Anita. It was probably an electrical gremlin. THe temp gauge on the far right is electronic, and I recall a tech telling me that the engine computer tells it to stay in the middle as much as possible unless the car is seriously overheated. I am not saying that your car was overheated. What I am saying is that this is proof that it is an electronic gauge and that it could be a gremlin.

I hope I helped.

'Rocket

 

Yup, I've had this issue a few times. A restart of the car at a stop light (or whatever) takes care of it. Gotta love the german programmers....

-Chris

 

could be a thermostat prob?:confused3 good luck

 

Thanks everyone!!
I'll watch to see if I get any repeat incidents. I've had a few funky "tire defect" messages from the flat tire monitor on the M3 and then checked the the tires as soon as possible and found the pressures to be spot on (???)
Anita
"excuse me while I kiss the sky"

 

Anita,

I had the same problem and I think that they reprogrammed the ECU etc in the service.
No problems after that.

There is a Service Bulletin for that, but I don't remember the number right now.

 

MVI,
Thanks.
I'll do some checking on Service Bulletins. I think it's a good idea to keep up with all the Bulletins related to your vehicle, even if you are not currently having a problem. This way, you are aware of what problems are out there in case you were to run one of into the same ones down the road. But I haven't been doing that....
Anita

 

temp gage

Yep had the same problem a couple times with my 99 BMW
Always happened as I was leaving work late at night when you don't want real problem h:
Each time there was only the deflected needle to the far right, no lights. Each time I did stop reluctantly and check under the hood, and everytime I did the hoses and engine were still cool to the touch.

 

kwalls,
Hopefully, mine will prove infrequent too. Like you say, it only happens during the most inconvenient times!

Also, I found the web site that lists Service Bulletins for cars by make, model, yr, etc. I don't know how up to date they are, but it's a starting place.

www.alldata.com

Anita

 

About the tire-defect warning, did you press the set-tire-presssuere button and drive a bit after you checked the pressures? This is how the car knows what wheel rotation ratios are correct (= sets the correct tire pressure to monitor)

David

 

Anita,

I had the same thing happen back in Dec on a very cold Colorado morning. Hasn't happened since. I find spme comfort knowing others have the same gremlins.

Mike

My car was outside for about 2 hours in single digit temps (F). Upon starting it up, the needle in the coolant temp guage immediately went as far as it physically could to the right (red), but no other messages appeared, as they should if there is engine temp problem per the owners manual. Noticed nothing else wrong with car. Turned off the car about 10 minutes later, restarted it and all the guages read as they normally would after driving that amount of time in those temps.
Anyone else ever had this happen? What was the cause?
Thanks,
Anita

 

DavidS,
Yes, I followed the procedure outlined in the owners manual to activate the system. This has only happened twice and not in a while. One thing that I could question is possibly the snow wheels and tires being used on the M3. I don't know if this is even relevant or not. The wheels are 17x8 Mille Miglia MM11-2 with 40mm offsets. The tires are 225/45HR17 Dunlop Winter Sport M2's. These were taken from the 2000 328ci so we wouldn't have to buy new snows if at all possible. With the help of Tire Rack, I found 18mm spacers that fit the rear axle. As per the "Miata Tire Size Calculator", it shows the non-stock wheels and tires would increase the speedo reading by 3.9%. How is the tire pressure monitor actually sensing tire presssure loss? Is it based on how often the wheel is turning?
Thanks,
Anita

 

Anita,

You're right, the tire pressure monitor works through the ABS sensors by measuring relative wheel rotation, a tire that is deflating will decrease in diameter and therefore have to rotate more rapidly to travel the same distance as the other wheel on that axle. It seems that the system sometimes gets "confused" if the car has been parked over night in the cold and the radial tires take a "set" (which is why the ride can feel a little nobbly for the first couple of hundred yards until you get some heat in the tires).

 

ajsd,
Thank you!
Is it true that some tire presures are actually measured by a sensor in the tire itself. I thought I remember hearing somewhere that a system like that was being used in some cars (maybe it was in the new 7 series (?)). Do you know anything about this?
Anita

 

hey everyone,

as several have already mentioned on the thread, the temp gauge in our new cars is not analog, its digital, and the travel is not linear; meaning that when things are even a little off center, something is wrong, and when its creeping towards red, pull over! anyways, im glad your problem seemed to work itself out. this happened on my 3 series because of a broken thermostat, and i was told that i could have caused some serious damage if i had driven the car, so be careful guys and girls!

Ernie

 

Anita,

Don't know whether any BMWs have tire pressure monitors that actually measure air pressure rather than rotation (I have a friend who has a BMW MINI Cooper and the tire pressure monitor on it is rotation based). I know that Renault use a system that monitors pressure in Europe on some of its models, it's kind of cool, when you start up the on board computer shows a little picture of the car with the psi reading of each tire on each corner. The ones that monitor pressure are clearly better but more expensive to manufacture because they can't just piggy back off the ABS. I think monitors are supposed to be mandatory on cars sold in the US after 2005(?) although I don't know which system has to be adopted.

 

ajsd,
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question. It would be nice to have an actual reading for each tire's pressure. I've never had any problems with tire pressure monitor on my M5. But, I do have to say I don't like the way the car handles with the 17" wheels and snow tires on it. The DSC keeps popping on during hard accelerations and cornerings where it had not before I put on the snows (this is on road surfaces free of ice and snow). Just a few months until I can rip them off-maybe sooner!!
Anita

 

Unfortunately the system does indeed use the ABS sensors to sense tire pressure -- it's not a complete system that actually measure air pressure

Oh well, at least it's better than nothing.

-Chris