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E60 problem thread

116K views 81 replies 52 participants last post by  Dann-0h 
#1 ·
My problems include:
1. Stuck cup holder after about 2 mo.-replaced
2. Hood out of alignment-upon delivery-adjusted
3. Driver door window scratched-upon delivery-replace
4. Mechanical belt tensioner making tapping noise, after about 1k miles=replaced with hydraulic
5. Loud ticking in front of motor, after about 2k miles (in the shop now) is supposed to be the electronic thermostat. I was told this was normal operating condition. Car sounds like a model T. I heard another 530 and it was absolutely quiet. Had a discussion with Service manager. Dealer still insists that it's normal and refuses to do anything.
6. Bridgestone Potenza run flat (right rear) has a slow leak, problem has been on-going, probably delivered that way. Needs to be checked by Bridgestone certified run flat dealer. Found one by calling the Bridgestone Tech Hotline.
7. Air cover scratched-upon delivery-replaced
8. Air bag light stayed on, upon delivery- replaced switch
9. Steering wheel doesn't automatically move up after turning off motor, after software update-need to investigate
10. Dynamic Drive System Failure displayed on screen. Didn't drive car. Started car the next day. No DDSF on screen. wtf?

Other irritations:
1) fixing hood alignment took 3 tries (damn noobie techs)
1a) front passenger windshield pillar scratched during hood alignment fix-
2) Belt tensioner fix took 2 tries (noobie tech sprayed the belt with belt lube the first time)
3) door panels had driver boot marks 3 times-had to send car back for cleaning
4) one time had to send the car back for washing 3 times (stopped having them wash it)
5) Left rear run flat picked up a dry-wall screw (damn construction near my home).
The left rear rim was severly scratched during tire mounting and needed to be repainted
6) right front rim has 5 inch curb rash from dealer drivers (damn fools-in shop now)
 
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#2 ·
Dynamic Drive System failure message (2nd time) diplayed on the idrive screen and on the driver's display. That's the computer that keeps the car level when cornering. A major system.

mmmmmmmm...sounds bad, very bad.....into the shop tomorrow....

I called BMWUSA today and asked for a new car. We'll see what happens with this new problem.
 
#3 ·
Part ordered to fix the DDS message. A valve block or some such thing.
 
#4 ·
My problems with my new 545 are bad. I am not sure if others had experienced similar problems.

Problem #1
- Got 'Engine too hot warning' message. I took the car to the dealer and after few days of delay the dealer said that it is most likely a software issue and updated the software

- Few days later got the same message and before I could get to the dealer, the radiator water boiled out and spilled all over. Got the vehicle towed away to the dealer and after few days the dealer found the problem. It turns out the radiator fan was not working at all.

Problem #2
This is a very dangerous one.

While driving the car and taking a turn, the steering went rock hard (like stuck) and displayed the message 'Active Steering Initializing'. Luckily it was late in the night and I safely got to the curbside. On restarting the engine, the steering got unstuck.

Now the car is with the dealer and they are trying to figure out what is wrong. I am scared to drive the car..

Had anybody had similar experience?

--tcr
 
#5 ·
I purchased a 545i two weeks ago. I drove it for a week and then it was recalled for a defective engine control unit (see copy press release below). I sent it to the dealer on July 16th and at this point I still do not know when I will get it back. I can say that I didn't have any problems with it (during the one week and 300 miles that I drove it). I really love the car and I want it back. It sounds like some of your problems may be related to the recall. Was you car manufactured betweenMay 12 and July 6? If you get any information please share it, I'm starting to questions my own recent very expensive purchase!!!!!

BMW Recalls 4,000 Cars

July 14, 2004
BMW is recalling 4,000 vehicles worldwide because of defective engine control units. The recall affects 5, 6 and 7-series and X5 models with V8 or V12 cylinder gas engines.

The company said a "temporary production fault of a supplier" is to blame.

The defect may cause the engine to cut off after a relatively short running time, potentially leading to a failure of the power-steering assistance as well as the brake booster following repeated operation of the brake, the company said.

