F15 16'X5 Xdrive40E Hybrid Bad Driving Experience after 12V Battery change

[Xdrive_!]

Hi all, I have a 2016 X5 40E I-Performance at 32K miles with very firm steering, hybrid system functioning as it supposed to with all set drive modes (sports, eco, comfort) and no warning or other lights. During winter snow, battery went dead before I see a warning of draining or low voltage, I did a jump start and independent mechanic replaced it with OEM battery and registered it. All the functions came back-on, but the steering wheel, drive modes, seats, hybrid kick-in and the bmw driving experience has changed since then. Below are a few known experience identified so far, so took it the dealership to re-configuration but the service manager/engineer says the X5 is at factory settings as it came. But I'm not convinced since the driving experience has changed a lot after replacing the battery, again I'm not says battery replacement did something. But I'm referring to the software/configurations reinitializing after batter replacement which was mentioned in the manual. So the service manager didn't understand what I'm referring too and also I requested to check other X5 to show how it felt. Unfortunately/surprisingly, two customer vehicles I tried had the same steering feel.

After all the headache, I narrowed down to thinking if X5 lost "adaptation" when battery replaced which are causes of these issues. I figured to do some programming/diagnose with ISTA & Esys to see if everything is without warning or missed configurations. I didn't find any mechanic near my location ( Newark, NJ), Since its hybrid machine I'm very skeptical of letting someone touch it, I'm very open to reach out to any mechanic recommendation near me.

For DIY, any advise what ESYS programming should I target to resolve these issues? I'm leaning towards re-programming full machine or specific modules as needed.

Issues:
Steering Wheel:
Before: It felt like driving tank with sharp turn, very firm steering, no play in steering, high responsive.
Current: feels like driving 1970's car, loose steering with play, no/very late response, steering wheel won't adjust according to drive modes. all functions working fine such as heated wheel, positioning wheel other.

Drive modes:
Before: based on the drive mode (sport, comfort, eco) steering wheel used to change accordingly with chasis.
Current: drive modes are changing with no difference in how steering feel and acceleration has very little change.

Hybrid:
Before: X5 used to start/stop on Hybrid very smooth with no shake and Engine kicks in only at high acceleration above 30MPH (approx), Hybrid wouldn't charge unless in Save Mode (which saves/charge battery while running)
Current: X5 defaults start/stop with Engine, has shake during start (initialization), battery gets auto charge without in save mode, Can't feel/know when hybrid is coming in play,

Other current:
- X5 started trimmer while idle or rough idle at times.

Tools I have:

ISTA+
ENET CABLE
ESYS
PZDATA

-ICOM (WILL I REQUIRE THIS?)

[RED_Y_]

Well connect ISTA and see if there are any errors. I never heard of any issues after battery replacement.

[Austrian148]

My battery died a couple months ago. It was somehow a strange experience and did not feel like a normal battery failure. The car shut down completely step by step over the course of 5-10 minutes, after I started the car in the driveway on a normal day.
I was able to jump start the car and drive to the BMW dealership with no issues, they analyzed a ton of error messages, including errors in the high voltage system. They replaced the main 12V battery, consulted with BMW factory regarding the error messages and did all kind of updates. I was told the problem was the 12v battery, but I had the car 3 days at the dealership which is pretty long just for a battery replacement. So anyway, whatever the real problem was, since then the car drives actually better than before and had no issues since then.

[Xdrive_!]

I should have taken it to dealership after dead battery but due to covid and lack of appointments took it to local mechanic who replaced battery and cleared all errors that came on without configuring them.

On-top I recently moved from Texas to New Jersey, I really miss my mechanic in Texas and very hard to find & trust mechanic in NJ.

[Austrian148]

I was also lucky, the car was still in the warranty period and BMW provided great service here in NC.

Did you do any updates or coding yourself with the enet cable on the 40e?

[Xdrive_!]

I haven't tried any enet cable coding on my 40e, planning on trying it soon. If nothing resolves, I may have to ask for re-installation of entire ECU with BMW Engineers.

