Two questions about my 2001 E39 540i sport
Discussion
Hi guys, I've had this car for around two months now and I think it looks great, sounds amazing, goes very well and is so comfortable that I drove from London to southern France on Monday in one sitting and got out feeling pretty good - not bad after 800 miles! I'd go as far as to say that I love this car but there are two things that are seriously bugging me and I wonder if you could help me please?
1. I seem to have the upgraded DVD satnav system with 3D view, 7 digit postcode etc and the widescreen TV. All good there and I'd be very happy with this system but the problem is that it keeps switching itself off when I put the satnav on. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a set pattern to it but it does seem to be linked to the satnav although saying that the screen has just switched off for no reason before and reboots itself. That isn't common though. What is common is the satnav suddenly jamming and switching the screen off then rebooting and then doing it again and again until it goes into 'Safe' bluescreen mode and I can't use it. The radio still works and CD player if I use the buttons on the steering wheel but the main TV unit is inoperable. To cure it I have to switch the engine off, take out the keys and restart - all fine until it crashes again. Thoughts?
2. A couple of my doors rattle going over bumps and it is driving me nuts! Sounds like they are moving in their frames with the car flexing - is it because the doors are so heavy that over time they sag on their hinges? If I get someone to tighten them up will it cure it or do I need new seals? Any ideas on costs?
Apart from that, the car is fantastic and after doing 3,000 miles in around two months I can only recommend this model to anyone who is on the lookout for one.
Thanks in advance.
1. I seem to have the upgraded DVD satnav system with 3D view, 7 digit postcode etc and the widescreen TV. All good there and I'd be very happy with this system but the problem is that it keeps switching itself off when I put the satnav on. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a set pattern to it but it does seem to be linked to the satnav although saying that the screen has just switched off for no reason before and reboots itself. That isn't common though. What is common is the satnav suddenly jamming and switching the screen off then rebooting and then doing it again and again until it goes into 'Safe' bluescreen mode and I can't use it. The radio still works and CD player if I use the buttons on the steering wheel but the main TV unit is inoperable. To cure it I have to switch the engine off, take out the keys and restart - all fine until it crashes again. Thoughts?
2. A couple of my doors rattle going over bumps and it is driving me nuts! Sounds like they are moving in their frames with the car flexing - is it because the doors are so heavy that over time they sag on their hinges? If I get someone to tighten them up will it cure it or do I need new seals? Any ideas on costs?
Apart from that, the car is fantastic and after doing 3,000 miles in around two months I can only recommend this model to anyone who is on the lookout for one.
Thanks in advance.
The Stiglet said:
2. A couple of my doors rattle going over bumps and it is driving me nuts! Sounds like they are moving in their frames with the car flexing - is it because the doors are so heavy that over time they sag on their hinges? If I get someone to tighten them up will it cure it or do I need new seals? Any ideas on costs?
It's the latches rattling against the pins on the door frame. I tried adjusting without success. I fixed it by wrapping some insulating tape around the hinge pins.pp
Hi Stiglet,
The audio/GPS modules are now getting a little long in the tooth and are starting to fail. A common issue is the dry soldered joints in the Amplifier module, which causes sound dropouts as the connections begin to move around a little more. The GPS computers may well now be starting to exhibit the same sorts of issues esepcially as from what you describe as knocking out so it needs a reboot!
With the setup you have, which many E39 owners 'want' - the problem areas are the BM54/24 Amplifier module and the dry soldered connections issue, the GPS computers needing a refurbishment, the CD changer sticking and jamming, and just starting to come onto the radar of issues being reported, failing TFT screens/backlights on the monitor itself. All can be refurbished except so far I've not found a TFT screen refurbish specialist as yet.
A refurbished GPS drive, and you may as well go for the Mk4 if yours is an older Mk3 unit, would be around the £400 mark. You could sell off the Mk3 as faulty to get some cash back (assuming that it is faulty of course!)