"As a consequence, unexpected traffic situations including accidents may occur," BMW added.

The vehicles affected by the recall were built between May 12 and July 6 of this year.
 
#6 ·
1) I also broke my cup holder on my 2004 525
2) Broke the cigarette lighter when I was plugging in my cell phone charger (snapped off)
3) Have another problem would like peoples' feedback on. When I drive, especially on the freeway, it feels like the wind is whipping the car around even when there is no wind at all. In fact, every little bump or maneuver seems to cause the car to sway significantly. I am almost getting nauseous when I drive it. Maybe I am crazy, but my wife agrees with me. Its not the tire alignment, because the car will drive straight ahead without veering. I recently dinged my front light and bumper (a long story) and got it replaced, but I can't see how it would effect my car in this way.

Any thoughts? The suspension? Shocks? I now that the 7 series had problems with the shock absorbers...

Thanks.
 
#75 ·
Damn I feel sorry for you guys, you spent so much money on the new car and its giving these troubles. I think BMW needs to spend more time testing there cars and releasing them later on. I think they felt pressure due to new E-class release in 2002-2003. And also they were pissed at the Lincoln LS doing an AD which specially attacked the E39 5 series, with head-on camparsion in all handling/powertrain and price category. North American owners probably know about this.
 
#7 ·
Damn I feel sorry for you guys, you spent so much money on the new car and its giving these troubles. I think BMW needs to spend more time testing there cars and releasing them later on. I think they felt pressure due to new E-class release in 2002-2003. And also they were pissed at the Lincoln LS doing an AD which specially attacked the E39 5 series, with head-on camparsion in all handling/powertrain and price category. North American owners probably know about this.
 
#76 ·
Ok... With todays standards... I'm almost positive that more than we even think or.. have talked about in the forum goes on to test the product line and producers of such parts that consist of a BMW. One thing that cant exactly be replicated.. due to time and its lact of practicality.. is longevity of a part... and or probability that it might fail. For example... BMW cant test 100 cars with the same parts.. to see how many out of those cars' parts will fail. Its not pratical.. so every now and then you might get a bad egg out of the batch. And if it is a vital part that is the part that fails.. a part will cause others parts to not work at or near their intended operation.
 
#9 ·
Ok... With todays standards... I'm almost positive that more than we even think or.. have talked about in the forum goes on to test the product line and producers of such parts that consist of a BMW. One thing that cant exactly be replicated.. due to time and its lact of practicality.. is longevity of a part... and or probability that it might fail. For example... BMW cant test 100 cars with the same parts.. to see how many out of those cars' parts will fail. Its not pratical.. so every now and then you might get a bad egg out of the batch. And if it is a vital part that is the part that fails.. a part will cause others parts to not work at or near their intended operation.

Just my two cents
 
#10 ·
Driving to work listening to Led Zeplin I. Stop at Starbucks for a cup of coffie. When I start the car all audio in muted with the speaker on the display unit crossed out as if I had muted the audio. Unable to unmute audio. Turn off and restart car twice. Audio still muted. Park car for a couple of hours, restart, everything working fine.
I talked to the service manager at local BMW and he said that if it happens again to let him know and he will make an appointment to reload the software on the car.

2004 530i
Sport Package
Premium Package
Navigation
 
#11 ·
my 2nd reply :haha

umm there have been some issues ive been reading about on other forums of such encounters such as u had

TCR

there was this one guy from M5forums driving a 545i i believe stick and he was on the track and the steering changed ratios from low steering speed @ high driving speed to high steering speed @ low driving speed

honestly i believe its a dangerous thing to have when doing spirited driving
it sux to see bmw go down this electronix b/s path arent they supposed 2 be traditional ?? :wtf

i donno bout u guys but im gonna go look on the E39 for now the new look is kinda growing on me but still i prefer the muscular lines of our old faithfull E39

and as for chris bangle screwing the interior and xteriors up to an extent :eek:uch

:devil its all good man TCR im glad your safe and nothing happend

take care
MIMI1
 
#12 ·
Thanks for the reply from all of you folks.

