[Magirus]

Hello guys (and gals)! First some ”background bullshit”:

[Offtopic]
I was studying as an exchange student in Germany for five months. During my staying I decided to buy a car and since I'm huge BMW fan, it had to be BMW So I decided to buy this E90 325xi with nice equipment's. I think it's pretty reasonable to buy AWD when you are living in Scandinavia. The car has already 200 000 kilometers, it may sound pretty much but it isn't here in Finland
[/Offtopic]

And now a short introduction to the issue. Mainly it is the usual ”awd, dsc and abs malfunction”. Although mine one has some different details. The main one is that if it doesn't come 2 or 3 seconds after starting the car, it doesn't come at all. You can drive as much as you want and it doesn't appear. Only when you turn off the engine and start it again, it will occur. Some times it comes on the morning, sometimes in the evening. It doesn't matter if the weather is cold or warm, moist or dry. Once I also got only this "awd malfunction" error without any other errors. At that time even my cruise control worked even my AWD error was on..

I'm using INPA and the error memory is following:

Date: 05.08.2015 20:50:40
ECU: VGSG90
JobStatus: OKAY
Variant: VGSG90

5208 5208 actuator wiring
No signal or value
Test conditions fulfilled
Error not present now, but already stored
Error would not cause a warning lamp to light up
Error code: 52 08 24 08 11 65 A2 60 ED 00 00 00 7A 0D 00 65
BE 6E ED 00 00 00 70 0A 00

5461 5461 Error actuator control
Implausible signal or value
Test conditions not yet fulfilled
Error not present now, but already stored
Error would not cause a warning lamp to light up
Error code: 54 61 38 1C 28 65 98 65 E5 00 00 23 00 36 00 65
C8 5F ED 00 00 21 00 05 00

54C4 54C4 calibration defective
Implausible signal or value
Test conditions fulfilled
Error not present now, but already stored
Error would not cause a warning lamp to light up
Error code: 54 C4 28 01 0B 65 BD 69 E0 29 00 21 0A 74 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Date: 05.08.2015 20:55:06
ECU: DXC_90
JobStatus: OKAY
Variant: DXC_90

5F39 5F39 - clutch gearbox-ECU: VG-clutch defective - position of clutch unknown
No matching error symptom
Test conditions fulfilled
Error not present now, but already stored
Error would cause a warning lamp to light up
Error code: 5F 39 A0 03 22 65 98 00 00 00

I also did this thing called ”clutch test” or something with INPA. After that I got two errors more:

Date: 05.08.2015 21:05:37
ECU: DXC_90
JobStatus: OKAY
Variant: DXC_90

6DC9 6dc9 - Info: clutch gearbox-ECU: End-of-line test is running – expected end after 30 sec.
No matching error symptom
Test conditions fulfilled
Error not present now, but already stored
Error would cause a warning lamp to light up
Error code: 6D C9 A0 01 27 65 C8 00 00 00

6DCA 6dca - clutch gearbox-ECU: End-of-line test failed. VG-clutch is not working
No matching error symptom
Test conditions fulfilled
Error present now and already stored
Error would cause a warning lamp to light up
Error code: 6D CA E0 01 28 65 C8 00 00 00

Any help will be greatly appreciated! I hope you got the idea. English isn’t my first language, so please excuse any mistakes

[ajsalida]

Sounds like either transfer case actuator motor or its plug/wiring is bad. I would start there.

[Nismo G]

This might sound silly, but make sure your battery terminals are tight. Given that there isn't a rhyme or reason for the lights coming on, it may hint at a loose terminal.

If that isn't it than 99% chance it's the SZL

Quick fix:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=520467

Proper fix is around $1000

[Magirus]

Originally Posted by Nismo G

This might sound silly, but make sure your battery terminals are tight. Given that there isn't a rhyme or reason for the lights coming on, it may hint at a loose terminal.

If that isn't it than 99% chance it's the SZL

Quick fix:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=520467

Proper fix is around $1000

Thanks for your answer! Although in my case, these lights will appear randomly just after starting the car. And the error code or codes are different.. So I assume that it's different problem than this "steering angle sensor".

I haven't checked the battery connections so that could be one..

I did some troubleshooting today (correct way to say, dunno?). So first I removed the actuator from t-case. Then I dissembled it and ran some tests with INPA. The actuator and its gears seems to be in pretty good condition after 200,000 km's. Does someone know if there's some strange with this test? Should it do something else than just spin this motor with two different speed? And what about this "classification resistor", what does it do?

Here is some video footage.

[ajsalida]

That was a very interesting video. Have you tried resetting the transfer case? I am not sure you can do it in INPA but I believe you can using BT tool.

[Magirus]

Originally Posted by ajsalida

That was a very interesting video. Have you tried resetting the transfer case? I am not sure you can do it in INPA but I believe you can using BT tool.

I haven't tried.. But I got some nice news, problem is solved!

I decided to tear this electric motor to pieces after those things, which I did earlier, didn't work. I was quite amazed how dirty inside of the motor was. I used "brake cleaner" to flush all the shit out of it and then assembled the whole thing.

After having actuator bolted back to t-case, I decided to go for it and started the car. First start was quite exiting since it didn't get any kind of errors. I just thought that it was one of those times when the problem doesn't appear and then turned the car off. Second start gave me some hope since there were no errors at all! Even third start didn't give any errors. In that point I decided to assemble rest of the stuff and go for a drive.

Just ask how happy I was after test driving and starting the car multiple times without getting any errors! It was the freakin' dirty electric motor which caused the problem!

Here is the second video about the start after cleaning the electric motor.

Thanks for everybody and I hope my thread will help those who are having same issues in future! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

[ajsalida]

Excellent news and good job figuring it out.

[krolik2628]

Hi, did the error codes come back after your repair. I have the same symptoms as you and want to make sure your operation is correct.

[k90]

Originally Posted by Magirus

I decided to tear this electric motor to pieces after those things, which I did earlier, didn't work. I was quite amazed how dirty inside of the motor was. I used "brake cleaner" to flush all the shit out of it and then assembled the whole thing.

Motor in the video looks like brushes are pretty much done. Lack of spring tension and brushes getting stuck can result from that. Your's are about to or are already getting lifted by copper braids as the slot lenght is consumed. New brushes extend out almost all the way to motor case.

If you ever open the motor again please measure brush dimensions or brush cage dimensions. I'm planning to replace brushes as I'm replacing the worm gear(preventive).

EDIT: shieet.. thread is from 2015. Stop bumbing threads from a decade ago.

[raton666]

Hello I have the Same problem 4w malfunction , is a manual transmission i don't know what to do , i took it to the bmw and they gave me a big list , change calipers, do alignment , change transferase , and i already did it all what should i do next ??? i need help please