Drivetrain malfunction

[Stuartlogan77]

Had a weird thing happen 2000 miles in. I was down to -2 miles on the fuel. On the old 550 you had about 50 miles beyond zero and I knew I would be close. Just pulled into the gas station and drivetrain malfunction. Switched car off refueled. Started up fine. Got about 200m down the road and it starts to struggle do power. Pull into a car park car stalls. power steerings out. Started it up stalled over and over. Stop start goes crazy starting up and stalls straight away. I think it's a fueling issue. I press on the gas fully and it only gets to 2000 revs for a minute. Slowly creeps up. But engine warning light still on. After about 5 mins I can crawl home 1/4 mile but after getting a tow to come out. 1 hour goes by. Go out to put it on the truck and it starts up fine. Take it for a spin. Works fine although I can swear the steering weight is gone from the steering settings. Now it's supper light steering on all settings.

I hope she starts up fine in the morning and steering is fine.

I think it must be air in the fuel line. Other thoughts? Why the steering issue?

[nybimmerfan]

It's really good practice to avoid having the tank empty. Personally, I make it a point to start looking for gas when I hit the 1/2 tank full. Moisture in the air (humidity) can turn into water and water mixed with 10% Ethanol fuel causes even more water to be present as the ethanol molecules bonds more easily to water than to the gasoline. Water present in the tank can cause a lot of problems. Hope this simplified explanation convinces you to make it a point to always fill up soon as possible to prevent water contamination. Good luck!

[mainly]

i have the exact same issue after starting mine on an empty tank. now i have to ge it towed to dealer. adding fuel didnt correct the problem

[cmhsam]

Just out of curiosity why do you wait until "E" to fill up?

[nybimmerfan]

Originally Posted by mainly

i have the exact same issue after starting mine on an empty tank. now i have to ge it towed to dealer. adding fuel didnt correct the problem

When you already have water clogging the gas line, what makes you think that adding gas will just remove the clog? Also, bear in mind that water is not combustible!

[avlnch]

Sounds like air or water in the fuel lines.. a common result from driving with a fully depleted gas tank. Bring the car to BMW and explain how it happened. They will fix the issue, which should be an easy diagnosis.

[mainly]

Originally Posted by nybimmerfan

When you already have water clogging the gas line, what makes you think that adding gas will just remove the clog? Also, bear in mind that water is not combustible!

it hasn't been confirmed what the exact issue is. but thanks, i wasnt aware of that fact about water.

[bimmer-boy]

A lot of m5 owners let their cars slip all the way intoempty?

Surely waiting till the first refuel light to come up is more than sufficient time to re fuel.. Right?

[bimmer-boy]

Originally Posted by Ftc120

Yes. I found out the hard way. Although I did not do it purposely, there were no gas stations open at 12:00 a.m. After the red wings hockey game.

Wait, you had a malfunction after one genuine occasion of letting the fuel slip past empty...

That sounds like bs on bmw's part

My impression was if you kept doing it, you would have issue
especially if its cold outside.

[Stuartlogan77]

Originally Posted by cmhsam

Just out of curiosity why do you wait until "E" to fill up?

I think I would save 2-3 hours in a year waiting in gas/fuel stations.

I also though 1-2 gallons reserve was also there.

In this case I had 70 miles left and a 50 mile journey so I thought I had a gap. But must have driven a little harder. I had 1 mile left and to me that's telling me I should be ok.

[JOHNBMWM5]

Originally Posted by bimmer-boy

A lot of m5 owners let their cars slip all the way intoempty?

Surely waiting till the first refuel light to come up is more than sufficient time to re fuel.. Right?

Makes perfect sense to me.
Mine will never go below 1/4 tank from not on.

[mstmng]

Originally Posted by avlnch

Sounds like air or water in the fuel lines.. a common result from driving with a fully depleted gas tank. Bring the car to BMW and explain how it happened. They will fix the issue, which should be an easy diagnosis.

can somebody explain to me why it only happens on twin-turbo engines? it happened on my 2 friends's x6m and on my m5

m5 so far i only went once to EMPTY tank and since that day DRIVETRAIN warning appears every morning after 100-300m drive and my car becomes VERY LOUD for some reason after warning appears, i have to stop, turn off the engine, turn on and it goes back to normal, but warning disappears after 1-2-3-4-5miles of driving.

my question is, why it becomes louder? i don't loose power
and why it never happened on m3 and i was constantly going to petrol station when my tank was empty!!

[ColdList]

Originally Posted by nybimmerfan

It's really good practice to avoid having the tank empty. Personally, I make it a point to start looking for gas when I hit the 1/2 tank full. Moisture in the air (humidity) can turn into water and water mixed with 10% Ethanol fuel causes even more water to be present as the ethanol molecules bonds more easily to water than to the gasoline. Water present in the tank can cause a lot of problems. Hope this simplified explanation convinces you to make it a point to always fill up soon as possible to prevent water contamination. Good luck!

That's a very good explanation. I never really gave that any thought. I have let mine run pretty low many times (sort of a game I play with the wife-we got stranded a couple times 15 years ago when we met-lol!). I never have issues though. It is likely the temps here.

