E61 - dash lights and warnings (lots)

[Ian Geary]

Well it's the first of December, and my car is doing a Christmas tree impression.

Short version- is it likely to be water in the wheel well, weak battery or both?

And have people had sucess in fixing similar faults?


Long version

I've had a level fault for a week or two, which I has put down to disturbing the air lines and level sensor (i had topped up the airbag pressure using inpa and it was all working, so I mentally filed it to look at over xmas)

I then got random tyre inflation system, pdc failure a few times. Inpa has since been unable to find the air suspension when I check.

And today I'm getting 5 or 6 things like lights, airbag, seat belt warnings all come up, with the orange and red car lift symbol and things like communication error on drive.


I had found a fair bit of water in my spare wheel well yesterday, which had soaked the air suspension module completely, the relays a bit and got some other bits damp, including a spare yellow/black wire which might be part of the canbus.

So I am 99% sure it is some residual dampness in the wiring causing all these glitches, which show up about 1 in 3 journeys.

However, when I google this sort of fault it often points to

- battery: original 2009 (!) Shows 11.6v resting and comes up "weak" on my load tester

- alternator - system shows 14.5v when running, and is pretty stable

A battery is £130ish so I basically am trying to find out if drying out wiring / models will be enough, or if a battery is needed?

It won't hurt of course, but with £90 on the air module and about £1k in parts this year i am getting to the point where I don't know if it's good money after bad.

Thanks

Ian

[Vsix and Vtec]

If this was a JLR product, I'd be saying battery without a doubt, I suspect BMW are similar in that regard, and it certainly can't be a bad thing having a new battery heading into winter.

[StuntmanMike]

Vsix and Vtec said:

If this was a JLR product, I'd be saying battery without a doubt, I suspect BMW are similar in that regard, and it certainly can't be a bad thing having a new battery heading into winter.

Definitely similar. I would be sourcing a battery.

[danb79]

Battery first - Exide, Varta or Bosch via Tayna Batteries and remember that it needs to be registered to the car (unless you change the spec (ie. bigger battery), then it needs coding and then registering

Deffo pull the boot apart to see if there's water ingress; if not, its duff battery symptoms - BMWs hate weak batteries

[Ian Geary]

Thanks all

There is definitely water ingress - coming through a seam in the car body, probably from the aeril or gas strut area i think.

So it seems best to cover all bases- dry out the wiring / connectors as well as ask santa for a new battery

i believe I can register the new one using inpa.

Ian

[bigdom]

Does it have a sunroof or a towbar? It's odd having water in the boot if you don't.

[Pica-Pica]

bigdom said:

Does it have a sunroof or a towbar? It's odd having water in the boot if you don't.

Not at all. It can come through a rear window surround trim. I had my spare wheel well full of water in my E36. Luckily it had a drain/tooling hole, so I just removed the blanking plug, and replaced the surround rubber. The original paint protection was intact, so no rust.

[Mr Tidy]

I'd definitely be replacing that battery anyway given it's age and that low voltage. I've had a few BMWs that threw up random warning lights when the batteries were on their last legs.

[bigdom]

Pica-Pica said:

bigdom said:

Does it have a sunroof or a towbar? It's odd having water in the boot if you don't.

Not at all. It can come through a rear window surround trim. I had my spare wheel well full of water in my E36. Luckily it had a drain/tooling hole, so I just removed the blanking plug, and replaced the surround rubber. The original paint protection was intact, so no rust.

Pretty difficult on an E61 given the drainage channels, and how the window sits on it. Not something I experienced in 11 years of owning one, but mine didn't have a pan roof which is quite renowned for doing that.