mubeenkhan

Hello all,

Wanted to share my experiences related to resolving the active steering fault on my 2005 545i after changing a dead battery with a new one. Hopefully it will help out somebody who is experiencing similar issues.

The battery on my car died some time ago, probably due to a combination of heat and the hood switch on the car going bad(caused the alarm to trigger multiple times when parked). The battery was dead to the extent that not even the light on the dash would come on when trying to start the car. I found an exact replacement for the battery (Duralast Gold/Battery 95R-DLG; $179 at Autozone) spec for spec and simply swapped out the dead battery. My car had the original white Exide battery from the dealer. Dealer does not sell that battery any more, instead they recommend the newer AGM batteries, which for the 2005 545i model require an extensive firmware upgrade. I found the following battery replacement threads quite informative.

Battery Replacement in BMW E60 5 series ? DIY
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=598611

Exact Battery Replacement for BMW OEM Battery
https://5series.net/forums/topic/117...w-oem-battery/

After the battery swap I got the active steering fault which was expected. The problem started when my repeated attempts to recalibrate the active steering (steering left-right-center) failed at resolving the issue. The active steering fault dash indicator would go away but the steering would always come back off-center (~20 degrees to the left in my case) and then the fault would return after only 10-15minutes of driving. In my case it would always happen when turning in direction of where the steering was leaning. I tried resetting/recalibrating the steering several times(6-7) to no avail. One observation was that the steering developed a tendency to occasionally make suppressed thunking noses when turning, a very disconcerting experience I assure you. In the end I was afraid that my repeated attempts may begin to stress the high pressure power steering hoses and decided to seek professional advice.

I looked for quite some time on the various forums, there were several recommendations by various members that made sense but unfortunately I was unable to make any of them work in my case. To add to my anxiety I saw several people idly speculating (very annoying) that the issue may have to do with some problem in the steering rack, steering angle sensor, steering wheel bearings etc. After extensive research (much thanks to all the forum community) I followed the following approach which seems to have resolved the issue.

(1) Register the new battery with the power module in the computer. In my opinion (as an engineer) this step may contribute to the long term well being of the car. Some people may suggest that this will only affect the life of the battery, but in my opinion it may affect the life of the alternator as well. This is a minor step and a lot of people do it themselves as well (refer to www.bmwcoding.com). After replacing the battery, battery replacement has to be registered in the power module. The following are people?s opinions from other forums/threads that I found useful:
a. Newer bmw's can experience battery draw issues. usually after battery replacement the active steering has to be re-aligned. you can try turning the steering wheel lock to lock to see if that solves your problem (usually only works on older cars) if you can find a shop that has a GT1 (bmw's older diagnostic equipment) they should be able to reset the light. At the same time if the vehicle has a battery draw and the power module is disconnecting the battery when the charge level gets low, that is your root problem and you will end up with an active steering fault over and over.
b. If your replacement battery is an in-kind replacement, i.e., identical to the original battery, then all you need to do is register. However, if the battery type (AGM, SLAB, etc.) or rating (70AH, 80AH, 90AH, 720 CCA, 900 CCA, etc.) is different, then you will need to program the car with the correct type and rating and then register the new battery.
c. Just about any module you replace on a BMW has to be programmed and coded to the vehicle, enabling it on the Vehicle's "Network". To replace and program you need BMW DIS/SSS. SSS also known as Progman. I've seen similar issues recently and have traced them all back to energy management issues. Meaning one of the modules on the car somewhere is not doing what it is supposed to do to make sure other modules go to sleep and wake up at the right moment. Usually has been resolved by doing a simple software update on the affected module. There are service bulletins, many of them stating the symptoms you have, that refer back to the KGM or KBM modules. Symptoms being drained battery, Active Steering light on, or Traction light on. Codes will usually indicate repeated loss of steering angle due to low voltage. Replacing the battery or Active Steering module will not fix this issue.