A BM54 Amplifier seems to be around the £250 mark - i'd say expect an amount on top if its been recently refurbished. If you do the re-flowing of the solder yourself, you'll save some cash and also, some owners bypass the amplifier stage completely, and wire/solder in standard RCA phono plugs to the 'pre-amp' stage so that after market amplfiers can be used. A refurb of the CD changer is around £75 or so.
Don't forget, if your car has it, the Analogue TV tuner will soon be obsolete with the final switchoff of the analogue signals. You can get the BMW oem Hybrid digital/analogue module which will simply swap out with the defunct analogue only module - and that's around £500-600 delivered whenever they do pop up on Germany Ebay usually. I've only ever seen a couple on UK ebay.
Cheers, Dennis!
The audio/GPS modules are now getting a little long in the tooth and are starting to fail. A common issue is the dry soldered joints in the Amplifier module, which causes sound dropouts as the connections begin to move around a little more. The GPS computers may well now be starting to exhibit the same sorts of issues esepcially as from what you describe as knocking out so it needs a reboot!
With the setup you have, which many E39 owners 'want' - the problem areas are the BM54/24 Amplifier module and the dry soldered connections issue, the GPS computers needing a refurbishment, the CD changer sticking and jamming, and just starting to come onto the radar of issues being reported, failing TFT screens/backlights on the monitor itself. All can be refurbished except so far I've not found a TFT screen refurbish specialist as yet.
A refurbished GPS drive, and you may as well go for the Mk4 if yours is an older Mk3 unit, would be around the £400 mark. You could sell off the Mk3 as faulty to get some cash back (assuming that it is faulty of course!)
A BM54 Amplifier seems to be around the £250 mark - i'd say expect an amount on top if its been recently refurbished. If you do the re-flowing of the solder yourself, you'll save some cash and also, some owners bypass the amplifier stage completely, and wire/solder in standard RCA phono plugs to the 'pre-amp' stage so that after market amplfiers can be used. A refurb of the CD changer is around £75 or so.
Don't forget, if your car has it, the Analogue TV tuner will soon be obsolete with the final switchoff of the analogue signals. You can get the BMW oem Hybrid digital/analogue module which will simply swap out with the defunct analogue only module - and that's around £500-600 delivered whenever they do pop up on Germany Ebay usually. I've only ever seen a couple on UK ebay.
Cheers, Dennis!
Thanks for your response. Door knocking seems easy to cure, if that is indeed what it is, the satnav seems a bit of a ball ache. Was hoping I might just need an updated DVD or something! Would a BMW specialist be best to check this over or an ICE specialist? I want to keep it original....
Cheers
Cheers
Hiya,
The symptoms you describe make me think it's hardware related. BMW would most likely go around changing each module till the offending one was found or be the most likely offending unit and replace it with a new one. If you go down this route, be prepared for a substantial amount asked for the new module(s)
An Audio specialist most likely won't have the modules to hand to try out like above. Pretty much most Car Audio dealers will ask for you to remove a module/component and send it into one of the few repair and refurbishment places for BMW OEM equipment. As per my post above, the main culprits of the setup you have have been identified as common via forums and knowledge from owners over the years. There's only a handful of OEM car audio repairers and BMW's equipment is mostly not covered. This is becuase the various parts, schematics and the supply chain for this kind of stuff was never released by BMW (I'm within the Car Audio trade and I'm always looking out for repairers, and so far only found a couple and even then they only do one type of repair) as a result, a few independant type places have worked out they can fix perhaps the CD changer or the GPS unit and recondition them, but in case your fault doesn't fall within that module/part, you'll find it hard to get it looked at.
This is the reason you'll probably have to take a chance like many owners have found they need to do, and take a gamble on the very pricey module(s) that come up on ebay and test. If you know other E39/E46/E53/E38 owners with the same setup as you, you could get them a meal and a drink in exchange for doing some module swapping to try and troubleshoot to find the offending unit(s)
Good luck !
Cheers, Dennis!
