GM5 Module repair

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Inspectorcluseo

Member
Hi all, after any advice or experience on this please. I've been having a combination of window, roof and locking issues and also battery drain. All of the evidence points to the GM5 module, I also plugged in an OBD diagnostic which came up with a raft of faults, one of which was body control module, i.e. the GM5.

I've been looking at various repair services, but most seem to focus on central locking only and it seems some don't cover the GMSTAR12 module which mine is (2006 3.0 si).

Does anyone have experience of a repairer that can do these and cover the required rebuild, or am I best buying another unit. I understand that it then may need coding to the car, I'm not quite sure what this entails ?

Any info appreciated. Rob.
 
Speak to Merv at Autoelectron in Harrogate. He’s the GM5 guru and can reprogram these issues
 
I was going to go to Merv for mine, but took a chance on a second hand unit, as it was a lot cheaper! (In the end, mine started working after a power cycle anyway. Very bizarre)


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Thread 'E85/E86 Star12 GM5 replacement with E46/E83 part'

Hi all,

My driver's side window stopped going up - but would still go down. The motor worked with 12v applied, and the wiring has continuity back to the GM5. I therefore guessed it would be the GM5 at fault.

The Star12 GM5s don't have masses of repair options online, and replacement ones for E85/E86 part numbers are _expensive_!

I got a replacement Star12 HIGH (so front + rear windows, as opposed to our LOW with just front windows) from an E46/E83 for £15. I made sure that the SW (software) version matched my existing GM5 so that the coding index would be supported by the E85 platform...
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I always send our South Wales members to Merv in Harrogate, fast turnaround. If you put a used module in its plug and play no coding required however some functions you did have may not have been programmed into the replacement. Options can be selected or deleted using NCS software and NCS Dummy on a Laptop.
 
Just an update on this, I tried Merv at autoelec, he replied to one ebay message asking me some questions to which I replied but then got no response back from him, I then tried calling many times this week, he doesn't seem to answer the phone or respond to voicemails, so not sure what's going on there.

I think I've found another guy that advertises on ebay, so going to try that. He has at least been very responsive to communications !
 
I do gm5 repairs on the 5star units which is fairly simple

I’ve found that the 12star units are pretty impossible to fix as a hobbyist and that a premium is charged by any businesses that fix those units-

In the past 5star repair was around £40 but I’ve recently seen 12star repair on eBay at £160

That may be why you are struggling to find someone to repair it
 
Inspectorcluseo said:
Just an update on this, I tried Merv at autoelec, he replied to one ebay message asking me some questions to which I replied but then got no response back from him, I then tried calling many times this week, he doesn't seem to answer the phone or respond to voicemails, so not sure what's going on there.

I think I've found another guy that advertises on ebay, so going to try that. He has at least been very responsive to communications !
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As @colb has suggested, you could find another Star 12 Low module and fit that. Pair the keys, find someone with Scanner 1.4 or similar and get the specific coding you want added to it.
 
actually - just tried Merv again and got hold of him, nice guy. He thinks that given the roof is automatically dropping of it's own accord, that's not a usual symptom fixed by relay replacement, so recommends I get another module and try that. Hence, I'll be giving that a go.
 
Just thought I would update on this and get any ore views. I found a local BMW parts place that had the exact part number module. I took the car up to them, they fitted the replacement module to see what happened. Everything worked i.e. windows, roof etc, but again when I turned the car off, got out and locked it, the roof went down. I was at this point locking the door with the key, as the new module wasn't coded to my keys.

Hence, this pretty much eliminated my original GM5 as the cause of the problem. The guys at the parts place had a mess with my door lock and on holding the key in variations positions, the roof was going up or down. They seemed to indicate that this could mean there's an issue with some wiring / sensors in the door lock barrel.

Anyway, I'm going to run it as is and see what happens next few days.

Wondered if anyone had a view on the door lock theory, or anything else to check here ?
 
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