[Showbiz]

Hey guys!

I wonder if any of you have ever experienced this issue. Recently my 330d (2014) started to give me an intermittent red warning "lighting system". Few days later other warnings came along, "increased battery discharge when stationary", "no parking assistance", "SOS call system failure". When these warnings show up the idrive seems to freeze and the display turns on and off intermittently. The car has been to dealer a couple of times already. First time they found that the battery was low and have just charged it, with the hope this would fix the issue. A couple of the days later the problem started again. Took it back and they couldn't found any other faults other than just increased battery discharged. So they replaced the battery and updated the software. Within less than a day the fault was back.... The car is now back to the dealer who has promised to perform a more detailed investigation now that the software and battery have been ruled out. The car drives absolutely fine, all exterior & interior lights are working. The only thing I've notice is that the turning lights appear to blink faster when the warning shows up and the air con stops blowing cold.

I have made a video. Have a look.

Any thoughts?

[Billfitz]

No parking assistance could indicate a REM fault, which could be related to the other symptoms as well.

[Jhnblckwood]

Obviously the stealership hooked it up to ista but do u have ista to take a look at the fault codes for urself? If not I would def download it and get the cable for ur car.

[klemenr]

Hello Showbiz.

It's a bit of an old thread but I seem to have the same problem with lighting alert and strange idrive behavior in my F31 BMW.
Have you been able to solve it?

Thanks Klemen

[Zheez]

Sorry to resurrect this one again but did anyone solve this in the end?

Mine has just started doing it and I think I may have figured it out, for my situation, but I'm not 100% sure yet. Last night I got the error repeatedly during a 15 minute drive and today I had exactly the same, within about 1 minute of setting off.

As mentioned by the OP, my iDrive seemed to be freezing as well as the AC turning off and you could hear the indicator/blinker clicking a lot faster than usual. Also confirmed that the rear lights weren't flashing along with it, only the ones on the mirror were so that makes things fun. In addition to this I couldn't open the trunk/boot at all. This kind of suggests something odd was going on with the REM, as mentioned above.

A few weeks ago I retrofitted a reverse parking camera which I did so by tapping into the head unit wires. One thing I tried was to just pull out the connector for the wiring into the reverse parking module (not an OEM one) and then straight away I was able to open the trunk/boot. I then drove for an hour with no errors whatsoever so my thinking is that either this camera module is broken or the wire taps for the canbus wires to the camera module are a bit dodgy which is entirely likely.

I also have an Avin unit in there and one of my first thoughts was to pull that out since I know it talks to the car via canbus and I did an MCU update on it recently. Unfortunately in doing so I ripped the plug off the HSD cable because I'm an idiot. I'll wait for a replacement to turn up and while the HU is removed I'll remove the reverse camera wire taps and do it properly then see how it goes.

[LittleSamurai]

Originally Posted by Zheez

Sorry to resurrect this one again but did anyone solve this in the end?

Mine has just started doing it and I think I may have figured it out, for my situation, but I'm not 100% sure yet. Last night I got the error repeatedly during a 15 minute drive and today I had exactly the same, within about 1 minute of setting off.

As mentioned by the OP, my iDrive seemed to be freezing as well as the AC turning off and you could hear the indicator/blinker clicking a lot faster than usual. Also confirmed that the rear lights weren't flashing along with it, only the ones on the mirror were so that makes things fun. In addition to this I couldn't open the trunk/boot at all. This kind of suggests something odd was going on with the REM, as mentioned above.

A few weeks ago I retrofitted a reverse parking camera which I did so by tapping into the head unit wires. One thing I tried was to just pull out the connector for the wiring into the reverse parking module (not an OEM one) and then straight away I was able to open the trunk/boot. I then drove for an hour with no errors whatsoever so my thinking is that either this camera module is broken or the wire taps for the canbus wires to the camera module are a bit dodgy which is entirely likely.

I also have an Avin unit in there and one of my first thoughts was to pull that out since I know it talks to the car via canbus and I did an MCU update on it recently. Unfortunately in doing so I ripped the plug off the HSD cable because I'm an idiot. I'll wait for a replacement to turn up and while the HU is removed I'll remove the reverse camera wire taps and do it properly then see how it goes.

Did your situation improved after fixing the rear view camera. I've recently experienced the exact same warning message regarding lighting system failure as you after retrofiting the reverse camera as well. Let me know what your fix was.

[Zheez]

Yeah it was the wire taps I'd used for the canbus connections from the reverse camera module. I removed them and soldered the wires in place and it's been perfect ever since.

If your camera is one that involves wire taps into canbus lines then I'd definitely take a look at it and maybe find some alternative taps or crimp/solder it instead. I can only assume that in my case, the connection was a bit crappy and was causing some interference on the data lines.

[JJDontPLAY]

No way this has started to happen to me a few times over the past couple weeks at random. And just like you the malfunction message will just disappear in a minute or so. Also, my rear camera has not been functining for quite some time. When I reverse in my F30 now all I get is a black screen (yet my parking sensors still function). I wonder if my car is experiencing a similar problem to you. Thanks for sharing I'm going to look further into this

[Mawcul]

I have a 2015 328i xDrive that has relatively low mileage. We had a water intrusion due to clogged sunroof drains and dealer replaced carpets and speakers. Eight months later, after shipping my car on a truck, the car began to have intermittent iDrive issues: a warning would appear about an illumination error, then SOS system out, then SRS system failure, perhaps a few others. The iDrive screen would then go black, so no Nav; AC and radio would stop working. Cannot unlock trunk. Directional turnsignals flash very quickly. And some strange clicking noise appears to be coming from somewhere in the roof behind the driver. The dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree. after some minutes the iDrive screen is back (no reset) and everything works again. Can go for days without this problem, and then it recurrs randomly. The dealer said I had a weak AGM battery and noted a zillion codes on scan. They replaced the battery and said that they registered it. a few days later the whole problem recurs. Took it back to another dealer who replaced the junction box under the glove compartment, but this did NOT do the trick. I took it back to the dealer again who could not find a specific fault. The hidden menu shows that I am charging at 13.5 volts; is this too low and could that be the problem? Or do I have a bare Can Bus wire that is intermittently shorting out? HELP!

[Billfitz]

Don't double post. Pick one thread and stick with it.

[Mawcul]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

Don't double post. Pick one thread and stick with it.

So sorry! I’m new and my excitement at seeing similar posts got the better of me. Point taken.