The symptoms you describe make me think it's hardware related. BMW would most likely go around changing each module till the offending one was found or be the most likely offending unit and replace it with a new one. If you go down this route, be prepared for a substantial amount asked for the new module(s)
An Audio specialist most likely won't have the modules to hand to try out like above. Pretty much most Car Audio dealers will ask for you to remove a module/component and send it into one of the few repair and refurbishment places for BMW OEM equipment. As per my post above, the main culprits of the setup you have have been identified as common via forums and knowledge from owners over the years. There's only a handful of OEM car audio repairers and BMW's equipment is mostly not covered. This is becuase the various parts, schematics and the supply chain for this kind of stuff was never released by BMW (I'm within the Car Audio trade and I'm always looking out for repairers, and so far only found a couple and even then they only do one type of repair) as a result, a few independant type places have worked out they can fix perhaps the CD changer or the GPS unit and recondition them, but in case your fault doesn't fall within that module/part, you'll find it hard to get it looked at.
This is the reason you'll probably have to take a chance like many owners have found they need to do, and take a gamble on the very pricey module(s) that come up on ebay and test. If you know other E39/E46/E53/E38 owners with the same setup as you, you could get them a meal and a drink in exchange for doing some module swapping to try and troubleshoot to find the offending unit(s)
Good luck !
Cheers, Dennis!
Simple check for the DVD nav unit: take it out if its craddle and check the wiring connections. It could that they're just loose. Take them out and then re-seat them and see how you go. The symptoms you describe sound like a power interuption to me.
Edited by Hammerhead on Wednesday 22 December 23:11
I might have the answer regarding the Nav turning itself off. First, try turning off TMC and see if it still does it. If it stays on with TMC off, then I am pretty certain the problem is an aftermarket firmware update for the nav system.
Have a look here - loooong thread but Update II in the first post refers to the crash/reboot problems, and if you want more detail then read through the whole thing: Clicky. Basically it's down to the custom firmware running the nav computer out of memory due to the modifications when flooded with TMC data.
Have a look here - loooong thread but Update II in the first post refers to the crash/reboot problems, and if you want more detail then read through the whole thing: Clicky. Basically it's down to the custom firmware running the nav computer out of memory due to the modifications when flooded with TMC data.
Hi,
Yes, after all I just mentioned, it may be something as simple as a loose connection! and the usual highly specialised and technical 'waggle the wires' fix may just be it!
From the information given, the OP needs to start from the basics for fault finding.
If the TMC system is still in, then many owners do indeed disconnect it all as it has been known to cause issues.
Good luck to the OP!
Cheers, Dennis!
Yes, after all I just mentioned, it may be something as simple as a loose connection! and the usual highly specialised and technical 'waggle the wires' fix may just be it!
From the information given, the OP needs to start from the basics for fault finding.
If the TMC system is still in, then many owners do indeed disconnect it all as it has been known to cause issues.
Good luck to the OP!
Cheers, Dennis!
DennisCooper said:
If the TMC system is still in, then many owners do indeed disconnect it all as it has been known to cause issues.
Don't disconnect it - it's one of the most useful features of the nav!Have a look at my link; there is a fix if it's just the updated firmware version causing the crash; there is one which you can burn to CD and upload to the nav computer yourself which will solve the issue. The described symptoms are almost exactly the same as happened to my Alpina B3S when I bought it in September; the problem went away if I turned TMC off, so I installed the revised firmware and the problem went away.
The door noise issue is NOT the latch unfortunately. I've got the same thing on my 530i.
If you open the window ever so slightly, ie by half a cm, the noise goes away. There are numerous theories as to what actually causes it but nobody seems to know for sure.
If I thoroughly lubricate the flocked door seal on the top of the door itself with Gummiplfedge, it goes away for a short period of time but soon returns.
It literally drives me bonkers - I suspect there is mileage in the idea that the door drops on its hinges over time.
If you open the window ever so slightly, ie by half a cm, the noise goes away. There are numerous theories as to what actually causes it but nobody seems to know for sure.
