Not too long ago we still had to dirty our hands once in a while to look under the hood to check on the engine oil level, power steering fluid level, engine coolant level, auto trans fluid level, condition of the battery, windshield wiper washer fluid, etc, etc. Not anymore, especially with BMWs as we tend to almost totally rely on the electronic sensors built into the car communicated to us thru the i-drive. Initially, I felt kind of strange that there isn't a engine temp gauge or even an oil pressure warning lamp in the instrument cluster. But, now I am happy that I can just drive and trust that the i-drive will do all the checking for me.

Can anymore confirm whether the i-drive can flag low engine coolant level, low trans fluid level, and when there is a malfunction with one of the light bulbs like when it is blown.

Thanks!

 

Hahahhahah thats given that it works...


Gimme a dip stick thank you.

 

I can confirm it tells you about blown bulbs. On my last E60 it even warned a couple of times shortly before the bulb actually failed.

 

Your engine temp gauge is on the rim of your rev counter dial.

Cheers.

 

Not in my LCI! It's stationary at 4550 rpm (520d LCI)

 

This has been debated a bunch before -- the rev counter dial is not a true temperature guage, it's merely an indicator of when the car is warm enough to rev higher. It's also true that it doesn't move on LCI cars. I'm thinking that one of these days a software update may put that feature back but I'm not going to bet on it...

 

+1 I'm planning on keeping my car, so all this electronics makes me
nothing like the old eyeball sensor.

 

It does.... except when it doesn't!

In my experience, sensor failures tend to give false positives rather than false negatives, so I think you are OK.

 

I can confirm that you do get a warning for Low Coolant Level through the system as well, functions fine. Also warns of low oil and low washer fluid...

 

Say what!?

Please tell more, a malfunction or what?

Even better, take a pic!