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      04-03-2018, 02:54 PM   #1
emmwhat
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Solved: 2012 50i can-bus crash

I've already solved this issue, but wanted to post as many details as possible in case someone else is having the same problem.

Short Story:
Corroded contacts in the TPMS module, located near the muffler under the car, shorted out my x5’s can-bus system causing multiple electrical issues and eventually causing all can-bus connected systems in the car to shut down while I was driving.

Full Story:
Around January I started getting an "Increased battery discharge!" message every morning when I started my car, checked the battery and noticed it was from 2014 and figured it just needed to be replaced.

I replaced the battery with a new Bosch AGM, with the same CCA / AH, and registered the new battery using iCarly. The "Increased battery discharge!" warning stopped, and everything seemed to be working fine.

A few days later, I pulled out of my driveway and was presented with an "Electrical system malfunction! Continued driving is not possible" error message, I pulled over, turned the car off, waited about 30 seconds and turned it back on, everything was working fine and the message was gone. I drove back home (around the block), and checked the newly changed battery for loose connections and proper voltage. Everything was fine, so I decided to re-register the battery, thinking maybe it didn’t take the first time and was causing some weird issue.

A few more days passed, and as I was leaving work, the "Increased battery discharge!" warning appeared right after starting the car, I just kind of laughed it off, figured the battery wasn't fully charged when I purchased it and I would give it a full charge when I got home with my CTEK charger.

Well it wasn’t that simple; after pulling out of my parking garage, I got a “Tire Pressure Monitor malfunction!” alert on my iDrive, almost immediately after this alert, every system in my x5 shut down. The steering wheel sucked in like it does when I shut the vehicle off, the dash turned off, the radio turned off, everything was off except the engine was still running, the transmission still shifting, and the brakes were still stopping. I pulled into a parking lot and turned off the car. I waited about 30 seconds and turned it back on. The engine started fine (I was using comfort access without the key in the ignition), the engine would rev fine, and the transmission would go into gear no problem, but every other system in the x5 was still off; I did notice the turn signals were actually working however, even though the indicators on the dash were not illuminating.

I hooked up iCarly and it showed that only 5 or 6 ECUs were communicating, instead of the normal 30-40+. I sat there in the parking lot for a couple minutes reading through all of the error codes trying to figure out what the heck was going on, and out of nowhere, all the systems turned back on and everything was working perfectly fine.

After all the systems were back online, I cleared the codes with iCarly, and re-scanned to see what codes were still active. It was showing a bunch of can bus and communication errors, but the only actual module listed was the RDC, which is the controller for the TPMS.

I checked online for common RDC issues and found one guy on youtube showing how they can get corrosion in the module causing TPMS error messages. I decided to pull mine off the car and check it out; 2 of the 4 contact pads were so badly corroded that after using a little contact cleaner and a cotton swap, all of the metal on both contact pads was completely gone.

I ordered a used RDC with the exact same model number and FCC ID from ebay, tested it on the car and everything worked fine, I took it back off the car and coated it in plasti dip about 5 – 6 times, reinstalled the next day, and haven’t had a single issue, code, or iDrive warning since (knock on wood).

I mainly just wanted to type this all up in case someone else ever has an issue like this, they’ll have some where to turn. I had no idea what was going on, and this is a 2012 x5 50i with 110k miles and absolutely no kind of extended warranty. Also, I find it crazy that the can bus can cause so many issues, you would think there would be some type of failsafe, or at least two isolated can bus networks, one for the exterior of the car (corrosion / tampering), and one for the interior, with some type of other communication link between the two. I mean, pulling the RDC, which is on the outside of the vehicle and takes less than a minute to remove, supplies you with 12+, ground, can high, and can low; if you knew what packets to send, or created a program that acted like a controller on the can bus network, you could control any system you want on that car, from the outside, in less than a minute, pretty crazy.

This is my first post on these forums, I was pretty active on t4r.org before selling my 04’ 4runner about 8 months ago to get my 2012 x5 50i, so hello, and I hope maybe this can help someone along the way.

-Steve


All error messages on iDrive:

"Increased battery discharge!"
"Electrical system malfunction! Continued driving is not possible"
“Tire Pressure Monitor malfunction!”

All stored codes read with iCarly:

Line fault detection K-CAN
00E5C4

CAN error-low
00D104

CAN TIMEOUT
00CF5E

sorry, unknown DTC fault
00CF80
00CA84
00CA87
00E096
00E097
00E098
00E3C7
00E147
00AA05
00AA07
00AA0E

RDC failure
00A3C3

no answer
00A0B7

:unknown fault
00E1C4

:unknown failure
00E3C4

:Bus communication error
00E1C7

:Bus low error rate / CAN physical error
00E2C4

:Ring break diagnosis error
00E150







Last edited by emmwhat; 04-03-2018 at 05:24 PM..
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      04-03-2018, 03:32 PM   #2
heatmizr
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Steve!
You rock man! Holy crap what an experience. Unbelievable that the systems all just shut down... You would think it would isolate that one bad controller, display an appropriate error, and keep on trucking.
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      04-03-2018, 05:24 PM   #3
emmwhat
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Quote:
Originally Posted by heatmizr View Post
Steve!
You rock man! Holy crap what an experience. Unbelievable that the systems all just shut down... You would think it would isolate that one bad controller, display an appropriate error, and keep on trucking.
Haha, thanks man. I figured for sure I was going to be out a few hundred to a couple grand having a shop going over all the can lines with an oscilloscope.

Also, there's apparently 8 spots where our can lines commonly short out that can cause issues like this too, I was planning on checking them next if the RDC replacement didn't fix the issue. http://www.underhoodservice.com/bmw-...ous-locations/
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      04-04-2018, 02:04 PM   #4
heatmizr
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Wow. Feel like I'm walking on eggshells now.
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heatmizr [Todd]
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