DSC and xDrive malfunction
 

2011 X5 E70 35i
Last Friday, my car did two recalls (airbag & tank) at the local dealer and an oil change. Took 3h and $109.
Last Sunday, 4x4 yellow sign appeared. I only drove about 3 miles last Saturday, it was fine.
Here is the $79 diagnosis the dealer gave: Steering angle sensor-1.25k, Oil filter housing gasket-1.1k and Rear differential pinion seal-0.8k. Total-3.3k
Here is my diagnosis: my car drives fine, rear two tires were small trembling when I turn and brake in low speed. I did the steering wheel trick, that turn full left and full right, 4x4 sign disappeared once, but it lights again in a minute. The trick only worked once. Also, no idea with engine oil leak and seal leak, I mean I haven’t see any liquid.

Should I do another diagnosis? Can these three replacements DIY? I searched the parts, they are cheap.

Lastly, I think this is weird, my car is fine before I went to the dealer. I had another water tank replacement two years ago, it was also after went to a dealer’s recall and oil change.

Wait.. Like $12,500 for the steering angle, $11,000 for the oil filter gasket and $800-$3,300 for the diff?????????

We know dealer can be just thieves, but this is astonishing.

Do you have an AGM battery charger? Toss it on the car and top off the battery. You can get odd errors if the charge is low and its been sitting around with doors open for a day or two.

Thanks ard.

My bad, I think the amounts include both part and labor, and the total is $3,300.

I have mentioned battery to the dealer, they said the battery is fine, the angle sensor fails internally.

I will try the battery myself.

Ah, so 1250+1100+800=3300? (give or take)


If so, you are off by a factor of 10. ("12.5k" is not 1250, "11k" is 11 grand... etc, etc)

Dont spend too much time chasing down the battery...

Do you have a BMW code reader? ISTA, Inpa, carly? You should if you dont wanna piss away $79 and two hours of your life every time....

How old is your battery? The oil filter hosing gasket will lose some oil and BMW would say your oil loss is "normal" with these engines... It's only when you're out of warranty do you have a problem.

The battery is more than 4 years.

Thanks for correcting me.

I'd recommend changing the battery. Battery failures can be known to throw random engine lights.

Id get Rheingold / ISTA+ before spending 1 more dollar on this issue.

If you really want a new battery Id at least test:
voltage with car on and with car off at battery terminal
how much voltage is lost in the battery from one day to the next.

The dsc error does come on whenever the battery is unplugged but If dsc error comes on while car is running and not on start up after the car sat over night it would non conclusively probably point to something other than the battery.

if the battery was really bad, wouldn't it trigger the error at night when voltage is lowest instead of when the car is running?

As far as the steering angle sensor, why not test it before replacing? there is a steering angle reset function in rheingold where you set the steering to 0 and you can see the sensor reading. There is also probably a way to test voltage at the sensor terminal

the problem with replacing parts right now is that if it turns out to be something else, the joke is on you.