hi , new to the forum but thought i would share my experiences with this elv problem which ive had twice now!, first time was 0ctober last year , had the yellow symbol twice , then it went red and totally stopped use of the car, i stripped and cleaned the elv as per this guide but still had red symbol and a none working car
, had to have the car recovered , then my local independent bmw specialist reset the cas module and all was good ( £175 for recovery and resetting of cas ) , worked out a hell of alot cheaper than buying a new column or going to bmw. All has been good untill about two weeks ago , I started to get the yellow symbol again and knew it would not be long before i was stuck again , fortunately after last time i brought a cable and software to clear and reset things but still decided to leave the car until i had solved the issue once and for all. I had read about these emulators which once the elv was removed and this little device plugged into the elv plug it fools the car into thinking it has locked / unlocked within the specified time. I could only find a website last year that would sell x 5 of these , which i did not require, so I did some more searching and found an italian company selling the same emulator in singles for 89 euros , along with express postage this cost me around £111 . So it arrived , I was a bit disappointed when i found the emulator didnt have the pins connected to it like in there picture, so i had to cut the pins from the elv I removed (i removed the spring loaded locking pin from the column and refitted the column) , i soldered the pins onto the emulator board and plugged into the car , the small led on the board flashes everytime the cas module is accessing it so i knew it was working , how ever I was still getting the orange symbol
, i reset the cas errors with Inpa software and was still the same, It was then I found this thread again and seen others had had more problems, but the post above ^^^ helped me remove the orange light, so i have ELV fitted only the emulator , and all is working great with no worry of the car ever leaving me stranded again! Hope this is helpful , the link below is to the emulator that i purchased.
http://www.ecuvonix.com/steering-lock-p-646.html
thanks for the help in this thread as it has helped me sort the issue once and for all!!
Catertek UK