I think you're missing our point.

I, too, park close to a wall and have to reverse out in the morning. The PDC comes on in reverse but will not show the graphic display -- only the audible warnings.

The display stays on the BMW screen as if it's still initializing something.

 

Our problem is clearly not related to temperature.

The screen actually does come on, it just stays on the BMW screen (before the accept screen) for some time and then goes blank just before coming up normally.

You can tell you're in the initialization phase because while the BMW screen is showing, my US car is showing Kilometers and Celsius readings in the instrument cluster instead of Miles and Fahrenheit. The correct readings show up just before the accept screen finally comes up.

 

I just did another wake up, fire up routine and again, before the garage door got moving good, the accept screen came up. However, this time PDC reacted differently. A steady tone came on before the accept screen because the garage door was just beginning to rise. The PDC screen never came on voluntarily even though I backed out like I was going somewhere.

One good experience does not necessarily a problem solve with Mr. E60.

 

Rudy, forgot to mention the Kilometers/centigrade thing on the computer...you can actually watch the temperature reading and know for sure that once the temperature begins to show in farenheit that the display is about to come up.

Pretty weird; but should be something that is easy to understand for the engineers who designed the firmware on this thing.

 

Well, I took my keys out last night (w/out locking the car) and to my astonishment, it took less than 10 seconds this morning for the I-Drive screen to boot up! Looks like leaving the keys in the ignition overnight is somehow the culprit...

Pretty weird, but I can definitely live with this "fix".

Stuart

 

Sounds good. I'm curious, Stu, did you have your door closed and seatbelt fastened before inserting key?

 

I left my keys in last night and this morning the screen came up without delay.

JDN, I always seatbelt right before starting the car. It's something I do unconsiously so the seatbelt theory may or may not be something to look into further.

The fact that some mornings it takes a while for the screen to come up and some mornings it doesn't (with all other factors being the same) kind of shoots down the key theory as well.

I guess we'll have to keep gathering data to see if we can reliably duplicate the condition.

 

Rudy and Stu, try seat belting after you fire the engine. This morning I:

1. turned the ignition
2. fastened the belt
3. activated the garage door
4. fired the engine
5. engaged reverse and started backing slowly
6. the PDC screen came up before the accept button.
7. went back into the garage
8. repeated the sequence
9. again, the PDC screen was giving me what I needed before the Accept screen came up.
10. PDC screen stayed and kept telling me about the tall grass behind the car on the ROW.
11. I punched the iDrive and got the Accept screen which had been patiently waiting.

 

On my May 2004 525 there is no BMW logo that comes up before the screen reverts to normal iDrive information. Maybe the logic is different in different markets...

 

Ah, PeterT, that is the diff btwn Scotland and us USers. We have to live with the disclaimer.

Incidentally, my US ancestors married in Inverary and sailed from Scotland in 1775 with roots in the McNichol (MacNeacail) clan. We be cuzzins?