Hi, new member here. Quick question which has pobably been asked before! I have just purchased a 530d tourer privately, the self levelling warning light has come on! My first thoughts were it was something that i did, because the first thing I did when i got it home was wash it properly and i thought i had got any connections wet etc.,the problem occurred later at night when it was freezing cold outside and a quick turn on off of the ignition fixed it, but it occured again. Any ideas?
One more question, is it normal for the air pump/compressor to be running after the vehicle has been turned off?, it sounds like it is purging the air from the system. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated. Apart from that it is pleasure to drive, just worried bout suspension.

Gary

 

Hi Gary, this is a common problem. Search the forum and you'll find lots of info. I have the same problem and acc to dealer it's no major deal in this case since the suspension is functioning. They told me the warning is due to the system taking sligtly too long time to complete the operation for some reason and they recommended me to take a look at the connections/hoses in case there's a small leak and/or dirt in the system.

In worst case you need to replace the pump, which is rather expensive, but hopefully it is "only" a small leak in a hose or something. It also seems this problem is more common in cold weather.

 

Thanks for speedy reply, just annoyed it happened 2days after buying it! I do park on a steep slope so was wondering if this affects it? I will check the hoses and connections when the snow clears here!

Gary

 

My car gave me regular warnings which I could clear by turning the ignition off. After talking to the dealer he decided to renew the compressor and the control unit for the suspension.

It is fairly normal for the compressor to run after you have shut down the engine. This is std. behaviour.

 

We had a similar problem with ours. It was a bad hose which was replaced. I'm getting the error again. Thinking it's the other hose.

 

it has now cleared,but I am sure it will come back. Not sure the freezing weather helped. Snow this morning and the run flat tyre monitor was malfunctioning!!!! whatever next. Funnily enough though I opened the tailgate and looked around the fuses in the back. There was water in the tray above the battery!!!!!

I looked on the net to see if this is common and it looks like it may be caused by either the panoramic sunroof drain hose which runs down their somewhere, or water entering from below. This may be causing some of the electrical gremlins.

Only had the car less than a week and I thought my bmw X3 was poorly built!!!!

 

What makes you think the tire monitor is malfunctioning? I have noticed that, in extremely cold weather (for here), the RFT monitor will go off because of the shrinkage caused by the cold.

 

The tyre pressure system monitors rotational speed of all four wheels to determine if one or more of the wheels is significantly different than the others. Any differences outside set parameters which trigger the system. I went to work with the back wheels mainly spinning because of the snow/ice, i think this triggered the system. Not so much as a malfunction more a very sensitive system. I had to reset the system once stationary and the ecu reset the fault.

I doubt shrinkage will trigger the system because all wheels will be the same temperature give or take a afew degrees.

autobox rear drive not the best in the snow,but good fun!!!!!

 

Well i have similar problem, but I'm replacing hole system with coil overs Pics later.