Yellow DSC & brake light

[Monkey3.0]

Hi

On the great run out to wales a few weeks ago I had my 1st teething problem with the Zed. I had a Yellow DSC & brake light permanently appear Talking to some of the guys on the day they thought it may be sensor. I took it to my local independent who hooked up the autologic and it spat out codes 5E21 & 5E24 now apparently there is a 5E20? code that means the pressure sensor gubbins it knackered and is £1500 to replace Peter rang a guy who works for BMW and he said that fault code is not very specific?? In the BMW garage they would change the brake fluid as could be some contamination, fluid was only changed by BMW 3000 miles ago. Apparently the BMW DSC pressure sensor gubbins has a habit of breaking on the 2003/2004 models and if low mileage and BMW serviced goodwill claims are forecoming. Has anyone else had this problem or codes? I am going to give the brake fluid a change (can't hurt) What do you guys think? The fact that BMW garage cant really identify what these codes are is a bit strange, dont you think? Anyway the light has now been off for the last week but I have not been driving it hard but i'm sure it will appear again soon. Your thoughts are greatly appreciaited.

 

[dario]

i wouldn't rely on BMW charity in this current climate!

i know a few people that have had rejected claims of good will that were once taken for granted.

try a breakers yard or take it in to BMW and get the diagnosis done properly in case it is a sensor only!

DArio

 

[klarky]

id agree and go to bmw and get the official work on it, no doubt you'd be charged £60 or whatever their diagnostic fee would be but its worth it to know if your looking at a £1500 bill or not, and with winter on its way i wouldnt fancy driving a z4 with any sort of dsc issue. hope its nothing serious

 

[Monkey3.0]

id agree and go to bmw and get the official work on it, no doubt you'd be charged £60 or whatever their diagnostic fee would be but its worth it to know if your looking at a £1500 bill or not, and with winter on its way i wouldnt fancy driving a z4 with any sort of dsc issue. hope its nothing serious

I understand what you saying but Pete actually rang his friend who was in the BMW workshop at the time and checked on their system hence getting an honest answer, that if it was booked into dealership all they would do is change the brake fluid and this is coming from the horses mouth. Not sure what paying £80 would achieve. I dont have warrenty so would be reliant on goodwill if was big job but like I said apparently mechanic from dealership said unoffically that BMW are aware that there was a maufacturing error in these systems for 2003/2004 and they on the whole will help with claim. I think i will change the fluid as recommended and if appears again will throw myself on mercy of BMW fingers crossed ehh

 

[klarky]

i can ask a mate who works at bmw shrewsbury re the codes if he can shed any more light on things, but he will probably just look it up like they have already done for you. touch as much wood as you can find and hope it not a big issue

 

[Monkey3.0]

touch as much wood as you can find

Cheers he's says rolling around on my wooden floor

 

[Sticks]

I had this light come on on my 04 3.0. It was intermittent sometimes, but then permanent.

The local dealer diagnosed it for free as a DSC sensor, estimated supply and fit replacement £250, of which the part was @ £150, and on the lower hourly rate because of the car's age.

When it was done, they asked BMW for a contribution as my mileage is low (15k). They covered all the labour and half the parts cost, so I paid £75.

I think dealers want to reclaim some custome from 'older' car owners. I suspect they need all they can get currently.

Good luck.

Sorry, should have said both lights

 

[daviddi]

Hi, mine came on last week, with the tyre pressure light, checked tyre pressures they were all ok, so locked / unlocked car , it now seems to have reset as there are no lights on now ........fingers crossed

 

[rob davey]

mine did this the other day on a spirited drive it was when one wheel span faster than the other round a corner on a bit of gravel, hence tyre pressure (it measures different rotating speeds left to right) and this combined with the traction light put the brake light on :!:

turn the car off and on and it reset itself - i think it just confused the system

 

[Monkey3.0]

Have just been to see Pete again to perform the brake fluid change however he had been on to BMW technical help regarding the error codes that threw up. The cause of the problem appears to be the sensor switch on the rear brake cyclinder. Good news as not the abs pressure sensor which would be big money. Beleive it or not the small electronic switch is £78 trade price which is crazy amount for this I reccon ah well gotta love BMW! Still in the scheme of things happy its this booked in again for Wednesday to have fitted. While the car was on the ramps Pete modded the CDV valve for me and refitted took 10mins and makes the clutch much better
Again highly recommend Pete http://www.autotechperformance.co.uk/ if you want decent and honest job.