I just have concerns with tuning and behavior of the X5, there are no other issues.

[RED_Y_]

What does this have to do with coding?

[Xdrive_!]

I may be through around myself from what I'm hearing, Any insight might help.

This is what I have so far after speaking with few mechanics and another dealership (Service Manager) over the weekend, Since the battery was replaced, all the modules went offline with errors and lost configurations that changed core X5 behavior. Indy Mechanic who replaced the battery, registered it and cleared all the errors (standard process).

This is what I was told by other mechanics, usually in cases like mine when the battery went dead, battery should be replaced/registered and software needs to be fully re-programmed or updated. Without re-initializing, X5 thinks its still under low battery and continuous to alter behavior settings that were adapted during the low voltage period (dead battery) even the battery was registered.

I scheduled another follow-up appointment to check-on the hybrid functions when X5 is in MAX EDRIVE its not using hybrid battery but getting charged, which is not normal. Hope they can re-program entire X5.

What I'm thinking is to do diagnostics and clear adaptions to see if that changes anything or ESYS to check errors and perform flashing accordingly(last resort). Is this a good approach?

[DenBel]

If there are no errors in ista then I would reset available adaptation values for engine and power steering modules ( on vehicle tree point to particular module and check its available options). If no luck then just try to flash the whole vehicle to the lates software with ista ( assuming you’re vehicle does not have retrofitted modules). Just don’t forget to use icom connected to the pc through a router in dhcp mode, letting the router to assign IPs both to icom and the pc, or some modules can be bricked. And connect the vehicle to a 50-70 amp charger while flashing. Ista will flash, code and adapt all the settings for you. Esys requires some extra work after flashing. BUT do your research first on the flashing procedure on the hybrids, don’t know if it differs from regular vehicles

[RED_Y_]

I don't think this is a good approach for many reasons. In the thread for ISTA links I gave you all the information about E-sys and ISTA and which software does what, but you completely ignored my message and keep going in circles. Doesn't sound like you fully understand what are you doing,so there is a greater risk to make things worse and get into more trouble. Battery disconnect doesn't mean that your software should be "fully re-programmed" (not even sure what do you mean by this) or updated. F15 production started in 2013, many people got their battery replaced, main one and auxiliary as well as disconnected it for many reasons (including myself for replacing the steering wheel). In my particular case steering wheel position sensor needed to be re-calibrated which I did using ISTA. In your case I would start with checking what was the capacity of the new battery first, since there are two different procedures registering and coding the battery. If new battery is exactly the same you only need to register, if it is smaller or bigger capacity you need to code it so car is aware of the change. In case the mechanic who did the swap just registered the battery but it is smaller or bigger size use ISTA procedure to code proper battery capacity, and while doing it ISTA will read out your car and show your errors (if there are any), start there first if you want to deal with it yourself. Don't dive deep into flashing modules, start with simple troubleshooting first.

[Xdrive_!]

I usually use Foxwell BMW tool to scan and do certain functions, but this is my first time with BMW software, trying to learn as I go. I'm reading through all the information that is shared and trying to understand each software. Currently I'm still downloading the software and will set-up soon. Once I've it ready, I will definitely start with troubleshooting steps first and keep posted my finding here.

From the information provided/read I understand Coding and Programming (flashing) are different that should be used as needed. I'm not thinking about flashing in my case, but just having it ready.

[Xdrive_!]

I have successfully set-up ISTA+ and followed instructions provided here. I started with basic troubleshooting, once connected to X5 I found Battery Voltage is at higher threshold pop-up and other faults with EPS and ICM which are a full list, took few pictures shared with below links. I haven't done any other operations yet, just waiting to see how I should proceed next.

My current miles on dash is 31K, ISTA has it as 50K. Why is this?

