Diagnostic check.

studyolic wrote: Beemaboy, No, I have never tried disconnecting the battery, and I do not know if it will delete adaptions; however I respect bmwcare's experience, and believe him when he says it will not help with deleting adaptions.

Studyolic...my question was aimed at anyone in general to finally put this procedure to the test. I do not have an E39, so I cannot test it. I tested it on my E34 and it worked and improved a lot of the car running faults (eg:slight hesitation and high fuel consumption). I tracked this and confirmed it over a 1 week period. BMW assured me that this would do nothing for the car and that I would have to bring it to the dealer and pay him to reset it! This procedure works on an E32 BMW aswell as SHOGUN will confirm, as he originally suggested it!

I never take for gospel what a BMW dealership says anymore and always test or confirm it first ( been parted with too much of my money for stupid little reasons). The other day, when my drivers door key lock was broken into, I booked it into BMW to replace the lock cylinder only to be told that no one there knew how to install such a thing! I then went to another dealership and while I was talking to the guy at the service department, he asked me which door it was that needed the lock cylinder to be replaced. Was it the front or rear!!! How many BMW's do you see driving around with key lock cylinders in the back doors!!! So I now have to pay someone else to do it or do it myself! Not great PR in my opinion from the people who built the damn car. Had enless problems with my E30 aswell at BMW, until I just gave up!

I rest my case!

I also asked if anyone can finally confirm or bust this myth, simply because it is easier in future diagnosis for people on this forum.

BB

Hi did they charge a diagnostics fee for deleting adaptions or was it more..?

studyolic wrote: Andrew, if you're there, I wonder if we should add "delete adaptions on gearbox" to the advice "get your Steptronic serviced"??

Hmm Interesting post and point.  I presume your gearbox still changes as it did before then?  It hasn't been reset, i.e. it was just the engine adaption codes you got reset?  The BMW ECU does both engine and gearbox, other cars there is a separate ECU for the gearbox.

So we need to make sure we get a full diagnostic check done and a complete reset of all fault codes and adaption codes done in the future when we have any form of "issue" with the car .

Andrew

Yes, I thought that fault codes and adaptions would be protected from this
sort of thing. Would be too simple otherwise for uninformed owners to stuff
things up!

I sheepishly told them that I had had a new lambda sensor fitted recently
elsewhere, which had helped but not cured the consumption, and not
helped the performance. I understood that it was necessary to also plug
in the diagnostic socket after fitting any new parts, and delete all engine
and gearbox adaptions (ie adaptions made by the software to try to
compensate for the faulty part). Could they please carry out a diagnostic
check and then delete all engine and gearbox adaptions?   (And I had this
written down on a piece of paper that I gave the service suit). They
seemed to accept that people go to independant engineers sometimes,
and go back to BMW to have something sorted out. It wasn't a problem.
I wonder if disconnecting the battery and touching the leads together
would delete fault codes and adaptions? I have seen this recommended
elsewhere as a "soft" re-set. Haven't tried it myself ever.

Rich, glad to hear it's all sorted

OK, just got the car back. On the commute home I let the consumption
figure run on the OBC (scary on a V8!), and the figures were much
improved over last week. Gave it some welly on the dual carriageway,
and initially it hesitated, accelerating in short bursts. I backed off,
waited until it was all clear around me, and wellied it again. This time it
seemed better, no hesitations, so I'm assuming it's "re-learning" my
driving style?
The BMW guy said everything had been deleted, and they didn't find
anything else on the diagnostic, and that it would take a short period of
driving for the software to adjust. I'll give it to Friday!
On a negative note, got them to do the MOPT as well, found a worn
upper
suspension arm (or something like that) and after replacing that had to
re-set the tracking on the KDS.   £££££££


Driving report to follow!

So I take it that BMW know what they are doing with these deletion of the adoptions?

Hmm interesting to here the outcome.

What about taking the battery out for a week!  Haynes implies that the fault codes will be wiped if you disconnect the battery.  Would that also wipe the adaption codes that the ecu has now got programmed into it?

Andrew (who has a memory of an elephant!)

Andrew,
you have a memory like an elephant! I bought the car just over 2 years
ago, and had the stalling problem from day one if the aircon was off. I
had it into the local BMW dealer for an inspection 2 about 2 years ago,
and they replaced an oxygen sensor at that time. It has run pretty much
faultlessly since, bar the stalling. I just leave the aircon on all the time.
Just recently I noticed a rapid change in fuel consumption (only on the
OBC, not at the pump), and a bit of a hole when flooring it. Otherwise it
starts and runs fine. I've seen other stalling problems fixed by merely
raising the idle speed to about 650 when the aircon is off. (Mine idles at
about 450 with aircon off).   I'll be interested to get to the bottom of this.
Never heard of adaptions before, but it explains why the car was running
pretty much normally except for fuel consumption.
Will keep you posted.

thanks, will do.