Sirius presets and iDrive issues
 

So last night my wife and I came back from a vacation in Texas that lasted 11 days. I came back to a sagging rear end (air ride, yay), and knew that the battery was probably a bit low. So when my wife started the car, she got the expected low-battery's warnings, and iDrive wouldn't work, the display remained black and wouldn't even progress to the BMW load screen. I had figured that the car probably needed to be reset or something, so I did a bit of digging and found out how to reset the iDrive (press and hold MUTE-DVD-CD EJECT buttons.). IDrive booted up just fine after a few seconds, then seemed to go through a period or gathering GPS data and linking to Sirius. Finally her music came on, and I was able to scroll through iDrive like normal, but I discovered that the radio no longer had the stored presets (or won't switch to them) and won't store any new presets. I can use the other functions of the iDrive just fine, like reading car status and the navigation features, it seems to be isolated to the radio.

Any ideas about what could possibly be causing this? I like BMWs, but it feels like these cars are the touchiest possible machines, and that even the smallest voltage-related issues cause them no end to glitches and a gremlins that seem to happen for no other earthly reason than to cause an unlucky owner to drive/tow their vehicle to a service center. Thanks in advance, folks.

There is a software/firmware bug with the Sirius since an update was download over the satellite channel many years ago.

I finally was able to get the Sirius presets to work in my E70 after A LOT of searching and some trial and error. Even the info I found on line was not 100%.

What I recall was I had to disconnect the Sirius module and/or MOST interface. I may removed a fuse or 2, do not recall 100%.

But I also found out after I got is all sorted that it was also key specific and I do not think my wife's key will allow Sirius presets, but she is a FM Pop radio junkie, so for the short term it is fine that there are no Sirius presets on the wifes key.

WARNING, Sirius claims it is a BMW problem, BMW claims its a Sirius problem. I think the permanent fix is a iDrive/Sirius update???

If I find any of the links I used, I will post them back here for review.

cannot save sirius/xm presets after sirius update - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

Radio Preset Issues - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF1lCBXAE0s

If you can find BMW SI B65 48 06, this is the written bulletin with the details about the Sirius preset problem.

Bulletin link in this thread - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums - View Single Post - cannot save sirius/xm presets after sirius update

You guys rock, thanks!

Okay, so update to my problem.

Twice now I have had to use the three-button iDrive reset on the car (eject-eject-mute) to get iDrive to start working again. From my perspective, it seems like it does this every time the car is started. Seems to me like the problem goes deeper than simply a problem with the Sirius interface, and maybe deeper down into iDrive itself. Anyone have similar experiences with this? Should I still deal with the tedium of trying to reprogram my Sirius, or is there something else that I should try to troubleshoot?

And just to verify that the problem wasn't a low charge/low voltage state with the battery, I had the battery on a battery tender after identifying that the battery charge was low, when I returned from my trip. The battery itself has been installed in the car for less than 18 months, and I replaced my alternator at the same time. Battery terminals and the power and grounding cables are clean and corrosion-free.

I tried the reset/reprogram of the radio with the youtube video, and it initially seemed to work, I was able to get the radio to store presets on Sirius just fine. But just now, my wife reported to me that the radio/nav froze, then went black while she was driving. When the radio came back on, she was unable to mute the radio.

Sounds like a more serious (Sirius?) issue than just the radio presets. Should I be looking into a new CCC for my car?

Check your charging system carefully.,

Meaning?

The car has a new alternator, the battery is new as well, both replaced within the last 18 months. The cables are in good shape, and there is no corrosion on the cable terminals or the battery posts.

Just because the alternator and battery have been replaced does not mean they are good and working properly.

You have a problem with the Rain Sensing Wipers and the iDrive/Radio all at the same time. Seems a bit like there may a relationship.

I have found the E70 does not notify the driver of a problem with the charging system under a few driving conditions.

I run an Ultra Gauge with alarm thresholds for Voltage and in the past few months on a few occasions I have had my Ultra Gauge alarm that there was Low Voltage. I had no charging what so ever for a number of miles until I pull over and shut the engine off and restarted the vehicle.

No warning of a no charging situation on the vehicle.

Well, to be perfectly fair, the rain sensing wipers failed a long time ago, and I had forgotten to post about it.

So, what's the best way for me to troubleshoot the charging system on this car?

Thanks for taking the time to work me through this, if I came across as somewhat snarky before, that was not my intent. I just reread my post, and realized that it may have come across with more "tone" than I had intended.

