Foxwell NT 520 not working right on e53?
 

Hello all, new Foxwell NT 520 owner and 6 month owner of 2006 e53 with 3.0i.

I’m chasing a few minor things down and, overall, loving the 520. Today I remembered that my headlight washer has never worked and my rear window washer has never worked, despite putting a new relay and pump in.

I thought “Maybe I can test all of that with my new scanner” tonight. So I hooked it up, started navigating and sure enough, I found the ability to activate all washers and wipers! I had my internal spot light on my on the drivers side (it’s dark outside), and when I activated the front screen washer, it didn’t come on (that one works), but my spot light went out. Dome lights come on but now no spot lights. Okay, whatever.

Activate rear pump. Rear driver window rolls down.

Activate wiper motor on speed 1. Rear passenger window rolls down.

Huh? Either the scanner isn’t mapped correctly or my car is in way more trouble than I thought.

Can someone with a 510 or 520 try those features?

I automatically scanned my VIN..

Went into the Controls, Body, #41 ZKE Central body electronics, #1 Windscreen wash/wipe System.

I’m guessing I blew a fuse trying something, which is why my interior spot light went out. If I go into Electric Windows and pick #5 Open rear window, driver’s side, it doesn’t do anything for the window.

Any ideas? Kind of hard to check components if they aren’t mapped correctly, or maybe I’m in the wrong place and shouldn’t be using that selection.

Would anyone with a 510 or 520 have a chance to see if their unit will successfully activate the washer pumps or rear windows?

It would be greatly appreciated!

My NT-510 did the exact same thing as you described. But to be honest I never did connect to Foxwell and do the registration/update that they recommend because of a few horror stories about it not working correctly afterwards....

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Well that's not encouraging! I have managed to connect and make sure it's all up to date. I wonder if there's a previous version of the software for the BMW that does work properly. It would be nice to be able to go back to that version, if it exists.

I have a support ticket in with Foxwell but so far, there have been no updates from them about the ticket.

My scanner is on loaner right now, but I can test when I get it back.(or if loanee see's this can check for you) BTW, my 520 was updated around october.

Thanks, Mouse, that would be greatly appreciated.

Also, one more test point, if you go into the Windows area and try to roll the back windows down, they won't roll down. I was hoping it would make the washer pump work, but it didn't make the windows or the pumps work :)

Siggy, I have a 510 and I'm not far from you. If I get the chance I'll try it on mine today and see what I get. Dedpending on where you are in Richmond, you may not be too far from me and we may be able to meet. I'm 40 min. east of Petersburg. PM me if interested.

Thanks, I would appreciate you giving that a try.

So far I've heard nothing from Foxwell support.

Sent you a PM.

Yup, you're right. Bad news. Plugged in my NT 510, navigated to the correct spot and bingo, got the RR window going down instead of the wipers on low...
I too will send an email to our friends at Foxwell, maybe if enough of us do it will get thier attention. Maybe I should threaten to return it, after all its only about 2 months old. Thought you and everyone else with or contemplating a NT 510/520 should know. I like the unit otherwise but getting windows instead of wipers... that's unacceptable.

I got a rather quick response from Foxwell. I wrote a complaint to them through Ebay (where I bought the unit directly from Foxwell). They wanted to know what I was trying to do, my VIN and if I had updated my scanner. I replied to thier questions this morning. We'll see what comes next.

They also sent a link to a youtube on how to update the scanner. YouTube says "video unavailable".

[emoji38]video unavailable

I love my Foxwell NT-510 but after the window vs. washer debacle I can only hope that YouTube doesn't turn on my wipers.

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LOL, me too. They sent me a second link (below) which does work. Thankfully it has no sound as it appears mostly in Chinese... But it does show you the basics on updating your 510. I will attempt to update mine in a few minutes and see if they have an update for it. When I got it back in december it had the most recent update.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO1_PX9cTwE

On a personal note; if EOD is what you do, all I can say is :yikes:. Thank You.