These faults are very much visible regarding EPS & ICM that dealership never cared about when I specifically mentioned the problem and they just lied, definitely not going back to them anymore.

https://paste.pics/C6KOG
https://paste.pics/C6KOE
https://paste.pics/C6KOC
https://paste.pics/C6KNP

[RED_Y_]

Seems like you have some issues with power steering based on the errors you see. I would suggest clearing all the errors using ISTA and driving the car for 10-15 minutes, then connect again and see if any of these come back. Mileage difference is from ISTA showing it in kilometers instead of miles, so 31000 miles is 50000 kilometers. If errors come back see what kind of repair plan ISTA offers you for each error message.

[Xdrive_!]

Based on the repair plan ISTA, should I continue any operations and execute procedures.?.

[RED_Y_]

Did you clear errors and they came back?

[Xdrive_!]

I haven't tried anything yet, I will clear errors tomorrow and drive.

Does the high voltage pop up related to EPS? Or battery or anything?

[Xdrive_!]

I removed all faults and cleared all adaptation, drove for almost 15min and found no errors, so drove another 15min back and found no errors, also adjusted steering wheel angle sensor, I also deleted transport mode which was activated by dealership in my last visit. Currently there are no faults and all modules are green. This improved how steering gets firm in different drive modes (Sport, comfort, eco) now, but certainly not how it used to be. I have attached pictures below for the steering values under EPS module, are these values normal?

there is still little play in steering wheel in different modes, how can I improve this and adjust the steering wheel firmness with more response and mapping them to different drive modes. Is this coding function available in ISTA+ or E-SYS?

and also regular coding functionalities like closing mirrors and other, is there a possible cheat sheet for F15?

https://paste.pics/C6WG1
https://paste.pics/C6WG6
https://paste.pics/C6WGA
https://paste.pics/C6WGC
https://paste.pics/C6WGE
https://paste.pics/C6WFT

[RED_Y_]

Well that might be you just being too sensitive and paying too much attention to how it feels, since F15 got electronic steering it does feel way software and "loose" compared to the BMWs with traditional hydraulic power steering, there is no coding to make steering wheel heavier, best thing you can do is to code it to be in the sport mode by default:
https://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1312732
Coding cheat sheet located here in the first post:
https://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1033991
Or you can just use Bimmercode.

[Xdrive_!]

I can definitely say that I'm not being sensitive with the steering, I'm the second owner of the X5 driving it for more than 2 years now. All this time steering felt really firm and there is difference in firmness in each drive modes ECO/Comfort mid level firm and sport mode is very firm. Now, I feel sport mode is just like eco and comfort feels loose with play and no response.

I saw somewhere this steering wheel firmness can be coded and my hybrid system is not starting/stopping when x5 terminal 15 is on, which was the previous behavior. I believe both can be coded and definitely worth digging. Any other information I can get I really appreciate it.

[Xdrive_!]

Does the list under "fault patter" under vehicle management-> troubleshooting mean these are all faults that needs attention??

[FREE100KSECRET]

Greetings,

Since there are so few threads on this Hybird, I was curious as I had a dead 12V battery and X5 died and had to have it towed to home. So I replaced battery which was at the end of its life cycle and would not hold a charge. Installed new battery and registered it, and almost all fault codes were low voltage codes, so it made sense, so I erased them all, but still have four permanent codes remaining. Engine wasn't starting, would try for a second, and then would not continue cranking.

So, I went through voltage checks and starter got power, but would not crank but for a second and turned off. In researching all the programing items, I came across a starter deactivate/activate function on my Foxwell diagnostics unit. I toggled on activate and then deactivate and back, and engine started. Let it warm up, tried it around block, ran and shifted fine, then tried sport mode and floored it and it took off like a rocket, but then died seconds later and went into P and coast mode which allowed me to roll down driveway. Now it won't crank or start again. Codes are 222D04, E11516, 21A117, 44CCE2 which are permanent codes. I saw a reset ECU but came up with warning, could kill car and no start. So wondered, should I try this reset function?

Anyone have these isuses which can offer some advice. Hybrid threads are mostly dead like this one was as well.

Thanks a million,