The terrible three yellow lights

[Mr Tidy]

That's great news.

Hopefully you can get the carpet dried out, and protecting the module sounds like a good plan. Could you possibly vacuum pack it then glue something to the vacuum pack that you can attach to the bracket?

[DanielS]

So I just did the most stupid thing. It's now 23:15 in the Netherlands, my wife just came home from a dinner and I wanted to give the car a go to see if the ABS DSC all worked. So I just drove out of the street and after the first round about... BOOM lights on... f*ck!!

Then I realised after I turned around and parked the car I did not attach the unit it was just sitting there on the floor... off coarse it's going to roll around and throw a fit...

So tomorrow I will vacuumpack the unit. Cut out the pieces i need for the connector and bolt tad glue and then install in all back the way it was supposed to be....

[DanielS]

So today was a good day... well sort off.

So first the day started with vacuum sealing the sensor, I then attached the sensor back in the bracket and hooked things up in the car. After this, took the car for a spin and all was good!

The rest of the day I spent working on the suspension and the engine, I will discuss this in my other topic.

Now after a playing around with the car all day and took it out for a drive to test the suspension and all and after a drive, I got home and the DSC light was on again... so I got INPA out again, and bugger me... 2 errors

5E24 Druck Sensor 1/2 unplausibel
5E21 Druck Sensor 2 elektrisch defekt

As tomorrow (sunday) I am going to Germany to get the roof fixed, I need to get this sorted. My first thoughts are to replace sensor 2 again with the original sensor that was in the car.
The other thing I read was about that the DSC module under the carpet can't really take a lot of heat. So it's now in a plastic vacuumed bag, and can't get rid of the heat. So I am going to remove the chair (again) and undo all the handy work and connect everything back up the way BMW designed it.

Suggestions are offcoarse more than welcome.

[DanielS]

And the saga continues!

I started the day with replacing the new sensor I bought with the one I had originally removed. This for a base line. Then with DIS instead of INPA, I read the errors and removed them. After this I did a calibration via DIS (I think) with the hope this would work. After turning off the car, the lights were out and all was well. I left the passenger seat in and on my way to Germany to get the roof done. (I will write a review about this later)

Went from my place to a ATM and then onwards, after about 40km of driving on the highway... poof lights come back on. It was about 23 degrees C outside but comfortable, not boiling hot.

After reading some forums I am going to use a contact spray on both the DSC Pressure sensors and their connectors, but I doubt this will fix it.

Now I would love to hear your recommendations. I have 2 brand new sensors and I want to get this sorted?

[DanielS]

So I have been looking into this issue and I just can't figure it out.

Now after reading on the German forum they have the same issue on the E46 and some other cars. they mention that the cable length of sensor 1 and sensor 2 are the same and that sometimes that wires are exchanged.
More in the link below.
https://www.motor-talk.de/forum/howto-d ... 89037.html
Is this also possible on the E85?

The one thing I am not sure off is the coding of the DSC unit. If I look at the German post they code using NCSExpert. Has anyone ever done this on the Z4?

[BumpyZ4]

You have to find the water leak and fix it or no matter what you do you will continue to have problems.

[DanielS]

The water leak that destroyed the old DSC controller I believe has been taken care of. Yet as I rather not find out the hard way, the Z4 is now under a waterproof cover.

And to be sure the carpet is dry, the passenger seat is in my living room (my wife isn't to happy about this) and the carpet in the car is being held up and a small fan is moving the air around in the car. It was just a bit damp last weekend, so it should be dry this coming weekend.

[Jfgoldfish]

Looking at the damage caused by the water in your previous picture, I would still be investigating connector damage. Poor connections on the loom can cause corrupt data on the bus. This can then throw all sorts of unrelated codes due to other sensors being unresponsive.
You might be dealing with multiple issues here, but completely fixing one issue before tackling another will make diagnlstics far easier.
In my opinion, the connector on the yaw rate sensor needs carefully depinning for inspection or at least cleaning in a quality deoxidising cleaner before reassembly using a silicon grease or other protectant.

Coding of the DSC module can be done using NCSexpert.

[DanielS]

It's fixed!! (I think)

During the week I don't have time to work on the car because of work and a little Gremlin wanting attention. But I ordered stuff online so I could get around fixing stuff today.

First things first, what I did was clean the connectors as @Jfgoldfish mentioned. Now I don't have the tools to "un pin" the connectors I did have plenty of contact cleaner and a compressor and a dental pick, so I cleaned the connector the best I could and hoped that this wasn't the issue.

