New here...Please Help :(

[SophiM]

Hi all,

I have a 2006 Z4M and its developed a problem,please bare with me.

Initially the car would intermittantly lose the clock,date and MPG and average speed data. This could happen twice a week or be fine for months on end,but always bugged me.
I put the car into the dealers in November and they instantly said the battery was at fault and fitted a new one..£215 later i was happy it was sorted out.
Within a few weeks the fault happened again,i took it back to the dealers and they checked the battery and connections and put the car on the diagnostic machine and it showed no faults..
I put up with the sporadic fault just thinking it was a glitch.

Now i have a more ominous problem and im not sure if its connected.

The sat nav screen can sometimes stick down,this seems to coincide with losing the data memory(maybe). But recently the car has cut out and lost all electrics on 2 occasions.Both times at idle and both times it immedietly restarted without problem. I did experience this once around 18 months ago but thought i may have stalled it.
On both occasions it seems that when the car loses its electrics,it loses all data memory as well as seat position memory and all warning lights illuminate on the dashboard.The problem seems to be getting worse and im wondering if anyone has experienced this problem at all ??
The car was taken to an Indy specialist last week,but the car had logged no problems and was running fine when i took it to them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for my first post being an ask,but like many,forums are always seeked out when problems arise

A bit more info,i use the car daily but it only covers around 50 miles a week,im not sure if this means anything but more information the better i say!.

 

[mad4slalom]

hi there, sounds very annoying, one of those things that maybe have to get on a diagnostic machine asap as it happens, i had a merc sprinter with sudden death syndrome wher u would be driving along and suddenly the ecu light would come on, and 5 seconds later the motor would cut ou, it would just turn over but not start, if you left it 20 seconds it would start perfectly and drive as normal , the ecu light would sta on for about 3or 4 minutes before going out, when put on the computer there was no fault logged;, so no idea, had this for the 6 years i had the vehicle, funnuly enough i learned to drive it so it wouldnt happen, sounds crazy but i realised it did it if you were cruising off the gas or with very little gas, if you were foot on the throttle or foot on the brakes it would never do it , no specialist tech or main dealer ever found the prob although offered many possible causes but said i could chuck loads of money changing this or that sensor or diesel pump or ecu, not much help to you but just got to keep asking till you find someone who had the same and they can tell you what it was

 

[bcworkz]

Many people have had problems with their GM5 relays going bad, the usual symptom being the central locking failing to work. This isn't your problem of course, but similar relays are used on several circuits. I'm leaning towards some bad relays being the issue. I don't even know if a relay even services the circuits in question, but it's worth some investigation. It's probable the engine issues are separate from the computer issues. Locate the circuits involved in the WDS (http://www.bmw-planet.com/diagrams/release/en/index.htm) and see what, if any, relays are involved. Good luck!

 

[andysat]

Hi and welcome,very annoying problem and £215 for a battery from the stealers :headbang:

 

[Swiftly]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Not the best first post to have re electrical faults. However you have found the best place to get advice.

Hope you get it sorted soon

 

[SophiM]

Thanks for the replies so far. I have been out and given the car a good run today.

I did approximatlely 50 miles. The car did the cut out thing after 45 miles or so just as i was turning in to get fuel,maybe the RPM's are dipping low and im just not catching it?
I also turned off the car after 30 miles and restarted just to test if the clock and date went to --/-- and sure enough it did.

Its so annoying :headbang: :headbang:

After 2 years of ownership and many thousands of pounds spent on various faults i can see that this cars days maybe numbered. :thumbsdown:

 

[Stuart Truman]

Sounds like an intermittent connection somewhere on the car or maybe the alternator is on the fritz. I'd doubt it would be one of the main earths as you'd get trouble starting the car. Might be worth getting it into an auto electrician. The symptoms point to a dying battery, but if your alternator isn't putting out enough oomph you might see similar symptoms. Also any voltage regulator circuits should also be checked.

 

[SophiM]

Voltage regulator is in the Alternator isnt it? I had one fitted on my last Mercedes that had a charging problem.

I agree that it sounds like a wire or circuit that is intermittantly cutting in and out but thats as far as my knowledge expands.Or reading up,maybe a main ignition relay ?

I dont think i can stand another £1000 bill from the garage ha ha :beerdive:

 

[Stuart Truman]

It is a part of the alternator, but IIRC can be changed separately.

In fact just checked... http://www.amazon.com/Series-Alternator-Voltage-Regulator-Valeo/dp/B008LTNAYA

Has to be worth a little time with an auto electrician with the tools to test it properly.

 

[JuniorJet]

You need to make a decision before spending another penny on it;
a) brace yourself and spend everything necessary on sorting it out. I'm not technically minded at all but I know sometimes these things can just be something small, or it can be a proper job and you can end up with a technician talking to you halfway through dismantling the engine.
-or-
b) settle up and make it someone else's problem (it's a bit cold but it's business at the end of the day).

make sure you have committed to a or b before doing anything, because the worst thing to do is spend a fortune then give up.

 

[SophiM]

Well already spent over £4000(maybe nearer £5000) in 2 years on various faults and service items.I dont mind spending more,but will it ever stop ha ha ?

 

[andysat]

Well already spent over £4000(maybe nearer £5000) in 2 years on various faults and service items.I dont mind spending more,but will it ever stop ha ha ?

Have you thought about taking out a warranty on it?

 

[SophiM]

No.

In hindsight i guess it would have been a prudent thing to do. How much is a warranty ? How many items would the warranty have covered?

In the last 2 years i have had

Inspection 2 service
Front brake discs and pads
Rear brake discs and pads
4 new tyres (Continental)
Roof motor
New cooling fan and air conditioning fan.
Some bushes on the front suspension.
Xenon headlight bulb.

 

[Wondermike]

Most of those are serviceable items not covered anyway, by the time you paid the warranty and excess per claim it might not work out too much differently to what you have actually shelled out.

 

[SophiM]

Thought so.

Thanks Mike.

 

[Bing]

Sounds like the alternator to me. Happened to my wife's car (not a Z). Random warning lights would come on, then things would stop working like the indicators or the central locking. Leave it a while and it would all work again, then issues would creep back. Eventually got so bad the car wouldn't start - bought a new battery, all fine, went for a 20min test drive and everything died on the way off a motorway slip road... Really scary. Limped it to my local Indy and they called me an hour later to tell me it was the alternator - because it was buggered the car had drained an entirely new batter in 20mins. Been totally fine since they replaced back in the summer.

 

[SophiM]

Thanks Bing.

You could be right. I have been reading up most of last night and it does seem that the S54 engine does suffer a lot of alternator failures giving various problems.
It also seems to be around 50k+ miles that they seem to fail,my car is currently 53k.

I will have it checked out,although i have lived with it for a long time now.Would the alternator not just "fail" ?

 

[spareone3]

I would check again the battery connections in boot, cables to engine bay from battery and alternator. Does the car ever cut-out when you are not moving/driving? If you sat it on the drive for half an hour, didn't move, would it, does it occur? Vibrations while driving could ponit to a bad connection/contact somewhere.

 

[SophiM]

Just to update.

Had the car into an independent garage on Monday.Alternator was intermittantly overcharging,even though there was no visible indication,also one of the battery leads that goes to rear fusebox had got hot and melted the plastic casing.

Fingers crossed its sorted now.

Another £620 to add to the list :rofl:

 

[Bing]

We've all been there - £6-700 seems to be the magical price to fix an issue

Glad it's now sorted though, you can get back to enjoying it