lbredefe

Hi everyone,

I know this topic has been brought up extensively online, i am looking for help with what seems to be a unique issue going on.

My car:
MAR 2004 e60 530i with NO navigation, no cd changer, no sat radio.

1) my bmw assist is not working and never was since i bought the car may of 2013 with 83k miles
2) the iDrive was NOT throwing an SOS malfunction warning, and i never thought to test it before buying
3) when I press the sos button, CORRECT GPS coordinates come up on the screen and it says it is making a call but then never connects
4) I have taken it to BMW dealer in rural and in Alexandria Virginia and both have told me when they hooked up to re-initialize the TCU that the TCU gave them NO response and I needed to replace it. rural wanted $1825 plus labor to do it, BMW of Alexandria took my $240 for the test and then wanted an additional $1050 to put the new one in and code it.

5) BOTH times they told me they WOULD not and COULD not code a TCU I took off of another BMW, even though it was working. not only did they say BMW corp wouldnt allow it, they said it COULDNT be done period, by anyone.

6) given the market for these TCU's on ebay, someone out there has got to be able to code a working one into my car.

7) does anyone know of any techs in the NC, DC, VA region that do this?


my wife drives the car and i want her to have bmw assist when needed.

NOTES:

I took the trunk lining out and checked to make sure all cables were properly attached, when i unplugged one, the idrive immediately dinged SOS FAILURE, so i plugged it back in and it went away, i am deducing from this that the MOST loop is still intact.

baveagle

My SOS button was not working and it took 2 TCUs and 10 days at the local BMW center to get it working again. It cost me $1200 including a 20% BMWCCA discount for the TCU. Mine has BT, voice recognition, nav., and sat. radio. The older TCUs are very temperamental and most of the labor is for coding and reprogramming.
I use indies whenever possible, but that particular job I suggest having done by a dealer.

SOS Button gone AWOL - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

lbredefe

Thanks for your reply. I am going to attempt to recruit the help of a tech in my area and code it myself, then reinitialize. then call bmw NA and have it connected to a plan.

baveagle

Do you have an active Assist subscription now? BMW will not even attempt working on your car unless they can verify a valid subscription.

twh

I also seem to remember some SIB that talks about a defective memory chip in some module that would prevent BMW Assist from working. Not sure if that was in the TCU. Could be the problem. The SIB went something like this...if broken and customer has BMW Assist or wants to reactivate BMW Assist, then fix it under warranty....else don't fix it. This car is far out of warranty, but you might want to find that SIB for details.

lbredefe

Thanks for the info, at this point i am interested in someone helping me to code a used working TCU from another car.

I bought the assist sub. but ended up canceling it after BMW could not reactivate the TCU.