Saturday 3 October 2015

E53 X5: 3.0D get on to DIS!

Had the keys to a nice 52-plate X5 belonging to an X-colleague, actually Ant brought it into work for us to diagnose and it is fly as heck with 22s from an X6.

It's been struggling to start, particularly when warm, so our first guess was a dodgy cam or crank sensor. An independent BMW garage had already said it was the starter-motor solenoid, but we couldn't see this being right as the starter is turning fine, the engine just doesn't fire for a while.

I plugged it into DIS and here is what came up:

120001 General malfunction at engine.
120002 No engine start possible.

A test-plan of 120001 showed up the two DDE error codes - 

09F6 Fuel rail-pressure monitoring, where the pressure was too low. This tends to come up when the engine isn't firing anyway and is unlikely the cause of it. There is a chance that rail-pressure is low enough to not start the engine, but no cutting out or lack of power issues are reported.

3505 Glow-plug system. This turned out to be related to the glow-plug circuit rather than the plugs themselves and was no present when tested, quite normal for a 99k M57.


A test-plan of 120002 did not mention the DDE issues and offered several explanations for the non-starting, these included -

Starter / Ignition Circuit - Fault not currently present. The starter is also turning fine.

Immobiliser fault in key - Not currently present and nothing found when DIS ran a test.

Gear-select Park switch - This only affects automatic boxes, which need to be started in P. It couldn't be this as the starter is turning and that would lurch the car forward anyway if it were in Drive. We ran a test anyway and it worked perfectly.


So we are none the wiser really. The only short-term suggestions are to try the spare key and see if that starts it quicker, though this is a long shot, and to hold the key in ignition position 2 for a while before trying to start the engine. If the latter works then it suggests a fuel-pump going dodgy, we will have to wait and see. I deleted the fault-codes so maybe Ant will being it back and get it on DIS again.

Other fault-codes that came up on DIS were:

EHC [Electronic Height Control] - 01 Ride-level sensor, left.
This is down to the whopping 22" wheels and tyres from a much newer X6 wreaking havoc with the complex suspension systems, so if your 5, 6, 7 or X Series has bigger wheels on then it will probably be throwing this up.

ZKE [Central body electronics] - 89 Central-locking drive, driver's door, open circuit.
This is an annoying one as it causes sudden loss of the driver's door controls, which come back t random. It also stops the door-lock activating from the button and makes the alarm go off when opened with the key. Hopefully it's a break in the wiring at the door-hinge and can be fixed easily, rather than something inside the dash.

SZM - 17 Undervoltage.
This refers to the Central switch center-module, which is working fine so who knows.

IHKA [Integrated automatic heating and air conditioning system- 1E Auxiliary-water pump - Short circuit to positive.
This is  a pump on the cooling-system to aid the flow of hot water round the heater system. The BMW documentation describes its function as 'The ZWP enhances hot water flow (1 - outlet, 2 - inlet) and ensures the minimum flow rate, particularly when the engine is idling or off (residual heat function).'
The PDF of the BMW documentation covering the entire IHKA system is on BimmerFest here.

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