I hope German engineering isnt contagious.

[MONMIX]

Got a BMW in the shop a bit over w week ago.

Deer hit. Big one too. Fell on top of the hood.
Replaced the valve cover, air intake box, two of the coil packs, and every thing from the fan clutch forward.

Long story short, job is done I go to test drive it, CEL come up right away. This car wont get out of its own way. I would be lucky if I hit ten miles an hour. Felt like it had a huge miss.

I go back and check the plugs and coil packs. I assumed it was them. Every thing was cool. Okay pull the codes.
MAS in opp., and speed control in opp.,.
Pulled the MAS. Maybe the shock of the deer falling on the car shook the meter. All looks good.

I bow my head in defeat. I am a body technician, not a BMW mechanic. So in comes the roll back to tote it down to BMW.
Come to find out. When that year BMW gets into a hit the ECM goes into a " safe mode " it throws a code to the MAS and speed control to limit the vehicles speed and RPM. It shows its self with the two aforementioned codes. Plug into a BMW computer and push a few bottons, and it is good to go. I hope this stuff doesnt catch on. It was real annoying.

Arrrg. Well at least I know I did my part right.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

Happen to remember what year it was? I'm not a BMW expert, but I know a little about them. If it's a recent year model, then I am sure it had to be hooked up to their Laptops. But since you were able to retrieve the codes, I have a feeling it was a older model.

-Drew

 

[EMG7895]

Many auto manufacturers have been doing this in many forms for years, although this seams to be a more extreme example. Many cars go into limp mode when a cel is thrown or a sensor goes out.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

Many auto manufacturers have been doing this in many forms for years, although this seams to be a more extreme example. Many cars go into limp mode when a cel is thrown or a sensor goes out.

Right, but certain codes/sensors. Rarely will you get a limp home for a MAF or a 02 sensor. I believe BMW goes into this type of limp mode for crashs only. BMW is usually pretty high on safety in the US and I wouldn't doubt they had a seperate mode from the normal "limp home mode".

-Drew

 

[EMG7895]

True, and the crash mode make sense when you think about it, especially with the price of bmw parts, I remember the early 90s saabs with the horrible and expensive traction control system the put the car into limp mode for no real reason, and was very expensive to fix.

 

[96limitedX]

thats stupid..they dont want you to be able to drive it after a wreck? heck if the radiator,fan,headlights are ok and nothing hitting the tires..go on your way..lol

 

[performancenut]

May have to do with a vehicle in a crash not leaving or fleeing the accident. German rule is quite strict. Rarely hear of hit and run accidents there.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

The BMWs and Mercedes sold in Euorpe and over here are completely different from eachother. But you may be right.

-Drew

 

[MONMIX]

FYI it was a 1999

Yeah we also have a BMW hit HARD in the rear the battery power cable had a detional link. Meaning you get hit POW !!!!! this little portion of the battery cable implodes. It is tied to the SRS system so there is no short cutting it. Ya gotta replace the $500.00 part !!!! At least that was easy to figure out and fix in house.