You can use the Hidden OBC Menu, http://www.scoopz.com/m5board/E60_Hi...structions.pdf

Proper charging Voltage is typically between 13.5-14.5 Volts.

Also you can use a Voltmeter as well, but best to leave this on the vehicle for a long time.

Something like this may also be helpful - http://www.amazon.com/Temperature-Mu...arette+lighter

Thanks for the Scoopz link. I used the OBC menu to learn the following:

1) Pre-ignition voltage of my battery was 12.1 VDC
2) At idle, immediately upon starting, voltage fluctuated between 13.8-14.1 VDC
3) Off-idle, running at 30-35 MPH with accessories off (headlights, radio, climate control), voltage was fairly stable around 14.2 VDC, with some transients to 14.1 to as high as 14.4 VDC.
4) With climate control and headlights on, I saw an average voltage of 13.8 VDC. Climate control only, 13.9-14.0 VDC.
5) With all electronics running as well as they can, discounting the lack of draw from my malfunctioning iDrive, the average during my 5-mile roundtrip was right around 13.8 VDC.
6) Upon parking the car and turning the engine off, VDC started at 12.8, then trickled to 12.2 before seemingly stabilizing there.

As an unschooled mechanic, to me this sounds normal, and that my charging system is functioning well enough to run my electronics and simultaneously charge my battery. What surprised me was the draw required to run my climate control system, and this explains why the high output alternator is required to run the 4-zone CC system.

Charging seems to be OK, but battery may be low.

Using the Hidden OBC Menu is sometimes hard to judge due the the load on the battery while the ignition is on.

Fully charged battery should have surface Voltage of 12.6 Volts.

12.1 Volts is very low, BUT you have internal Voltage drop within the vehicle that can color results a bit AND to have the OBC running, you have a big load on the battery.

I have no checked mine via the OBC, but anything below 12.3 Volts has me a bit worried.

If the vehicle is used for a lot of short drives with a lot of stops and starts, this can be hard on the battery and low cranking Voltage can cause havoc on the modules in the car.

Best to get the battery fully charged and tested.

Buy a battery charger, EVERYONE needs at least one good one.

Do not just get a battery maintainer, these do not have enough current to really charge a battery.

These are nice chargers -

http://www.amazon.com/SOLAR-PL2310-P...W2T0VR46GRDG1A

http://www.amazon.com/SOLAR-PL2320-P...W2T0VR46GRDG1A

http://www.amazon.com/SOLAR-PL2520-P...s=SOLAR+PL2520

I have a charger that I bought a few years ago, it's a dual voltage, dual amperage model that allows for 2A and 6A charging.

My wife is the primary driver of the car, and she routinely makes 5-mile jaunts in the car with the lights on, climate control blasting, and the radio bumping. So, basically, I should probably keep the battery on a charge at all times? I'm okay with that, if needed.

It just seems strange to me that these issues haven't been a problem since I bought the car, and only manifested after I came back from a vacation where the car sat for almost two weeks. She makes the same sort of short-duration trips now that she did months ago, and I've never had electrical problems (other than replacing the OE alternator and battery last summer) that caused systems to fail until just now.

It sounds like I should be looking into picking up a decent multimeter so I can measure voltage at the battery, rather than looking at OBC indications for surface voltage. And maybe tomorrow, I will take the battery to Autozone and have them run a test on it for me.

Thanks again for helping me to work through this.

Put your charger on the battery overnight.

Sounds like a 2-6 Amp charger is fine. Put it on 6 Amps, if it is an older school charger with the Amp meter, most start out around 3-4 Amps and as the battery comes up to fully charged it drops down around 1 Amp or less.

Sounds like the type of driving is probably not great on the battery charge status. I usually put the charger on a lot of my vehicles about once a month as a maintenance process. Not sure you need to keep the battery on charge all the time, but monthly overnight is not a bad idea.

The problem with the parts stores testing the battery, they use capacitive/resistive testers which are pretty good, but the people using the testers often do not bother to tell you the battery is "good", but needs a good charge. They just tell you the battery is "good".

Since the vehicle sat for a few weeks, if the battery was low to begin with, the starter draw may drop the cranking Voltage to the point that the iDrive drops out and has a hard time recovering.

You do not need a very complex multi meter, however, this is a decent meter at a good price at the moment with free shipping. It has Max & Min hold which is very helpful can can be used for the car or around the house - Power Probe (PPRPPDMM)

So I'm still having problems. I disconnected the battery from the car, put it on the charger overnight last night, and took a voltage reading on it this morning from a multimeter. It read 13.3 volts at the posts. I took it to Autozone this morning, as well, and they confirmed 13.28 volts, indicated a good battery.

