Error lights baffling me, how about you?

[moosebrew]

Hi all,

Took the 2005 Z4 3.0i out of bubble storage this past weekend and found the trickle charger stopped working over the winter. Battery was dead.

Installed new battery (fully charged) and now I have warning lights on the dash for the TPMS system (ABS based), traction control, along with BRAKE also lit up. All of them yellow, not red.

There were no issues with these systems/lights last fall, so I'm hoping a simple reset of some kind is needed. Any guidance on where to start or what to do? I've tried to reset the tpms with no luck and the traction control button now does nothing.

Appreciate in advance any advice.

[XMetal]

Just start the car, then turn the steering wheel fully lock to lock and it should reset itself. If it doesn't, take it out for a spin and things should sort itself out if there aren't any actual fault. You'll need to do this each time the battery is disconnected/reconnect.

[moosebrew]

I drove it a couple times since putting in the new battery on Sun., hoping for the 'sorting itself out' fix.

I've not heard of the steering wheel deal before, I'll give it a shot. Thank you.

[pungo]

Transport mode?

[JCF]

I had this problem in my car and it was a dying alternator.

[XMetal]

Originally Posted by moosebrew

I drove it a couple times since putting in the new battery on Sun., hoping for the 'sorting itself out' fix.

I've not heard of the steering wheel deal before, I'll give it a shot. Thank you.

If the steering wheel trick doesn't do it, you'll need to scan it for fault.

Originally Posted by JCF

I had this problem in my car and it was a dying alternator.

A dying alternator is usually also accompanied with a red battery light.

[moosebrew]

I decided to unhook the battery last night and just start the process over again. After an hour I hooked it back up. Now I have all those lights PLUS the passenger side air bag light in red.

Took it out, it runs and drives fine. I'm at a loss.

[Clearancediver]

Download INSTAD…buy a cable (switchable) to hook up computer and car.

Scan/reset … ensure faults are cleared. Go for a drive to see what error codes/faults appear and diagnose from there.

Ohhh… if the ABS light still faults…. You likely disturbed the SRS connector on the wire pair that goes to the BST at the end of the battery cable (positive) going to the battery terminal. That connector needs resistance between 1.2 and 3.4 ohms otherwise it sets a fault/error code.

ISTAD provides you the diagnostic ability to actually check the actual resistance of that connector. Electrical contact cleaner is your friend in this case. Though in my case after 8 years of cleaning resetting I cut out the connector and replaced with a similar wire gauge connector for a “permanent fix”.

So… similar capability to diagnose other codes/faults and provides information/test procedures that allow for a repair etc….

Anyone who does not have ISTAD is wasting their time diagnosing faults on their vehicle.

Lots of YouTube videos on using the software.

[Clearancediver]

For ABS light… read the passenger airbag light….

[nadaclue]

So I've been running into the same problem for the last 12 months or so, didn't really worry about it while the car was in storage. It's been an intermittent issue where if I drive the car, turn it off, and start it back up it sometimes goes away. Which made me think it was a battery / charging issue.

I've replaced the battery and alternator to no avail. I started with the battery, then the voltage regulator on the alternator. When I switched out the voltage regulator, the lights went away for a couple days but then came back so I thought I was onto something and replaced the whole alternator. But the light trifecta persisted.

So I bit the bullet, found a simple install version of INSTA-D and got that running on a Bimmer Werks cable. The irony is, the first time I got the program running and seeing the car, the lights disappeared. However they came back the next time I started car they all came back, so I hooked up the laptop and managed to pull the error code this time.

It's showing error code for:
ASC/DSC Control unit
05E38

Possible cause(s) of fault
-Lines (voltage supply/ground) to the angular rate sensor or to the DSC sensor is faulty
-Angular rate sensor or DSC sensor faulty

Searching forums point to the yaw rate sensor under the passenger seat or possibly wheel speed sensors. Pokeybritches had the issue in 3/22/16 which you can find a post to here.

[Clearancediver]

So reading your post… my first thought is to disconnect battery… then remove connector tors from the yaw sensor and clean with electrical cleaner… yaw sensor connector as well as the cable to it. Reconnect and zip tie them together to ensure a tight connection.

Clean the two wheel sensors with brake clean…

I had the trifecta as well…and I did all that above as well as checking alt/voltage regulator… although ultimately my cause was something totally not car related. (Corrupted GPS that was trying to connect to the computer … when plugged into the cigarette power source… threw out the GPS which solved that problem).

[nadaclue]

Hey Moosebrew, not sure if you saw my other message or not regarding using ISTA/D and pulling the error code on my car. But I ordered a used Yaw Sensor off of ebay, plugged it in, and my trifecta of error lights was gone. I'll know more in a couple of weeks when I get to put some mileage on it, but fingers crossed that solved the problem.

For my 2003 3.0i the yaw sensor was located under the passenger seat. The part number is 34526759412 and was used in a variety of cars, but BMW wants ~$1200 for a new one. I bought the cleanest looking one I could find on ebay, cost me $90 shipped.

I also ordered wheel speed sensors from FCP Euro as a precautionary step and will likely replace those too, because it's a 20yr old BMW and I don't feel like chasing this again.

Originally Posted by moosebrew

Hi all,

Took the 2005 Z4 3.0i out of bubble storage this past weekend and found the trickle charger stopped working over the winter. Battery was dead.

Installed new battery (fully charged) and now I have warning lights on the dash for the TPMS system (ABS based), traction control, along with BRAKE also lit up. All of them yellow, not red.

There were no issues with these systems/lights last fall, so I'm hoping a simple reset of some kind is needed. Any guidance on where to start or what to do? I've tried to reset the tpms with no luck and the traction control button now does nothing.

Appreciate in advance any advice.

[moosebrew]

Thank you for the help, everyone. I'm going to be working on this more in June and I do appreciate all the advice and ideas about tracking these errors down.