[whoosh]

I certainly would not take it back to that dealer again. There must be several in your area. Check out your regional forum for recommendations.

Glad you are okay.

[whoosh]

Originally Posted by ZZZZ

The ((!)) exclamation mark symbol means the electronics have had a critical failure, stop immediately, it is unsafe to continue driving.

It's standard convention for any signal that means "stop immediately" to be red, rather than yellow. Not to be argumentative, but I wonder why this one is yellow if the failure is so critical.

[phillyfan]

No offense to you arguru, as that is definitely a scary experience, but it's hard to comment on the GM's reaction without seeing your email to him. At this point, you really do not know if your visit with the dealer and this new problem are truly related.

I do think you should see another dealer, but until a 3rd party can state to you clearly your issue, it's hard to say if your dealer is at fault at this point.

Question also, how did you get the car to the shoulder if you lost your steering completely?

[doubleIN]

that is some scary shit

[E31BMW]

x-drive / XI = no active steering option! glad you are ok

[John 070]

When my car stalled on the expressway back in late 2009, the dealership never even brought my car in, they just said they couldn't find anything (hmmm....it was in the same spot and the trip odometer was the same down to the tenth). So I just said if you're going to give it back without looking at it, heaven forbid something happens and you're responsible. The SA back-peddled and suddenly my car was with them for 3 days and they consulted BMWNA, who, said, there's nothing wrong with the car and it's performing as designed. C'mon now, we're all fanboys here. We fight City Hall, get nowhere, and then, we either buy a new one, or as many do here, lease another with $0 down.

[DDS2015]

Something similar happened to my aunt's E92. I don't know the full story there but ultimately the whole steering rack had to be replaced. I really don't know any of the specifics though, sorry. Hope it all works out.

[ZZZZ]

Originally Posted by whoosh

It's standard convention for any signal that means "stop immediately" to be red, rather than yellow. Not to be argumentative, but I wonder why this one is yellow if the failure is so critical.

This is true. Yellow is warning, Red is critial and green or blue are FYI.
Not sure why it is yellow, but that's the description of that symbol in the owner's manual for that symbol for my e90.

[phillyfan]

Originally Posted by arguru

If they weren't related then this is by far the craziest coincidence I've ever seen in my life. I'm sure it's a possibility but it's a long shot. Regardless, placing blame wasn't my reason for writing this post, moreover I was just trying to figure out what had just happened to me.

In regards to the email to him, it was basically the story I told in the post, obviously a bit more professional but the case and point didn't vary. I'm not trying to crucify the guy, I don't even know him. I'm simply explaining the reaction I got.

In regards to your last question. the car was moving right anyways so I just let it coast with the hazards on, applying the brake lightly to drop the speed. the car eventually veered into the shouder. As it was approaching the shoulder I increased the brake pressure and timed it (to the best of my ability) to stop right in the shoulder. It wasn't pretty being that when I did get to the shoulder, my car was turned close to 90 degrees sideways, but it was alright because past the shoulder there are just rocks (ones you can easily drive over). So in short, I was half on the shoulder and half in the rocks.

In my first explanation, I kept it as simple as I possibly could as I was just trying to figure out what the hell went wrong, not to determine fault. I knew that if I wrote a 25 paragraph novel documenting every detail of it, I was bound to get some of those "cool starry bra" posts... and I would have probably deserved it.

Understood about wanting to keep the length down. I'm just surprised by the GM's response without you getting a little fired up in your email to him. That's disappointing. If they don't fix this issue for you, I think you should share the dealership name with the community so others are aware. And thanks for clarifying how you got to safety. I had a feeling that was how, but I wanted to understand completely.

There is a warning symbol for the active steering so I don't believe that's your failure, unless the yellow exclamation supercedes it, which I doubt. This thread has a PDF attachment of the symbols (Warning symbols) and you'll see there is no yellow exclamation symbol, just red and it's related to brake fluid. In my opinion, I have a feeling it's yellow because they have mechanical backups to keep you safe (from an engineering perspective) and hence why it wouldn't be red. Where if your brake fluid was toast, there isn't a backup for it.

I'm curious why the symbol you have seen is not shown in the attachment. If it wasn't pouring buckets out, I'd go grab my manual. This is obviously a major saftey issue, and needs to have a clear resolution as BMW should fix this on ALL cars. Please keep us informed on the resolution.

[WingZeroX5]

what a douchebag of a dealer, post the name up so people in your area can avoid it

http://www.e90fanatics.com/pdf/E90_OwnersManual.pdf
Page79-80 is your friend.

shove the manual into their faces and record how they respond, i wanna see it

[cptcrunch]

I'd be calling BMWNA to tell them that the dealership just sent you on your way when there was a warning about DTC/DSC and not a state inspection. If a state inspection was needed, the car would have called the BMW dealership and setup an appointment to fix it. The warning you received is a major system issue and obviously something is real bad wrong with your car to lose steering like that. Call BMWNA immediately tomorrow and tell them what the dealership did.

Oh, and take that car to a different dealership and tell the GM you are filing a complaint with BMWNA

[phillyfan]

Reread the OP's original post, and agreed, the dealer ignoring your DSC failure is ridiculous. Gotta have that owner's manual handy at all times.

But for the issue why the OP actually wrote I don't think should be connected with either of the warnings he has posted. Neither is catastrophic, but should be seen ASAP, not immediately. I'm very curious why your steering failed in the way that it did. And how many times has that occurred to owners? That is a failure of the worst kind and realistically should have never occurred from an engineering perspective. I wonder how many hazard mitigations failed for the OP to wind up in the state of "cruising" on the highway with no steering.

[cisach]

noob question. how do I tell if I have active steering?

[WingZeroX5]

a simple state inspection has a different icon too

[munu]

Last week I got overlapping 'S' symbol on my car and dealer told me that it is regarding state inspection which is not needed in Florida so told me to come and they will reset it. I got this done last thursday along with oil change.

This Sunday I suddenly got couple of error codes on my car, along with the two you posted I also got tire pressure. In my case car was driving fine and as I was taking it to dealership all the error code disappeared. I posted my issue on the forum and based on feedback I got it could be one of these

1. Battery
2. wheel alignment
3. ABS sensor failure

Thanks

[WingZeroX5]

http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...0&d=1267318728
error #61 = "HAVE PROBLEM CHECKED BY NEAREST BMW SERVICE"

there OP, that's all the ammo u will ever need to fix this issue

[NiVeDh]

Glad you are OK. Active Steering does have its quirks.

[wachupita]

WOW scarry sh.. nice to hear you are ok.

not to or anyhting but i got a similar problem.

many lights on my dash turned on but hopefully my steering did not go suicidal (no active steering on my e90)
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=620965

[richb811]

Wow I have never heard of anything like that! Glad you made it off the freeway in one piece!

[TwinTuning]

Wow. Call BMWNA let them know about GM Robert Dombrowski the Donkey.

[whoosh]

Not surprised at all - I have a friend that lives in Scottsdale, who now drives an MB after the horrendous service experience on her 2 previous BMWs.

[phillyfan]

I have a feeling I can figure it out, but please post his email address. If you're not comfortable doing that, please PM. I think this guy needs to feel the power of the Internet!

I'd also contact your local TV news networks. They usually love these kinds of stories. You know, guy's car steering fails in traffic at 70mph, luckily gets off the road and then the GM of dealership where bought treats customer like a piece of shit.