JSpira

That was, to borrow from Top Gear, my "reasonably priced car."

Wait until you see the video review of it.

It's pretty funny.

The Infiniti isn't awful but an X3 is much more pleasant to drive.

A Volvo something or other comes tomorrow.

JSpira

Danke (i think)

sixcard

Rudy, what are some reasons the car is prevented from entering the sleeping mode? What should we prevent?

IMO, this issue, like so many others are so common that they should be no mystery to BMW and their service network. Why do we have to do their trouble shooting? As I noted, in my two experiences of this problem it was fixed (at least I have not seen it since) when the dealer service apparently did something. I know they did some program work (updated progman twice).

At any rate my issue is the BMW approach to this. Maybe they have some reason not to be open with these issues, but certainly they would be wise to have all of the service facilities share this info.

Rudy

I don't think there's anything you can do to prevent something like this from happening. Normally, things go to sleep properly and the complex power system of the car works well. I don't think there's any specific "problem" module that consistently fails so in each case the mystery needs to be solved by a combination of examining error logs, testing and troubleshooting based on customer feedback (which is why I said that it's important for the customer to try and help narrow things down by attempting to document the exact conditions leading up to the symptoms.)

In my first case, based on my input, we were able to learn that it was something not sleeping properly. A "normal" customer would have simply complained that comfort access wasn't always working since that was the initial symptom if the car shut down the non-essential functions. That may have pointed the technician toward the CA antenna, etc. but the problem really had nothing to do with CA. Because I was able to see a connection between CA not working and the clock being reset (as well as a few other things), we were able to figure out that it was a sleep issue and not a CA issue. The tech pulled the car's error memory and saw a bunch of faults with the gear selector. The replaced the gear selector and it was fixed the first time.

My second case is different in that the problem only happens if I access the trunk. I think what's happening is that the car is waking up when the trunk is opened but it's not going back to sleep properly unless I open a door after closing the trunk. To me, that should allow the tech to focus on trunk lights, etc. to see what's going on...

The bottom line is that these vehicles are amazingly complex -- it's quite a task to diagnose and repair these seemingly random issues but so far, it does seem as if the technicians, with the support of BMW, are getting to the bottom of them rather well.

sixcard

I agree. I just wish I could understand it better.

HotLap

Nice to know I'm not the only one with these issues...my time and date have had to be reset a couple of times now for no apparant reason, and the 535 generally only sits a day or two at most. Funny thing, the last time I had to reset the time/date, once I reset everything seemed fine. Then the next time I drove the car (from a cold start up) it had adjusted the time date somehow so now it was a day ahead...it had been a day behind when I reset it it earlier, then it somehow jumped a day ahead...I just reset and went about my business - but it is strange behavior!

I've also noticed the Nav screen sometimes is slow to open when I first start the car - stays in the "BMW" logo mode for longer than normal, sometimes the PDC display is buggy, guess the progarmming is like Windows - degrades over time and needs to be reinstalled? I've got to get this car in to the dealer - just that he's 25 miles away and with work travel I don't have the time to be spending at a dealership.

JSpira

I spoke with my SA just now. He was telling me of a similar problem with an M5 where the wiper motor inexplicably tried to drain the battery at night (no, the wipers weren't running).

He didn't think this was lack of use; the car should be able to sit for a few days without a problem. He definitely feels a module is waking up.