Guess I found why the issue is so common. Honestly, not wise from BMW engineers on that one
.
I had the same SELFLEVEL SUSP INAC. message on my X5 4.4i '05.
I had had my car diagnose by BMW dealer (see post
http://www.xoutpost.com/472994-post12.html) and the problem raised is "Ride-level sensor, left faulty".
I looked for more information on that sensor and found this:
http://www.bmwmotorsports.org/BMW_docs/x5selflevel.pdf
Quote:
The sensor is a hall sensor which sends a DC Analog output voltage to the EHC module.
The voltage range is approximately .5 to 4.5 volts. The voltage increases with increasing
vehicle height and the nominal voltage at normal ride height is approximately 2.5 volts. The
right side rear sensor is a double sensor, the additional sensor is an input to the headlight
leveling systemand has it’s own power supply, ground and signal wires.
|
So 3 wires there: POWER, GROUND and SIGNAL.
Quote:
The ride height sensor is an angle Hall sensor which is activated by a ring magnet. The ring
magnet is polarized vertically from north to south.
The magnetic field line of the ring magnets intersect a Hall cell. The Hall cell is arranged in
such a way that only the horizontal components of the field lines are evaluated. This results
in different field line strengths at different positions of the ring magnet. The Hall cell measures
the field strength of the magnetic flux and converts it into an analog signal with a voltage
level between 0.5 and 4.5 V.
|
A magnet... very few chances to be faulty to my opinion. I then had a closer look to the electrical connection and here is my conclusion/fix:
The electrical connector is a waterproof connector because of it's location (right over the suspension arm) BUT.. the connector has 6 rooms with only 3 actually wired:
The result is that the 3 empty holes retain water that gently goes down into the connector...
- unplug your connector
- cleanup connections with contact cleaner
- fill the 3 empty rooms with a little drop of silicone
- plug it back
Now have to go back to dealer again to have my fault codes reset and verify all is working properly
