[Efthreeoh]

Yes, you read that correctly. On the E90 (at least for my 2006 325i) the CBS oil service indicator (oil life monitor) is programmed to stop working after 300,000 kilometers (186,000 miles). The system is programmed to stop processing the oil quality data provided by the oil quality/oil level sensor that is in the oil pan. If you are not familiar with the CBS oil life monitor system, the sensor that determines the level of the oil in the engine also measures the quality of the oil though a practice of measuring the dielectric of the oil. I’ve discussed this system several times on several different threads and it is one of the reasons long oil change intervals are achievable with BMWs. The oil quality sensor provides oil quality data to the CBS that is used as part of the data input to the BMW algorithm used to determine when the oil needs changing.

Attached is the service notification to the dealer that BMW publishes when a customer comes in with a complaint that the oil service indicator will not reset, or resets to a lower value than normal. In my case, according to BMW North America, I am the first owner to experience this issue. When I changed my oil at 212,000 miles, the CBS would not reset to the normal oil change interval (OCI) of about 18,000 and only reset to 9,700 miles. At 221,000 miles the CBS notified that an oil change was due (a 9,100 mile OCI vs. the usual 17,500 miles I normally have) and the CBS would only reset to 0 (zero) miles.

The problem is now every time I start the car it dings and indicates the oil service is past due. If you read the attached document, it explains the procedure for the dealer to follow to code out the oil service notification and instructs the dealer to tell the customer to change the oil on a predetermined interval of 7,500 miles. Based on my driving style and conditions, my OCI would average about 17,500 miles based on the CBS system.

Once I discovered that the CBS would not reset past 0 miles, I concluded the oil level sensor was bad. I thought that if the CBS wasn’t getting oil quality data from the sensor, it wouldn’t let the system reset. Also I had noticed the CBS oil monitor function had been behaving differently in the past year with not being able to reset using my BT scan tool (but it still would reset with the turn signal stalk). Additionally, after an oil change the system would immediately indicate, after proper engine warm up, a full 7 quarts of oil in the engine; with the 212K and 221K oil services, the system would not immediately recognize the full complement of oil until about double the time and drive cycle necessary to warm up the engine; it would only report the last oil level before the change; meaning if the engine was a ½ quart low before the change, it reported a ½ quart after the change, which I know was not correct because I always refill with 7 quarts. And further, the presumed oil consumption of my engine, based on the drop in oil level as measured by the e-dipstick, had drastically changed from around 13,000 miles per quart of oil, down to about 6,500 miles. My engine is still in great shape (the average MPG has dropped off only about 0.6 MPG since the car was new) and has a light-weeping oil pan gasket leak.

So I changed out the oil level sensor (as a DIY). The part is around $160. The new sensor did not change the behavior of the system and the CBS still would not reset. So, figuring it was a software issue, off to BMW of Sterling I went. BMW of Sterling, who was great in really trying to solve the issue BTW, had my car for 8 days. BMW of Sterling followed the procedure noted in the attached bulletin, and when that didn’t work, they hooked my car up to the BMW NA engineering network to let BMW’s NA engineering department have a crack at it. BMW NA couldn’t fix it either, and opened a PUMA case, sending the issue off to BMW AG.

And that’s the problem. It’s been four (4) months since all this took place, and BMW has not addressed the issue. I spoke with Sterling’s customer advisor today, and he said it is not a priority for BMW to solve the issue. So I suggested that when buying my next car (keep in mind my E90 has 236,000 miles on it) purchasing a BMW will not be my priority after 25 years and 650,000 combined miles of BMW ownership. I should add that BMW of Sterling initially agreed to charging me a $160 diagnosis fee to chase the issue down, but after it came apparent that the problem was a software issue purposely engineered by BMW AG, Sterling kindly did not charge me anything (I suggested that I shouldn't have to pay for it since the car actually didn't break - they agreed), and I had their loaner car for a week at no charge.

I’ve been quite patient with this waiting for BMW to address it. I tried to get to BMW NA directly to take the matter up with them by calling the BMW Customer Service hot line. That process was a complete joke. After 30 minutes of heated discussion (just asking for a point of contact at BMW NA), I was switched to a “Customer Resolution Specialist”, who when I asked for a BMW NA phone number said “Okay, 1-800-….” he started reading me the customer service number I was calling on! (Needless to say that really pissed me off). All the BMW Customer Service line is a call center in Columbus, Ohio; they will tell you that they are not affiliated with BMW NA (WTF?). They refused to give me a POC at BMW NA in New Jersey. All they can do for you is either call the dealer (my issue isn't with the dealer), or "register a complaint with no expectation of resolution", so my advice is don't bother calling the BMW Customer center because it is a complete waste of time. I’ve been clear with everyone at BMW of Sterling that this whole thing about the E90 software being pre-programmed to stop processing the oil life monitor data at 186,000 miles is totally stupid, and that I’m highly disappointed at the customer service I’ve received from BMW North America and BMW AG. I wasn’t discouraged from posting the issue to the BMW community…

So, it’s posted…

Update on Last Page

[CombatNinja]

Strange issue. I guess the final solution is to code out the past due warning and just start changing the oil at certain set intervals, just like the days of old.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by CombatNinja

Strange issue. I guess the final solution is to code out the past due warning and just start changing the oil at certain set intervals, just like the days of old.

