Service Bulletin for F30 335i (N55) Stop Start Problems

bcl0328 commented:
April 23, 2012, 6:44 pm

well considering there was a whole thead, a lot.

justinnum1 commented:
April 23, 2012, 7:01 pm

thats ****ed up, they need to be able to update these cars via wireless from anywhere, you should be able to go into the idive and update.

good think this isnt happeneing in N20

Aussie_Chris commented:
April 25, 2012, 7:24 am

Well, after my long wait for my May 21 Production date, at least I won't get this issue

jzcrna commented:
April 25, 2012, 9:35 am

Ive had about 5 or six stalls in one month and have 2200 miles on the car right now. It hasn't been that big of a deal for me and I cannot justify spending time at the dealer just to get the update at this point.

stampchez commented:
April 25, 2012, 9:43 am

Is this just for autos or does it affect manuals too?

SoonerJohn commented:
April 25, 2012, 9:57 am

This fix is not a minor 5 minute update that can be sent over the air. It took several hours for them to run the update on mine and it had to completely reprogram and reinitialize the car.

SoonerJohn commented:
April 25, 2012, 10:07 am

I have experienced the problem several times. In fact, I can recreate it almost every time by getting in the car on a cool morning, driving 0.7 miles to a stoplight and stopping. It will shut the engine with the temperature gauge is still on the bottom peg even though it is not supposed to shut off unless the engine is warmed up. When I release the brake to drive off, about 75% of the time, the engine will stall when it attempts to restart and I have to push the button to start it back up and put it back in gear to drive off. Both annoying and dangerous!

I took my car in last Thursday because of this issue. They attempted the software update and it failed the first time. Then BMW made some sort of change, re-downloaded the update to the dealer's server, and they did the update again, which went through successfully on the second attempt. The dealer told me on Monday that the car was working as designed, so I went and picked it up and drove home with no issues.

Tuesday morning I got in the car, drove to the same stoplight and it still did the exact same thing it was doing before - shut the engine off when it wasn't yet up to operating temperature.

So the car is back at the dealer again now. The regional rep from BMW is visiting the dealership today and is supposed to be getting involved to make sure it gets fixed correctly this time around.

Of course I could alway just press the override button, but I want the d@mn car working correctly!

Weaselboy commented:
April 25, 2012, 10:16 am

Depending on how cold it is when this happens, that may still be within the design specs. I don't think "operating temp." and fully warmed up are the same thing as far as auto stop/start are concerned.

I know on mine it shuts down at a stop sign 60 feet from my house on 50 degree mornings.

Mine was a late February production (production complete 2/24) and I am not having the stalling problems others are reporting, so maybe I got the newer software from the factory.

tturedraider commented:
April 25, 2012, 11:26 pm

At least there is a fail proof way to avoid this problem. Disable start/stop everytime you drive the car.

SoonerJohn commented:
April 26, 2012, 12:17 am

You were correct on this! They ran all sorts of diagnostics on my car, talked to BMW extensively about it, etc. in the end, the word is that my car is now operating as designed after the software update. I just wasn't expecting it to shut off that quickly after starting to drive it.

Side note: the temperature gauge in it is oil temperature, not water temperature. I hadn't looked close enough to notice that until the Service Advisor pointed it out to me today.

tturedraider commented:
April 26, 2012, 12:32 am

They switched to the oil temp gauge when they went to the turbos.

radari216 commented:
April 26, 2012, 1:38 am

You should be able to use the iDrive to default this option to the "Off" position for those who don't want to use Start Stop Engine feature. Why force customers to use a feature they don't want and make them shut the thing off every time they start the car.

jackson328xi commented:
April 26, 2012, 1:34 pm

This seems like a really good/obvious idea.

tagheuer commented:
April 26, 2012, 1:41 pm

you mean you have to disable this feature every single time you enter and start the car?

