New member, New to me E70. Not running
 

Hello, my name is Dave.
I am the proud owner of an '02 E46 330xi, which is currently my summer vehicle.
I also own an '09 E83 3.0si, which I use in the winter months.

I recently came across a low-mileage (150,000km) 08 E70 4.8i with Sports pkg. for a very good deal. I have been on the hunt for an E70 for a few months, and this one has all the options I wanted, and at the right price.
The vehicle cranks and fires, like it is starving for fuel, but does not run. The previous owner told me she had nothing but issue after issue with the vehicle, and she sold it at a loss just to be rid of it.
She had recently replaced the alternator, battery an drive belt. These issues were all related to a situation in which she was finding the vehicle with a dead battery numerous times. After the new battery it ran fine for a few weeks and then she said it began starting and idling, but when you hit the pedal, it would die. She said she replaced the fuel pump and filter with new, but they didn't fix it, so they returned the new fuel pump and reinstalled the original pump. I don't believe the mechanic was BMW savvy at all.
I have found a situation in which the overhead console buttons and ambiance lights do not ever turn off. not sure if this is a DME problem or not.
I scanned the DME and found a bunch of codes, including a couple DME failure codes; BTW, (present) means an active code.

2B98 DME: Control unit internal fault RAM backup plausibility (present)

CD8B DME: Local CAN communication fault (present)

2A6B DME: Valvetronic power limitation (not present)

2F08 DME Intake air temp sensor (present)
(I think this and a couple MAF codes came up when I unplugged the MAF)
5F39 DSC Transfer Case internal (not present)

5EBA DSC: Steering angle sensor (present)
(I think this will go away when I relearn the SAS)
5DCF DSC: Control unit undervoltage (not present)

93D0 ACSM Safety battery terminal (present)

There are a bunch more 'not present' (history) codes for the EMF adn ACSM systems.
601C, 601D, 601E, 6022, 6023, 6041, D395, 93D0, 9408, and 93C6

I am thinking the DME is defective, or failing. I acquired a used DME from another '08 with 4.8i engine as a spare.

I have downloaded ista p but have yet to install it and run it.

Does anyone have experience mailing off their DME, CAS and key for diagnosis/repair, and could someone give me a recommendation on where to send it? I'm in Ontario, Canada

Oooph. Her problem is now your problem. Glad you have BMW ownership experience.

What have you checked so far? The safety battery terminal is probably where I'd start...

Funny, I went to look at the battery to see if the pyrotechnic charge had deployed, by checking the play in the B+ cable, and noticed a small, 2-wire connection dangling beside the battery. I found it’s home on the side of the battery terminal and plugged it in.
I didn't try to start it, but I doubt that little 2-wire plug will make a difference.

$1000 says it is NOT the DME.


Do a search for FRM. Could be PART of the issue.

Also dig into your wiring around the modules in the rear and up under the dash- looking for water damage and shorts.


IMO this will not be a 'one thing magic bullet'.


Reading codes on a car that doesnt run, that has been powered on and off- jumped- who knows what- over a period of weeks or months will likely give yoi as confusing mash up of codes. Codes that are due to low power and lack of coherent communications with other modules, and not necessarily due to hard singular faults

This, or JBE on the passenger side. I bought a non-running 2007 4.8 and one of the pins that supplied power to the valvetronic modules had broken off due to corrosion. Mine was easy to troubleshoot since the modules didn't respond to ISTA and I found they had no power.

http://e36-electronic.com/photos/img_5156.jpg

Thanks for the replies.
While I do own 3 BMWs, I am not up to speed on the forum acronyms.

Can you elaborate on FRM and JBE please?

Doing a search of FRM on the forum search comes back with nothing.

As you've discovered, using the site Search doesn't work well for short words. For FRM, use this in your search engine of choice:

frm site:xoutpost.com

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...3Axoutpost.com

:iagree: Don't use the forum search at all. Google search the site as described above.

Nice the battery safety charge was an easy remedy. As others have pointed out, time to start looking for corrosion or water intrusion. Agree with Ard. Not likely a corrupt DME issue.

(FWIW..in ~20 years messing with E39M5 (aka S62) on forums can only recall ONE truly bad DME that still managed to run and do weird things: it was a fet driver for one of the 8 fuel injector outputs. When DMEs go bad they are dead. They dont become flakey, throw errors and running problems and then progress to dead.)