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DSC Light and Brake ABS Lights On - Advice?

103K views 94 replies 48 participants last post by  Howie 65 
#1 ·
I was driving my M5 yesterday and the DSC light as well as Brake and ABS lights came on. At restart, they are off, and then come on in a few seconds. I held DSC button for a few seconds in an attempt to turn it off, but no success.

Also, when the lights first came on, the car felt a little weird, as if the brakes briefly actuated by themselves, and then the lights came on right away.

Anyone have any experience on potential causes? I don't have a fault code reader in my possession at the moment.

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
Ronin M5 said:
I was driving my M5 yesterday and the DSC light as well as Brake and ABS lights came on. At restart, they are off, and then come on in a few seconds. I held DSC button for a few seconds in an attempt to turn it off, but no success.

Also, when the lights first came on, the car felt a little weird, as if the brakes briefly actuated by themselves, and then the lights came on right away.

Anyone have any experience on potential causes? I don't have a fault code reader in my possession at the moment.

Thanks!
ABS sensor bad/out of alignment? When the ABS light remains on, it is telling you ABS not working. Also, check fuses in the glove box, I think 17, 30 and 31 are the ones you want.
Regards,
Jerry
 
#4 ·
Kin Mak said:
Same thing happened to me. DSC controller was faulty, had to replace it, bad news is that it is not cheap. :crying2:

I had the exact same simptoms.

Kin Mak
Thanks for the advice Kin and Jerry.

Approximately how much for parts and labor to replace a DSC controller?
 
#8 ·
The DSC light and the ABS BRAKE lights have disappeared. My M5 must have seen the $1358 cost for the DSC Controller and felt sorry for me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping it's all okay...Probably wishful thinking on my part.

Thanks again everyone!
 
#9 ·
Ronin M5 said:
The DSC light and the ABS BRAKE lights have disappeared. My M5 must have seen the $1358 cost for the DSC Controller and felt sorry for me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping it's all okay...Probably wishful thinking on my part.

Thanks again everyone!
Sound more & more like the ABS Wheel Sensor, mine was intermittent too, would come on for a day or two then go off for a similar period of time.

Good Luck, hope they stay off :M5thumbs:
 
#10 ·
cableguy said:
Sound more & more like the ABS Wheel Sensor, mine was intermittent too, would come on for a day or two then go off for a similar period of time.

Good Luck, hope they stay off :M5thumbs:
How much was that ABS Sensor to fix?

The lights were off all day today, but I did feel the ABS seem to activate, and it wasn't under excessively hard braking, or an uneven surface, as far as I could tell.
 
#11 ·
Sorry, don't have a figure as it was covered & dealt with under Warranty.

I spoke to my Service Guy who explained that once traced it was an easy fix at minimal cost, make a quick call to the Dealer who should be able to price this pretty quickly as its a common fault. :M5thumbs:
 
#12 ·
cableguy said:
Sorry, don't have a figure as it was covered & dealt with under Warranty.

I spoke to my Service Guy who explained that once traced it was an easy fix at minimal cost, make a quick call to the Dealer who should be able to price this pretty quickly as its a common fault. :M5thumbs:
Thanks CableGuy, glad to hear it is minor and common.

My warranty just lapsed in November 2004. Of course, last month my battery died, and this month the ABS is acting up. Before that, no problems at all.
 
#14 ·
M5_SMG said:
Had the same problem, broken wheel speed sensor
Although the light is intermittent (its off now), the fault codes will be stored in my M5, so I could bring it to a shop anytime for diagnosis, is that correct?

Thanks, Ronin
 
#16 ·
Ronin M5 said:
Although the light is intermittent (its off now), the fault codes will be stored in my M5, so I could bring it to a shop anytime for diagnosis, is that correct?

Thanks, Ronin
Codes should still be stored. Its quite a common problem, their quite easy to break if your doing any work regarding wheels/brakes and suspension.
 
#17 ·
M5_SMG said:
Codes should still be stored. Its quite a common problem, their quite easy to break if your doing any work regarding wheels/brakes and suspension.
Actually, it would be very hard to damage the ABS sensor when you are doing work on the wheels, brakes, or suspension. The ABS sensor is flush mounted at the back of the steering knuckle. I suppose it would be possible to damage it if you were changing wheel bearings, but I've done a bunch of those and don't recall the sensor being particlarly vulnerable during the process. Here's a photo taken from behind the steering knuckle, facing outward:



I am in the process of changing a wheel bearing and I've pulled the knuckle down about 6" off the strut. You can just see the bottom of the strut at the top of the photo. Normally, the strut is blocking access to the 4 bolts that hold the wheel bearing/hub assembly in place. In the photo, I've already removed one bolt.