Yeah EOD is my gig (since 1990) but to be honest you do stay with it for the fun and the fact that I've never gone to a job interview and heard...

"Well you're good at blowing things up and shooting people. How does a management position sound?"

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I'll second the HUGE thanks to EODguy! Seriously, thank you for what you do for us.

Muleears, thanks for checking and reporting back. I emailed the person I bought it from as well and he said "I'll give you your money back, I don't have access to that car so I have no way to test it". I don't want my money back, it's a very useful tool for the things it does work on properly, so that doesn't solve anything for me.

I have updated everything, I did that prior to this thread so unfortunately, the update isn't going to fix anything. I still haven't heard anything from the support ticket with Foxwell directly.

Right now I'm installing an update (V8.70) that is dated the first week of Jan. 2019. Hopefully that will have a fix. If not it may go back to foxwell, although I don't know what I'd get for the price elsewhere that has the same functionality.

Thank you but, totally unnecessary I can still count to 21 and so far it's the only job that lets me make things go boom and the cops don't show up. [emoji38]

As for the Foxwell I wonder if it's just got a redundant line of code that was misnamed?

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I've thought about trying to open up the code and see if I can find the issue. I don't know what it's programmed in but I might take a look and see if it's anything logical that we can figure out.

I emailed the Sales email on Foxwell's site and asked them if anyone actually monitors the Support Tickets. Within 2 minutes I had a reply from the Sales group asking me to describe the problem I was having. I emailed them back so we'll see what they say. I'm guessing they all went home for the day after that email was sent.

I finished the update (that was released the first week of this month). Took it out to the X and plugged it in..... Guess what, I got the same result again. No wipers only window.... I have emailed Foxwell again with my result, told them I wanted to be able to trust thier tool but can't. I asked if I could trade it in on a unit that didn't have this problem! I am at a loss, I don't know what to do. I cannot program it properly so I guess I'll just wait and see what shakes out.

Got an email from Foxwell this morning that said they have an engineer looking at it today. He was going to hook it to an actual BMW they have access to and try and replicate the issue. They said they'd be working on it today but it might take a little time to correct and they'd send me a reply today or tomorrow.

We'll see! That's better than nothing.

WOW.

I never get responses. What email do you use, [email protected]?[emoji38]

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I haven't gotten a response to my last inquiry yet.

*UPDATE* Just got an email from them... they want me to make a video of me making this happen. They want to see what buttons I push to make it malfunction! I'll give it a try because I want this fixed. What next? Will they fly me to China to show them??!!:wow:

I used [email protected] m

;)

It's becoming difficult to look innocent while laughing maniacally after an explosion....

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They said they tested it on a 2007 335i andit worked perfectly. They asked me to delete the file and download it again and send them the path I’m using to get to the controls. I’ll do that tomorrow. If anyone has anything for me to add, let me know and I’ll pass that along.

No skin in the game here but maybe video the process and post it up on YouTube private and send them the link. Hard for them to deny that...

+1

Great idea.

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I guess I'll give it a try since they asked me... I'll record it when I get home today. I have an account with youtube but I haven't used it in a while, probably lost the password....

Why make it private? I would think it would be a stronger motivator if the world could see that thier product has a bug...:stickpoke

Well I have made a video that is 3 min. long. The link is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwwADYG8zG8

I better warn you... once you start watching you'll have to watch to the end! It's that exciting!!!:nanana:

I will be so embarrased if this is operator error on my part...:yikes:

Not operator error. Definitely looks like a bug. They can't deny that or claim operator error. :thumbup:

Thanks Muleears, I have emailed them the tree to get to the problem from my 520. I have also included a link to your video using the 510.

They have been VERY responsive so I'm sure we'll hear from them tomorrow. I'll report back.

Thanks so much for doing that. I really appreciate you testing it as well as taking the time to video it and upload it to youtube.