So I came home, put the battery back in the car, started it, and got the obligatory 4WD/AWD/DSC fault from the loss of power to the steering angle sensor. I cleared that with the lock to lock wheel sweep.

IDrive is still acting funky, it continuously freezes on me. It seems to still have the Sirius presets that I set up a couple of days ago still stored in memory, but the darn thing froze three times while I was attempting to set the date and time. I rebooted it with the eject-eject-mute combo a bunch of times, but it never stays unfrozen, and sometimes blacks out and returns to the BMW screen 2-3 times before finally playing music.

Seems that I've pretty much ruled out the car's battery and charging system. Am I looking at a failed CCC or something at this point?

You cannot tell the battery condition directly by the surface or terminal Voltage. 13.2-13.3 Volts is actually too high. Either there was a big surface charge or the battery may be bad with a bad cell.

Did anyone put a tester on the battery?

Did you put a Volt meter on the battery and turn the headlights on for 2 minutes and see where the terminal Voltage ended up.

The battery may be fine, but nothing posted has convinced me that it has been properly tested and passed.

Also put a Voltmeter on the battery with a Min Hold while the engine is started and see what the minimum Voltage ends up being during cranking.

You may well also have an iDrive problem. Cannot recall if the CCC has a hard drive like the CIC systems. Might be the drive is going if there is one?

I tested terminal voltage per your suggestion, readout on my miltimeter showed 12.62 volts after running the headlights for two minutes. I started the car with the multimeter attached, and got a low voltage indication of 10.71 volts. Car starts without hesitation, there are none of the usual indications of a weak battery, from my experiences with older cars (slow cranking, dim headlights or interior lights, battery lights on the dash.)

I appreciate your guidance, and I thank you for teaching me a few things about testing automotive batteries.

Those numbers sound pretty good, albeit a bit higher than I would expect. Not sure if the meter is not highly accurate or of the battery just holds one hell of a surface charge.

Would have expected the terminal Voltage to drop closer to 12.2 Volts after 2 minutes, but also the Min on cranking sounds good.

I never researched the CCC very much in depth as to how the memory is stored in the system, I do know the CIC has a hard drive.

I plan on upgrading my system to a CIC system soon and will also swap the hard drive out for a SSD drive as well.

So to you it sounds like a legitimate iDrive problem? To me, it sounds like I have a good battery and charging system. Looking inline, CCC units run about $1000. Then, if I am not mistaken, the CCC unit would have to be coded to the car.

Sucks that it isn't something less expensive, like a battery.

Would a CIC be a better alternative? If I'm shelling out 4 figures to get iDrive to work, is an upgrade a worthy investment?

-edit- Do you have a part number for the CIC unit and any other corresponding parts that would need to be upgraded simultaneously?

I'm considering doing the CIC upgrade as well and I think if you're spending money it would be insane NOT to go to CIC or even NBT.

If you don't care about HD Radio then you can go with a unit from outside the US. If you do then I'd recommend looking at salvage yards and NOT on eBay.

NBT Retrofit: >>> Bimmer Retrofit: NBT Retrofit in E70/E71 <<<

CIC Retrofit: BMW E70 X5 CIC Navigation Retrofit - Done !

Part of me thinks the NBT makes more sense since the combox is built in and it has more features for about the same $$.

Yeah, I don't care about HD Radio, my wife is all in on Sirius. Since it's her car, that's the primary concern.

Do you happen to have a part number for a non-US CCC, by chance?

CCC or CIC??

Either. From a cost standpoint, it looks like just replacing the CCC is better, seeing how I would only have to replace the CCC itself. With CIC, I'd be upgrading the CCC, display screen, some cables, the iDrive controller, and replacing the center console gearshift and iDrive controller surround.

CCC should?? be a direct swap, not sure about programming/coding.

Might wan to research how any memory works in the CCC unit,

You should be able to be able to get a used CCC unit, not sure if there are differences between models?

Also I believe the part you need is not the display but the unit with the memory presets?

Check BMW Parts Catalog and do some searching. The start with ebay, but you might find a local Craigslist part out as well.

Good luck.

^^^Correct, I just need the main CCC unit, not the display screen, unless I were to go into a CIC upgrade, which needs the high definition screen to display.

About the least expensive CCC I have found us far runs about $800, and as you said, I have no information thus far on coding.

I am pretty sure many of the modules in the newer cars need to be coded by VIN, but not 100% sure with the CCC.