 

[klarky]

good to hear - i was going to give them a ring re cdv. did he mod your original or just completely remove it? ive read on here you can just remove it completely rather than remove the innards.

so thats hood coding, cdv, door & inspection 2 on the list to be done, on top of new tyres and refurbing my wheels! looks like a lot of my time/money is tied up in the car again - but its totally worth it

 

[Devon-Doug]

Crazy,

This happened to me today! Driving along, about 80 (but not pushing it) and then both came on. I got an approved used BMW back in June so have booked it in for Thurs Am. I presume something like this is covered under warranty? I don't want to have to pay £1.5k worse case...

Chap at BMW seemed to think it was electrical which would back sensor issue. I might play them at their own game and say I don't want them just to change the brake fluid as per your wise comments above as don't want the fault coming up again 12 months and 1 day after purchase?!?!?

Will keep you posted on what they say but you have to love this forum as a source of information, always useful and good for ammo. Thanks.

 

[Monkey3.0]

good to hear - i was going to give them a ring re cdv. did he mod your original or just completely remove it? ive read on here you can just remove it completely rather than remove the innards.

so thats hood coding, cdv, door & inspection 2 on the list to be done, on top of new tyres and refurbing my wheels! looks like a lot of my time/money is tied up in the car again - but its totally worth it

Pete modded the original as you say you can just remove but that stretches the pipe abit so would recommend keeping valve. you will be pleased with the service Pete is a top fella

 

[klarky]

cheers - ill probably go over there next week, got a couple of days off work so may just get the cdv modded and roof programmed

 

[Monkey3.0]

cheers - ill probably go over there next week, got a couple of days off work so may just get the cdv modded and roof programmed

You might want to book ahead as he had loads of cars there today and when on phone seemed to be stateing how busy he was.

 

[peddy]

side tracking from original post, but what is the benefit of removing/moding the cdv?

 

[spflan]

Hi there

My 2004 car (3.0) has got the same or similar fault... I took it to an independent BMW specialist today to be hooked up to a diagnostics machine (autologic) while they did its annual service. It came back with three error codes -

5E5C Initialisze run flat indicator; see owners handbook
5E20 Pressure sensor
5E24 Pressure sensor

The first one is odd, because I had new tyres fitted in January and have not had any tyre pressure warnings since then. However, they did find a small screw in one of the rear tyres but looks like it hasn't gone through.

The other two are more worrying because of the potential costs! They have looked up the codes and suggested it might mean that the car needs a new hydraulic control unit for the DSC/ABS system ("Hydro Unit DCS") and quoted 1824 but the guy recommended taking it to a BMW dealer first, getting them to confirm the fault and submitting a claim for some goodwill from BMW (he said that might not be successful because of the car's age but they might make an exception because of the low mileage - 28k).

Any advice / experience of these codes? I think the original poster didn't get 5E20... Are there any alternatives? I found a website in Germany selling a new ABS/DSC control unit for Z4s at 750 euros for example....?!

Would appreciate some help because this is a ridiculous expense on a car with such low mileage and it appears to be a common and recognised problem with several BMW models.

Thanks in advance!

Simon

 

[Sticks]

I'm afraid I'm not very technical, but when I had the same issue (or similar afaik) my invoice read:

Replace pressure sensor 'H' for DSC 111.

Is that the same thing?

If so, full cost at BMW would have been £250, all done, the part being £100-£150 iirc.

I'm only unsure of the exact cost because I got a goodwill on low mileage - 5YO, 14.6k so paid £75.

Hth.

 

[Jetset Ron]

I have the 5E21, as I stand at the front of the car looking into the engine bay could anyone tell me if it's the front or rear sensor on the master cylinder?

I ran a C110 on it and with the brakes depressed circuit 1 hovers around -1.6 bar, circuit 2 around +5.5 bar. Which figure is likely to be incorrect as 5E21 indicates its circuit 2 at +5.5 bar?? (I'm a hydraulics novice).

Cheers

 

[Beetlegav]

I think the front wheel sensor is the rear one on the cylinder.