Oh no! Transmission Failsafe Prog!

[Lloydy]

I recently go the trans failsafe warning after the battery died on me, once jump started I drove home to give it charge and it only drives in 3rd or 4th gear I believe, once it had enough time to charge I switched off and then on again and the error message went and all has been good.

[Sim0x]

I've installed GT1 on another laptop to try and dig a little deeper, but for now I have disabled the BC message lol

[lezmtaylor]

several times my 4.4 has given the trans failsafe warning, each time cured by switching ign on and allowing the system to do its' start up seqencing ( about 20 - 30 secs).

Lez

[Sim0x]

Yeah, it does seem to help a bit, but I'm still getting it sometimes. I'm booked into Teesside AutoTech tomorrow to get the codes fully looked at and then see where we go from there.

[Sim0x]

Oh well this doesn't seem to clever lol

I left the car this morning at the garage to be fault coded, when we went back to pick it up the guy gave us our print out of faults and said it wouldn't start at first and that the temperature gauge was shooting over to red and after removing the key and trying again it worked, so they cleared any codes, drove it about and read them again.
I have attached the documents I was given:





The guy told me I may need a new ECU? or ECU relay?

What do you guys think?

[X5Sport]

You need to change the transfer case oil.  Did they read the transmission codes, or were none recorded?  In which case it's a good gearbox at least.

The first fault log has very low battery volts.  Anything below 12 wants looking at, and 11 is not far off dead (10.5V).  That's only 1.83V per cell and ideally it should be nearer 2.0V.  Fully charged you should see 12.2 - 12.6V or 2.1V per cell.

No idea if the DME/DDE needs replacing but if the engine is running fine it seems unnecessary to me.

Might be someone has been playing with the wiring, or there is a bit of damp where there shouldn't be.  Hopefully Jason or one of the ex-BMW Techs will pipe up to help decode this lot for you into plain English.

Richard

[Sim0x]

Hi mate, the guy said that they would not normally change the oil until it reads "critical". I only put the new banner battery on it not so long ago so do you think it needs a new alternator or could it be that they never had a charger on it when testing it maybe as it cranks over fine.

[X5Sport]

Maybe.  A new battery eliminates that - do you remember what the Ah rating was, or the CCA (Cold Crank Amps) rating?  Alternator is a possible, and short journeys of less than 20 mins running will not put enough charge back.

If you have access to a voltmeter see what the output is with the engine running.  Should be close to 14.4V for a charged battery and no lower than 13.5V.  Use the jumper points under the bonnet to measure it - a lot easier than faring in the boot 

Richard

[shadrack]

is that place a bmw specialist or just a universal

[Sim0x]

Cheers Richard, I'll get my meter on it today. The battery spec is as per the image:


@shadrack - they are a bmw specialist.

[Sim0x]

Weird!  when you insert the key with the emblem facing you and try to start the car it seems to give the gauge maxed out signal, if I take the key out and turn it so the emblem faces towards the instrument cluster it seems to work, could it be a key issue?

[Sim0x]

Richard. I've just been out and tested the battery and it is 12.34V so it would seem that the battery is OK, I think I'm going to have to take it into BMW and see what they say.

[X5Sport]

Not heard of a key doing that. Nit should make no difference which way round you put it in.  The 'reader' is a loop around the switch AFAIK.

Something very odd going in with the electronics.  It could be a bad earth, or bad connection somewhere but finding it will be a pain.

Battery is OK and spec fine too, so that's eliminated.  If it's charged to that then it would tend to indicate the alternator is fine.  You need to wait four hours before checking the battery voltage off charge and ideally the car should be asleep too.

Richard

[Sim0x]

Hi mate, yeah the car had been off over 8 hours.

[X5Sport]

Battery looks good then.....

Richard