It is now more than 3 weeks and still BMW don't have any information about
what happened to my 545i and the car is still with the Dealer.

The service guy from Dealership called to inform that he cannot say anything about my car and the issue is being worked directly by BMW.

argh..
 
#13 ·
ask the dealer to get you a new car

or get a loaner from them but make sure to create a scene and get a loaner most similar to the price u paid 4 your 545 :devil
and then have fun with it dont get too frustrated wit service cuz i kno 1st hand that some services can reall fu**ing suck Nemet Volvo :eek:uch

but try to give the supervisor a call or someone whos in charge and talk with him regarding your problem say that this isnt BMW marques dependability i bought this car to be a driver machine and all iget is a car that is sitting in the shop since i bought it either you get me a new car or youll be hearing from my lawyer

if you are willing to take it that far im into studying law a bit and if you find a lawyer who is willing to work with you you will have a new car in a week

there are laws other than the lemon law which provide the cunsumer with protection from dealers which refuse to provide full craftsmanship and cooperation with you or fail to provide the services you are supposed 2 receive

someone correct me if im wrong BTW this is in NY :cheers
 
#14 ·
I wanted to comment on two of the topics listed above. I just purchased a 545i and I love it. It was part of a recall three weeks ago and the dealer had the car for two weeks to replace the engine control unit. The issue that TCR has may be related to the same recall issue. I would suggest contacting BMW directly. You may also want to check into your states lemon laws (Not that I think that BMWs are lemons and as I said I love my 545). In Maryland if a new car can is out of commission for 30 days during the warranty period for warranty repairs the car is automatically catagorized as a lemon and the manufacturer must buy back the car or provide a replacement. I would suggest trying this route and getting a replacement 545.

Secondly, as I said above, my car was at the dealer having the engine control unit replaced. I've had it back for a week and last night as I left work when I started the car the audio was muted and I could not turn it on. Exactly like WGRUPP stated "When I start the car all audio in muted with the speaker on the display unit crossed out as if I had muted the audio. Unable to unmute audio. Turn off and restart car twice. Audio still muted. Park car for a couple of hours, restart, everything working fine." In addition I also have the park distance control with visual display and it also did not work. I have not contacted my service department yet.

Any information would be helpful.
 
#15 ·
Dynamic Drive System Failure.
Dealer replaced "valve block".
Message reappeared and another valve block was ordered.
 
#16 ·
i have 530i. i love the car's looks and handling. i blow cars away on freeway turns all of the time - not many sports cars can hang with this sedan when it comes to hi speed turns. wish i had the 545 for off the line power, but the 530 is ok considering the cost and points of tickets in maryland. got a ticket for 87 first day i owned the car. i was on the brakes so hard - i figure i knocked at least 10-15 mph off my ticket by braking.

none the less here are my issues (i am not wasting my time w/ getting anything fixed):

1. I have received the DDS error once from going around a 90 degree turn floored from a dead stop. the system reset itself after a restart. however i notice my friends 545 has much tighter steering at low speeds like mine used to be...i don't think my low speed turning works any more.

2. Occasionaly when windows are going up on auto, they stop and go back down about 3/4 of the way up.

3. Once the radio quit working and the cd volume would not go up. after parking the car and taking the keys out of the ignition, the radio made an am sound that would not stop. i started and turned off the car three times and nothing would stop the noise. the next morning everything worked fine.

4. twice my instrument cluster has turned off while driving. doing 60-70 mph my speed said 0, the rpm said 0 and the electronics went out. i bet the lease milage was still working!!

