X5smw

Silly idea….. can you lock the car remotely from your key location in the house? the reason I ask is that some cars are coded to have auto lock and a fail safe unlock feature. if the battery is failing on the key fob, does the car recognise this and auto unlock the doors as a safety feature? the windows all coming down is also a clue that the fob maybe failing as holding the unlock button will open all doors and windows. This is also coded into the car individually. also it’s worth checking that all the window runners and wills are clean. Some cars are fitted with a system that detects resistance and will open windows and doors if the tolerance goes up…. Like a child sticking his head in a closing window etc. remember, the key starring the car has nothing to do with the remote central locking, they are two separate entities.

If you are loosing compression on two neighbouring cylinders when it’s cold, I would look into head gasket and cylinder head skimming possibly? As the engine heats up, the gap will close due to expansion and stop the compression leak. If it was a plug issue then the misfire would be constant (usually)

Does the e83 need the battery coding to the car? also , is the battery a high power unit? What make is the alternator? Are the battery leads corroded and is it earthed correctly? If you start the car, can you remove the positive battery lead and will the car still run? That way you can test if the alternator is working. some brands of starter motors can crank high and kill a battery.

That would be my next thought, unplug the throttle body/ maf sensor and see if the idle changes, mine cleared after the dodgy battery replacement but a faulty throttle body would also cause irregular revs at idle. There is a large plug on the side of the maf sensor that you can unplug while the car is idling. This should change the idle noticeably. If it doesn’t, that would point toward an issue there. @Greydog Would the throttle body idle revs clear when the codes are erased?

Stupid question, but are your lights set on auto? the dash lights will dim when the exterior lights come on. is it doing it when the car is stationary?

Can you swap batteries? mine did the same and even on a long run, would sometimes just enter limp mode for no reason. Revs would be up and down… scanned and cleared the fault, all ok, revs back to normal. Got home and stopped, then started and limp mode would be back on. turned out to be a dodgy battery, which was charging fine, but would not hold a charge. …. Then my alternator stopped and left me stranded.

The adaptations would be the throttle position reset. How is the idle? (When the limp mode is off)

Resetting the throttle position on a BMW E46 requires You to enter the car and turn the ignition on. When doing so, make sure to put Your foot on the brake and push it down when turning the ignition on. At this point, only the cars accessories should have booted up. When this happens, push down the accelerator as well. Hold it down for roughly 20 seconds and then release the accelerator and turn off the car, to complete the reset. If Youre having trouble doing this procedure, consult Your owners manual. It should contain a detailed breakdown of each step, as well as a walk-through to reset the throttle position sensor. try this, it’s for an older 3 series, but it should work on the 1. to check the alternator and battery, start the car and put a multimeter on the battery terminals. you should see a voltage of around 14v dc. switch the engine off and hopefully the battery will show around 13.4? V dc. go back and test the battery in about 30 minutes and it should read the same. This will show the alternator and battery working and holding charge. Anything around 12v, replaced the battery. my x5 was going into limp mode and throttle position abnormalities due to a failing battery.

Possible battery issue making the throttle position sensor reset? Try to manually reset the throttle and check the alternator output?

Hi Mike. it’s really easy to fit the dual din screen versions . you need to remove the lower Dacia below the radio and relocate it to the cubby hole below. get a headset with iso connections and it will plug straight in. Get one with steering wheel control interfaces and you will keep these too Something like this will suffice. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203761821728?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=5oi5weejscq&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=Ht4YuRv-Sdq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY hope this helps. stu

Looking at the video, the digital clocks are not in sync with the surround. This would tell me the fault is definitely the display or computer to the display. make the dealer replace them. @GreydogI had to tell the phone to ignore voice commands when connected to the car. Now it just randomly pipes up into a conversation in the middle of the night!

Bit of a long shot but does the phone start calling you and displaying your number? My company car started to randomly do this and then disconnect… turns out Siri on my iPhone was listening to the radio and reacting to words in songs! …. Bizarre but true and also very annoying. not sure about the gear issue. @Greydog Didn’t someone on here have a similar issue when the oil was low and the mechanic hadn’t flushed it properly?

…. And also, as the wise old grey one pointed out… my limp mode issue was in fact a dying battery. £90 and a trip to a well known orange signed auto spares place solved it all…. till the scanner found something else with the temperamental git

I have the same reader. It worked great for resetting my airbag light on the e46. I keep it in the e53 to get me out of any issues. The car used to jump into fail safe mode and misfire, so I could plug it in and erase the codes to get home. as greydog says though, erasing the fault codes are great for old issues that have been resolved but don’t be fooled by thinking the issues will disappear themselves. Find them with the tool and fix them so they don’t return. with my misfire episodes, I invested in pasoft 1.4 something or other at a cost of about £40 and it is much more than a diagnosis program. I found faults with the handheld, then scanned with the pasoft and fixed the issues. I still have the scanner in the car, great bit of kit 👍🏻

Water pump? Thermostat related or oil flow? im guessing it’s when the engine is cold, so could be oil distribution ?

I would check your battery and alternator. mine would randomly do it .. turned out to be a duff battery.

The battery should keep charged as it charges off the ignition barrel. the battery would not make a difference as the chip for the immobiliser unit is benign. The battery controls the remote central locking. I worked out why mine kept failing by using PAsoft. The diagnostics software showed the ews only reading the key chip intermittently. A great price of kit and very cheap. good luck and keep us informed

Our motor home has a wireless camera which shows on the mirror when you select reverse. it is powered from the 12v or the interior light and the camera and signal become active when I select reverse as it’s wired to the reverse light. Its wireless so no problems if you unhitched and forgot.

Try another key if you have one. Mine failed on the chip and the ews unit didn’t recognise the key. the remote locking will work as it’s a separate transponder. mid you can get a copy of pasoft or another diognosis tool, plug the car in and you can see the car trying to talk to the key. Mine would drop in and out of the comms and fail to start the car. I put the spare key next to the barrel and it read and started all the time. I bought a blank key and a programmer, got a local locksmith to cut the key and copied the chip contents onto the new blank. No issues since!

Can you check part numbers for the touring variant. I thought the headlights and mirrors were the same. I know the saloon and coupe are all different. quarry motors are as below 👍🏻

Surely quarry motors can supply compete units for cheaper? unless you want to keep everything original to the car. … I picked up a second hand x5 set for £25 quid.

Can you remove the stereo? I’m sure the yellow is a permanent feed for data and the red is switched on the ignition. tap a cable off the back of that into an inline fuse ? I did this on the x5 reversing camera and it works great. The camera only needs to be on when the head unit is working anyways.

Hi. Firstly check battery output and then disconnect the MAF sensor. the engine would still run with an oil pressure warning so I suspect the issue os not that. I had a similar issue with an e53 x5 and I replaced the dme and associated computers, it runs perfect now….. for now!

Hi Noel, welcome to the forum. 👍🏻

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bmw-3-series-e46-manual-coupe-m54-straight-6-/403456455439?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0 This looks nice and within budget.