Parking Brake stuck!
 

Anyone else have frequent malfunction with it. I really can't stand this Fing thing, why electronic? I manually disengaged it but can't seem to get it back to normal function. Maybe disengaging the power at the battery will "reboot" the system and it it working again, basically I'm without an emg brake now and I park at home on a pretty steep incline. Anyone have any suggestions that don't include taking it to the dealer?

Jeff

FWIW, on another board someone said "the issue has been resolved with the release of programming version 29.1.1

Your Owners Manual has a procedure outlined, but it is only suppose to work "if the brake was manually released sue to a power interuption."

Might be worth a try though.

I just had my car washed and had trouble leaving as the "Parking Brake Malfunction" was illuminated and it seemed to stick and wouldnt immediately start. I went a block with the yellow BRAKE light on on my instrument panel. I engaged the parking brake and released it several times. The yellow light stays lit. I believe it is probably sensor but I'm not sure.:dunno:

I had the same problem a while back and was told to engage parking brake after you turn off the engine as a workaround. I think I read it in some other board how the brake system work in X5. It applies the brakes via a different system (experts on this board will provide the exact term for this, as I am kind of new to this myself) when the engine is running as against when it is not running. You can test it out if you like:

-Start your X
-Release parking brake
-set it to drive
-drive the car for couple of feet
-set it to park
-leave the engine running
-engage parking brake
-open the door, come out of the vehicle and you will hear the system applying the parking brake (it is kind of like the sound of applying the parking brake mechanically)

When you apply the P. brake before turning off the engine, the software is sometimes not able to send the correct command to switch to mechanical system after you turn off the car and hence you get this Yellow light. This is a software glitch which is resolved in the updated version. Since the dealer updated my software, it hasn't happened yet.

Correct me if I'm wrong but once you engage the manual release from the trunk, don't you have to take it to the dealer to have it reset?

Why bother disconnecting the battery and risk yourself to other electronic issues?

Do you have a 2007 version without firmware updates since this March/April or so?

Mine is a '08 and I just got off of the phone with the local service manager (my service tech didnt have the answer). The mngr said that sometimes the sensors get confused/misfire and after you turn the car off all computer systems will reboot after about 30 minutes. I tried and - bingo- the yellow brake light is no longer illuminated.:rofl:

I believe it was a March 2007 delivery to dealer, I purchased as a demo in Oct. 2007. I don't believe it has had any updating. Was the update available march/april this year?

Jeff

^ around there... at any rate, as I understand it the latest update is all-encompassing and should fix the problem.

To be honest, my Jan. 08 delivery hasn't experienced the problem but I'm afraid so I use the announced workaround of turning off the car before using the parking brake. I really wonder if I am susceptible as well.

I always use the parking brake before putting the transmission in P. Since I only use the parking brake on incline, I first engage the parking brake to lessen the load on the trasmission...