Hi,

I woke up in a great mood, today, and as soon as I started the E60, I got this greeting: "SOS Call System Malfunction." I searched the forum, but found nothing.

Has anybody experienced this, before? How did you resolve it?

Thank you,

Joe

Joe,

Usually when you get this warning there is a break in the MOST Bus (Fiber optic) system. All of the electronics (CCC computer, TCU, Heads Up Display -if installed-, Audio etc.) are connected in a "daisy chain" by a fiber optic bus. If you break the chain, the devices after the break won't work. More unlikely is the failure of the telematics (TCU) unit itself, but, it could happen :)

Did you recently add a CD Changer or iPod adapter in the glove compartment? :confused:

My experience shows if there is a break in the bus or improper coupling of the CD Changer connector (or iPod adapter if connected instead) the telematics system (phone, SOS-BMW Assist, etc.) is connected after the CD Changer and if there is a break the computer doesn't see the telematics system and gives a warning (personal experience :doh:)

Mind you this is only one (but a very likely) scenario since the MOST bus at this point is one of the areas we owners frequently tamper with if we attempt a DIY CD Changer or iPod adapter. Another weak link is in the trunk if a Satellite Radio is improperly connected to the MOST Bus connector block.

Hope this at least starts to point you in the right direction, if not you may have no choice but to bring it in for service (If you have a good SA maybe he can advise first where to look) :help:

looks like your TCU died or problems with MOST bus. You can just live with it, or if car under warranty go to dealership and they would replace it. They have replaced TCU in my car free of charge when I came to them to just code for the AUX input and coding did not go through because of faulty TCU unit.

Simplify your search. A simple search on "SOS" will yield relevant threads (some links are below). Good luck - let us know how it turns out!

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=19859

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=41518

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=61317

Thank you for the very thorough reply (and thank everyone, also). After a couple of hours, I re-started the car and there is no more message. This is a little worrisome because a couple of weeks earlier I had the audio mute problem that also went away, after parking the car for a few hours. The dealer could not find a fault stored and I am sure, I'll get more of the same, if I go back for this one. I took a picture of the screen for documentation purpose. maybe I'll email it to my SA and see what he says.
I've only owned this CPO for 4 weeks and am debating whether to return iy or not for another car. I have until the 6th, to make the decision.

Thank you,

Joe

Ahhh the dreaded SOS malfunction! Mine does it too....verrrryyy intermittantly so I haven't taken it in to the dealer. I have 40k miles on the odo now, and I have quite a strong feeling that when I hit 50,001 miles and my warranty is up, I'll get "SOS" all the time!!!

Eric

i have the same problem from time to time. Unfortunately im out of the warranty period. I usually restart the idrive by pressing and holding the radio button and the forward and rewind button. This restarts the idrive and the SOS will go away and everything else back to normal.

Latest update: I talked to my SA and he told me to pretty much get used to seeing lots of different one-time warnings from the Idrive. This, according to him, is normal as the Idrive can report upward of 700 problems and that any glitch could cause any of those warnings to pop up only to disappear after shutting down the engine and locking the car for at least 20 minutes. He said that as long as the warnings don't come back after shutting down and there are no driveabilty problems, there is not much they'll be able to do except for wasting my time by bringing the car in and being told that there were no codes stored.

I guess I can live with this, but it is rather sobering. I think I am going to take pictures of these "glitches" and I am going to send them to BMW NA, when I get about 10 of them. What do you think?

Joe

Hey guys so what happened in my 2004 545i is that one day my radio stopped playing. No audio whatsoever. No dings. Not a single sound. What I did was I went to the dealer and got a fiber optic loop and plugged that into my fiber optic plug instead of the amp and nothing happened. I tried plugging it into my Bluetooth module and what do you know?? Everything went back to normal. Everything but the warning about the sos malfunction. Recently I purchased a Bluetooth module on eBay and plugged it in and everything works except there is still an sos malfunction warning. The only reason I bought this stupid thing is because I wanted that warning gone. My car is too old to pair to my iPhone anyway so I didn't care for the Bluetooth module. I just want that stupid warning gone. It makes my baby feel like there's a malfunction with her. Do you guys have any suggestions?? Do I need to get this new Bluetooth module coded?

Try coding your, new to you, module to the car. I have a 05 530i, 1/05 build date and my iPhone has no trouble pairing with the car.