If I thoroughly lubricate the flocked door seal on the top of the door itself with Gummiplfedge, it goes away for a short period of time but soon returns.
It literally drives me bonkers - I suspect there is mileage in the idea that the door drops on its hinges over time.
Origin Unknown said:
How much do you think you spent on fuel mate? I'm considering driving to Switzerland next year to see family instead of flying us out there. ~1200 mile round trip in a E39 530i
GB to CH and back is a doddle. Pop the cruise ata suitable speed, sit back and relax.
Try 2000+ miles in a week - GB to South Tirol via NL.
Been there, done that.
dcb said:
Origin Unknown said:
How much do you think you spent on fuel mate? I'm considering driving to Switzerland next year to see family instead of flying us out there. ~1200 mile round trip in a E39 530i
GB to CH and back is a doddle. Pop the cruise ata suitable speed, sit back and relax.
Try 2000+ miles in a week - GB to South Tirol via NL.
Been there, done that.
Done the journey lots of times as a kid in a Renault Espace and don't remember it being that much of a problem. Will need to stop for breaks quite often so the 2 y/o can get out of her seat but apart from that, should be pretty simple. Would like to get a ball park figure of fuel costs to compare though.
I reckon I should/could average about 28mpg over the entire journey.
28/4.55 (litres in a gallon) = 6.2miles per litre
1200/6.2 = ~194 litres @ 123p = ~£238 quid in fuel. Add another £100 for the chunnel.
About right?
Compared to flights for the 4 of us, fuel to get to the airport and parking for 2/3 days plus transfers the other end, I reckon both modes of transport are comparable
I have upgraded tob a MKIV drive and have Perspective mode and night mode enabled, together with 7 digit postcoades speed camera audio alerts. At first the monitor would freeze now and again and very occasionally it would reboot. I rewrote the data CD and since then all has been well.
Dave
Dave
Jobbo said:
DennisCooper said:
If the TMC system is still in, then many owners do indeed disconnect it all as it has been known to cause issues.
Don't disconnect it - it's one of the most useful features of the nav!Have a look at my link; there is a fix if it's just the updated firmware version causing the crash; there is one which you can burn to CD and upload to the nav computer yourself which will solve the issue. The described symptoms are almost exactly the same as happened to my Alpina B3S when I bought it in September; the problem went away if I turned TMC off, so I installed the revised firmware and the problem went away.
It is a copied DVD, not original...I thought this might be the problem too - any ideas where I can buy an original 2010 BMW MKIV DVD?
Many thanks
Origin Unknown said:
The Stiglet said:
...not bad after 800 miles!
How much do you think you spent on fuel mate? I'm considering driving to Switzerland next year to see family instead of flying us out there. ~1200 mile round trip in a E39 530i26 mpg (I can normally hit 28 mpg if I'm careful but there was a lot of snow, traffic and a few occasions when I wanted to 'make up lost time'
I filled up once in London before I left @ £92 (98 ron)
Once mid-way through France after around 360-70 miles (that's an educated guess) @ €91.25 (98 ron)
And one final fill @ €89 (98 ron) about 38 miles from my destination as I was just going to be short.
Total distance 755 miles (two and just under a 1/4 tanks of fuel). Roughly £190..?
Add the, what I think is a bargain, ferry price of £90 return
Total cost = £470, give or take
My flight was £288...so looks like this was an expensive trip!
However, if it hadn't just been me and my girlfriend was along for the trip or if I had kids then there's no doubt it would be cheaper and more comfortable than taking a flight IMHO. If I was you, I'd do it.
Trafficmaster and TMC are two different things. Disconnect the Trafficmaster unit and bypass it. Get rid of the rubbish modified firmware (you will lose the 7 digit postcode search but can still search by the first three or four characters of the postcode) by re-flashing it with the latest BMW firmware which I believe is v32.
Edited by RockyBalboa on Wednesday 29th December 11:22
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