You'd think the manufacturer, who wrote the code, could simply do that but...

It's been 4 months now.

[roadkillrob]

That is such a senseless limitation that I can't think of any good reason that they would put a limit on that.

[CombatNinja]

They can't even code that out!? Okay, that is annoying. Also troubling is the inability of the system to correctly read the oil level what with no dipstick to monitor it. With the large belly pan on these cars you could be down a LOT of oil before you noticed it.

[CombatNinja]

So I read the bulletin that you attached and it sounds like there is at least a fix for the constant Service Due warning every time you get in the car. Did BMW Sterling at least do that for you? Still doesn't solve the issue of no dipstick...

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by roadkillrob

That is such a senseless limitation that I can't think of any good reason that they would put a limit on that.

It's totally stupid, but the worst has been the post-discovery of the problem. BMW has just fallen flat on its ass with this. The dealer I went to has tried their best to solve it, but their hands are tied by BMW NA/AG. I wanted to post this 4 months ago because how stupid I think it is, but I was nice about it, until earlier this week, when I basically got "Good luck with that."

If you've read some of my posts, I'm a big champion of BMW's OCI and the oil life monitor system, so to me this is devastating that BMW would for some unfathomable engineering reason just drop the oil monitoring system after 186,000 miles.

I've lost complete faith in BMW because of this. What other stupid shit have they done? Does the car just stop completely working at some future mileage? Who the hell knows.

[NormE91]

Really ridiculous, and it does make you wonder if other things will "expire".

I'd be surprised if you'll get BMW to rewrite any code. It's an out of production high mileage car, they likely won't give it a very high priority. Who knows though, maybe if more people start experiencing it.

Maybe some enterprising young coding expert will come up with a fix and market it. Might be worth bringing it up on the coding forum, those guys love a challenge!

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by CombatNinja

So I read the bulletin that you attached and it sounds like there is at least a fix for the constant Service Due warning every time you get in the car. Did BMW Sterling at least do that for you? Still doesn't solve the issue of no dipstick...

Yes, that's the point. I got the service bulletin from Sterling. When they told me what the issue was, I was thinking WTF, this is BS, so I said I need something from BMW that verifies this, that's when they sent me the bulletin.

They had the car for over a week. My car has not gone to a dealer in over 5 years, so the software was last updated in 2007 when the sticking steering lock issue came up. So Sterling updated my software to the current revision in August 2013 as part of the attempt to make the fix. They even had a BMW NA rep come in and look at it. Sterling's shop manager told me that he told the BMW rep "if we can't fix this guy's car, we should give him a new one just because he's kept this one in such good shape at the miles it has on it."

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by NormE91

Really ridiculous, and it does make you wonder if other things will "expire".

I'd be surprised if you'll get BMW to rewrite any code. It's an out of production high mileage car, they likely won't give it a very high priority. Who knows though, maybe if more people start experiencing it.

Maybe some enterprising young coding expert will come up with a fix and market it. Might be worth bringing it up on the coding forum, those guys love a challenge!

I've thought of doing that actually, but I'm trying to give BMW a chance to fix it. You'd think this is embarrassing for them. If you read the bulletin, the coding is supposed to be already written, but it apparently doesn't work.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by CombatNinja

They can't even code that out!? Okay, that is annoying. Also troubling is the inability of the system to correctly read the oil level what with no dipstick to monitor it. With the large belly pan on these cars you could be down a LOT of oil before you noticed it.

That's the other concern I have; if the software is programmed to stop accepting the data from the oil quality section of the sensor, and BMW can't code the warning out, what's to say that the integrity of the computer code is good enough to properly interpret the oil level data the sensor produces.

When the e-dipstick started acting abnormal (compared to what it has behaved like for close to 200K miles) and reporting oil level discrepancies, I really got concerned the whole system is f'd up. I just changed the oil about 3,200 miles ago, and the e-dipstick seems to be acting normal again. I just went down a 1/4 quart after 3,200 miles. That extrapolates out to about 13,000 miles for a quart of oil burned, which is normal for my engine at this stage in its life.

