[Jemster68]

I’ve been lurking around for a few months and know there’s a lot of knowledgeable people in here. Hoping someone can help out with a strange issue…

I have a 2017 540ix and it’s not feeling well. It was bought as an AUC from my local (UK) BMW Main dealer back in July and I’ve only put a couple of thousand miles on it. Good spec, good condition, 1 owner car, but it’s approaching the end of it’s 3rd week in the dealership for a trivial problem and wonder if anyone has heard of this or has any suggestions I could impart to the dealers to get it back.

This started with the iDrive controller becoming hard to register clicks, it’s got the ceramic controls option and I read this is a weak point. So I took it in, they confirmed the fault and replaced the controller. However, apparently it needed coded to the car, and this process failed. After some back and forth with BMW HQ, they decided a new Head Unit would fix the problem and this was ordered. In the meantime I got the car back, all good but no gesture control or handwriting recognition. No big deal.

I got the call a few weeks later that the new HU was in, left the car in and then got the call that they had fitted it but no difference and they still could not code it. Back and forth for a few more days with BMW again and they decided a new ‘ethernet cable’ was required. But the car was now undriveable due to the replaced head unit. So it has sat there and the new cable was expected mid week, but I’ve had no call and they haven’t returned calls, so I am expecting the outcome to be the same.

Question is, to the coders, have you any idea what they may have done and how they could possibly get out of it? The only modification I know of on the car is that SLI was enabled, remotely, by a business in the UK with a good reputation and a genuine BMW FSC code. Everything else is stock.

What procedure would have been required for this controller to be coded that could possibly go this badly wrong? Could the SLI have any implication here?

[Siki78]

It is hard to say without check but if you have enet cable I could check for you

[Jemster68]

Unfortunately at the moment, it’s still stuck in the dealership and I got no access to it. So it’s more a theoretical what could possibly have gone wrong? Kinda question. (Combined with does this sound like a competent dealer and/or have I messed up having SLI coded?! &#129315

Mind you, I do have an ENET cable so if I get it back still broken I can hook it up for you to take a look. I appreciate the offer.

[Siki78]

Yes no problem. SLI and I drive controller oder hu I think not there is some other error

[Jemster68]

It’s been strange electrically. The active grill wasn’t working when I got it but when they fixed it they had difficulty because it was showing errors with parking sensors, not the grill that was faulty. Parking sensors were fine. Lower grill was the issue.

Just don’t want this to become an ongoing theme, or I may ask them to assist me in the cost of extending the warranty. Dealer has given me an X1 hire car for the time being, so not badly treated, but 3 weeks off road for a ‘simple’ button replacement is a little depressing.

Will post a hello with pics when I have something to take pics of

[Jemster68]

No update because I have no update. Just had a call from the Dealers today to say they got the new cable, fixed a couple of broken pins(!) and… still the same thing, they don’t have a clue what is wrong with it and are going back and forth with BMW Germany to try and resolve it.

Losing all patience with this car. So far 17 days off road to fix a broken iDrive wheel. And now the car is undriveable. In the 6 months I’ve owned it, I have covered 2000 miles and it’s been off the road for a total of 4 weeks, with no end currently in sight.

I have been given a rental car in the meantime, but obviously it’s not the car I bought… any ideas on how to get traction? It’s like they live in some kind of time vortex where it takes days to get anything done. I’ve never had any car off road for so long and really have no idea what way to approach it or what classes as reasonable expectations.

[Joe-BMW33]

Hey there. I feel your pain. It's really hard to offer advice given this is such a unique issue. I can tell you this and it's not what you want to hear. Dealers don't really dig in on anything like this. They just guess and replace modules. It sounds like when they tried to code or initiate the new controller, the upload to the HU failed and most likely corrupted that module and most likely a few other modules. Dealer don't individually flash modules, they just flash the entire car. In this case the flash failed and the corruption could be everywhere and anywhere. I was skeptical on the Ethernet cable "hunch" and am not surprised that wasn't it.

I don't know what to tell you man, I have read similar stories like this in terms of a dealer grasping, replacing, etc. while the owner waits and waits.

I do believe a good coder could look at all the CAFD files and see which one is corrupt and replace them as needed. Unfortunately, dealer techs just aren't experts in this area.

Reach out to the guys at Bimmergeeks who make ProTool. Join there Facebook group and explain your situation and see if they have any answers. I don't think this is hardware related at all.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BimmerGeeksProTool

[Jemster68]

Thanks for the reply Joe, guess I’m just looking a shoulder to cry on ��

Latest update is they’ve been told by BMW to replace the BDC and a new one will be in on Tuesday. Maybe it’ll help, maybe not. I was also totally skeptical about the cable, but not my call I guess.

I can’t imagine the amount of money they’ve burned through all in the name of fixing a clicky wheel. I’m told the Head Unit is over £2000 and the BDC is somewhere around £800, then the rental car cost…

I’ve told them they have until the end of the week and then I will be chasing a refund on the car. Fault occurred 4 months into ownership and I’ve done less than 2k miles on it, so I think under UK consumer laws I’m in with a good chance… although I would MUCH rather it was fixed as finding another of this spec is practically impossible.

I will message BimmerGeeks, biggest headache is I can’t get my hands on my own car as they won’t let it out in this state, so all just theories.

[The Zimmer]

Originally Posted by Jemster68

Thanks for the reply Joe, guess I’m just looking a shoulder to cry on 🤣

Latest update is they’ve been told by BMW to replace the BDC and a new one will be in on Tuesday. Maybe it’ll help, maybe not. I was also totally skeptical about the cable, but not my call I guess.

