column.

Maybe try bypassing the brake pad sensor with a paper clip to see if you just need a new pad sensor. The traction control error does sound more like a wheel speed sensor. If an ABS/speed sensor is bad you can find out which of the 4 sensors is bad by reading the error codes. The sensors plug into the car in the same access box as the brake pad sensor, maybe you knocked one a bit loose while you were in there.

Fixed:

OK so here is the gold on this one for the next guy.

After my brake job, i had two errors.

1. The red "BRAKE" text lit on my dash - This was tricky. Officially it indicates a bad brake sensor. I had replaced mine with a new one after the rear brake job, so i had assumed it was a defective replacement sensor (The computer code read "bad rear axle sensor at the monkey brake shop) Though it was not. Even if you reset the code with the computer it will still come back.

The solution: Go into your dash panel by holding the trip reset button for around 10 seconds...after you see the warning triangle icon KEEP HOLDING, otherwise you will wind up in a totally different system menu that i played with and accidentally reset my my ACZ calibration. The menu you want to be in represents the adjustable sections with icons (not numbers and text labels) IF you get into that text/labels menu just do yourself a favor and turn the car off and start again, lol. This other menu is dangerous if you don't understand the functions, and created issue number two (below) for myself.

2.Yellow BRAKE + Yellow Traction control icon stay lit. - As suspected this represents a need to calibrate my ACZ. It can also mean you need to replace a sensor or module that is affecting the traction control, but in my case it popped up after i was in the menu mentioned above, so i knew it had to be a calibration/software issue and ""something i broke" hardware-wise.

The solution: Take your @ss to the Stealership and very carefully explain the issue so they don't try to get you for a ACZ sensor replacement ~$900 or something else expensive (parts and labor) . They are the only ones that can help you now. The have hardware that allows then to set points in the ACZ module to allow them to calibrate it. My playing in the wrong settings menu cost me $150 in stealership labor to fix. I consider it semi-well spent because i learned something i could not find a solution for online (I spent several hours trying). I treid the procedure in the first post a few times and it did not work (probably bull****) I will not make the same mistake next brake job =]

I hope this helps someone.

I have both an E60 and an E63/64. Last summer, I repaired my E60's steering angle sensor by removing it and cleaning the plastic wheel in the angle sensor box (sorry for lack of a better term) in the steering column.

I found a step by step repair post on an M5 board and linked to it from the E60 forum. My E60 and E63 share the same steering wheel and probably all other parts in the steering column.

Since I made the easy fix, I have had no problems. Let me know if I can help.