8/2011 X5d - PDC problem

josiahg52 · #1 04-28-2018, 08:03 PM

PDC has not worked for about a month. Before that it was fairly intermittent. Using Carly for BMW, the left rear center sensor is at fault due to an open, short, ground or non-responsive ultrasonic sensor. I replaced it with a genuine BMW sensor and no difference which sucks: I was hoping for the easy fix.

Almost 120k miles, no major trauma. My vehicle ownership experience is pretty benign and boring. This is the first issue that wasn't easily and quickly remedied.

I'd like advice on any common problem areas or others' experience with the PDC system. A wiring diagram would be helpful if it's not too much trouble.

Thank you for the help.

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josiahg52 · #2 04-30-2018, 07:10 PM

Not getting a lot of traction. Not surprising really; I ask pretty specific questions so not a lot of discussion occurs usually because no one has the answer.

Once it dries up a little here I'm going to reinstall the original sensor but swap it with the right rear center sensor to see if the symptoms follow the sensor or not. If not, I forsee some wire tracing in my future.

ard · #3 04-30-2018, 08:19 PM

www.newtis.info for diagrams

josiahg52 · #4 05-01-2018, 09:21 PM

Thank you, Adam. That is a new site to me.

josiahg52 · #5 06-01-2018, 07:54 PM

Finally got under the truck and took a closer look

First, the problem was isolated to the left rear sensor and/or common wiring. Moving sensors around did not change the symptoms or indications.

Finger over finger tracing of the accessible wire runs exposed a problem that requires attention and certainly could be the cause of my issue.

There is a connector plug with six wires for the rear PDC array located at a right side plastic bumper cover support approximately six inches inboard of the right exhaust pipe.

It's supposed to be retained by a sliding clip on that support but mine broke away some time ago and so bent some of the wires severely. Since it was resting on the wires it looks to have worn away the insulation - the intermittent problem - and eventually corrosion took hold and now there is no conductor material left, causing the permanent fault. It's a YLW/GRN tracer wire which is the wire color at the left rear center sensor.

It's too close to the plug to do a proper repair so I'm hoping the entire plug is available. I've included pictures so that maybe one of you can help find the part.

josiahg52 · #6 06-02-2018, 04:49 PM

The 'Order - /Sach-Nr' is a partial part number. Looking at realOEM, I think I need to buy "Wiring Set Pdc Rear 611011 - BMW (61-12-9-244-425)". It's not too bad so I'm going to take a chance.

josiahg52 · #7 06-23-2018, 04:18 PM

I bought a connector housing (P/N 61 13 8 364 425) for the sensor side harness and what I thought were the pin-contacts for it but I got the pin-contacts for the vehicle side harness instead. P/N 61 13 0 005 200 is for the vehicle side plug pin-contacts.

I couldn't figure out how to get the pins out of either plug connector so that sort of stopped me in my tracks and I didn't have the right pin-contacts anyway. There was not enough lead before the break to properly splice the broken wire so that method was out. That and the connector I bought didn't have all of the parts that make up this very strange connector arrangement.

It didn't really matter as both of the connectors are totally messed up and need replacement. Not sure what happened under there to cause all of this damage. The easiest way to repair this I think is to buy an entire harness from a wrecked X5 and just splice in both connectors. Getting the sensor side is easy but I'm not sure about the vehicle side.

In the meantime, I directly spliced the YLW/GRN wire, bypassing the connectors all together. It is very ugly, brutish, hack-repair but the PDC does function now. For how long . . .

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