I can’t imagine the amount of money they’ve burned through all in the name of fixing a clicky wheel. I’m told the Head Unit is over £2000 and the BDC is somewhere around £800, then the rental car cost…

I’ve told them they have until the end of the week and then I will be chasing a refund on the car. Fault occurred 4 months into ownership and I’ve done less than 2k miles on it, so I think under UK consumer laws I’m in with a good chance… although I would MUCH rather it was fixed as finding another of this spec is practically impossible.

I will message BimmerGeeks, biggest headache is I can’t get my hands on my own car as they won’t let it out in this state, so all just theories.

Hit up Simon from Bavarian coding BMW dealers use him when they screw up Head Units.

He is the best in the business and the most knowledgeable.

Thanks
Paul

[The Zimmer]

And all this for a simple iDrive controller. Some dealerships are idiots

[Jemster68]

Originally Posted by The Zimmer

And all this for a simple iDrive controller. Some dealerships are idiots

Absolutely. Unfortunately where I am (Northern Ireland), there are 3 dealerships. This is the closest to me, and the one I bought the car off. Also part of the largest family of car dealerships in the country. You would think they’d have a little bit of sense.

It concerns me deeply that they can make such a huge mess of a simple job. How can coding in a new iDrive controller into an otherwise fully functional car cause such a total disaster? And why is it that repeated back and forth with BMW has not resulted in a fix. Is the software in these things really so badly written that diagnosing an issue can be so hard?

I’d love the new Body Domain Controller to fix it, but I can’t see what that module really does so unsure what the chances are of it resolving anything. As far as I can see it’s a bunch of relays?

I’ll see what happens on Tuesday but if no decent progress I’ll suggest they call Simon although I can’t see that happening.

I’ve owned an E36, a couple of E46s (including a SMG M3) and an F11 and never seen anything like this. Imagine if I had to actually pay for this work…

[The Zimmer]

Sent a PM

[Jemster68]

Guess who's finally got his g30 back

Five weeks (Plus a week before Christmas, so six in all) in the shop.

One very apologetic dealer. Apparently the Vehicle Order on the replacement Head Unit did not match the VO on the vehicle and this caused them not to be able to code anything.
After much back and forth with BMW Technical in the UK and random component swaps to no effect, I complained to BMW UK. Whether that was directly responsible for the change in attitude or not, I don't know. But the Service Manager was on to me a couple of days later and they finally solved it by hooking the car up to BMW Germany for an Irap session.

From there, they were able to reset absolutely everything and now it's much happier.
The iDrive software has been updated to Evo_Y from the previous Evo_J so I guess that means full-screen carplay should be possible.

Now, whether this is all down to having had SLI enabled or not, I do not know. I haven't yet hunted through the screens to see if the option to turn it on is there or not. Will check that tonight. If it's not, do I get it enabled again? Got to say I'm kinda scared of it now!

If this had been out of warranty, the dealer said there's been 40 hours of labour and a new Head Unit so I don't think there would be much change of £5k. To change an iDrive controller.

Thanks to Paul for the advice along the way!

[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by Jemster68

Guess who's finally got his g30 back

Five weeks (Plus a week before Christmas, so six in all) in the shop.

One very apologetic dealer. Apparently the Vehicle Order on the replacement Head Unit did not match the VO on the vehicle and this caused them not to be able to code anything.
After much back and forth with BMW Technical in the UK and random component swaps to no effect, I complained to BMW UK. Whether that was directly responsible for the change in attitude or not, I don't know. But the Service Manager was on to me a couple of days later and they finally solved it by hooking the car up to BMW Germany for an Irap session.

From there, they were able to reset absolutely everything and now it's much happier.
The iDrive software has been updated to Evo_Y from the previous Evo_J so I guess that means full-screen carplay should be possible.

Now, whether this is all down to having had SLI enabled or not, I do not know. I haven't yet hunted through the screens to see if the option to turn it on is there or not. Will check that tonight. If it's not, do I get it enabled again? Got to say I'm kinda scared of it now!

If this had been out of warranty, the dealer said there's been 40 hours of labour and a new Head Unit so I don't think there would be much change of £5k. To change an iDrive controller.

Thanks to Paul for the advice along the way!

That is great news, glad you have it back. If I am being honest, that is a rookie mistake by the dealer and something pretty obvious they should have known. Pure incompetence and something a coder probably would have figured out quickly.

[Jemster68]

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW33

That is great news, glad you have it back. If I am being honest, that is a rookie mistake by the dealer and something pretty obvious they should have known. Pure incompetence and something a coder probably would have figured out quickly.

Unfortunately this is the fun of being under a BMW warranty. Had to go to them for the iDrive controller replacement and the rest of it just followed along with no easy escape route

Having had a poke around the menus, seems I no longer have Speed Limit Info. Darn it, now to decide whether to get it enabled again or not, seems it may have caused a lot of pain for not much gain.

My impression was that if the FSC was ordered from the dealer, it should be added to the vehicle's record so the VO should be correct with the new option. Perhaps this assumption is totally wrong.

[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by Jemster68

Unfortunately this is the fun of being under a BMW warranty. Had to go to them for the iDrive controller replacement and the rest of it just followed along with no easy escape route

Having had a poke around the menus, seems I no longer have Speed Limit Info. Darn it, now to decide whether to get it enabled again or not, seems it may have caused a lot of pain for not much gain.

My impression was that if the FSC was ordered from the dealer, it should be added to the vehicle's record so the VO should be correct with the new option. Perhaps this assumption is totally wrong.

For sure. Once your at the dealer and under warranty I would have done the same. Happy for you.

[The Zimmer]

So glad the car is back with you bud, glad I could help out