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Thread: New F10 Owner Questions

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
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    milton-freewater, oregon
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    1996 740iL

    New F10 Owner Questions

    Hello. I just picked up a low miles, nicely loaded, 2011 535i xDrive yesterday and I have some questions that the user's manual hasn't been very helpful in resolving. I'm hoping that I can find some answers here:


    1. It seems to take 2 presses of the start/stop button to shut down and turn everything off. The first button press shuts off the engine but leaves the radio, nav screen, etc., running. The second button press shuts off the radio, nav., etc. At first I thought that it was just leaving those electrical devices on until I opened the door, but I can open the door and walk away and they stay on. This seems strange?
    2. When the headlights turn on they "dip down" and then come back up. Looks really cool, but seems odd. Is this just a "gee whiz, look at me" thing? Or is there something deeper that I should know about it?
    3. The car appears to have 4 headlamps, 2 on each side. However, only the outermost lamp on each side seems to actually put out light. I thought the inside lamp would be the high beam, but the outside lamp seems to provide both low and high beam function. And the fog lamps are separate lamps located in a different area. What's the deal with the inside lamps? I should note that the "angel eyes" rings illuminate on all 4 of the lamps.
    4. When I add a radio station to the presets it captures whatever happens to be displayed on the screen for that radio station at the time and makes it the label for that preset. In some cases, it is displaying the station's call letters, so that is ok. But in most cases it is displaying the title of the song that is being played and/or the artist, so I come up with some funky (and inaccurate) preset labels. Is there a way to edit the labels on the presets? I can see in i-Drive where I can delete them, but not how to edit/change the text.
    5. I can't figure out how to assign a seat memory position to a remote control. I would like to have my remote activate my stored memory position when I unlock the car with my remote and my wife's remote activate her stored memory position. The manual says "The driver's seat, exterior mirror, and steering wheel position selected last is stored for the currently used remote control". That seems to be telling me that if I have my remote in the car and press memory button 1 on the door, it will store that for my remote. I would then remove my remote from the car, get my wife's remote, press memory button 2 on the door, and it would store it for her remote. I would have then guessed that if I unlock the doors with my remote the seats would automatically go to memory position 1. And if I unloced the doors with my wife's remote the seats would automatically go to memory position 2. But it is definitely not working that way. Anybody know how to assign the memory positions to the remotes?
    6. I have paired 2 cell phones - one for me and one for my wife. I don't see a way to indicate which should have priority. All I can see is how you can manually select one of the paired devices to be the "connected" device. On my truck I can indicate, for example, that if my phone is present, it should be the connected phone.


    Thanks, in advance, for any insights on these questions!
    Last edited by fisher99; 09-08-2016 at 08:03 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    milton-freewater, oregon
    Posts
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    My Cars
    1996 740iL
    Haven't heard from anybody on this, but after playing with the new car a bit more I have decided that in my question #1, that's just the way it is. Takes 2 presses to fully shut everything down, which seems VERY strange to me. That's certainly not how it works in my Ram truck with push button start/stop.

    As for #2, I'm guessing it's just a "gee whiz" thing.

    As for #3, I'm still stumped as to why I seem to have 4 headlamps when only 2 of them actually do anything.

    As for #4, I seem to be stuck with whatever the radio captures as the text. Kind of annoying.

    As for #5, I've tried what it says in the manual and I've tried methods that I have found in Internet searches, but so far I have had zero success in getting the seat memories linked to the remotes. I have to say that BMW has the strangest and most obtuse method for doing this than in any car I've dealt with. It is FAR EASIER in my Ram truck than on this BMW. Guess I'll save his one for my first trip to the BMW dealer, and have someone there help me with it.

    As for #6, it looks to me like I'm stuck with manually switching between the phones, which kind of stinks. BMW seems to be way behind the curve on this too. This is a beautiful car, and I love it, but the Japanese, and even the American's, seem to be way ahead of BMW on the electronics front.

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    milton-freewater, oregon
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    1996 740iL
    Well, I'm slowing figuring this out, although it's not because I'm finding the manual helpful.

    As for #2, I am told that these HID headlights are self leveling, so that's why they dip and then raise back up when turned on.

    As for #3, the inner most head lamps are "turn lamps", that only come on when you are turning the steering wheel. This is actually pretty cool.

    As for #6, it does seem to switch to my phone if I'm the only one in the car, or my wife's if she is the only one in the car. But if we are both in the car, it latches onto whichever one it was connected to last. And if a call comes in on the other phone you can't access it via the hands free system unless you manually use i-drive to switch to the other phone. In other vehicles I've seen you can set which phone is the priority, so if both phones are present it selects the priority phone, but if a call comes in on the other phone it will switch to it for the duration of that call.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Munich
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    1
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    2013 530dT
    For the phones, set one as "additional phone" - it's in the settings. Then when both are in the car, the main one gets priority.

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    1996 740iL
    My 2011 doesn't seem to have that option. I select "Add Phone" and it goes through the pairing procedure. Once it pairs the only option I have is to tell it whether to sync telephone, audio, or both.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Ok, I just downloaded and installed the latest update from BMW and I now have the "Additional Telephone" option. I test this out and see how it works. Thanks for the suggestion!