5. this is what pisses me off the most...when i bought the car i was told by two dealerships that the new 5 had a "fiber optic modular network" that allowed components like nav, sirius and bluetooth to be loaded at any time. when i ordered my 5 i wanted the black interior w/ black wood - silver or grey exterior. the inventory at the time was low, so my options were slim to none. so i got one w/o nav knowing i could add it. i am now told the following from bmw:

1. you can never add nav to an 04 5 if it did not ship with nav
2. 04 5's with nav will never allow sirius to work
3. bluetooth does not have a release date

6. and last but not least is the idrive. it sucks. for example, while driving, try to adjust the level and temperature of the air blowing on your dates/passengers feet?? or, note that everytime you start the car the idrive does not know where you were last. so if you want to change the radio station via the idrive, you have to go through the entire menu system to get to the radio. the controls on the sterring wheel always remember. so somehow the sterring wheel without the computer is smarter than the new idrive system. nice job. not sure if this is the idrive or not, but you can't stop the cd. when you turn off the stereo via the dash dial the cd still plays?? try it and let me know if i'm iDrive challenged?

i am glad i leased this car. i would not want to own it once the warranties up!!! i am going to see if i can get another car over the nav problem. i get lost all of the time, so i would have never spent $55k on a car w/o nav. mercedes allowed all 03 e class owners to trade thier 03 cars in on 04s for free because thier nav never worked for that model year as promised when it released.

good luck to all. u have to admit the car is hot and handles better than 70% of of two door sports cars on the market. the 04 5 is ever bit of the ultimate driving machine when it works.
 
#17 ·
This is one amazing post/thread. A new car worth tens of thousands of dollars and carries the words "ultimate Machine" and rightly so if I may add. But Please note the following:
1. The number of viewers to this post is already close to 1850
2. The number of replies is 15
3. Very high numbers indeed.
4. I think our conclusions should have been very clear by now:

1. Granted: We all know that BMW is one of the best cars regardless of how many problems we ecounter.

2. This leads me to remind everyone including myself to try as much as possible to WAIT OUT on buying a new model in the first year of its production. This holds true of many cars. Car manufacturer rely heavely on their customers feedback. In a sense the customer is the final judge in their long journey of experiments with the new model. And may well take them 2-5 years to debug the whole system. In conclusion: by next year the 545 will be debugged probably by 30%-50% and another 30%-50% in the following 2-3 years--depending on A. how many recalls B. How many warranty related services and complains-- like what we have on this thread above.

At the end of the day (I suspect) it becomes a matter of a priority: whether we ought to jump into a hot ultimate machine knowing we'll encounter some moderate to severe problems; or just wait it out until it gets into its ULTIMATE conclusion. That is of being the perfect car we all know.
regards to all of you
Bill
 
#18 ·
i love my 545 ive had it for 2 months and no problems *knocks on wood*
:p
 
G
#20 ·
I have a 2004 530i with the premium package and the dynamic handling package.

I have several problems with it:
1. There is a rattle in the passenger window when the car moves. It often occurs when I brake, accelerate or go over bumps.
2. There is a creaking in the driver's seat when I move around in it.
3. There seems to be a click, almost like a beep, coming from the rear right wheel well when the car is in motion. I only hear it when the car is moving slowly.

Any idea what these things may be?

Thanks.
 
G
#21 ·
My 530d has had a host of problems and several still have to be corrected:

On delivery:
1. One park distance control sensor in the front was faulty
2. I did not receive the latest Satelite Navigation CD
3. The battery was flat
(How it passed PDI, I am clueless)

Four months later, the park distance control was fixed last week and I'm still waiting on my CD

Since I have had the car:

1. The drivers window and door rattle on bumpy roads
2. The car creaks (body shift) when I reverse out of my drive way
3. The run flat tyre indictator failed on the last software upgrade. Germany is aware of the problem and releasing a software patch next month
4. BMW were unable to wheel alignment on my car as I chose the largest tyres possible on the car and their equiptment was not designed to work with such large tyres
5. The satelite navigation system is inferior to that of the 3 series, often giving 300 metres (300 yards) warning before having to change 6 lanes to take an off ramp. The 3 series gave 1km (3/4 mile warning)
6. My eletric fold in mirrors no longer fold in after the last software upgrade
7. The seat memory and mirror memory go slightly out of sync from time to time, where a mirror is pointing somewhere that shows me no back view (not be confused with auto dip, which I switched off)
8. Brake pads required an early change, BMW sorted out
9. The hood would not close after the first service. Required 3 attempts to correct the problem with a loose something that keeps it shut

Irritations:

1. One must use the Idrive to adjust aircon settings. There is more then enough place on the dash for it. The driver must nearly drive off the road to turn from aircon cold to aircon hot.
2. The steering wheel hides the park lights switch at my height
3. Switching from Radio to CD requires Idrive and distraction
4. Satilite navigation CD takes up the front loader. On the 3 series it is in the trunk.

