Trying to diagnose an issue, confusing

[Analyte]

Hello all,
I'm working to resolve an issue with the wife's X5 50i. Hopefully, someone has seen then before and could offer advice.

The wife said the back up camera had a delay when going from reverse to drive. In fact, she went to park and the backup camera was still visible on the screen. She had to back out of the camera for it to go away.

This then happened again, and instead of going back to park she went to drive and took off. She said the backup camera display remained until she hit around 5-10mph and then the Idrive display returned to normal. It's at this point she got the fault light on the dash.

She called me and it drive fine with no abnormal qualities. When she got home, I put my NT510 on it and pulled three codes:

A83A - undervoltage but will not cause a warning light
CF80 - engine management setpoint-torque request
9C5C - heating heat exchanger sensor

The A83A appears to relate to the GWS, but I'm not finding anything wrong with it. The indicator works fine, and it identifies the correct gear when changed and the gearbox adjusts correctly as well. The self test didn't find anything wrong, but it shouldn't give a fault light anyway based on my reading of the TIS documents.

CF80 appears to be related to the transfer case fluid. It's about 10k from being due for another change, but I haven't seen this before.

9C5C appears unrelated, the wife hasn't reported any issue with the HVAC system so I'll set this one aside for now.

I originally thought a had a sensor bad that was not notifying the car when reverse gear was disengaged to cut the camera. Now I'm no so sure. The C5 drives for, shifts fine, and unable to find anything weird other than the reverse camera not going off like normal when shifted out of reverse.

Could the trans fluid need changed as well?

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[ard]

Battery age/Condition?


BMW will 'starve' the battery charging at start up and when cold in an effort to reduce emissions. If a battery is getting old, it may not have enough umph to keep things running properly until the cold start ends...


Just a wag

[Analyte]

Originally Posted by ard

Battery age/Condition?


BMW will 'starve' the battery charging at start up and when cold in an effort to reduce emissions. If a battery is getting old, it may not have enough umph to keep things running properly until the cold start ends...


Just a wag

Good thought, new battery just installed in December. I checked it this weekend to verify, and it was over 12V itself and the alternator is putting out over 14V when at idle.

This weird issue with the backup camera will now happen with cold and hot starts. Totally perplexed, but thanks for the thought.

[Analyte]

Just had an Indy shop look at the X5 this afternoon, and he's telling me the Backup camera delay is normal. He's unable to find anything wrong with the systems check he run so he advised me to ignore the A83A for now since it isn't the cause of the fault light.

For the CF80, he suggested to start with a fluid change and look closely at the fluid for any metallic debris and check for leaks as it could be low. He saw nothing abnormal in the readings, and he said it doesn't grind or make any other sounds when a replacement is required.

I'm going to swing by the BMW dealer tomorrow and grab a liter of the TC fluid. I'll check it out and see if the change improves the condition.

I'll keep everyone updated.

[Analyte]

Just an update, I changed the transfer case fluid today. It did have a dark gold to light brown color, but it didn't look terrible. It only held around .7 of the liter bottle before it started running out the top hole so I guess I didn't get all the old out but enough to refresh it. I will say the top fill hole is in a terrible spot for just about anything....lol

Once complete, I reset the fault code and updated the adaptation for the tc. I drove it all around this afternoon and all seems to be back to normal.

With that done, I'll try to figure out what sensor is needed for the HVAC fault.

[ard]

Originally Posted by Analyte

Just had an Indy shop look at the X5 this afternoon, and he's telling me the Backup camera delay is normal. He's unable to find anything wrong with the systems check he run so he advised me to ignore the A83A for now since it isn't the cause of the fault light..

So he declares that it is normal for the backup camera system to behave one way for (say) 100k miles and then just change its behavior?





When a few codes pop up at once, I tend to try and understand what caused that- instead of chasing down each one as if is independent.... having said that, I am guessing you dont actually know when these all really first appeared

[Analyte]

Originally Posted by ard

So he declares that it is normal for the backup camera system to behave one way for (say) 100k miles and then just change its behavior?





When a few codes pop up at once, I tend to try and understand what caused that- instead of chasing down each one as if is independent.... having said that, I am guessing you dont actually know when these all really first appeared

Regarding the Indy, the more I asked the wife about the camera the more she thought herself it did have a delay. I never drive it since I work out of state so I depend on her to explain what happened when a CEL comes on. I guess I called it wrong that it didn't flip immediately like my rental usually does.

With the transfer case CF80 code now gone after changing the fluid and resetting the adaptation, I rechecked again and the only code is still the HVAC sensor. The wife says the fan makes an odd sound when on A/C, but I haven't heard it yet. I'm still researching this sensor so I'm not sure if her comment is applicable or not to be honest ...