Help with diagnostic software & understanding errors

D

d3matt

Member
 Oxfordshire, UK
A bit of background.....I've just brought a 2003 3-litre Z4 and the following day (after driving at least 5 hours trouble free) I had an amber handbrake + amber DSC lights on permanently and the alarm has been going off occasionally.
First step was to buy a k-line cable from bcables.com. This arrived yesterday and I've loaded all the software on my laptop. So tonight I've gone to have a play with it connected to the car. I've never used any of this software before and its all a bit confusing. But I connected the cable and loaded the DIS software.
p1.jpg
I was then confronted with all these errors.
https://goo.gl/photos/ZN4xsQzdQJP2koTW8
https://goo.gl/photos/vtLT11R36sTLgr4U8
https://goo.gl/photos/BX4Q5rfKewgEuTsz7
https://goo.gl/photos/mtUBtpQ16USFjy3A9

and then on further investigation..
https://goo.gl/photos/yKuzYPp5WaSqmaw2A
https://goo.gl/photos/xSCbBbhsYTKK3zWg7
https://goo.gl/photos/RQTACnKc9b92Cc7aA
https://goo.gl/photos/ZvNffahUxyN1MRkn9

However, its showing errors for things that clearly aren't at fault, like the central locking relay and motors - they all work fine.
So what does "Currently not present" and "Fault currently not present" mean, even though both examples of these messages have fault frequency numbers next to them?
Anything in this list jump out at you as something I should be alarmed with?
I really just wanted to find why the DSC light is lit amber and why the alarm is going off. I can see there's 31 faults on the alarm passenger compartment sensor. I guess that's what's been setting the alarm off.

Coincidently, the handbrake+DSC lights have now gone off and removing the diagnostic cable.

Also, anyone locally (OX13) or Warwick (CV34) who could show me how to use this diagnostic software if I popped over?
 
I'm by no means an expert but it looks like a lot of your fault codes could be from a bad battery (as others have said) or at least a low voltage event where the battery has been allowed to go flat. It also looks like your fault codes have never been accessed and erased before.
For example the side light code could have been a bulb that went years ago and has long since been replaced. Others could have been the occasional glitch or low battery voltage but again it could have been years back.

My gut feeling is the only real issue you may have currently is the abs pressure sensor, hence the lights you saw. These have a tendency to intermittently put your dash lights on as they start to fail before they stay on permanently.

I would also get your battery/alternator checked just to make sure they are fine and aren't currently failing.

If it were me I would delete all your codes and check back in a day or so to see it any have returned, indicating a current issue rather than an old one.
 
MACK said:
It also looks like your fault codes have never been accessed and erased before. For example the side light code could have been a bulb that went years ago and has long since been replaced. Others could have been the occasional glitch or low battery voltage but again it could have been years back.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same. And the previous owner hardly did any miles and it was garaged for long periods, so could well have flattened the battery a few times.

MACK said:
My gut feeling is the only real issue you may have currently is the abs pressure sensor, hence the lights you saw. These have a tendency to intermittently put your dash lights on as they start to fail before they stay on permanently.
If it were me I would delete all your codes and check back in a day or so to see it any have returned, indicating a current issue rather than an old one.
Click to expand...

Ok, I will try that (if I can work out how you delete the old codes). Thank you.
 
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