PARK BRAKE MALFUNCTION

[scollins]

Originally Posted by ard

There's been a lot of disussion on this. The issue is two fold- the car needs to know the battery capacity and overall specs...AND the system needs to know where the battery is in terms of it's specific lifecycle. Over time batteries degrade and their charge characteristics change-and the BMW system takes this into account (why, and if this added complexity is justified, is an unanswered question) so even wen you just replace the old with new, you need to 'tell' the car there is a new one installed. If you change the overall battery type or capacity, that also needs to be programmed.

I beleive it is called 'coding' if you change battery type or capacity, and 'registration' if you just replace the battery.

I am of two minds- under warranty, or when you are paying $140 an hour, we dot Is and cross Ts. They need to do everything properly and when they don't they pay the price- after all, they justify the fee with "we are the dealer and stand behind our work" (The whole "we charge book time, which is always less than actual, to make up for the times it cost more or takes longer".)

AFTER the warranty, screw it- put in a fresh battery, skip the registration. Even if you get 1/2 the life, the $200 saved by not going to the dealer buys the new battery next time.

AND, I am 99.999% certain you will be able to do this yourself once these warranties begin to expire and there is a market for 'battery reset widgets'

A

I can see that. My digital camera has a battery lifecycle meter, but I don't have to tell it if it is a new battery or not, it is smart enough to figure it out on its own. While it may be an expensive Nikon DSLR, I would think a vehicle that is 10x more expensive would be able to figure it out too without owner input.

But since most car companies don't even want you open the hood anymore to top off fluids, I guess it makes sense...

[killcrap]

Originally Posted by ard

There's been a lot of disussion on this. The issue is two fold- the car needs to know the battery capacity and overall specs...AND the system needs to know where the battery is in terms of it's specific lifecycle. Over time batteries degrade and their charge characteristics change-and the BMW system takes this into account (why, and if this added complexity is justified, is an unanswered question) so even wen you just replace the old with new, you need to 'tell' the car there is a new one installed. If you change the overall battery type or capacity, that also needs to be programmed.

I beleive it is called 'coding' if you change battery type or capacity, and 'registration' if you just replace the battery.

I am of two minds- under warranty, or when you are paying $140 an hour, we dot Is and cross Ts. They need to do everything properly and when they don't they pay the price- after all, they justify the fee with "we are the dealer and stand behind our work" (The whole "we charge book time, which is always less than actual, to make up for the times it cost more or takes longer".)

AFTER the warranty, screw it- put in a fresh battery, skip the registration. Even if you get 1/2 the life, the $200 saved by not going to the dealer buys the new battery next time.

AND, I am 99.999% certain you will be able to do this yourself once these warranties begin to expire and there is a market for 'battery reset widgets'

A

The reason to register a battery replacement is to prevent a new battery from being overcharged and sulfate the plates.

Example: the battery is 5 years old. It no longer holds a charge, and the battery warning lamp is on. It is diagnosed that the battery needs to be replaced. You bring it to an aftermarket shop lets say autozone. They replace the battery for you and send you on your way. The engine computer still thinks there is a bad battery in the car, so it over charges it to allow you to re-start the vehicle. 2 years go by and the battery is dead.

That new battery is now sulfated and no longer holds a charge. The engine computer or power module need to be told that a new battery has been installed so it can reset the State of charge and state of health. This will tell the engine computer or power module how to regulate the alternator.

[jeremym]

Hm, mine kept chiming and altering me and I dropped it off and they just charged the battery up, cleared the code, and I've been fine ever since...it cost me a $50 CPO deductible, but even still, it wasn't covered under CPO but they threw it in free. Sorry to see the price tag.

[jlam86]

i thought CPO doesn't cover electrical stuff... at least that is what my dealer said.

[jeremym]

Originally Posted by jlam86

i thought CPO doesn't cover electrical stuff... at least that is what my dealer said.

Don't know. I paid about $128 for an oil change and the CPO deductible. Within that service, I had the headliner fixed (was sagging in the rear), the parking brake malfunction fixed, a vibration/rattle behind the dash, and a couple other small things fixed.

[Noodle555]

Sorry for the late reply.

While I was waiting for my cable I actually got a freind to clear all codes with a snap-on scan tool (the expensive $8k one) and have had no problems since.

I am sure the same can be done with NCS.

[dakoX5]

Has anyone in the DC/MD/VA area had the parking brake malfunction properly fixed? If so, please share the name of the place (indy or dealership).

I've been to 2 of the area dealerships and neither one was able to resolve the issue. It got to the point where the last SA said "We should call a priest!"

Below is a short recap of all the failed attempts to date (thankfully all covered under original warranty).

Dealer 1 (I've outlined in detail my experience there in an earlier post on this thread):
1) Cited under voltage as the problem and replaced the battery
2) Cited over voltage as the problem (due to failed new battery registration) and registered the newly placed battery
2) Replaced EMF control module

The brake worked properly for a week or two and then failed again so i stopped using it. And when I say failed, i don't mean just the yellow warning coming on. I mean brake failing to disengage and me having to manually release it.

A year later I took the car to a different dealership for a brake booster recall and asked them to look into the parking brake issue. Below is a recap of their attempts:
1) Re-routed parking brake harness (per BMW bulletin).
2) Charged battery (not sure why since I'd never had any issues with it)
3) Replaced EMF control module (I told them that the module had been replace a year earlier at a different dealership)
4) Jokingly suggested that we should call a priest

That was the tip of the iceberg for me and I drove my car home, with the parking brake still not functioning.

So if anyone knows of a place in the mid-Atlantic states that can properly resolve the parking brake malfunction, please do tell.

Thanks in advance.

[Noodle555]

If I recall correctly there is a software issue that causes the EMF to malfunction, causing it to lock. You would then need to manually release the parking brake. The issue is that the ABS module and EMF module have conflicting data when the parking brake is applied. There is a TSB on this so I would have expected that the first remedy your dealer would have implemented was that software update.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ure-again.html