ABC/ASC/DSC lights on due to bad tires/wheel not centered?

[croat]

Couple weeks ago I put winter tires on. Rear ones I purchased new and front ones came with the car when I bought it this past August. Shop told me that tires are pretty bad. They have the thread but just told me that they're old and should be replaced. Anyways, they make a lot of noise and make my steering wheel shake. I ordered replacements and will be here next week.

With that being said, this past Wed I was driving on highway and ABS/ASC/DSC lights came on for a split second then went off. On late Friday they came on again but this time it didn't go off. I was driving at highway speeds again. I drove the car for 10 mins, then shut it off for 4 hours. Came back to it, lights were still on but after few mins of driving they went out. After I got my destination, I notice that left tire developed a bubble

This morning lights came on again. I read out the codes with Carsoft and here's what I got


Could this be caused by bad tires that make my steering wheel shake like crazy? Also noticed that ever since I put these tires, my steering wheel isn't fully centered

Thanks

[rf900rkw]

An out-of-round tire can drive the ABS computer bonkers, yes. I's park the car until the new tires are on, then see what happens.

[Qsilver7]

And you may want to consider including details...lie the size of the wheels/tires when asking questions if they may have caused an issue. Just stating that you have "old" wheels/tires and "new" wheels/tires...does not provide enough details/information for us to make good suggestions."

Giving details like my old 8"x17" wheels with 235/45/17 tires where fine but the new tires (255/45/18) on 9.5"x18" wheels make my traction control lights go off...would indicate that the problem lies in the new tires...they would be TOO big...the diameter/circumference difference is greater than 3% which would send ASC+T/DSC into a tail spin.

[m5hoot]

All of the issues you have already identified are ones that need to be looked at. However, I have a fair amount of experience with Carsoft software and the ABS error. I believe you will find in the end that you can ignore any reference to inlet pressures etc. You need to center your wheel if it is not and then have your steer angle sensor "zeroed" after that. This is accomplished with software you do not likely possess. The ABS system gets an input from the steer angle sensor. The steer angle sensor must get a very close voltage variation lock to lock steering wheel full left and full right. If it is seeing a "bias" now in one direction, it will set ABS fault. You do not want to balance the steer angle sensor's output if the alignment and steering wheel centering is not "right on". You may still get an error after all this, but Mark (EAC Mark) and I just went through all this with a customer's car. We replaced his bad ABS module and still had to have the steer angle sensor output balanced. This will be a process of elimination and one you will not want to skip steps in addressing. Get your tires and steering/alignment RIGHT and then go from there. The steer angle error may go away by itself once that is right, but don't count on it. Once set, it generally needs to be cleared.

[croat]

Sorry for not including size of tires. I am aware of tire sizes needing to match and how more than 3% diff affects computer

Rear tires are 225/45/17 and front ones are 235/45/17. The difference is 1.5%, so that should be fine. The issue started after my tire developed a bulge and caused my steering wheel to shake.

I just put on the spare and will see what happens. I'll update tonight.

Thanks for everybody's comments. Much appreciated

UPDATE:

I took my car out to go to friend's BBQ and noticed that my steering wheel is straight. It must have been bad tire causing car to pull bit to the left which made me turn wheel to the right to couter act. Shortly after I realized that my speedo wasn't working!

Got to his house and unplugged battery. Two hours after I plug it back and speedo is still out

I read out code and it says

30 Left rear wheel speed sensor cable

The other codes are gone

So I take it I need to check cabling from driver's side rear wheel going to car chassis or sensor is shot since initial scan showed sensor as being faulty?

[m5hoot]

Why are you running a wider tire in front than on the back? Yes, difference is slight, but just asking. You can swap your rear wheel speed sensors r to l and l to r. You should not swap back to fronts. Fronts are inter-changeable and backs are interchangeable. Not a bad idea to inspect sensor pigtails and check/clean connection inside boxes where pigtail of sensor meets cable leading to module. You can remove both rear sensors and clean and swap side to side and see if your code moves to the right side. Carsoft is notorious for getting the ill sensor wrong. Test the sensors with a VOM if you can before replacing. Carsoft can not tell a bad sensor from a bad module. You have a lot of reading to get. use search function and do same on bimmerfest.

[croat]

I ordered 225's by mistake. Never thought twice that 5 series had 235's...

Ok, I'll try swapping sensors after I play around with INPA. I just got it installed.

I've used Carsoft in past to diagnose same issue on dad's ML320 and it pointed me in right direction but yeah, I know it's bit fleaky.

Thanks again for all help and yes I did find the thread on Bimmerfest with detailed info on troubleshooting ABS unit ( http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...1&postcount=48 )

[jnyost]

Don't waste your time troubleshooting until you fix your tire issue. Then proceed from there.

[croat]

Tires will be on this coming Saturday but I don't think that's the problem anymore

So far I've noticed that following doesn't work
a) ABS
b) DSC
c) MPG gauge
d) Speedo
e) Odometer

I tried to get INPA working last night but for some reason Carsoft wouldn't talk to DME (need to establish connection with DME first to get INPA working with Carsoft cables). It however did talk to ABS module and once again it read out 30 Left rear wheel speed sensor cable

Gonna play around more with INPA today

[boondocksaint]

If the Odometer is not working, stop driving the car. If you continue to rack up miles, you'll get the "fraud bug" in the odometer window. I don't know the number of miles it takes to throw the fault, but it isn't terribly many.

