Random Hazards, Interior Light & Occasionally Door Locks - My Story

[V8 00USH]

OK so I thought I'd make my own thread about this as I think I've read every thread on every BMW forum that relates to this strange phenomenon and I still don't have a definite solution - it seems it can affect all BMW cars around the similar age to the X5. So it's time to do some testing and fault finding of my own and start to rule out all the possibles of what's causing it as it's gradually getting worse and driving me round the bend and making me not want to take the X5 out anywhere. Hopefully it will help someone in the future.

Symptoms are the hazards will come on....followed very shortly after by the interior lights coming on and very very occasionally the doors unlocking. If I don't notice this has happened it will drain the battery which obviously means that when I next to come to it it won't start - not exactly ideal. I recently removed the interior light fuse in an effort to combat the effects to stop the battery from draining so much but it didnt really help.

This strange behaviour can literally happen at any time and has happened during these times...

1. When starting the car
2. When driving the car
3. After locking the car

I installed PA Soft 1.4 on my laptop at the weekend and I found this when I scanned the body control module (ZKE)...



"Crash Sensor Activated" (other errors - mirror has never worked on the car since I've had it and I pulled the fuse for the interior lights myself)

So after doing all my research I narrowed down the possible culprits as to what could be causing it.

In order of probability I believe they are...

1. Faulty Xenon Ballast (REPLACED - NOT THIS)
2. Faulty Crash Sensor(s)
3. Faulty Body Control Module
4. Faulty Airbag Module
5. Faulty Light Control Module
6. Bad Battery (REPLACED - NOT THIS)
7. Ignition switch
8. Something else?

So starting from the top....tonight I swapped out the old original BMW ballasts for some cheap Chinese replacements. The drivers headlight had started acting up occasionally not firing up until you turned the switch on and off a couple of times which together with lots of other people saying the same thing made me think that this was number one culprit. I'd already changed the bulbs not so long ago so didn't think it would be these.

I got a pair of ballasts for £50 of eBay. Obviously they were different to the BMW ones so took a little bit of customisation to hold them in place. Zip ties to the rescue. Not overly pretty but very functional. Also I need to stick the boots back together with some superglue when I get some.

Few pics...








So with both ballasts swapped and firing up first time things were looking great and I was feeling positive!

Drove home and parked up on the drive, walked in and got a shower. Came out the shower 10 mins later walked downstairs and could see the hazards flashing through the window!! FAILURE....

So next thing on the list are the crash sensors - I'll probably replace all of them at once to make sure they've all been done once I've figured out where they all are.

If anyone has any similar experiences I'm all ears as to how you managed to resolve it!

To be continued.......

* UPDATE * - Added MRS module (air bag) & LCM (light control module) as a possible culprits too. I'll scan them tonight see if anything is picked up.

[80stech]

I would say the car has probably been in an accident and there is a problem with the wiring. What made you think light ballast ??

[V8 00USH]

I can't say if it has or hasnt been in an accident for sure, but there was no indication of an accident on the HPI vehicle check when I bought the car although it has definitely had paint on at least one wing. I'd still be very surprised if this was the case though.

There's lots of threads online about ballasts being at fault and causing this issue. See here for example.... https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...-reason-2.html

[80stech]

I far as I can tell from some of those posts those where problems with the key on. You should have a look at a wiring diagram to see is possible/likely to be causing the problem. Maybe LCM ?? The 3 door codes might not even be related.

[80stech]

Hazard flashing might be alarm triggered ??

[80stech]

Or car thinks it's been in an accident?? Just throwing a few things out there

[80stech]

Regardless, I think you need to some diagnosing, not just keep replacing stuff till it works. I'll shut up now

[andrewwynn]

I've had similar incidents with both mine and wife's x5 due to key button stuck down. You can test this I think by wrapping your keys in aluminum foil to block transmission or: un-sync your keys (I think disconnect battery may do this)


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[V8 00USH]

Originally Posted by 80stech

I far as I can tell from some of those posts those where problems with the key on. You should have a look at a wiring diagram to see is possible/likely to be causing the problem. Maybe LCM ?? The 3 door codes might not even be related.

Yeh....just like mine is you mean! Did you fully read my original post?

Originally Posted by V8 00USH

This strange behaviour can literally happen at any time and has happened during these times...

1. When starting the car
2. When driving the car
3. After locking the car

Also, I didn't say anywhere the door codes were related! I very much doubt the wiring diagram is going to help as it’s not as if any of the lights aren’t working as such – hazards, interior lights all work as they should off their respective buttons.

Originally Posted by 80stech

Hazard flashing might be alarm triggered ??

Again did you read my original post?

Originally Posted by V8 00USH

"Crash Sensor Activated" .

Originally Posted by 80stech

Or car thinks it's been in an accident?? Just throwing a few things out there

Oh you did read my post…..or did you just hit lucky!?

Originally Posted by 80stech

Regardless, I think you need to some diagnosing, not just keep replacing stuff till it works. I'll shut up now

I totally agree with however issues like this it’s difficult to diagnose something so spurious with no recognisable pattern to it. Oh and yes….please do!

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

I've had similar incidents with both mine and wife's x5 due to key button stuck down. You can test this I think by wrapping your keys in aluminum foil to block transmission or: un-sync your keys (I think disconnect battery may do this)

No, this isn’t my issue unfortunately. It does it even if I’m miles away from the car. Plus I don’t believe a key will be able to trigger the crash sensors.

[V8 00USH]

** UPDATE **

So after alot of thought into the matter and some more reading I decided that I would go back to basics and ensure that my battery was in good condition and upto the task.

As I don't use the X5 all that often it does get left for days at time unused. It has been flattened more times than I care to remember especially with this current issue lurking.

I decided to take some voltage readings over a time period after giving it a full charge. This is what I found. Readings were taken at 7:30am every morning before I left for work in my other car.

Day 1 - Straight after full charge - 12.8v
Day 2 - 12.42v
Day 3 - 12.31v
Day 4 - 12.23v

So basically after a 4 day period it had lost around 50% of it's charge. This I wasnt't overly impressed with and decided it was enough to warrant getting it swapped out.

When I initially bought the car it went back into a garage to have some work done under warranty. One of these being a new battery. I checked the invoice for the work which was only 18 months ago and could see that they had fitted a Bosch S3 017 battery. I wasn’t overly impressed by this as I would have preferred it to have slightly more capacity for piece of mind. To cut a long story short I had been less than impressed with the work they had carried out previously so our relationship had gone a little sour. However I spoke to the garage and they sent me the receipt for the battery from their supplier and told me I could sort it out myself which I much preferred. Fortunately they got the battery from the same supplier I get my parts from and I have a pretty good relationship with the people in there so one of the guys agreed to swap the battery out and replace it with a much better Exide 019 AGM 95Ah/850CCA battery for an extra £40 instead which should help hold charge longer since it’s not used all that often – also it should rule out any possible battery issues that might be causing my gremlins so give me a good base to work from if this doesn’t sort it.
At the same time I’m fitting a Ctek charging point/indicator at the rear of the car so I can keep it regularly topped up without having to pop the bonnet. I’ve also got another trick up my sleeve which I’ll be ordering shortly.

Unfortunately changing the battery in my X5 involves messing around removing the large LPG tank as it is sat on top of the battery so I wanted to make sure that it was done once and done right. I removed the battery last night and took it to get swapped this morning. I will re-install it tonight all being well and see how that affects my issue.

Shoddy work by the garage


LPG tank in the way


New charging point in place


New battery ready to go in