Hey everybody,
New to the forum here... I have an issue with the OBC of my 525i 2007. When you get in service you see all maintenance Mi/Km left to go for each component right? Well in my car those values are not changing. They remain the same. For example, if oil change shows now 10000 Km to go, after 1000 Km it remains the same.
What could this be??? Is software update needed? Will it make a change?? Besides... Software update has something new (LOL.. .like changing from Windows XP to Vista.. I mean vissually) Should I worry about this problem??
The dealer has reseted the computer 3 times already.. no change. They say that newest software versions can affect the functions already installed on the car... such as phone...
Any ideas or comments will be appreciated.
Thanks,

 

The OBC service countdown on the oil change service is not linear, and I believe is not even related to miles/km driven, so you won't see it keeping pace with the miles/km you put on the car. It is more "condition-based" which means the conditions in which you drive the car. If you drive mostly short trips, it will drop faster than if you drive predominantly long trips because these conditions lead to different oil service life. If you always drive the car the same way, the miles to go will decrease in a steady fashion, but, if you change your trip style from short trips to long, the miles to go will actually go up! I believe there was a post on this board saying that the computer really measures fuel burned as a function of time to determine driving style.

 

Thanks.. but still my doubts remain.. According to what you say.. The countdown should definetly go faster in all aspects.. I take two trips bak and forth to work, each one of 15 Kms. and one of those trips (the morning one) in a very heavy traffic (lets say that 5 of those km.... the max speed is 20 Km. per hour!)....

 

What did you do BEFORE you had idrive to tell you to change your oil? My point is use it as a guide and throw in some common sense for good measure. If you feel it's wrong, have a sample of your oil tested and go from there. God forbid the chimes and lights malfunction and you run your car into the ground waiting for it to tell you what to do. I once started up my 545 after sitting overnight and within seconds it told me I was overheating, and one time I was stopped at a light and it told me to change gears because of max engine speed. So while I like the system, it isn't fool proof.

 

Not true. At the higher miles/km to go, such as 10,000, it will only change by 1,000s at a time, and it may change by more than 1,000 at a time. When it gets down to the lower 1,000s to go, then it will start changing by 100s at a time, including multiple 100s at a time. For example, mine was reading 3,400 miles to go, then jumped down to 3,000 to go the first time I drove it after about a two-week period of no driving. After driving regularly for the last 5 days, it has dropped another 100 to 2,900 miles to go.

As has already been said, the computer is only a guide. You should keep track of how long the oil has been in there. In my case, I am out of warranty, so I will use the computer and/or 18 months to determine my next oil change.

 

Thanks for your reply... Your point is very clear.. I thought the Km went down as the countdown for gas range... not by 1000´s or 100´s...And as Mookish said... No one ever used an Idrive system before to know when oil changes had to be made..it´s just that I wanted to make sure everything was ok.. By the way....this is one of the best forums I´ve been to..
Thanks again.