[nate5ks]

Vehicle mileage is stored in the CAS and Kombi modules in an EEPROM that can be removed and altered. I wonder, since altering the vehicle mileage is generally illegal at least if you sell the vehicle, if there is a legal issue with programming an aspect of a vehicle to stop working at a certain mileage when the only way to get it to work properly is to illegally alter the vehicle mileage.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by nate5ks

Vehicle mileage is stored in the CAS and Kombi modules in an EEPROM that can be removed and altered. I wonder, since altering the vehicle mileage is generally illegal at least if you sell the vehicle, if there is a legal issue with programming an aspect of a vehicle to stop working at a certain mileage when the only way to get it to work properly is to illegally alter the vehicle mileage.

Seems to me all that needs to be done is change the source code to have the mileage default at say 1,000,000 miles, so the issue never comes up. Or take the code out all together.

It's just plain stupid.

[xG35c]

Sounds like short sighted programmers strike again - first Y2K, then the Mayan calender, now BMW's CBS!
So per the bulletin the change oil warning and oil life monitoring is now shut off, but you've also lost the ability to monitor the oil level? Can they retrofit a dipstick for you?

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by xG35c

Sounds like short sighted programmers strike again - first Y2K, then the Mayan calender, now BMW's CBS!
So per the bulletin the change oil warning and oil life monitoring is now shut off, but you've also lost the ability to monitor the oil level? Can they retrofit a dipstick for you?

The e-dipstick still works (I'm not confident if it is accurate now that I know stupid computer code is running around in the ECU). It's just the oil quality data that is no longer used, but the oil service "past due" notification pops up every time the engine is started; it counts backward, so it is currently showing -3,300 miles.

What did change is the reminder that a service is due every time you stop the engine and pull the key out, is not active anymore. If it were, it'd be really annoying. What I don't know is, does the service reminder (at key off) still come on when the other service items are due, such as the cabin air filter, spark plugs, etc. The problem is I've learned to ignore the dong sound at startup, which is bad, because if other warnings show up, I don't notice them. For instance, a few weeks ago I was low on fuel. I got the warning on the way into work. I planned on getting fuel on the way home. When I started the car to go home, I ignored the dong sound; well what also came up was the notice you get that you are low on fuel, so I didn't notice I was low on fuel until the really low notice comes up. I didn't run out of gas, but it was close.

[fun2drive]

We have member well past 200K miles and they have not reported any limiting issue on CBS so yours appears to be an anomaly.
Curious to see how this works out...

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by fun2drive

We have member well past 200K miles and they have not reported any limiting issue on CBS so yours appears to be an anomaly.
Curious to see how this works out...

Who is that? A member on E90 Post, or another Forum? I'd like to discuss it with them. Thanks.

Yea I don't know there are a few people with over 200k miles who haven't reported any issues, I can't see BMW coding in something like this, it does not make any sense, something to keep an eye out for when I start getting up there.

[ihc95]

Maybe BMW isn't confident in the sensor's ability to function properly after a certain amount of miles. Perhaps they figured it's better for it to be deactivated than to read incorrectly. Who knows. Keep us posted on this. Good luck.

[Three_thirty_I]

Either way, it's a crazy position to be in if you cannot accurately and reliably check the oil level when there is NO physical dipstick and you are forced to rely on stupid electronics like this! I doubt that I will have my car until this sort of mileage since it is driving me nuts as it is, but this is potentially a seriously bad issue!! I don't think I will buy another BMW after this one, certainly not another E90 or newer model!

But, back to being more reasonably minded, if this CBS issue only affects the oil change interval but not the oil level then that's fine, I am generally changing oil every 10k km anyway, but not being able to check the oil level when there is a certain degree of oil consumption, this is crazy, and pretty much impossible to own a car like this!

[nate5ks]

Originally Posted by Three_thirty_I

Either way, it's a crazy position to be in if you cannot accurately and reliably check the oil level when there is NO physical dipstick and you are forced to rely on stupid electronics like this! I doubt that I will have my car until this sort of mileage since it is driving me nuts as it is, but this is potentially a seriously bad issue!! I don't think I will buy another BMW after this one, certainly not another E90 or newer model!

But, back to being more reasonably minded, if this CBS issue only affects the oil change interval but not the oil level then that's fine, I am generally changing oil every 10k km anyway, but not being able to check the oil level when there is a certain degree of oil consumption, this is crazy, and pretty much impossible to own a car like this!

Maybe that's the point. They need people to buy F30s.

[Three_thirty_I]

Originally Posted by nate5ks

Maybe that's the point. They need people to buy F30s.

A case of them not being too concerned about keeping people brand loyal, sad actually! But then again, most people only buy and own new cars for several years and keep upgrading, so don't have to worry about these issues. Problem is, someone like myself who prefers to buy a young low mileage used car and save on the initial massive depreciation has to worry about the built in limited lifespan and disposable nature of how things are made these days!