Electrical Gremlins....

P

Pauly_G

Member
Morning all & happy new year to everyone!

I've had a strange problem occur on my '07 Z4 Coupe several times over the course of the past month and thought I post up to see if anyone else had suffered a similar problem and before heading off to the local dealer. Essentially five times over the course of the last month, when I have turned the ignition on I have been treated to a strange buzzing noise (lasting for a second or so) behind the dash and the dash board resetting itself - i.e. fuel gauge and temperature needles zero and then jump back up and more importantly the trip computer, clock and trip mileage reset themselves (the cumulative vehicle mileage is retained).

This has only ever happened when turning the car on for the first time on a day and notably it has always followed particularly cold weather, and given the very un-British cold snap we've got at the moment it has happened 3 times in the last week! Now ultimately it doesn't appear to be doing anything too unward, everything appears to operate normally once it has reset, however it's a bit of a pain resetting the clock time after time and also loosing all the trip computer data.

So has anyone else experienced anything similar or got any bright ideas as to what may be up? Or as it seems is it just a case of my electronics taking a dislike to cold weather - although even at -8 degrees c, that got to be well within design tolerances....

Cheers

Paul
 
it is just saying hello, isn't it cold this morning!

seriously though no idea, wouldn't expect cold weather to have that effect :(
 
Guessing it's going to be hard for you to replicate in front of the dealer, agree that the fault code is the best way forward...

My guesses:
Battery not pushing enough charge due to the cold.. if ignition coils etc zonk what ever power there is maybe it's falling below a failsafe limit?
Do you start the car with xenons or A/C on.. maybe a failing resistor
Could it be a fluid level releated (not sure why your symptoms would occur.. just going on the cold theme)

Not an expert just throwing some ideas out there!
Let us know the outcome..
 
I would bet heavy on it being the battery.

Do you do lots of short journeys?

I have read and had problems with cars due to only doing lots of short journeys. My focus does a weird dial sweep all the time in the winter and thats down to battery and cold.

My dad had a 535D and had a stupid amount of problems with the Idrive and clocks all resetting all the time. It must have been back to the dealer 6 times and never fixed. They even said it was his own fault he only drives short journeys!! He was not happy after that remark lol
 
Cheers for the replies.

I have been thinking along the same sort of lines.

To answer a few questions, the car does predominantly do short journeys during the week, although at the weekends I tend to get out and about a bit more. I start the car with the a/c and radio on, but most other things are off.

I am a little reluctant to take it to the dealer sinces it's not necessarily a huge problem and as people have said it's not something I can easily replicate. Will phone up the dealer and see what they have to say and book in as necessary, hopefully fault codes will have been logged.

Cheers

Paul
 
Check the battery connections, although the car starts showing that there is a connection.It could be the initial first draw of current that is the problem.Disconnect the terminals smear so copper grease on the poles then reconnect, it's worth a go? :wink:
 
Well a quick update!

Took the car into my local dealer this weekend. Dropped it off at 8:30am (painful on a Saturday), clarified the problem and explained that I didn't want the car to be washed. Phoned up at 11:15am to check progress, left a voicemail which was never returned, so made my way to the garage arriving at 12pm since the service department closes at 12:30pm.

Sat down with the service assistant who confirmed that they couldn't find any problems, at which stage I asked them if they'd found any fault codes....several seconds of silence then followed, after which she indicated that they had not plugged it in to the diagnostic machine....so it seems all they had checked was turning the car on and off. I expressed surprise at this especially since I'd explained in detail the problem and even suggested that hopefully the car may have stored some fault codes. They then offered to do it there and then! 30mins later, they came back with the keys to say they had found a DSC fault which they had cleared but that was it and was advised to come back if my electrical problem re-occured.

Needless to say I was a little frustrated, having got up early Sat, not had a call returned, and then turning up to find that they'd been less than thorough - par for course these days! O and guess what, they'd washed the car, well at least 'tried' to wash it....
 
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but this has been happening to my Z recently. Just wondering whether my battery is on the way out. I charged it up yesterday, set all the clock, computer etc, and this morning clock and computer reset themselves.
 
all recent model BMW,s ( from 2004) like a good battery & alternator , majority of electrical faults will stem from these 2 items
have you checked the battery since you charged it ?
 
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