E91 remote locking woes
Discussion
Hi,
My remote locking failed a week or so ago (locks fine from the key), I have tried another diversity module which didn't make any difference (didn't get better or worse) so put the original back in.
I suspected a broken wire so had an auto electrician take a look, he has confirmed that there is a break somewhere as there is no feed to the module but also says that there is a possible issue with module as it still wouldn't work when he put power to it.
Just looking for peoples thoughts\previous experience, not sure where to go from here, all I can see are big bills...
My remote locking failed a week or so ago (locks fine from the key), I have tried another diversity module which didn't make any difference (didn't get better or worse) so put the original back in.
I suspected a broken wire so had an auto electrician take a look, he has confirmed that there is a break somewhere as there is no feed to the module but also says that there is a possible issue with module as it still wouldn't work when he put power to it.
Just looking for peoples thoughts\previous experience, not sure where to go from here, all I can see are big bills...
PTF said:
Had this on my E91, but mind was simply down to water ingress into the diversity antenna. It stopped working after we arrived back at the car after a rainy walk. All soaked and not able to get into the car!
I had a 3rd party warranty but it didn't cover water ingress.
BMW wanted £460 for the part + fitting, after me paying them their £99 diagnosis fee. I told them i'd sort it myself. Turned up to collect the car and the fella drove it round the front with the rear spoiler missing. Opened the boot to find that and the screws sitting there. Deepest apologies from the service manager. Then 10 mins later the car arrives back round the front again all in one piece.
I later found out that it's £290 ish for the part from BMW, so they wanted £170 for about 20 mins work. Asked for a discount but none came.
Bought new part of eBay for £250. Fitted it myself in 1/2 hr, wrapping it in cling film and silicone. All was fine.
I've heard about the boot opening causing fatigue in the wiring. Just hope it's not too inaccessible and a decent auto-electrician should be able to sort it out.
I had tested the Diversity module by swapping it for another off eBay (presuming it wasn't faulty) which didn't make any difference and certainly it didn't get any worse, there's no sign of water ingress, the module looked dry so suspected the wiring, the auto electrician I took it to confirmed that there is a break somewhere but I could tell he didn't want to do the work from his "it's a new loom job" comment when I asked and he seems to be the only one around here.I had a 3rd party warranty but it didn't cover water ingress.
BMW wanted £460 for the part + fitting, after me paying them their £99 diagnosis fee. I told them i'd sort it myself. Turned up to collect the car and the fella drove it round the front with the rear spoiler missing. Opened the boot to find that and the screws sitting there. Deepest apologies from the service manager. Then 10 mins later the car arrives back round the front again all in one piece.
I later found out that it's £290 ish for the part from BMW, so they wanted £170 for about 20 mins work. Asked for a discount but none came.
Bought new part of eBay for £250. Fitted it myself in 1/2 hr, wrapping it in cling film and silicone. All was fine.
I've heard about the boot opening causing fatigue in the wiring. Just hope it's not too inaccessible and a decent auto-electrician should be able to sort it out.
Contacting my local BMW specialist to see what they suggest.
stevesuk said:
We also had this happen to ours last year - after it had been parked up for a couple of weeks whilst we were on holiday.
It was dead completely, and then after our local BMW specialist had a poke around under the spoiler it started working again intermittently.
At this point, the module tested fine - so they decided that it was most likely a wiring fault. However, when they started testing, they couldn't find anything wrong with the wiring - and on closer inspection, it turned out that the diversity antenna module had tiny hairline cracks on the circuit board, which were almost impossible to see. New module fitted, and all has been good ever since. I can't remember how much we paid, but it was possibly £300 to £400 (including the time they took to diagnose the problem, and supply and fit the part).
We had no problem with radio reception during the period when the module wasn't working properly.
I sympathise with you whilst you're sorting it out - its most annoying to have to quickly get in the car to silence the alarm every time you unlock it with the manual key :-)
Take in to account that there also a few fuses you could check (if you haven't already).
Using the key is ok but the alarm is starting to wear a bit thin, I watched a guy with a 2000 reg Astra use his remote fob yesterday with a pang of jealousy!It was dead completely, and then after our local BMW specialist had a poke around under the spoiler it started working again intermittently.
At this point, the module tested fine - so they decided that it was most likely a wiring fault. However, when they started testing, they couldn't find anything wrong with the wiring - and on closer inspection, it turned out that the diversity antenna module had tiny hairline cracks on the circuit board, which were almost impossible to see. New module fitted, and all has been good ever since. I can't remember how much we paid, but it was possibly £300 to £400 (including the time they took to diagnose the problem, and supply and fit the part).
We had no problem with radio reception during the period when the module wasn't working properly.
I sympathise with you whilst you're sorting it out - its most annoying to have to quickly get in the car to silence the alarm every time you unlock it with the manual key :-)
Take in to account that there also a few fuses you could check (if you haven't already).
The electrician chap tested all the wires that supply the power ( right hand side as you look at the module when connected) and did say that there was no voltage coming through, he checked the fuses but gave them the all clear, he knew his stuff but just wasn't interested in sorting it for whatever reason.
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