wolf

I had this problem a year ago and it was intermittent and as luck would have it, it was never doing it when I brought it into the shop. They problem went away but did show up the other day for a few seconds..... It is a pain in the ass. I think I am going to bring it into the dealer anyway even if it isn't doing it at the time so I have enough of a paper trail of my problem before the car goes out of warrantee! I know it is going to fail inevitably and I don't want to be left holding the bag on what has been a ongoing problem.

wolf

Not to hijack this thread but my popping started up again the last few days and got worse today - I drove right to the dealer so they could see it while it was happening. A tech heard it and said it might be the TCU but said they would have to troubleshoot it. I was hoping they would do it on the spot as the car was manifesting the problem but they told me to come back next week. I asked him what if it isn't doing it then....he said they couldn't do anything.....

So, on the way home the popping kept up and then a loud high pitch tone came on. The tone was so loud I pulled over and got out of the car. Even with the car shut off the tone continued! When I got back in the car and restarted it, it stopped. It is a half hour later and my ears still hurt!

I have to go on a business trip next week with a 4 hour drive - I can't afford for this nonsense to continue. I have a service appointment monday. I am going to ask them to replace all possible units (amp / TCU / Sat / etc.) if they can't track it down as this has been in before for that type of problem. I am going to push the safety issue and say that I can't keep driving around waiting for this thing to happen again - especially when I brought the car in while it was doing it and they were to busy to see it at that time and possibly solve the problem....

wolf

So....I went out for a ride this evening and the popping sound was gone. Given comments in this thread about temperature I noted the temperature this evening was 88 degrees. Earlier today when there were problems it was 99 to 100 degrees. So....possibly it is an issue of overheating. That being the case, if it is not over 100 degrees when I take the car in on Monday it will not manifest the problem....Wonderful!

E60COYOTE

I checked my amp while it was acting up and it was very hot. I'm thinking the trunk vent is not working properly. Does anyone know how it opens? I can push it open by hand but there doesn't appear to be any mechanical linkage. Does it work on vacuum? It is part #5 on the attached. I was rear ended pretty severely a while ago and think something happened to the venting.

My link

530i8989

I have had my 2004 530i for about a month now and going through the same problem with radio/cd having intermittent static, which gets very annoying. I have to agree when it's hot outside the poppoing/static sound gets more frequent. I took it to bmw and paid their stupid $125/hr fee to detect and they need 4-6 hours just to figure out what the problem is... so far they think it's the TCU or the Master Bus. will post something if i end up getting a fix... several posts reccommend disconnecting the jumper in the glove box or or disconnecting the TCU controller in the back of the car( personally i haven't done that ).

7777777

like others said, most likely the amp

E60COYOTE

My problem started again on my way home from work last night as usual in 85+ degree weather. I pulled over and checked the amp again - it was very hot! I propped the trunk vents open on the drivers side and continued driving. The problem was immediately gone. I'm convinced now that the trunk ventilation is the issue. I need to figure out how the vents open automatically to fix the problem (or just keep them propped open).

E60COYOTE

Well now I don't think propping the trunk vents open is working. It seems to have helped but I still get popping and cracking. I unplugged my TCU to see if that will do it. I'll report in a few days.

wolf

My problems were pretty bad about two weeks ago and I brought the car by the dealer (described this in another thread). They witnessed the problem but couldn't work the car at that point as they were backed up. I made an appointment and as luck would have it, the next week at my appointment time, the temperature outside was cool again and the problem was gone. I sent an email to the head of service asking what he thought about how to proceed given the intermittent nature of the problem. He sent my email to BMW NA and he told me they based on the symptoms I described they want to replace the amp. Hopefully that will fix my problem.

E60COYOTE

Definitely let us know how that goes.