TurboCarrera said:
My SES light came on while driving my 00 M5 the other day. When I returned home, I hooked up my Actron code reader, and I could not get it to talk to the car (Link error). I then plugged the Actron into my 99 911 and it worked fine with the Porsche. Still has not worked with the BMW.
Then about a day later the SES light went out spontaneously while driving. I also lost the time and date on the computer, which happens now and then, though it usually recovers without intervention.
Car has driven fine the whole episode.
Any guesses on why the Actron will not read the M5? Online Actron FAQs not helpful.
Steve
Steve, I wasn't familiar with your brand of code reader so I went to their web site. They featured some nice looking units, but a casual ‘look-see’ was insufficient to find the model you would use for your car. I did see that they showed GM products and Honda.
Have you used this with your car before? I only ask because some manufacturers change pin call out and/or connectors in the OBII connectors and this can require adaptors or connector changes to make readers work. Second problem I have encountered, error codes produced by reader may or may not match OEM data, depending upon how aggressive reader company is in getting data from OEM.
I have had only one SES experience with my M5. The dealer suspected it was caused by a loose gas cap (determined by codes displayed in instrument cluster with key in number two position and viewing output in hidden menu). The dealer’s computer was in use for another customer at the time and all attempts by dealer to reset the SES (i.e. disconnecting battery) failed. A later review of owners manual suggested that a 30 minuet period without battery power might work, it did not. The only thing this did was to erase data in the OBC and some personal settings to seat etc.
I purchased another brand of OBII / Service reset device (Peake) to reset the SES since dealer was uncertain when they could schedule a service to do this and it would probably cost me a service charge.
Cost of device was cheaper than proposed computer time at the German Dealer.
Although I used the company’s website to determine proper model to use on a 03 M5, I first received one that would not match my OBII connector. This was exchanged for the correct one and I was able to troubleshoot and reset the SES.
A note here, the code generated by the Peake device did not match the problem told to me by dealer.
However, Peake documentation indicates that some error codes may not correctly match BMW codes given changes from year to year and so should only be used as a start point to diagnose problems.
SES had not illuminated since and I did not purposely loosen the gas cap to duplicate the problem. I have just been doing as I did in my aviation career, “fly it and watch it” to see if it ever returns.
If you are loosing date and time in OBC, I would suspect a temporary loss of electrical power to that unit, i.e. loose connector, or short in the wiring, etc.
Ken