I'm very suprised they would make this so inconvienent.

westwest888 commented:
April 26, 2012, 5:43 pm

It's a feature, not a bug. I think it should be a switch, like in an aircraft. Has anyone hacked that? Maybe the EPA says you have to.

m8o commented:
April 27, 2012, 12:02 am

The Start/Stop feature is to save gas. Think of how much gas you'll save by not driving it if you're making a left across traffic, the Start/Stop feature stalls your car right as your nose gets stuck-out into the other lane, and it gets smashed by oncoming traffic...

evergreen2000 commented:
April 27, 2012, 12:28 am

I'm sure its some legal mumbo jumbo where by to get CAFE credit they have to make it by default hard to turn off. Anyways I bet BMW isn't a big fan of that legal requirement and we should see some aftermarket mechanism (could even be secretly supported by BMW) by which this will be taken care of in the future.

jtuds commented:
April 27, 2012, 12:16 pm

I don't have the car so I can't say I have had the problem but during my test drive the salesman couldn't get the start/stop to actually start and stop.

Turbo6 commented:
April 27, 2012, 1:14 pm

That's funny. Do you work on our corporate IT help desk?

rtgirard commented:
April 27, 2012, 1:16 pm

No, but I do... get back to work!

sr5959 commented:
April 27, 2012, 1:59 pm

Agree that the reason the default setting cannot be changed is probably for official fuel figures/CAFE/etc.

But, they have made it very easy to turn off each time you start the car, the button is right above the Start button.

dimok commented:
April 28, 2012, 10:01 pm

I don't think so. On my Cayenne there is a button that you press that shuts off the start/stop function and it will not be activated until you press it again. I, personally, never turn it on.

90degreeman commented:
April 30, 2012, 1:09 am

I had it happen once when I did my ED in March. It was in the middle of a turn late in Germany and I freaked out. There was a message on the screen, but I fumbled around to get it started.

I do remember that it started but then stopped again within a few seconds.

TLR305 commented:
May 16, 2012, 8:53 am

Does anyone know why it shuts off as you are parked but then turns back on before you engage the gas (maybe 20 seconds later) ???

sudi commented:
May 16, 2012, 10:48 am

In my test drive experience, it turns on not when you engage the gas, but when you release the brake. Perhaps that's what happened with you?



Edit: more info from the manual.

Starting the engine
The engine starts automatically under the folowing conditions:
-- Manual transmission:
- The clutch pedal is pressed.
-- Automatic transmission:
- By releasing the brake pedal.
- After the engine starts, accelerate as usual.

Safety mode
After the engine switches off automatically, it will not start again automatically if any one of the following conditions are met.
- The driver's safety belt is unbuckled and the driver's door is open.
- The hood was unlocked.

Some indicator lamps light up for varying lengths of time. The engine can only be started via the Start/ Stop button.

sudi commented:
May 16, 2012, 10:56 am

Or perhaps this:
Note
Even if driving away was not intended, the deactivated engine starts up automatically in the following situations:
- Excessive warming of the passenger compartment when the cooling function is switched on.
- The steering wheel is turned.
- Automatic transmission: the transmission position is changed from D to N, R, or M/S.
- Automatic transmission: the transmission position is changed from P to N, D, R, or M/ S.
- The vehicle begins rolling.
- Fogging of the windows when the automatic climate control is switched on.
- The vehicle battery charge is very low.
- Excessive cooling of the passenger compartment when the heating is switched on.
- Low brake vacuum pressure; this can occur, for example, if the brake pedal is depressed a number of times in succession.


http://cache.bmwusa.com/PDF_f7be0eac...d-33e5debb749a

TLR305 commented:
May 16, 2012, 12:35 pm

Got it thanks. Seems like it just turned back on with no movement after around 20 or so seconds.

tim330i commented:
May 16, 2012, 1:12 pm

Take a look at this thread. Details right from the technical BMW documents on how stop start works -

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=606503

Tim

Weaselboy commented:
May 16, 2012, 1:37 pm

I spoke too soon. Had this bug hit my car and got the software update applied last Friday. No hassle from the dealer. I just told them what it was doing and that I had heard about a software update to fix, and they did it.