BimmerFan52

They can just hook up the battery tester to the jumper connector and ground lug under the hood.

The alternator swap is not a particularly hard DIY but just a lot of crap to remove to get to it. All of the intake ducting, fan shroud and fan and of course serpentine belt. Sort of working blind too, and lining up the alternator to bolt it in is a PITA.

How old are your water pump and thermostat? After all the crap is removed to get to the alternator the only thing left to take off is the harmonic balancer (crank shaft pulley) and then the water pump is ready to come off. I did the water pump, thermostat, vent tube and both belts when I did the alternator and it only added about 45 minutes to the alternator job.

That cooling system is a time bomb in the 545i, and one of the things that if you get caught in the wrong place and can't turn the engine off quickly can do some serious gasket damage. And the N62B44 needs no help towards leaking gaskets. It does just fine on its own.

devildawg712

Ah ok. sounds good. Yea, I've been counting down the days till I fall victim to the "i have to replace my water pump and thermostat."


Damn.. This entire job is making me think it's gunna run near a G. Ahhh the joys of owning a BMW =). Money well spent to me tho. I'd rather take care of it now rather than cry about not having done it later.

Welp. time to start looking for parts.

F-Tar

Yup, that was what i described. No need for correction. I'm not arguing, im just making sure. Cus as said, from what i was reading you manipulated the battery replacement. And that is what i call.. Incomplete coding i got a little scared actually. But now i know you didn't and thats cool.

Why u being such a wise guy? I'm trying to prove that there was nothing wrong with the battery replacement, that could cause these issues.


Yes, some guys out there appriciate some help, all can make misstakes. I don't blame you for anything. Now i agree that there was nothing wrong with the coding, and so on. Why cant you just agree that i doublechecked cus when i read ur text i got a little carried away. The whole thing was unclear.

devildawg712

quick update:

My new alternator will be arriving tomorrow and will be replacing it probably Wednesday this week.

As far as the errors go..Well, everything has remained constant in terms of the power dipping down to 11.5ish as the motor cranks over and takes about 10-12 seconds to make it's way up to 13V.

I still haven't been able to correlate a spike or drop in voltage at the time my DTC error pops up as the voltage remains steady at 13.9-14.1V throughout my drive.

HOWEVER, I think I was jinxed by BALBS as my my active steering error, for the first time, popped up before my DTC error does, which has never happened before. This happened to me yesterday after 3 short drives (less than 10 miles) I think the steering wheel sensor he mentioned might need a cleaning as the error popped up again on each separate occasion.

I'm crossing my fingers that the new alternator will solve all these electrical headache's but who knows. I'll be back with my findings once the alternator is replaced.


For those of you who have swapped or cleaned out your steering wheel angle sensor; How long did it take you? I'm pretty decent with tools and have taken my steering wheel apart to the point where I mess with the airbag, but I've never taken off the entire wheel without the help of my Indy, so I'm just trying to gauge if I'm better off having a pro take care of that, should it be necessary. Thanks again fellas.

Steering angle sensor DIY fix - it worked - BMW M5 Forum and M6 Forums

balbs

I can't take all the credit. Miani mentioned the SZL first. I hope you get everything sorted out soon though.

devildawg712

welp, took the steering wheel apart as well as the column. Pretty simple and straight forward. Unfortunately, the cleaning didnt help. Story of my life.

after I put the car back together I came back and took it apart another time as I refused to be defeated and wanted to give it one more shot. NOPE. LOL… Ah well. I'll take care of that later. From what I've read, (unless someone knows otherwise), the failure to the steering angle sensor is most a nuisance and throws off the error at worst.

Thanks for the help. Maybe I'll try one more time later down the road.

My steering column and setup on my 04 545 is slightly different from the setup provided in the several pictures throughout the DIY on M5board, but I managed to figure it out.

devildawg712

Hey folks, are there any recommendations out there where I can get the SZL *steering angle sensor new?

I've looked online (Ebay) and it seems that all e60s regardless of model are interchangeable. Thanks in advance.

DD

devildawg712

quick update,

I've tinkered with the SZL for about 2 weeks now and I literally can take apart the damn steering column and the SZL unit with my eyes closed. LOL.

I went ahead and changed my alternator anyways and found the old one to be dunzo after getting it tested at 2 different O'reillys so at least that wasn't money wasted as it that alternator had 105k on it already.

My first attempt to get this damn Active Steering issue solved was by purchasing a used SZL unit off ebay from a wrecked car. I installed it flawlessly and all my steering wheel functions worked including tilt and radio but somehow lost my heated steering wheel function. The following day I tried to have Simon program the SZL but ran into a screeching halt cuz Simon wasn't able to talk to the unit. Most likely it was because it was from another vehicle and the VINS weren't syncing. Not absolutely certain about that but that was the only correlation I could come up with. I ended up returning that unit and got a full refund.

My second stab at it this time is by purchasing an entirely new unit. I bought it from an ebay vendor, but this time it's brand new. I'm thinking I'll still give it a stab with Simon to try and get this damn thing coded, but if that fails I'll take it to the steeler and have them sort it out. Bastards.
** I've got a couple buddies who work at the dealership but I'm sure if it becomes necessary for me to have them do special work on it my hook will be pretty much useless.


For what it's worth my car runs perfectly. I'm still not absolutely certain that this error message goes beyond just a "message" as even though the active steering fault shows up after a bit of driving it's pretty damn obvious that my power steering is still working in full effect. However, when the DTC error goes off I obviously feel that extra pep in the car. I didnt know DTC was linked to the steering/ SZL but I guess so.

Once the parts come in and I get a chance to link up with Simon I'll update the thread with my findings.
I hope these updates help anybody currently going through the same issue or will in the future.

I absolutely friggin hate seeing that damn exclamation point in the cluster!!!

devildawg712

Welp. All has been resolved. I was afraid that I may have replaced the SZL when something else might be the causing the active Steering and DTC error codes, but after replacing the unit and getting it coded I have been error free for a couple days now. Whew.

unfortunately that laundry list of coding I did to the car had to get deleted in order to code and calibrate the SZL to my car, but thanks to Simon I was able to get all that taken care of. Always can count on Boss Cat to take care of me. He even took it upon himself to crack open my headlight because one of the LEDS in the fins didnt seem right. All is well now and it feels soooooooo damn good to have ZERO error messages on the Idrive. WOOHOO.

GL to anybody else who may be having this issue.