2005 545i with about 60K miles on it.

First weird occurrence, the Service Engine Soon light comes on with the message "Increased Emissions". I make an appointment to take it into my mechanic a few days later and everything checks out, the light is reset. 150 miles later I take it in for the state emissions check and it passes.

Second strange occurrence, I get in the car and the sound system is on mute and I can't get it off of mute. I try changing the source, nothing works. The car responds appropriately to voice commands; I just can't get sound from the entertainment selections. Turning the car off and on doesn't help until I wait until the car goes to sleep. Then, the next time I turn it on everything is back to normal.

Third strange occurrence, I get into the car and all of my presets are wiped out. Even after the car has been asleep, same situation. I then go though the process of adding presets for the satellite radio. Turn the car off, come back 45 minutes later and my original presets are back and the ones I just loaded are now gone.

Am I the only one to experience such strange events? Obviously, there is some glitch in the computer but as long as the car eventually "repairs itself" should I be concerned. BTW, I do NOT have an extended warranty.

 

could be the battery. is it the original battery? if it is then chances are it is weak considering the year of your car.

i've heard how a low battery can cause a lot of electrical gremlins in our 5er, so have it checked out.

 

Also check the alternator, as voltage surges could also be causing the electrical problems.

 

+1 it sounds like the battery is failing!

 

I had the dealer replace the battery about a year ago. It was obvious at that time, based on what I have read in the various forums, that it was starting to go bad (the CD changer would always "cycle" when the car was first turned on). I have not experienced that symptom this time.

 

Batteries don't like the TX heat, but it should last longer than that...

 

[QUOTE=Phil75070;1146945]2005 545i with about 60K miles on it.

This happend to me once in my first year of ownership, but has not resurfaced since the car went asleep. Anyway I've read on other post that you can try your 2nd key to reset the sound, then go back to the original key and everything is fine.


Was this with the key you always use? I did this once while using my spare key, which I forgot I was using, and thought all my presets were wipped out. went bck to my normal key and all presets were there.

 

Definitely the same key I always use.

Oh. another strange occurrence that I just remembered, though it occurred over a year ago. The steering wheel did not lower to my set position nor could I adjust either the driver's side nor passenger side front seats. None of the position controls on either side worked. After the car had a chance to go to "sleep", the next time i used it everything was functional. It is like the car "heals itself" after sleeping.

 

Interesting.....my car has a similar glitch, when it goes to sleep it forgets my tone/fader/balance settings and the programmable steering wheel buttons, and if i was last in radio or preset mode. it always defaults back the middle settings on tone/fader/balance and manual radio tuning mode. if i was last listening to a CD, it forgets that as well and defaults back to FM radio manual mode.

i don't have a CD changer, but the CD player cycles constantly if i don't have a CD in it, it sounds like its trying to load a CD, it quits when the car goes to sleep, but starts again as soon as i open the door, hence i always leave in a CD.

i remembers all the radio station presets, seat pos'n, wheel pos'n etc, clock etc.

its a real PITA to have to readjust everything every time i drive the thing.

it might be the battery, but it levels out at 12.2V after a few hours, and the starter spins very well, no hard starts. surely the electronics are ok at that voltage, can't believe that would whack it out. if so..bad design..according to the EE's i work with.

i may try an experiment and put 13.8 volts on the battery with my programmable power supply and let it go to sleep like that, and see what happens.

please let me know what you find out.

 

I had the same muted sound system issue on my 2007 525I. I found that I could easily reproduce the problem if I pressed the lock button on the key chain while the passenger door was open... No sound system after that until the next time the car went to sleep.

I currently have a 2009 528I and that bug has been fixed, though I have found a couple of new ones (for example, when I switch from the CD to radio via the button on the steering wheel, sometimes it goes into ?scan? mode rather than ?preset? mode. I then have to use the I-drive control to go into the radio menu and it switches back to ?preset? mode. Oh well, little issues like this, while annoying, are not surprising given the overall complexity of the system.