Help Coding Garage Door Opener
 

The good news, after months of searching we just picked up an '08 4.8 to replace my wife's E53 3.0 and wow, wonder why we waited so long. :wow: Thanks to all that have answered my questions while I was shopping.

I'm already comfortable navigating iDrive, it is really intuitive, and we are blown away by the updates to our previous model and the extra power from the V8. I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the remote door control system though, I can't get it to respond at all. I know....RTFM. The manual says to turn the ignition on, hold down the left and right buttons (1 and 3 I assume) under the rear view mirror for 20 sec until the little LED flashes to clear the memory. After numerous attempts, I can't get the LED to flash.

I tried simply coding it to our opener without deleting the memory, and still can't get it to respond or learn the code, and again no flashing LED. Since we are new to comfort access and the "keyless ignition" maybe I'm not actually turning the ignition on?? I am inserting the key and the display comes on, chiming tone, etc, so I think I am.

Any ideas? Anyone have a similar issue?

Hopefully this is simply a newbie issue!

Thanks.

it's easier to just turn on the engine.....

unless you have a very old opener...you'll need to train your car to learn from an exisiting remote. then add it to your opener.

Thanks for the info. I'll try just starting it up and coding and see if I can get the LED to respond. My garage door opener motor has the code learning button and I coded it to our last X5 and my Audi S4 so I know it is our new X's opener controller that is the issue. The fact my LED won't light up tells me it's either malfunctioning or not getting power the way I tried coding it.

Thanks for the tip, I'll start it up and try again.

With comfort access, you need to push the start button twice without pressing the brake pedal. Starting the car and then programming should work too.

I have a 08 X5 and 08 328 no comfort access in either.
Inserting the key and ignition ON is not enough. You have to have the engine running to program the opener.

You need the engine running even for opening/closing the garage door. Makes it hard when you are operating from inside the garage.

WOW! Good info, thank you. We have comfort access, but maybe it doesn't matter. I will turn the engine on and try coding again, bummer the manual doesn't just say that, unless I misread.

I agree this is a little inconvenient, our E53 would open the garage door with the key in/ignition on and engine not running. Can't have it all!

Thanks again!

Got it! Thanks for the tips, engine running did the trick. :thumbup:

What, exactly, did you do? I've had no luck programming my 07 X5 to our building's garage door opener...

I'll tell you what I did, hopefully it will help you.

1) Started the engine.

2) Pressed and held the left and right memory buttons on the bottom of the rear view mirror for 20-25 seconds until the LED flashed fast to clear any existing codes.

3) Held the remote control for the garage door underneath the rear view mirror and pressed both the button on the opener and the button on the mirror that I wanted to program until the little LED on the mirror flashed fast, then released both buttons. Now the code is stored but you still have to sync the opener motor and the control unit in the car.

4) Got out of the car and pressed the code learning button on the opener (motor), got back into the car and pressed the button on the mirror (that I previously programmed) 3 times. You have about 30 seconds to complete this part.

That is the sequence I used to program my opener, and older Genie unit that is a scrolling code type. The trick was finding my old remote buried in the junk drawer.

Hope this helps you!

Homelink makes the garage door opener used by BMW. Their website, homelink.com, will lead you through the process to get it going on your car.