Fail safe after message oilquality in transferbox
 

Helo,

Since yesterday i have some problems with with my 2004 3.0d x5. When i was driving this 3 warning lights came on: 4x4, brakes and another one. I whant to park my car and i feel that the abs or traction control is activated. After turning of and again turning on key only the 4x4 light stays on. When i drive at very low speed and need to turn very short i feel and see that the traction control or abs is blocking a rear wheel. I dont trust this situation when driving further but i had to take him to garage. Once there on fault codes appeared something with the quality or density from the oil in the transferbox is wrong. Probbably to high density of less renewing this oil. Now he will renew this oil. Any one also had an issue like this? It's normal that car react like this from this signal of bad oil? Because in first place i was thinking of bad abs sensors or speed sensors because my cruisecontrol already died couple years ago.

Greetz

Yes. The car will notice wrong density by means of applying extra force to the transfer case actuator to move whatever it is on the box.

Today oil is changed but message still there. What can i do?

If you changed the xdrive oil in the transfer case you need to do a re-adaptation with DIS, if you dont have it go somewhere that does, they should be able to do that and clear any codes.

Today i went to official bmw garage for reading out. Here was shown the actuator was faulty. He (tryed) to reprogram the oilchange but it doesnt worked. They sugested lebto replace the whole transferbox.... But first i gonna tey by myself to inspect the actuator. I hope this will give me clear view after what to decide with car.

Did you replace the oil with the genuine BMW fluid. The X-drive transfer case uses special fluid (about $60 litre). You only need about 700ml. I changed my fluid after reading an oil abrasion error and still had the error. The fluid that came out was pretty clean so I am guessing the previous owner changed it as well.

Cleared it with INPA (DIS is same - older version) and all is well. When you clear the code you can hear the transfer case clutches moving around and resetting.

If its the actuator gear dont let them rape you by replacing the unit. Plastic gear usually goes bad inside, $20 part, order the plastic gear. Jack the car up i believe 4 bolts hold the actuator to the transfer case, unplug the connector and theres a full diy video on youtube how to replace it- doesnt take long nor too much skill/tools.

The bolts if i recall right you need a E type socket external torx head.

Today i rotated the gear 180 degrees because i hadnt a new one. After this all my warning lights where out. I went for driving and warning lights didnt came back. So this was the problem and was easy fixing! No i'll order a new gear and replace the old one. 1 thing i learned is that on next time i will go ditectly to bmw garage to read out correctly the car. Thnx!!!

I'm on my flipped gear nearly 3 years. No issues.

So the plastic gear can trigger a code? Flip it as a preventative measure? I was going to change my fluid again since the original owner had it changed at 36k when it riggered a "transfer case oil wear fault", VTG oil wear too High" according to dealer invoice. Can changing the fluid trip a code?