It would be possible to damage the wire leading from the sensor to the main harness connector on the inner fender liner. But that wire is carefully routed around the strut and through a couple of brackets in a way to make it difficult to snag or damage when working on the brakes.

When installing a rear big brake kit, you will have to cut away much of the rotor backing plate (dust shield). The ABS sensor wire runs directly behind that shield, so you need to be careful not to slice through it. Even if you do, repalcing the sensor is an easy job. As you can see in the photo above, the front ABS sensors are held in place with two allen screws. The diagram below shows the rear sensors are held in place by a single allen screw. Replacing them should take no more than 10 minutes per corner of the car.

 
#18 · (Edited)
Turned out that the ABS wheel sensors all appear to be fine, and the DSC Control unit appears to have been the problem. Diagnosed and replaced by Autowerkes of Huntington Beach, it was a pleasure to work with Bruce Powers and his team.

Cost of the part was $745.00, DSC repair kit, not the whole unit.

Thanks to everyone for helping me trouble shoot. The TIRE CONTROL INACTIVE light was related, and steering angle reset to resolve.

- Ronin
 
#19 ·
I don't think it's the sensor. I've had this problem on my 528i. The light used to turn on after 10 miles of driving and turn off when the engine is cold. I replaced my sensors with ones from a junk yard, but it didn't work. I finally took the dip and had a $140 diagnostic to report that it's the control module.

Anyway, get it rebuilt for $425. I shipped it to this place and got it back about a week later. The work seems fine, but make sure you get a quote for the rebuild + shipping faxed to you before you agree with it. The receptionist jacked around with the prices after they did the work. She quoted me $425, but told me it was $475 after they fixed it. I said forget it, so she dropped it back to $425. Shipping was quoted as $13, but they jacked it to $28. I shipped my unit to them for $5. Instead of having them ship it back, I bet you could have FedEx pick it up and ship it back for much less.

Auto & Truck Electronics
(800) 257-3395
6500 Georgia Avenue
West Palm Beach, Florida 33405

Rebuild control module $425
1yr Warranty
Shipping $28
 
#21 ·
a_ok2me said:
Anyway, get it rebuilt for $425. I shipped it to this place and got it back about a week later.

Auto & Truck Electronics
(800) 257-3395
6500 Georgia Avenue
West Palm Beach, Florida 33405

Rebuild control module $425
1yr Warranty
Shipping $28
Thanks for the detailed response. This will definitely be helpful for future readers of the post.

Glad to have my baby back and fully operational.
 
#23 ·
Right I have had this problem a number of time and it always turned out to be the ABS sensors on the front wheels. The sensors are not expensive, Think £30 sterling each. Fitted them myself and reset the sensors myself. To reset the sensors,
1.switch your ignition off,
2.hold the Traction control button in, then turn your ignition to the last position on but dont start the car.
3.Take you finger off the Traction control button now
4.Turn the ignition on.
Now drive for about 100 yards or less and the lights should go off.

This method has worked for me.
 
#24 · (Edited)
DSC, ABS and Brake indicators all on...

Bumping this thread up as I am having this problem now. Currently at the dealer, qoute is for $710 for the DSC Control Module and 90 min labor. Whish I had found this thread first as it looks like there are some places that rebuild the control module for far less. But as I understand it, there are some adjustments that have to be made when you replace the module hence the 90 min labor. I wouldn't know how to do that anyway. Turns out my third party warranty company wont cover it. They list everything that they do cover and if its not in the list, too bad. Under the brake system they list wheel speed sensors which input into the device (DSC Control module) but, only the ABS control unit is listed as covered. They said DSC and ABS modules are two different names, its not listed, its not covered.


By the way, I have additional symptoms as well as the DCS, ABS and Brake indicator lights that pop up (they all popo up up at the same time) when this happens, the speedometer goes down to zero and the Nav system shows me at the same spot on the map in which these symptoms appeared, even if I have traveled another 50 miles since they all popped up. $tealer says its all related, DSC module failure causes speedometer not to read, vehicle thinks its not moving due to the speedometer inop, so Nav system inop, crazy stuff.

Anyway, letting you know in case this happens to you and also wondering if these two additional symptoms happened to those in this thread before me.
 
#27 ·
Well, I've had these lights pop up:

DSC
BRAKE
ABS
Tire Control


My speedometer works just fine though. Sound expensive?
Old thread, i haven't gone through the old replies, but I would check glove box fuses. I think it is 17 and 30 or 31. You need to pull those to run on the dyno and you get similar fault codes.

Best part, it takes 5 minutes and costs nothing. Fuses can be tricky, so either use a spare fuse of the same rating or swap with a known good fuse with the same rating.
Regards,
Jerry
 
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