I emailed them a link... Like they asked. We'll see what they have to say. Isn't it early morning in China now? Maybe I'll have an answer waiting for me in the morning. I'll post whatever they reply. Maybe Siggy will hear something too. I told them in my email that I wanted to know how to fix it or send me one that did. I just bought mine in December directly from them (on Ebay) so I have both thier factory warrantee and the ebay buyer protection. I also haven't left any feedback...

Got an email from them late last night asking me if I could hook it up and gather some information off one of the ECU pages. I emailed that information last night and thought I'd have some news this morning. So far, nothing. I suspect giving them that information has allowed them to reproduce the error.

We'll see!

Most of our anwers will probably come durng the night. They are 11ish hours ahead of us. So they are on the opposite schedule from us.

I had to tell them to look at the video on my channel at youTube. I couldn't send a link. We were communicating through ebay's messaging system which doesn't allow any html.

They've seen your video because they posted a screen shot of one of the menu's and asked me to go into that menu and get the ECU info for them.

They've got it all. Your information and mine. Not sure who your person is, but my person is a guy named "Henry" (popular Chinese name, I suppose?). He's been very helpful and he's the one interacting with their engineers. Seems to have a real interest in resolving this.

I don't know who mine is, using ebay there's no signature. Good to know they got the video. I would think they would want it resolved ASAP. Thier failure is now posted on YouTube where anyone can see it.

I just received another update from Foxwell Tools... They received my video but since its the weekend their engineers won't be able to look at it for two days...:dunno: :bustingup

As long as they appear to be working on this in good faith I will work with them. The moment I think I am getting only lip service is the moment I let them have it back, as I still have a right to do, I will also leave feedback comensurate with the service I have gotten. In the meantime, I sit back and wait. :popcorn:

I had an email waiting for me this morning. They sent me a file to replace on the scanner (it’s a file located on the micro SD card). As soon as I can get to a computer, I’ll delete the old file and replace it with the new one and give it a try.

I’ll report back!

No luck. The file wasn't attached. It's a file named ecu.bin. That level of file isn't usually emailed and could certainly be dangerous on some systems so I'm not sure if they forgot to attach it or if my email stripped it out. I've asked them to resend it.

Will report back when we get there.

Any news? I haven't heard a thing since 1 am on the 26th. If I don't hear something by late tomorrow I'll have to poke them again :stickpoke

And we have liftoff!!!!!!!

The fix made the washer pumps work correctly! First time my headlight washers have ever been on since I bought the car (in fact, I'm not sure I even know how to turn them on the right way). The rear windows roll down and up by using that module.

Only issue I saw was that when you roll the rear windows down, when you activate it, it rolls it down 1/4 and stops. Every activation rolls it down 1/4 more, same going up. I don't think that's right but it works and I've mentioned it to them, so if it needs fixing, I guess they'll fix it.

I have asked them how others should go about getting their units updated. The menu numbers on your 510 are very different than the numbers on my 520 for some reason, so I'd be weary of passing the file along. I've asked them to let me know how people can get their units updated, emailing him, or will the file be updated soon on their site, etc.

I'll report back when I hear back from them.

So far I'm impressed. Not too many companies I've ever dealt with would take the time to look into it and fix the problem. Good on them for doing it.

Sounds good. I'll email them tonight to find out how I can get the fix. Good work Siggy! :thumbup:

They tell me that they will roll out the new update in mid Feb. after the Chinese holiday. They are doing a little more testing before releasing it. So it should be available in a couple more weeks via their update service.

I went to do my update and it's showing that I'm running v11.21 yet v11.28 is current and it doesn't add as an update...:dunno: waiting for a reply but I guess that if they're going to have a newer version it's better to wait.

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The update process is weird. I remember just like you said couldn't pick the option, something like you have to commit to the next step also you have to have the sd card mounted before running the update software

Good to hear an update is in the works...I haven't been able to test my 520 but nice to know that this issue hasn't fallen on deaf ears.