Navi Screen flickering only when headlights are off!
 

So my navi/screen started going crazy the other day, cutting off and on, then flickering to the point where I thought the screen was shot. This morning it's raining like crazy and I had the headlights on and fog lights and the screen was perfect. Then once I arrived to work, I turned off the headlights and it started up again, I turned them back on and it was perfect again. I will try to send a video once I get a chance. Anyone else with this problem?
Thank you for any help

hmm...just guesses...



Have you checked for any water leaks? Under the rear deck, in that electronics bay, or in the front footwell areas behind the carpeting... lots of modules that- if they are shorted or otherwise fubar can cause resetting and noise on the different comms busses.


Any battery issues?

Thanks for the reply,

The battery is 5 months old, no issues, I will check for water when I am out of work and update you. It just started happening 5 days ago and at first I thought it was the screen until this morning when it was working well until I turned off the headlights.

So let's see if there are any leaks

No wet spots
 

So I checked the car and no soaked wet spots, it's been raining all here the last two days but this started before the rain came. I'm trying to post a video of it but the site isn't letting me. I will try to post it to YouTube and see if that will work. Anyone else with this problem? Any more suggestions? The only thing new that I've noticed is that I now have a E18F code and from my research am not able to find out what that means.

Here's the video
 

There are a TON of posts around E18F.... seems to be a data fault in the MOST communications buss which sends data from the nav unit to the display in the dash. PRECISELY the kind of thing that correlates with ‘the display flashing and resetting’.

The MOST buss is a fiber optic. Read up on newtis.info on routing,and where the ends are located. Inspect.

In my brief google search, there are a handful of threads to look at. Oh...DO NOT think it needs to be an X5, same year, same same. Just a BMW.

GL

Thanks for the information, I will check out the website for sure to see if it helps.

Okay, so I can't figure out what is causing the flickering. The Error I am getting is due to a new MULF I installed but the flickering was happening before I installed that unit. So the error has nothing to do with the flickering.

Happy New Year to everyone, may your BMW's drive strong without issues this year and may you be blessed with only having to do regular maintenance...

YOU said ‘the only thing new is E18F’.... now you are changing the story?

Good luck....

Just a thought but my screen would flicker on my previous vehicle (X5 e53) when I had a poor connection to or was just about to expire halogen h7 headlight bulb. Scared me the first time I saw it there was a oh shit moment thinking my display was just about to expire. I realise these vehicles have a different way of doing things but just thought I'd give you an idea of what happened to me. Good luck with it.

What? How did I change my story? Explain how I changed my story?

Here is the problem with many posters...


YOU know what is going on with your car, but we do not. Posters think they can post as if we are sitting next to you- that we will undersand the arrangement of reality that you are seeing. We cannot. Posters will refer to 'this' 'that' 'it' etc as if they all have singular meanings. to them they do, to us it is confusing.


Read your posts. You told us you have a new issue and "the only thing you noticed is a new code'. But then the code is old and due to a module you installed. (If you are such a BMW genius that you can with 100% certainty state the code is only due to the module, you are way ahead of us here....)


Im not trying to be a dick. The more effort you put into making posts read with no confusion and uncertainty,. the better off you are. Also, leaing out history and issues that YOU think are unrelated can make this all a fools errand


:thumbup:

I will not question if you're being a dick or not. How I am writing and posting is based on my first post which stated the problem I was having. If I have to break down slowly and carefully for those who are unable to keep up with what I had posted that's not my fault.

When I mentioned the only new code it was because at the time it was the only new code, then when I had taken my car in to get checked I was told that it was the MULF. So maybe I needed to say that to not confuse people like yourself who are trying their hardest to not be dicks. And I guess even with me writing that I had the code after the fact wasn't enough.

My suggestion, which I will offer because I know you're trying to help, is to help or not help at all if you get frustrated due to not everyone having your perfect intellectually skilled mind set.

Thank you for your help regardless...

Found the problem
 

Thanks to a fellow X5 owner from Canada, we figured out what the problem was. The screen brightness was turned up all the way and for some reason that was affecting the screen and creating flickering. Once the brightness was turned down to halfway, everything was fixed and working well again... Thank to everyone who helped out.