[mstmng]

Originally Posted by Ftc120

On the other hand, I have completely lost my settings for throttle response,suspension adjustment, and steering firmness. Basically the three major components to the M settings my M5 will not recognize. I am taking it to a M certified dealer tomorrow.

my car been run through couple of tests and they could not find a problem straight away, but today they called me and said that there faults with some valves, they have ordered them from germany and it will be fixed tomorrow

will ask for a descriptive print out when i collect a car

[mstmng]

Originally Posted by Ftc120

I have had my M5 at two different dealers and they can not find out why the car will not respond to the Edc,servtronic, or the throttle response. I am going to look into if mine has suffered valve damage as well. Although it seems to run great, it just won't recognize the sport/sport plus settings in throttle,steering, or Edc.

tell them to assign main M technician to your car and run every possible test on the car
if they cant find a problem, let them order new car for you

you cannot fix, give me new one! if you hard enough with them in nice way, they will do it, as long as they cant find a problem!

worked for my friends couple of times

[boots]

I fill mine up 3/4 all the time.

[greentrbo95gst]

When you have little to no fuel left ,whatever is there is sloshing back and forth and the high pressure fuel pump ends up suffering of starvation. Great way to kill it fast.
I have about 8k miles on the car and never went below 1/4th of a tank.

[mstmng]

Originally Posted by Ftc120

Thank you. I will.

They have changed 4 solenoids in the engine, both tickling sound coming from the front left wheel and drivetrain warning disappeared! I have to bring car back next week for them to run tests again to double check everything is alright!

[catpat8000]

Originally Posted by Ftc120

Just returned home from my bmw dealer. Third visit to bmw dealers in last 7 days. Since my M5 ran low/out of fuel ten days ago I have one dealer delete the 21 error codes that came with the drivetrain malfunction error message and the bmw dealer today installed the latest vehicle software into my M5 so that all adaptations are cleared. The bmw dealer did that today and they said that I will need to give it some time to drive it and allow the adaptations to completely reset.. I had a ninety mile drive home tonight and nothing changed. Still no throttle response, no steering firmness in sport or sport plus, as far as the Edc ( suspension) it is hard to tell. The car says it is in mdm or disc off, but who knows ? I guess what really has me confused now is should it take 200 miles of driving for the car to respond to the M settings ? I know when I had the car brand new it responded to the different M settings immediately. I also spoke with my SA about it while driving home and he said at this point I will probably have to file a claim and bmw will either send somebody to the dealership to look at my vehicle or my vehicle may get shipped to New Jersey or South Carolina for further investigation. Either way there is no more I can do now but wait. It is now deer hunting season, so the M 5 is going in the garage for hibernation mode until bmw decides when they would like to look at it. My SA told me the process can take 1-2 months. Till then my mind is off the M5 and onto hunting. . Torn between two emotions.

Why do you keep going to different dealers? Go to the same dealer, demand they fix your car. Telling you the car needs 200 miles to learn stuff is 100% nonsense. You can prove this easily: how many miles were on the car when it was new? And did the settings work? QED.

Also, it can't be the case that running out of gas can kill the car. BMW would never design a car with that vulnerability because the engineers know people are going to run out of gas. Something is wrong somewhere and your car is under warranty and your dealer needs to fix it.

Pat

[mstmng]

Originally Posted by Ftc120

Agree with you 100 %. The only reason why I took the vehicle to the second dealer was the dealer is M certified. That is the only reason. Yes the M5 did seem to respond to the M settings when it was brand new, so I agree with you again. But at this point I will file the claim and let Bmw decide what they want to do. Personally I have other things to be doing and it just takes up way to much time. The other issue here is most of these technicians have no clue what the car feels like or what it is supposed to do when you hit any of the three performance settings and put them into sport or sport plus. If the dashboard says the car is in sport or sport plus they think it is, although mine is not. Again if bmw does not fix the M5 I will probably dump it and pick up different type of vehicle altogether. Still absolutely love the M5 and think it is the best four door sports sedan money can buy, mine just happens to be in limp mode at the present time. I know I can demand all I want but this is going to take a long time to get cleared up.

this is totally unacceptable... what are they talking about... 100/200/300 miles... my car is fixed straight away, they told me to drive it in order for them to see if something else is wrong, not for the car to FIX ITSELF, because they have done NOTHING

write a letter to BMW NA, especially if you are saying that you dont really need a car now... if you don't push them, they wont move... their job is done, they sold you the car

unless they see you are serious about that, you will be another unhappy customer who just wont buy bmw again

also, you should have taken technician out and speak to him, SA's are useless
they tell you what technicians tell them, just a "broken phone"

[mstmng]

Originally Posted by Ftc120

I agree with you as well. Like I said I am going to file a claim with bmw. The car is a 2013 with 4800 miles on it, so it is still under warranty. I will give bmw a chance to fix it. If they can not fix it , I will then demand they replace it or buy the car back from me, thru my lawyer.

make them replace it for more expensive M5, for eg with CP

i find bullshit they gave you is more than enough for a replacement, just because neither SA or mechanics are competent enough.. shame for those people to work for bmw, especially in M service

[mstmng]

Originally Posted by Ftc120

Agreed. The problem is that both technicians that I have dealt with in 7 days have not driven a m5/m6 and even though they are educated mechanically and electronically they really have no clue what the car feels like in sport/sport plus for steering,engine response, or EDC( suspension). That is the real problem. .

how can they even be qualified to be M technicians...

my car took 1 extra days, for main M technician to deal with it, but my new SA (amazingly helpful guy, i know i just said they are useless, but been recommended by my friend) told me i not letting anyone else to touch your car, it will take longer, but definitely right from first time

man of the word!

donno how it works for america, but in uk main technician gets sent to germany for a training as soon as new model is out for 3-4 weeks to study the car inside-out