Driving home this morning I noticed the engine light was lit yellow. There were no notices or abnormal flags showing in Vehicle Status in iDrive. I made an appointment with BMW when I got home and took it right over to have it checked out. I was just informed that the cooling flaps/shutters under the front bumper are sticking and have to be replaced. Fortunately, they have the part so they are replacing it right now. Hopefully, this will fix the problem and extinguish the engine light. I'll post back when the job is done.
Lower cooling shutters stuck
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BobRBob
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Extended warranty letter for grill shutters (G30)
Just received a letter from BMWNA noting a 10 year "warranty" covering the shutter issue.
Just received a letter from BMWNA noting a 10 year "warranty" covering the shutter issue.
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323 Posts
I got the Check Engine light the other day and immediately zoned on this post. My first suspicion was that I got the same issue many people described here. And I was right!!! Pretty busy to go to the service department and waste a whole day so used my OBDII reader - the fault code stored by the computer was P05AF. A simple Google search tells me that the code means: Lower Radiator Shutters Not Moving. However, inspecting the flaps when the car starts everything seems to be moving ok.
- lower flaps are open when the car is off
- upper flaps are closed when the car is off
- when starting the engine, the lower flaps close and then open - keep moving to get initialized I guess
- when the engine warms up, both open.
Anyway, seems like intermittent problem for now. Will reset the code and go visit the service department when I have some time. Lets see if the code comes back...
Obviously, this is a very common defect as many owners are getting it. I am glad I have the OBDII reader (best $30 I spent on the car) - very handy to figure out what is going on..
- lower flaps are open when the car is off
- upper flaps are closed when the car is off
- when starting the engine, the lower flaps close and then open - keep moving to get initialized I guess
- when the engine warms up, both open.
Anyway, seems like intermittent problem for now. Will reset the code and go visit the service department when I have some time. Lets see if the code comes back...
Obviously, this is a very common defect as many owners are getting it. I am glad I have the OBDII reader (best $30 I spent on the car) - very handy to figure out what is going on..
Yep, that's exactly what I got. Same code off my reader.
Now, this happened some time ago to me and it's a pain in the a$$ for me to go to the dealer, unless it's really necessary. I've been watching my dash temp gauge and have not seen any temperature variance at all. From what I can see, the problem is intermittent. I haven't taken it in, and finally the dash check engine light went out. The shutters seem to be working. I checked codes again on my OBD reader, and the code is still in there though. I'm not going to clear it.
My plan is to wait until it's time to take it in for the free oil change, and have it addressed then. My only concern is we are headed into summer, and what if the shutters decide to get stuck closed on a really, really hot day. That would suck. I think that's the worst case scenario. We'll see.
Which OBD reader did you get? Could you send me the link? I'd like to get one.
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I have Actron CP9125 C PocketScan Code Reader. I bought it a while ago, I do not remember from where but Amazon sells it online. It can erase the stored codes too. There are other scanners that are cheaper but this one seems to have a lot of positive reviews and works well with all of my BMWs so far. It is very small if you want to keep it in the car.
The plug to connect it is right above the hood opener release handle - no cover, just plugs in. Very easy...
The plug to connect it is right above the hood opener release handle - no cover, just plugs in. Very easy...
I use the OBDlink MX, it's been great, no complaints. It will even show live engine data while you are driving the car. $70 bucks on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006NZTZLQ
You can also use it to code the car with bimmercode.
You can also use it to code the car with bimmercode.
I'm only a couple months in on ownership of my 2018 550. I've found my lower shutters never close and will be scheduling service. My upper shutters seem to open/close just fine. Question on the uppers though, every time i drive, they remain open for at least a few minutes after shut-down (whether locked or unlocked). I assume the car just runs hot.
My question is does everyone else's fan run for a few minutes every time? Even when i was driving short distances and in cool (25-25 F) temps - it still does the same thing. The fan is rather loud and I've definitely not seen this in my other cars (2017 640). Thought i'd ask the forum before the Service Advisor just blows it off.
My question is does everyone else's fan run for a few minutes every time? Even when i was driving short distances and in cool (25-25 F) temps - it still does the same thing. The fan is rather loud and I've definitely not seen this in my other cars (2017 640). Thought i'd ask the forum before the Service Advisor just blows it off.
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223 Posts
I've never seen my lower shutters close "during normal use". I'm thinking they'll only close on the highway while cruising. What you can do is have someone start the car while you watch the lower shutters. Both the lower and upper shutters go through a cycle at start. If they don't move then, definitely take your car in.
Yep. That is my experience, too. There have only been a small handful of times where the upper shutters are closed by the time I get out. Conversely, family member with a G30 540i commented once that they had never seen their upper shutters opened.
