I, too, am mystified by the key/seat/mirror/etc. settings memory. I am the only driver (my wife did drive it once last Monday and we encountered the SZL deal), so I just leave things as they are. I have tried setting my seat and mirror positions into memory and have never succeded. I think I figured out what I am doing incorrectly. I press the M button and wait for the red LED to come on then, while holding the M button in , I press the "1" button. I think I should be pressing the M button, wait for the red LED, release the M button and press button "1' or "2'. I just have not tried it yet.

Since my SZL fix and CIP upgrade to Ver. 22.0 this past week, I now have to go into iDrive and re-personalize radio presets, rearview mirror tilt down in reverse and such. Again, I just have not gotten around to doing it.

I will explore the key issue a bit, ZNOD, and see what I find. My second key has been in my bureau drawer since I brought the car home in for the first time December .

 

Thanks much E60VTA. We have tried pressing M, holding til the LED comes on, and pressing the number button both (a) having released M and (b) having not released M. As I recall, the first way was mentioned by our SA. And, the first method is the way the manual says, for example, to set the seat seatings. I would think that setting the seat settings, for example, would also set the settings for the key being used at the same time. I am looking forward to what you find out. Also, my recollection is that one should use his/her "spare" key or else it will discharge and die for good. I might be remembering wrong here.

And, if you really are up for a challenge. How about figuring out a way to clone the settings for key 1 to key 2? If we could do so, then we wouldn't have to reset all our settings to use key 2 sometimes to keep it charged. I don't think that cloning is possible, however.

 

I had an extremely knowledgable and cooperative SA this past week in dealing with my SZL issue and installing my M Aero Tech Kit. I will talk with him some time this week and see what he can offer. Will let you know if I find out anything useful (or not).

We have had several days of your "monsoon" humidity and heat. Living right on the coast this is very unusual and not at all appreciated. We are hoping that weather systems will begin to move east again soon and get us back to our normal westerly cooling sea breeze every afternoon. Tonight's weather forecast on local TV was not all that hopeful that this will happen anytime soon, except for a slight moderation in temps for a day or two. I don't know how you stand it in Phoenix. I lived in the Philadelphia area for 25 years and this high humidity and heat brings back many unpleasant summer weather related memories. I don't miss the winters either.

 

Thanks much. My son and daughter both are on or near the coast. They have been suffering too. Boy, if we think global warning is bad now, just wait. Ugh!

 

E60VTA. if you wanna set up the seat memory...all you have to do is press it once "quick tap". and then it should light up. now when the light is on. press on the memory you want to store. 1 or 2... light should go off indicating stored memory...
thats it..
im not sure about the 5x and older cars. as i have never seen my friends e46 work althought i know its got it..
this has always worked for me..just make sure you have the setup you want from the idrive then try it..
get both keys...
unlock the car with key 1 and put it in the ignition and switch it on, change the seat location. now remove the key 1 from the ignition, lock the car. and now unlock the car with key 2 and put it in the ignition, now if by the time the iginition is on and the seat has not moved, something is wrong....

 

Thanks for the explanations, I will give them a try. These concise explanations are much clearer than those in the manual.

 

Right, that's our problem. The settings fail to change after they are saved to our keys. It works for awhile and then either quits working altogether or works only occassionally or incompletely. Do you ever have this problem.

 

never had this problem...and i have no idea what could cause it..although i know you tried but check your idrive settings once again...
do you use the both keys often atleast once a month.perhaps the keys are getting discharged and loosing there settings...although i doubt that...
if you really feel you have a problem with the keys my suggestion is you check them one more time, the same key memory is used to store the idrive settings and radio settings including chanels even volume..
switch the car on with key 1 put the radio a specific chanel, put key 2 in, put radio on another chanel...now back to key 1. if the chanels changes then your keys are working properly. if they dont.. then you have a key problem dealer time, probably just reprograming the keys..
if the radio memory works the problem is somewhere else not the keys.....

 

Thanks madoon. Yes, we have been through all of that and to the dealer too. They fix it by "zapping" the system, but the problem comes back very soon. It's not a big deal although I drive my wife's car with frequency. Still, I'd like to be able to depend on the keys working when I want them to. Thanks again.

 

I also have this problem and am convinced that some kind of static discharge is occasionally happening that erases the key settings.

Also, I think some people misunderstand that the key simply moves the settings back to the same settings the car was locked with (using that key), not one of the actual memory settings. Of course, for most of us, one of the memory settings IS how we left the car when it was locked with the key, so they usually are the same setting anyway. However, at least if your settings are saved to a memory location (1 or 2) and the key fails, you can reset everything, lock the car and you're back in business.