Hello again everyone,



My car is a 2006 BMW 525D M-Sport (12,500 Miles)

My wife told me just now that she saw this symbol this morning when she started the car.

I have spent the last hour trying to find this symbol so she can actually see and say it is this symbol, I found nothing about control messages in the vehicle booklet either, extremely stupid if you ask me... BMW should include these signs in there manual... Anywho...

According to this picture I found in a pdf, it says "Preheating Please wait" as you can see, I live in London this morning it was 0 degrees maybe -1.

Is this control message normal? Or is it some sort of mal-function


I would like to thank you in advance for your replies.

Kind Regards,
Cream Sauce

 

Just a guess, does your car have a diesel engine?

Oops didn't look close enough for your car description.

This is perfectly normal. Because of the cold temperature glow plugs heat the combustion chambers for a longer time to a suitable temperature to make combustion easier.

Just look up cold weather starting for diesel engines and you will a better explanation than I can give.

 

Pre-heating indeed, as I got in sub-zero (c) temperatures in my 535d this morning - You don't have to wait and watch for 30 seconds, like 20 years ago in a mercedes diesel, it only comes on in a flash in a modern bmw diesel, and only when it is cold. You don't need to do anything special, as it is on for such a brief spell so it is really only FYI, why the engine starts ever so slower than it would otherwise do.

 

That would be what the d stands for in 525d

 

+1

To start a diesel engine, the glow plugs have to be pre-heated, always, despite the weather temperature. When the weather is warm, the glow plugs are being pre-heated VERY fast (in a modern diesel engine), and the message symbol doesn't need to be lighten up. In colder temperatures, the pre-heating will take a bit longer, and the car will lighten up the message symbol to inform the driver to wait until the glow plugs have been pre-heated. And like stoic1 said, the glow plugs have to be heated to get the combustion chamber pre-heated.

When the engine has started, the glow plugs don't do anything (compared to spark plugs in a petrol engine, where a spark plug gives a spark everytime when a mixture of petrol + oxygen is injected into a cylinder and the piston moves up). In a diesel engine the diesel + oxygen mixture is ignited due to very high pressure in a cylinder when a piston moves up.

- Antti -

 

I would like to sincerely thank all of you very much, as I am very certain I would not be able to sleep tonight if this was not resolved : stoic1, NavarroOne, Bad Debt (By the way nice rims mate ) and Anzafin.


Kind Regards,
Cream Sauce

 

I've read somewhere, that the pre-heating begins when you unlock the car in colder temperatures. Can anyone confirm that?

 

When the pre heating symbol came up, it was actually when I turned on the ignition.

However it may be as you said that it actually happens as soon as you unlock the car.

 

I got this as well this morning - it was literally for a second and I just ignored it as I hasn't come on again.

Good to know what it was for.