[m5hoot]

If the Odometer is not working, stop driving the car. If you continue to rack up miles, you'll get the "fraud bug" in the odometer window. I don't know the number of miles it takes to throw the fault, but it isn't terribly many.

This is not a true statement. You can remove the ABS module completely where your speedo, odometer, etc. don't work at all and put a thosands miles on the car and the tamper light will not set under these conditions.

[croat]

^ That's what I was thinking too. I've already put tons of km's and no tamper dot.

Anyways, did some testing tonight.
I unhooked the rear left wheel speed sensor at the wheel well area and tested using digital multimeter in diode setting. Got constant 1.75v either way. I dont think its OK to show same when I swap prongs?? I made sure connector is properly seated once I reconnected everything

I also got INPA working but after I cleared the codes with Carsoft. It's snowing out so didn't bother going for test drive yet and don't know if anything has changed.

I did scan steering angle sensor with INPA and found tons of errors. I cleared them.

If the lights come back on, I'll scan with INPA and see what it reports. If it reports something similar to what Carsoft did, I will then test wiring from under the hood to the sensor to see I'll see 1.4-1.8Vs

[m5hoot]

You are one of the few people who has follow my advice and that of many others and checked your speed sensor disconnected from the module correctly and got the correct reading...except your diode is shorted and acting like a wire rather than a semiconductor that passes current in only one direction! Good job! You can rest assured that your approx. $70 will not be spent in vain.

It is very difficult to get your test leads down and into the pigtail connector on the sensor itself. I tested first at the module connector and once I confirmed I had a bad sensor, I took the dremel tool and cut down the blue plastic connector barrel such that I could get the VOM leads into the connector solid without fear of shorting. I realize that you are essentially ruining the sensor barrel connector, but just wanted to make sure. If you found your sensor to somehow be good, you would still be able to plug the two halves together and then just use electrical tape to make the connection viable. I bought from Autohaus or EAC. Both have good pricing. G/L

[croat]

m5hoot, thanks for the positive feedback. It really feels great when I do something on my own as I get a satisfaction from it, plus I save money.

So it's the sensor then. I read out code with INPA and says pretty much same thing as Carsoft, except talks about open circuit



I am still gonna unplug connector from ABS unit and test from there to be sure plus done one more test at the sensor itself, but I do clearly remember seeing my multimeter showing similar values (start at 14xx and would go up to 17xx) in both directions.

I actually came up with a very neat idea to get connection in the sensor connector. I took 2 pieces of 3" long 20g wire and made a little loop at the very end of each. Size of loop just big enough to slide on the connector, but not loose. Took couple trials but once I got the size of loop perfected, it slid on the connector with bit of force and it stayed there.

As for the sensor itself, I've already checked out AutoHausAZ as I order parts from them all the time. I've also seen some for like 30 from www.autopartswarehouse.com. I am talking about AutoTrust and Replacement brands that they carry.

Should I stay avay from those? I know some BMW sensors just have to be OEM, like crank/cam shaft but how about wheelspeed ones?

One more time thanks to everybody

[croat]

Update to my situation:

I ordered rear left speed sensor and while waiting for it to come in, it got pretty cold around here. Also my lights went out completely. So I drove like that for over a month. Now recently it warmed up again and the lights came on again.

Now what I noticed this time around is that at first, lights wouldn't be on when when I first start the car but would come on shortly after. Then I shut off the car and turn it back on, lights would be out but come on again shortly after. Also while they weren't on, whenever I would break, I could feel the brake pedal pulsating, but tires weren't losing traction at all. This was happening at low speeds on dry pavement. So something is causing ABS to freak out for no reason.

Anyways, I scanned DSC module with INPA and got following


Rear left speed sensor is being mentioned again but it's different this time.
Also now front right sensor is mentioned.

Do you guys think it's my DSC module or it's really sensors? I haven't tested front right sensor yet with Multimeter.

[Aussie528iT]

You can see the output of the ABS sensors by turning each wheel in turn with the car jacked up.
You need to go to another INPA display.
Press F10 to back out of the error display and back to the main ASC/DSC menu.
This will give you options to select analogue or digital outputs and from these you can see live data.
One of these options has a speed display for each wheel sensor. (I can't remember which one - probably analogue)
Spin each wheel in turn and see which sensor is giving no output or an output different from the other sensors.
The LH rear sensor supplies the speedo etc via the ABS module and CAN bus.

Hope this helps
RonR
99 528iT M52TU

[croat]

You can see the output of the ABS sensors by turning each wheel in turn with the car jacked up.
You need to go to another INPA display.
Press F10 to back out of the error display and back to the main ASC/DSC menu.
This will give you options to select analogue or digital outputs and from these you can see live data.
One of these options has a speed display for each wheel sensor. (I can't remember which one - probably analogue)
Spin each wheel in turn and see which sensor is giving no output or an output different from the other sensors.
The LH rear sensor supplies the speedo etc via the ABS module and CAN bus.

Hope this helps
RonR
99 528iT M52TU

Thats a very good idea!! My speedo is dead and I already had code for it before, but I'll give that a try and update tomorrow

EDIT: Another thing. If I reset the lights and drive in reverse, lights dont come back. And one more, this morning it was really cold and guess what, speedo started to work again...