(2) Check for faults related to active steering in the computer. I took my car to a local BMW/Mercedes specialist who came highly recommended, when they ran the diagnostics on the system, they saw several faults logged in the computer. The shop indicated that there were 10s of faults related to steering logged in the system(these faults do not cause the CEL/SES to trigger from what I understand). Shop indicated that the faults resulted from the battery swap. Supposedly the car needs to be hooked up to an auxiliary power supply during the battery swap process so that the car retains its settings for the various electrical components. Note that my car had no CEL/SES faults in the system prior to battery failure. The shop indicated that these faults were preventing the active steering from recalibrating properly and had to be cleared before first.

(3) Once the steering related faults had been cleared from the system, recalibration of the active steering was successful. The steering also came back dead center after the whole procedure. I have driven the car ~250 miles since then without the fault returning, which was not the case before. The occasional suppressed thunking noises when turning that I mentioned above have also gone away since then. Hopefully the issue has been fixed for good.

(4) The entire procedure enumerated above, performed by the independent specialist that I mentioned cost $54, out the door. I live in Phoenix and this gentlemen(Michael Schulte) that I refer to came highly recommended. The name of the shop is Schulte Automotive (4622 N. 7th Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85013). They supposedly deal with BMW/Mercedes only. He seemed quite knowledgeable and very personable. My experience was quite positive.

AchtungE60

Thank you for the informative post. You do realize that most of us are not new to the BMW world and many of us have had our E60's since the very first month they were designed right? So all of what you're saying above is useful but also redundant, as all of the information is already on the site. Had you searched, you probably would have figured that out. If you replace the battery, just let the vehicle sleep and wake up. I can guarantee you that in 24 hours your car will not have that fault if it wasn't there prior to changing the battery and nothing else changed.

mubeenkhan

This is precisely why I felt it necessary to post all the information that I did. All the information that is available on this forum and multiple others did not work in my case. This includes trying what you have suggested above, more than once. There are several other things that I tried as well(very plausible solutions mind you) which did not work, other people may not find them interesting (although I would have).

ra0

Thanks for posting it the info might be spread out all over this site and hard to find. it's helpful to me.

ulflun

Thanks mubeenkhan. I have the exact symptoms you described, with the weird noise and Active Steering fault message.

However, it has not happened due to a recent battery swap. I just bought the car, and according to the previous owner it just "appeared". The battery has not failed, but I can not say anything about the battery health (since I've owned the car a couple of hours so far). Do you think it can be due to a bad failing battery? All there is, I have found a receipt for a "new battery" from a car desmantling store and an additional swap cost (at some random dealer, it seems) from 2014. Do you know if it possible to see when the battery was programmed? (INPA diagnostics etc). The owner did not know if the battery was swapped or not. Probably not. Do you think it can be the battery starting to fail? Since I don't know how old the battery really is, it seems to be a used one, and how the swap was done/programmed. Should I buy a whole new battery (with new specs/better rating) and let it be programmed accordingly and at the same time clear out the fail messages and hope for the best? Or should I run diagnostics first and look if the Steering ecu has been water damaged etc as some say is common. The previous owner had it checked and the retailer told her to replace the ECU for 2000$. Do you know if the diagnostics could talk to your steering ecu/did it respond? Even if the fault message appeared.

airmechanical_11

If you have not resolved your issue, please have your battery check by an Indy shop to make sure it is in good working order and do not have fault codes stored. If all is good, check and clean the steering sensor, which is located in the steering column, I found what look like plastic shavings, wiped it clean with Isopropyl Alcohol and reinstalled, and no more fault. There is a video on Youtube, search for "2007 Bmw 525i steering angle sensor cleaning" by Robert Amat, there are five short videos, which has great instruction (but you will need a T-8 torx driver with the other tools in the video, which is not mentioned in the video), and the job is fairly simple, about an hour (impact wrench would make the job easy to remove the steering wheel, but not necessary). I did this job last night, it saved me just under $USD1000. Good luck!

Thuan

E60Japanese

I have had the same problem in the past
It was nothing to do with a problem in the steering but I simply had to reset everything.

I bought this tool which allows me to register a new battery and reset the steering angle in the car

It's simple and easy

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F292566141926