Next up, do a complete flush of the braking system. Getting the car on jacks was new for me, but in the end, it's just really easy. Many thanks to all the people who have written the DIY's and YouTube videos.
So the car is on jacks, wheels are off. I then removed as much brake fluid from the reservoir as i could using a syringe with a long nose. Got most of it out and a small syringe for the last bit. The colour is best described as dark brown. Then attached a brake power cleaner (got one with a 3 liter reservoir) and filled up with about 1.5 liters. As and advice, I saw on youtube that there is a hose without a clamp attached to the brake reservoir, to make sure this hose would not jump off and splatter brake fluid everywhere I used a tie-rap to close attach it more snug. Pumped up the brake power cleaner to about 1.8 bars of pressure and set to work. Drained all the fluid until my nice clear yellow was running through the cannister line. Pumped the brakes a couple of time in between, and moved the steering wheel from side to side. After all this was done, cleaned up the engine bay of any drops spilled and used water to rinse things. Get the tyres back on, and put her down on the ground.
#note: this sounds very easy and the tutorials on the internet make it look like a hour job. I took me all by all about 2 hours with checking for leaks, making sure that everything was nice and tidy, cleaning up and drops I might have spilled.

Next up, coding the DSC unit with NCS Expert. A proper guide can be found here
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/atta ... 1342141550 just change to the E85 system and look for the DSC module, follow the steps.

Time to clear all the errors and reset the sensors using INPA.

Then ran the car, but the error light came back after about 10 min, still giving me a 5E21 Druck Sensor 2 elektrisch defekt. Next step was to remove the wire harnass of the DSC sensor in the engine bay and see if it was the sensor or the DSC computer module or maybe a wire issue or just the DSC sensor.

And then it happened! It gave me a fault code that sensor 1 was not working!! I just unplugged sensor 2 according to all the internet pictures. The only possible explanation, the previous owner must have had work done to the car and it wasn't put back the way it was meant. So I grapped a new DSC sensor and with a lot of patience I was able to remove the real sensor one and install a new one. lost a couple of drops of fresh brake fluid. I do have to mention this was not the easiest job, not because it's technical or difficult, the issue is the size of my hands. I could barely reach the unit. Yet after about 20 minutes of fiddeling around and considering amputating my thumb the sensor was back in it's place! I then cleaned the connector as I had done with the DSC computer and attached everything.

Booted up INPA, reset DSC sensors again, cleared the steering wheel offset and the DSC errors and took the car for a drive and that was the last I have seen today of the errors!!

So in short:
- Clean all connectors
- Brake fluid flush
- Double check that someone has not switched the DSC Sensor cable
- Replace broken DSC sensor

Or at least I hope!! Did drive for about 30 minutes without any errors on the dashboard.

[Mr Tidy]

I was hoping you had it sorted last week - let's hope it is now.

[Jfgoldfish]

Great result.
Hopefully things truly are sorted now.

[05_3.0i_zoom]

So today was a great day, got home from work and the second hand unit arrived during that day. So after some minor engine work. (Discovered the air intake boot had a massive hole in it, so replaced it with a new unit) I plugged the 2nd hand DSC unit in the car... poof!! No more lights on the dashboard!! ABS, Brakes, everything just fine!!

Fired INPA back up, checked for errors and for now, no errors showing relating to the unit. Now I need to take the car out for a quick drive and give it a go to see if the brakes all function as expected, but I don't see why not. Just really happy the issue is resolved.

There is just the issue of drying out the carpet. I have a screwdriver holding the carpet up as much as possible, but it's still damp. So I am not confident on just screwing everything back in. The weather here also has not been very help full, as the car is sitting in the drive way. I am going to put a fan in there for the night just on circulation, no heat. Hopefuly this wil help...

Also the possibility of it happening again got me thinking on how to protect the module. I was thinking of vacuum packing the module and bracket then just cut out the opening for the screws and put a tad of glue so the seal remains. But open for suggestions....

How bad was it replacing the DSC unit. I am just scared because the brake fluid goes into it... thank you for posting

[DanielS]

The hardest part was getting it loose enough so you can turn it by hand. There isn't a lot of room.

First. Apply a bit of brake pressure. I send a stone that was holding the brake pad down.
Then put paper towels in the working area for any spills. After this unto the sensor that you can turn it by hand. Put all tools down so both hands are free and make sure the new sensor is within reach. Unscrew with one hand and let it drop. Insert new sensor as quick as possible, but don't stress for a couple of drops of fluid. Once you have the new sensor hand tight it will not leak. Clean out all the paper towels and tighten the sensor again. Attache the wire loom.

Poor water on the chassis where there might have been drops of brake fluid that you have missed and you should be good.

[05_3.0i_zoom]

So mine started with an amber brake light but its red now. And the speedometer stays at zero all the time. I have changed all four speed sensors ..

[DanielS]

Have you hooked the car up to INPA or Any other software to see what kind of errors it's giving?

My first thought might be the onboard DSC computer located beneath the passenger seat. Yet before you take the car apart I would recommend getting the car hooked up to INPA or BMW scanner 1.4