2003 4.4i with ABS lights on plus battery

[Stevo96]

Hi Guys,

I've recently purchased an X5 with known issues off ebay so I did get it cheap.

I have the 3 ABS lights on plus the battery light, the PO said he had the battery and Alt checked and all was fine. Was wondering if the battery light being on had anyting to do with the ABS lights? Could they be seperate issues?

Car is an 03 4.4...

[Skyline]

Put it on a battery charger for a few hours, then clear all the codes, then see if that does anything different.

[Stevo96]

OK, tried the battery charger and it didn't do anything, I tool it back to a mates who scanned it with a different reader, same codes - brief power interuption and steering angle sensor. I think im going to change this first, the BMW specialist wants $1100 to fix it, he says the part is $600 and the fitting takes 3 hours inc coding! I'll fit it myself or get my friend to do it and then take it to them for coding. The PO owner said that the ABS lights were on before the battery light came on so at this stage im assuming it has 2 different issues. I'll change the sesnor and go from there, he tried to clear the lights again, one goes off but comes back on within 5 seconds - the other 2 are permanantly on.

[Skyline]

As far as the ABS, you need to get a factory level scan tool that can look into the modules; a generic scan tool won't do anything for you. If you hook the car to a GT1 or Autologic, you can communicate with the ABS module, and see if there are any faults. These will not necessarily throw a code that a generic OBDII scanner will see. If the proper scan tool can not communicate with the ABS module, which is not at all uncommon on these cars, then it's time to replace or rebuild the ABS module. There are services that rebuild the modules for a bit over $100. But not all are rebuildable. The one on my 528i was, the one on my X5 was not. But the rebuilding service supplied a working module for $400, a LOT less than a new one. Once the new module is installed, it then needs to be coded. Not particularly accessible on the X5.

[Stevo96]

The guy I take it to is an ex BMW mechanic and he has a decent code reader, he got into the ABS section and it said both front sensors and the steering angle sensor are at fault. I think i'll take it to BMW..

[Stevo96]

Ok, so I haven't taken it to BMW yet but I've ordered a BMW specific code reader, the C110. I also did some further investigating, I noticed a fuse had blown so I'll be replacing that soon, it wasn't one of the four ABS ones. I've had the car parked for the last 4 days and I've just gone out to start it, it just clicks so I checked the voltage and it reads 11.2 volts... I've stuck my trickle charger on it and I'll retest it tomorrow, I did have the passenger door open the other day for 3 hrs whilst I replaced the door carrier, could that have drained the battery that much?

[Stevo96]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the feedback. The battery is now on charge overnight, I shall report back tomorrow with the voltage readings. I'll be peed off if the battery is at fault given the PO said he had it checked by 3 different mecahnics... he never mentioned having the alternator checked so that will be the next thing to check after the battery.

[Skyline]

Originally Posted by Stevo96

Thanks guys, really appreciate the feedback. The battery is now on charge overnight, I shall report back tomorrow with the voltage readings. I'll be peed off if the battery is at fault given the PO said he had it checked by 3 different mecahnics... he never mentioned having the alternator checked so that will be the next thing to check after the battery.

It's also possible the PO used the wrong battery. These cars use a lot of juice, and need the proper, and quite large, and costly, battery. Not a place to cut corners. I do concur with trader4's comments as well. Lot's of hack mechanics/autoparts stores will stick any battery in the car with the terminals in the right place. That's simply NOT good enough for a BMW. And with the later cars, (E70 and beyond), the new battery needs to be coded to the car.

[Skyline]

I still question the integrity of the battery, and a weak battery can cause ALL sorts of issues in these cars. Let's discount what the PO said. Two ways to properly test the battery:

1) Quickly: Attach the car to a sophisticated digital load tester like the Snap-on EECS500. These can test the battery immediately. I'm not a big fan of the old fashioned load tester for a giant battery like the X5 has.

2) Slow way: Charge overnight. Remove the charger for several hours to remove any surface charge, and then test the battery with a volt meter. If you don't get 12.75 volts or so, the battery is likely bad. This is not as accurate a test as option (1), and takes a lot longer, but it should give you a general idea.

[bcredliner]

You can check the battery voltage and the alternator output by unlocking the cluster and going to test 9. Don't know about Australia but most auto parts stores here will load test the battery for free.