Car went haywire, ideas?

[Professor///M]

I was simply driving on the highway tonight when suddenly the car started throwing errors:

- pedestrian detection malfunction
- Brake assist malfunction

- DSC malfunction
- Steering assist malfunction


While the car was still driveable, and it said to "drive moderately", the car was hardly turnable due to the lack of assistance.

I am out of town not near any BMW dealerships... obviously I would just bring it right in ASAP.

Shut it down, restarted, everything went away. Drove 10 miles... came back.

Same thing, shut it down, restarted, everything went back to normal

Happened 2 more times within 30 miles. The shut down and restart worked just fine.


Any immediate thoughts. I checked around the car for damage, nothing. Checked the rear right wheel well for loose connections, looks ok.

Anything else I can do to diagnose since I'm 200 miles from home and probably not near a service center?

All help is appreciated. Car is completely stock, 2150 miles; break in performed as expected. Everything else functions normal, car functions normal after a shut down.

[SakhirM4]

Hit the SOS button and have them direct you to the nearest service center.

[Professor///M]

Originally Posted by SakhirM4

Hit the SOS button and have them direct you to the nearest service center.

I know what to do, I know where that is. Don't have the time tomorrow to bring it in, will be unavailable from 8am-5pm. That leaves Tuesday, which I was going to a BMW event in Monticello, but I may now have to bypass that to get my car fixed. I was looking for someone with any ideas that could be the problem.

No help bringing it to a service center at midnight... People are on the interwebs at midnight.

[SakhirM4]

Sorry - didn't mean to insult your intelligence. Good luck getting it fixed.

[dr.mba]

Something similar to this happened to me with my 5 series. Everything was going off and the dash looked like a Christmas tree. Shutting down would reset everything but surely it came back in a matter of minutes. Took it to the dealership and they found the gas pedal had a short circuit and they felt it was from all the snow/salt that was dripping on it. They replaced the gas pedal module and the car was perfectly fine since. I am guessing this could also be the same issue although at only 2000 odd miles I find that hard to conceive.

M

[Professor///M]

Originally Posted by dr.mba

Something similar to this happened to me with my 5 series. Everything was going off and the dash looked like a Christmas tree. Shutting down would reset everything but surely it came back in a matter of minutes. Took it to the dealership and they found the gas pedal had a short circuit and they felt it was from all the snow/salt that was dripping on it. They replaced the gas pedal module and the car was perfectly fine since. I am guessing this could also be the same issue although at only 2000 odd miles I find that hard to conceive.

M

You're basically confirming it's something clearly electrical. Hopefully simple fix like yours

[Professor///M]

Originally Posted by SakhirM4

Sorry - didn't mean to insult your intelligence. Good luck getting it fixed.

No worries just frustrated. Thanks.

[aboulfad]

If you have your ENET cable handy and your laptop, you could have run ISTA to scan and diagnose the faults.

[Professor///M]

Originally Posted by aboulfad

If you have your ENET cable handy and your laptop, you could have run ISTA to scan and diagnose the faults.

OH, yeah, about that... Doesn't work with a mac.

You think "Automatic Pro" would be able to read the codes? I got a best buy with one down the street

[aboulfad]

ISTA, Esys, toolset32,... works absolutely perfect with a Mac: Either using boot camp or virtual box, I've used both methods on my old MacBook. And it's not just reading the faults, but ISTA provides recommendations and measure plans to help further diagnose.

Most apps that use a wireless dongles pull either the standard OBD codes (useless), you need an app that can pull the BMW specific 6 digit fault codes. Also, most apps I've seen give a one liner description, that's not going to help. I don't know much about "automatic pro", but there's been a nb of reviews here on Bimmerlink ($35), you'd need a OBD dongle ($20-30) sold on amazon, so that may not help you now but good to buy for the future. Not sure if the fault display in Bimmerlink is still in German ...

PS: Automatic Pro won't help much, it pulls the generic OBD codes and will be waste of your money. Sorry!

[Professor///M]

Originally Posted by aboulfad

ISTA, Esys, toolset32,... works absolutely perfect with a Mac: Either using boot camp or virtual box, I've used both methods on my old MacBook. And it's not just reading the faults, but ISTA provides recommendations and measure plans to help further diagnose.

Most apps that use a wireless dongles pull either the standard OBD codes (useless), you need an app that can pull the BMW specific 6 digit fault codes. Also, most apps I've seen give a one liner description, that's not going to help. I don't know much about "automatic pro", but there's been a nb of reviews here on Bimmerlink ($35), you'd need a OBD dongle ($20-30) sold on amazon, so that may not help you now but good to buy for the future. Not sure if the fault display in Bimmerlink is still in German ...

PS: Automatic Pro won't help much, it pulls the generic OBD codes and will be waste of your money. Sorry!

Originally Posted by aboulfad

PS: Automatic Pro won't help much, it pulls the generic OBD codes and will be waste of your money. Sorry!

This is exactly what I thought. Thanks so much for your input.

[aboulfad]

Sorry for your troubles, I wanted to provide some info to better equip you for the future, but take note that even if you have ISTA now, and it provides you with the fault codes, details, diagnosis,... you may not be ale to do anything about it, because if a cable/module/component requires replacement, you need parts, tools, skills,... GL!

[Professor///M]

Had multiple EPS fault codes, they had to replace the steering rack. Replaced, recoded, and now fingers are crossed that it's back to new. Thanks for all of your help!