Alarm system issues

[TiagE39]

@balidawg - since you're recommending it, have Easy BMW Tools updated the INPA scripts to be in English for E39's? That's my biggest problem using it.

[balidawg]

@balidawg - since you're recommending it, have Easy BMW Tools updated the INPA scripts to be in English for E39's? That's my biggest problem using it.

I actually don’t really recommend Mikes Easy BMW Tools, because of that and the missing daten files (not imported correctly) into NCS Expert and WinKFP.
Have my own set up which corrects those issues and others.
Most of INPA is in English for MS42 and MS43 DMEs, but not all of it. Google Translate is my friend there. After a while you start to understand the German.

[balidawg]

I’m a few steps a head of you, I’ve already ordered an INPA cable to reset some calibrations on my X5 4.8is cluster to work in my car, I found one, coincidentally, with a switch that ships from the US on eBay, so I ordered that, should be receiving it soon, when I get it I’ll be sure to PM you, as it did take me a while before I figured out BMW Scanner tbh. After getting BMW scanner to work I’m confident I’ll be able to figure out how to get the INPA cable to work nicely, but I have heard it’s a whole lot more complicated than BMW Scanner.

For a reliable installer like Mikes Easy BMW Tools, the main thing is being sure the COM port assigned to the cable when plugged in and viewed in Device Manager is the same as specified in the EDIABAS\BIN\obd.ini file.

Download on the Binnergeeks website: https://www.bimmergeeks.net/downloads

[balidawg]

Back to the main topic, my alarm issues got annoying like OP’s, so I just coded it off with BMW Scanner 1.4. This car needs no alarm.

[TiagE39]

@97M62BimmerKid - given your alarm's behavior (sounding/chirping even after the car is turned on and driven), it may be that the alarm unit itself has failed. The "wolf whistle" unit used on your '97 uses a Nickel Cadmium battery that sadly tends to leak out and short out the electronics (this happened on my friend's 9/96 build 528). The later "roadrunner" or beeping alarm units use a different type of battery that doesn't seem to suffer from this issue as much.

The alarm unit lives in the passenger rear wheelwell above the plastic wheel liner. You can replace your alarm with either style.

[97M62BimmerKid]

Well, let’s say I remove the unit as a whole and attempt to repair it, has anyone replaced the nickel cadmium battery with anything else? I’d like to retain the wolf whistle, I prefer the sound of that the later roadrunner sound, my father had a 1999 540i wagon with the roadrunner chirp and I always thought the wolf whistle was cooler. If I remove the module and it turns out that it has been leaking, has anyone fixed these before? I’d like to try to replace as little as possible, if it can’t be done I’ll just try to find a wolf whistle and a later road runner alarm module and try to get something to work.

Thank you guys so much,
Andrew

[TiagE39]

I'm in the midst of trying to figure out that myself. Unfortunately the alarm unit is a sealed unit that probably needs to be dremeled open. I have a theory (not yet tested/validated) that the "whistle" part can be separated from the electronics/battery part. Then that could be used to replace the siren in a roadrunner unit to "rebuild" a wolf whistle.

[97M62BimmerKid]

I’ll bet you could probably use some two part epoxy to seal it back up. And then it comes down to that battery, what value it is and what value lithium ion could be substituted, something that won’t leak everywhere. And if the boards can even be saved at all, that’s the big thing, I’ll bet a lot of these things are too far gone for realistic repair. Either way, I wish you good luck, I’ll probably replace mine with a used one