bymer

Hey Mike, yeah I've seen that thread, the guy ultimately had a faulty IBS cable, I unplugged mine as well, there was no change and the car noticed that the cable was unplugged, so I am pretty sure it works fine.

When I remove the fuse for DME the ICV stops and the amp draw drops as well, so it is what's causing the battery drain I'm sure. The window (Green led) also does not shut off thus not letting the car go into sleep fully even though the shifter light does go off. I am located in CT and my problem is that I do not know anybody from here or someone that is very good with a BMW that could offer help on the side.

I asked the dealer for some info and one of the tech's told me to check my E-Box (DME ECU) the dme relay could be bad or the dme itself could be malfunctioning due to corrosion or a loose connection because after all, this did start happening after a 2 day rainfall in my state. I am at a loss of ideas from here on.... Will check the DME relay but not sure that will help.

mikegreen

I once parked for 2 days on a slight inclined parking lot, nose pointing downwards.
The first day, it rained all day. The 2nd night, I got a call in my hotel room from a hotel guy that my alarm was going off/chirping every once in a while.

I went down, unlocked the car, and noticed the interior lights came on dim. I started the car and it started VERY sluggish due to battery being nearly dead.

I drove it for 30 minutes, shut it off and it cranked back up fine. Never had the issue since (2 years ago).

I assumed something got wet that shouldn't and it drained the battery.. since then, the car has been outside in the rain a hundred times with no ill effects.

In researching that issue, I do recall the DME relay being a possible issue. That it says on or off or flutters... and drains battery.

You probably need to dig into the service manual and/or trial and error replacing at this point... I am afraid even taking it to a dealer will result in A) new BMW battery IBS cable C) ECU/DME D) associated relays.. and $2500 later you still have same issue.

bymer

Yeah I will open up the DME box and start pulling relays/fuses to see what controls/shuts off what. When i spoke to the dealer he wanted to inspect the car first and quoted me ~400$ which is crazy for them to tell me what is wrong, and like you said, he suspects a defective DME.... Terrible.

Hopefully this gets fixed, it is literally eating alive my battery. Drawing ~5-7 amps with car off, what the heck.

Edit: Is there a resonable service manual floating around somewhere on the net, or do I need to go out and purchase a Bentley Manual because the user manual I have does not contain any info on things like this. Thanks!

bymer

Hey guys, so as i said before my problem seems to be the ICV buzzing that's killing the battery. My conclusion is this.

I checked out the DME box and found the DME relay. I unplug the relay, the buzzing stops, plug it back in, the relay clicks once, and the buzzing continues.

Now my question is:

Is this a faulty ICV or a faulty relay?

What is a definite way to check/tell? (symptoms)
I opened up the relay, it looked brand new inside. I do not think it is my IBS cable although I have no way of telling if it is bad, unless there is a diagnostic for it to check.

Any thoughts? thank you

(here is my relay)

mikegreen

Is there another relay the same p/n in there that you can swap with?

bymer

Unfortunately no, it is the only blue relay I have with those type prongs. I do have 3 green ones not sure what they control. Some click some don't when I reinster them. I need to know if its the ICV or the relay arghhh

mikegreen

The service manual says... If the IBS detects a parasitic draw, it stores a fault... but you are saying there are no faults now?

It does this every 2 hours when the car is asleep - have you let it go overnight again since you cleared the codes? And no codes reappear? That makes me wonder why it isnt detecting the draw and logging a fault.

I think the DME relay either works or doesnt. It is energizing the ICV - I think there is another signal to tell it to be on or off....

There is a chance the ISV is dirty and sticking, and it keeps trying to move but it cannot. I would think it would eventually stop trying, but I'm no expert on them.
How about pulling the ISV, seeing if its dirty, and giving it a good cleaning with throttle body/control valve cleaner?

bymer

I have not let it sit overnight because it heavily drains the batt, and I most likely won't be getting another replacement because it is costly. I will try and take out the ICV and see if the car falls asleep without it.

I too think that something else is not letting the car sleep/turn off the ICV. (The DME ecu was also hot to the touch when I disconnected it, so it seems as if the DME is constantly on for the past 2-3 days until I take off the battery clamps)

What kind of faults should I be looking out for from the IBS? in the DME module? There were some faults but nothing that mentioned the IBS.

mikegreen

What programming have you done on the car? You mentioned you reset stuff in your initial post..

Any custom or aftermarket audio/video/wiring/lights?

Did you buy it from NYC after hurricane sandy? Has it ever been underwater?

Sunroof drains clear? Has the inside of the car ever smelled of mold/musty/water?

bymer

Nothing major, just coding. Things such as Mp3, aux, windows, DRL, and other settings some of which did not do anything/work so I coded them back to original settings. I recoded the car last night to default and nothing changed in terms of it going to sleep or not. I was also getting SOS call malfunction after messing with he Telefon menu in INPA (Something to do with E-call on/off and transport mode on/off. I then coded the vehicle FA +TELD (TO disable the SOS message)

Last night I removed the +TELD and reset the TCUM module and the SOS/bluetooth works so I will not be messing with that anytime again.

I do have an HID kit for the fogs. It has been giving me problems since day one. I think the ballasts are cheap/not working properly.

The first time I installed the HID kit and turned it on, my Instrument cluster/kombi froze. Dials would not move and dash lights were on such as MIL, airbag, abs things like that. I had to remove the instrument cluster fuse for it to reset, this has happened 2-3 times until I purchased the error cancelers. I put the cancelers in, it seems to not lock up the cluster but the lights do flicker when car is stationary, for example at the traffic light, or in front of the garage door.

I will refrain from using the fogs because it might have shorted/caused some error, but the error does not reappear or show up when I read for them.

Trunk is super dry, no water there, checked the spare wheel for water (MPM) that was dry. TCUM/AMP is dry. Only time i smelled some sort of water/must was during winter when the floor mats were wet from slush and or water ingress from the shoes. Other that than, no water was in the car. I also have the AUX cable that hangs from the glove compartment, not sure if that can short circuit something, maybe I should get a cap on it or something to close it off when not in use.

PS: Last night after I let the car sit for 1 hour with the battery on, car locked. I come back to check on it, the shifter orange led is OFF, car was sleeping I assume, BUT when I put my ear to the kidney grille, I hear the constant buzz/humm of the ICV valve and an occasional DISA click. So my assumption is that the car IS falling asleep, but the ICV will not turn off and it is draining battery overnight. Relay seems fine I think, I have no way of testing it.

The green LED on the window does not go off, I do not know if it should or not so I manually turned it off via the button.

Is there something in INPA i could have reset/adapted/clicked within the DME that is causing it to act up now and mess with components such as the DISA/ICV?

(Sorry for the wall of text =/)