Had mine in last week, same problem with kidney grill shutters, did not know they had lower shutters, has the lower shutter thing thing been confirmed or we all talking about the kidney shutters? I was also told it was a known problem. I wonder how long the repair will last till it happens again?
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What do you mean by "has the lower shutter thing been confirmed"? Are you asking if it's been confirmed that they exist? Ummmm, yeah...if you just look at the front of your car, you can see them.
The shutters in the kidney grill are typically called the upper shutters (because, between the two, they are higher up on the car). The shutters behind the lower opening in the front bumper cover are the lower shutters.
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1,223 Posts
Well, they've been confirmed on my car. I can see them when I bend down and look. As others have reported, they are open when the car is parked and cold. The upper ones are closed. I don't know if that is right or not but I don't much care as long as the engine light stays off.
Extended the warranty???
Well my upper shutter is now working again after a repair to the seat belt warning gong and light (?). Upper is open during operation and closes when I turn off the engine. Lower is a mixed bag. Passenger side and middle shutters are open when i shut off the engine. Drivers side shutter is closed. Have no idea whether this lower arrangement changes when I'm actually driving. Never have seen the check engine light come on. Going to leave well enough alone and not go back to the dealer.
Fixed mine.
I had the always open grills on my G12 740i fixed by the dealer last month. I bought the car CPO a few months ago and unbeknownst it was already broken. That aside, it took them about a week and a half to diagnose and fix. They supplied me with an X5 as a loaner after apologizing for having just given away the 740i loaner.
My car did not have any errors or faults and output the same scope readings as a known good vehicle per BMW testing methodology. During their testing the upper flaps would sometimes move and the lower ones would never move. Only after they reprogrammed the vehicle and went through an initialization (this deleted my radio and seat memories) did it finally throw a fault code which was for the lower flaps.
At that point, presumably per BMW's instruction, they replaced the upper flap actuator and the complete lower blind assembly. In addition they found something else that wasn't installed right initially with the upper actuator. They then cleared the faults and everything was working.
So the long an the short of my experience was that it wasn't as simple as just replacing the parts under warranty in two days as implied by my service writer. The Dealership went through a long drawn out process which basically consisted of completing a specific troubleshooting task, then submitting the results to BMW and then waiting for BMW to respond with a next step. Perhaps this is the normal process when dealing with a BMW warranty issue? I'm a bit at a loss as to how a dealership could possibly spend that much time in trouble shooting. The only thing I can imagine is that BMW is paying them by the hour. If someone brought me a bill for a week of guesswork I'd refuse to pay and put them in touch with my attorney.
End of day, warranty service complete, car functioning and it looks cool when you start it up and it sort of runs through a sequence. The one thing I'll say is that if it broke open out of warranty I'd probably just leave it broken.
Cheers!
I had the always open grills on my G12 740i fixed by the dealer last month. I bought the car CPO a few months ago and unbeknownst it was already broken. That aside, it took them about a week and a half to diagnose and fix. They supplied me with an X5 as a loaner after apologizing for having just given away the 740i loaner.
My car did not have any errors or faults and output the same scope readings as a known good vehicle per BMW testing methodology. During their testing the upper flaps would sometimes move and the lower ones would never move. Only after they reprogrammed the vehicle and went through an initialization (this deleted my radio and seat memories) did it finally throw a fault code which was for the lower flaps.
At that point, presumably per BMW's instruction, they replaced the upper flap actuator and the complete lower blind assembly. In addition they found something else that wasn't installed right initially with the upper actuator. They then cleared the faults and everything was working.
So the long an the short of my experience was that it wasn't as simple as just replacing the parts under warranty in two days as implied by my service writer. The Dealership went through a long drawn out process which basically consisted of completing a specific troubleshooting task, then submitting the results to BMW and then waiting for BMW to respond with a next step. Perhaps this is the normal process when dealing with a BMW warranty issue? I'm a bit at a loss as to how a dealership could possibly spend that much time in trouble shooting. The only thing I can imagine is that BMW is paying them by the hour. If someone brought me a bill for a week of guesswork I'd refuse to pay and put them in touch with my attorney.
End of day, warranty service complete, car functioning and it looks cool when you start it up and it sort of runs through a sequence. The one thing I'll say is that if it broke open out of warranty I'd probably just leave it broken.
Cheers!
The good news is you had a loaner during and saved some wear and tear on your car!
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56 Posts
Add my 2018 540d to the list. CEL light on, upper and lowers replaced.
Yea, I'd never drop off my car without a loaner. Had to schedule my appointment out three weeks instead of one was all to ensure a loaner.
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