That's about all I can remember at the moment. The car has to go back for some more work. Hopefully BMW can correct the problems and I can have a fully working car.
 
G
#22 ·
1. One must use the Idrive to adjust aircon settings. There is more then enough place on the dash for it. The driver must nearly drive off the road to turn from aircon cold to aircon hot.
You do not have to use iDrive to change the temperature.

2. The steering wheel hides the park lights switch at my height
Then you can raise or lower your seat.

3. Switching from Radio to CD requires Idrive and distraction
You can program a steering wheel button to do this
 
#23 ·
Originally posted by Josh_953@Sep 8 2004, 03:04 PM
1. One must use the Idrive to adjust aircon settings. There is more then enough place on the dash for it. The driver must nearly drive off the road to turn from aircon cold to aircon hot.
You do not have to use iDrive to change the temperature.

2. The steering wheel hides the park lights switch at my height
Then you can raise or lower your seat.

3. Switching from Radio to CD requires Idrive and distraction
You can program a steering wheel button to do this
1. There are indivual temp. dials under the radio that you turn to dial the temp you want; colder or hotter

2. You can raise/lower the steering wheel as well or one can take a few moments and memorize the switch settings.

3. When you insert a CD it should automatically override the radio.
 
#24 ·
I had an error message that the Dynamic Drive was turned off and to reduce cornering speeds. A "valve block" was replaced, what ever that is.

There is also a California recall the have the emissions control system checked.

All my other problems except for the electronic thermostat control "ticking" have been resolved.
 
#25 ·
I leased the 545i (Sport package, SMG, Premium Sound) in April and have clocked around 9,200 miles. Considering some of the posts I should consider myself lucky - however the laundry list of annoying issues that I've "experienced" include:
1. Engine cutting out after "Clutch Overheating" - sign came on. Took the car into the dealership and was told "driving in stop and go traffic should be avoided. In the very least try not to ride the gas pedal or wait for a gap in traffic to build before accelerating into it!" - I'd defy anyone to try that going over the George Washington Bridge on a Sunday night after a Yankee game!
2. The run flat tires provide false readings - told to "just ignore the warning and keep checking the tire pressure!"
3. Active Control stopped working on several occasions - Told "just turn off the engine unti lthe warning disappears!"
4. At slower speeds the engine seems to get confused as to what gear to go into so the engine hesitates for a second. I pull into my drive (doing say 30 mph) and then as I begin to go up it the engine pauses for a second and then almost stalls. Have to manually work down the gears to ensure smooth progression.

Shame to spend a reasonable amount on what I thought was going to be the "ultimate driving machine!" I typically assume these problems are somehow my fault, however reading these posts has been very helpful - thanks.

Last point - was interested that when called by BMW (or survey co.) when expressing my dissatisfaction the operator asked if I wanted to speak to someone from BMW - when I said yes I was put on hold, waited, waited, waited and then finally gave up - seems like a lot of fake consumer concern to me!
 
#26 ·
Originally posted by boots@Oct 4 2004, 11:52 AM
I
Shame to spend a reasonable amount on what I thought was going to be the "ultimate driving machine!" I typically assume these problems are somehow my fault, however reading these posts has been very helpful - thanks.

Last point - was interested that when called by BMW (or survey co.) when expressing my dissatisfaction the operator asked if I wanted to speak to someone from BMW - when I said yes I was put on hold, waited, waited, waited and then finally gave up - seems like a lot of fake consumer concern to me!
[snapback]204681[/snapback]​

Sounds like you need a software update from the dealer. "don't drive in stop and go traffic is a b.s. instruction. Cars should be able to drive wherever and whenever, especially a high tech car like the 545.

Check out forums.e60.net for mre info on the E60.
 
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