  6. #6
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    milton-freewater, oregon
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    1996 740iL
    Well, that gets me part way there. After I updated the software in the BMW, the "Additional Phone" selection was there. I selected my wife's phone in iDrive and changed it from "Telephone" to "Additional Phone". Sure enough, if my phone isn't present, her phone connects to the car. If my phone becomes present, it connects. So far so good. However.... When her phone connects it does not load her "phone book". If you go to "phone book" when her phone is connected (and mine is not present) it simply says "a bluetooth connection could not be made to a paired phone". But it is obviously connected, because if you call her phone you can answer it via the car's bluetooth system.

    If I leave both as "telephone" I have to manually switch between them, but then it does load the proper phone book for the connected phone. If I make my wife's phone the "additional phone", instead of "telephone", it does seem to switch automatically between them, while making mine the primary, which is what I want, but it does not load my wife's phone book when her phone becomes the active phone (mine is not present). Is this normal behavior?

    - - - Updated - - -

    Still not having success in syncing the memory settings 1 and 2, to the 2 remotes. I watched a BMW video online and it seems simple.

    1. Make sure that "remember last seat position" is turned on in the iDrive settings.
    2. Set the seat and mirror positions for driver 1, and then on keyfob #1 press lock and then unlock.
    3. Set the seat and mirror positions for driver 2, and then on keyfob #2 press lock and then unlock.

    Now, if you unlock the car with keyfob #1 it should automatically invoke driver 1's settings and if you unlock the car with keyfob #2 it should automatically invoke driver 2's settings. But it doesn't seem to work that way for me. I can use the memory 1/2 buttons on the door to change the settings but I still can't get those settings linked to the keyfobs. Note that I have tried the above procedure (steps 2 and 3) with just the ignition on and also with the car running, but it didn't work in either case.

  7. #7
    Join Date
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    milton-freewater, oregon
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    1996 740iL
    Ok, I finally figured it out. In order for the key fobs to remember the seat/mirror settings you have to assign the seat/mirror settings to a profile. Then do the lock/unlock on that particular remote with that particular profile activated. Works like a charm now. Boy, do they ever need better instructions in the manual (or at least hopefully the manuals in the new cars explain this better).

    The only thing that is a bit disappointing is that I can't seem to assign which cell phone (mine or my wife's) is the "primary" and which is the "additional" to the profiles. I was hoping that mine could be primary and hers additional in my profile and vice versa in her profile, but that information doesn't seem to get stored in the profiles. Oh well...

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
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    Vancouver, BC Canada
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    E46 M3, F30 335i M Perf
    1: thats just how it is. I usually just press it once, leave the car and when I lock it, everything turns off. If you forget to lock your car, everything will shut down automatically after 20 minutes or so (battery saving feature).

  9. #9
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    1996 740iL
    E30TOF30: Thanks for the reply. I have, at least for the most part, gotten used to it, but it still seems pretty stupid. It would make more sense if it would shut off when you open the door like most America and Japanese cars do. Oh well. The Germans are still lagging a bit when it comes to the electronic stuff (in my opinion).

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Minneapolis
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    BMW 2012 528iXdrive
    Hello.

    I have 2012 528 i X drive . Recently i went for service with 60700 miles, They replaced spark plug, front pads, air filter, cabin filter and oil change. After service later i noted the odometer showing 60910 miles. i.e within a day the odometer increased upto 210 miles. What are the possible causes for this sudden increase?

  11. #11
    Join Date
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    milton-freewater, oregon
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    1996 740iL
    Assuming you recorded your mileage correctly when you dropped the car off, it would seem that somebody took your car for a nice long ride. Are you sure the car didn't have 60,900 miles on it when you dropped it off? That would only be 10 miles difference, which is still a lot for a test drive, but more explainable than a 210 mile drive.

    Out of curiosity, what did they charge you for that service? Looks like they did some spendy stuff.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
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    BMW 2012 528iXdrive
    Quote Originally Posted by fisher99 View Post
    Assuming you recorded your mileage correctly when you dropped the car off, it would seem that somebody took your car for a nice long ride. Are you sure the car didn't have 60,900 miles on it when you dropped it off? That would only be 10 miles difference, which is still a lot for a test drive, but more explainable than a 210 mile drive.

    Out of curiosity, what did they charge you for that service? Looks like they did some spendy stuff.
    i am well aware the odometer reading when i dropped the car for service. They charged around 1200 bucks for oil change, spark plug, front pads, air filter and cabin filter change. The worst thing was they didnot even wash the car after service. and they didnot reset the next service due in instrument cluster, it shows 90 miles over due for service.( before service it shows around 200 miles for service next service)I made the reset myself for the next service in the instrument cluster. After few days i heard squeak sound when i applying brakes.

  13. #13
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    1996 740iL
    Yikes!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    California
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    8
    My Cars
    2013 BMW 5-Series
    I have 2013 BMW 520xd, this is the best car that I owned. Zero problems in this four year.

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