I bought this truck from my uncle whom i'm close to so I'm not worried about getting the shaft... but I am a bit confused. Does anyone know how to check the Speedo sender? Or what ohms it should read and when? The manual says take it to have the dsc serviced... OH! I'm not sure if I mentioned that the DSC button will not do anything at this time. It does seem like a strange electrical problem, but the computer will not log MPG, average speed, but the speed limit chime works... very strange.. i'm thinking gauge cluster malfunction...

It's possibly a bad wheel sensor. You may need to take it to a dealer to have them hook it up to their diagnostic computer. The OBDII scanner doesn't provide information on the DSC components, only the engine management.

Do you know if there is a way to purchace a computer scanner that bmw would use to diagnoss this issue, or am i dreaming?

I had this happen, lost my speedo and as this was part of the input for other functions (ie DSC etc) it meant a number of other functions were lost.

I am sorry to say it was a fault issue and the dealer replaced the cluster... completely I think.

You would be wise to check it at your dealer at the very least. Whether you do the swap with some second hand parts is up to you, but at least get them to identify it.

I had the problem of DSC intermittently turned on and off before. I took it to BMW services and they said the control unit is faulty. It costed me US$1500 to replace the control unit.

it is a wheel sensor imho. check the wheel sensors.

Ok, I'm going to run to the dealer today, and from what I have learned from this post is that it is probably...

1. It is probably A speedo problem.
2. Could be the wheel sensors
3. May have to get the DSC computer replaced
4. Could be the Instrument cluster.


These all seem like good ideas, and now I will kind of know what to expect from the dealer. Thank you all very much and Hopefully I can still afford rent after this afternoon!


Mike

Ok, took it to the dealer.. they are booked for the next MONTH!!! Luckily I ran into an old friend that as it turns out is a salsmen there so they will look at it on firday. I talked to the service tech and he says it may be the speedo sensor, it made sense to him but we'll see... Does anyone know where to get an actual BMW service book for my 01 X5? I'd love to have one. Thanks for all your help, it's much appreciated!!!

Mike

I bought a manual on ebay.... forget who I got it from but it was on cd and has everything I will ever need... and more. I will dig a little more and see if I can find the seller.

Hello all... I have good news, the BMW dealer diagnosed my X5.. the left rear wheel sensor.. Good job with that prediciton! They wanted 240 to fix it but i found the part for 120.00 so I'm just going to do it myself. I have two questions for you at this point. (63.00 just to diagnoss on top of it)
1. Is it possible to get the diagnostic tool they used to diagnoss the problem?

2. The service guy said that 50% of the time the bad wheel sensor will send a signal to the DSC computer and smoke it. He said he would not know untill he replaced the wheel sensor and then re diagnosed the truck. 1299.00 to replace DSC computer.

.. I dont buy this, .. intermittent problem to me indicates bad wheel sensor, considering the computer had 20 bad readings in it form that wheel sensor. any suggestions? Also i dont think it's going to be that hard to replace the wheel speed sensor, anyone do this before?

You guys have done a great job at helping me throught this problem, and it was the wheel speed sensor proving you know what your talking about... Thank you all so much, I look forward to being part of this forum :thumbup: