adblue

[burleyviking]

only had the x5 6 week now, after owning if for 2 weel the adblue refill warning came up, there were 2 1.8L bottels in the boot so i put them in thinking that would be enough, a weel later it came back on so i looked into it and realised it took 15 litres mot 4, so i bought some and filled it up, on the second time the check engine ligth came on so i presumed it was something to do with the adblue, took it to a local carage as soon as i could but there plug in diagnostic thing only went up to cars on 2013, with it being xmas all the garages are shut so not been able to take it anywhere so iv nor really been driving it, went out today in and a fault came up saying adblue system fault, even though on the screen when i look it says its full, i will take it to the garage on thursday but just wondered if any of you guys have come across this fault before, its a 2013 63 reg X5 30d M sport,

thanks.

lee

[burleyviking]

then i shall answer the question myself, had it in the garage yesterday, fault codes pointed at the injector in the exhaust that injects the adblue in to the systen, it had just got clogged up, was cleaned up with hot water and re tested, all fault codes now gone, all once again is ok, £175

[Stev_chu]

Originally Posted by burleyviking

then i shall answer the question myself, had it in the garage yesterday, fault codes pointed at the injector in the exhaust that injects the adblue in to the systen, it had just got clogged up, was cleaned up with hot water and re tested, all fault codes now gone, all once again is ok, £175

Thanks a lot for sharing ...I think very few ever experienced that issue and you didn't get an answer for this..but now we know! Thanks Again!

[burleyviking]

Originally Posted by Stev_chu

Thanks a lot for sharing ...I think very few ever experienced that issue and you didn't get an answer for this..but now we know! Thanks Again!

i gathered it wasnt a regular thing as know one answered, the guy said the adblue can clog up like that from time to time on the injector, problem solved, and hope it helps some one else out one day,

thanks.

lee

[Snopeak]

I have seen the same issue and about a month ago had the injector flushed out by a local garage, only done little local runs since then until this weekend when I did about 250 miles yesterday and the same today. Received error twice today after about an hour of driving, it resets itself and disappears from iDrive faults when engine is turned off, any ideas on how to resolve?

[Snopeak]

Took the plunge and booked my car 2015 X5 30d into the local dealers. 1 hour and £160ish of diagnostics later I was contacted for another THREE hoiurs of diags, now upto £640 and they will contact me tomorrow with the results!

[KRS_SN]

3 hrs of diagnostics wtf??.

[Richardemsley22]

Hi, I'm new to this forum with the exact same issue as posted on this thread. Can you please confirm if cleaning the injector resolved the issue long term?

Cheers,

Rich

[Bish]

I had my adblue tank cleaned out, a new adblue injector and a new nox sensor fitted.
I had this adblue error and it drive me insane as no one could fix it.
Eventually with the parts listed above replaced it's now great again!

[W37V]

Originally Posted by Richardemsley22

Hi, I'm new to this forum with the exact same issue as posted on this thread. Can you please confirm if cleaning the injector resolved the issue long term?

Cheers,

Rich

I dealt with the bad adblue issues.

Here is what could go wrong / what might need to be fixed:
All of this you can do yourself but it might be a bit time consuming.
Flush both tanks
- tank on the passenger side (right side) you have to suck out. You can use any suction pump, vacuum cleaner or just simply let siphon effect take care of it.
- tank under the car, just simply unbolt and tilt it out (3min job).
Clean Clogged def nozzle - def sprayer tends to clog up. Remove it and let it dissolve in water. The only part that needs to be cleaned is the very tip. Don’t worry about Rest of the sprayer.
Nox sensors tend to go bad. Mainly the front box sensor. Each sensor is $300. They are fairly easy to replace.
- rear box is super easy to swap. Takes about 10 min.
- front is bit more complicated. Original box wires are tied to another wire harness. Don’t bother trying to remove old box wires. Leave them in place but cut out nox sensor and its connection on the other end. Run wire across the transmission starting from rear. Zip tie to old wire. This should take you about 30 min.
In super rare occasion, your cat might fail. In that case you are fucked. It’s really expensive so it might be better to do deletes and just enjoy extra power if you have such luxury.

[Florida-X3]

OK, I admit that I had no idea what "Adblue" was and I was thinking, oh crap something else to concern myself with ..... thank you Google, diesels only :-)

[Richardemsley22]

Thank you all for replying. Especially for ht detailed breakdowns, this is really appreciated.

After scanning my ECU I have the following code:

2C3000: SCR SYSTEM, DIAGNOSTICS FEEDBACK: TRANSMISSION STATUS SYSTEM ERROR ODB FROM SCR CONTROL UNIT TO THE DDE

I did top up the Adblue the other day (Refill now shows 1.5L and 8000 miles range). And for about 20 miles the error cleared, I thought I had cracked it. Only for the error to return. I also noticed that whilst driving down a fairly straight/flat road the refill level would jump from 2L to 1.5 L. I have no idea if this is normal or not?

Does this mean a thing to anyone in terms of which step I should take first?


I will update once I have carried out these steps, wish me luck :-)

[W37V]

Originally Posted by Richardemsley22

Thank you all for replying. Especially for ht detailed breakdowns, this is really appreciated.

After scanning my ECU I have the following code:

2C3000: SCR SYSTEM, DIAGNOSTICS FEEDBACK: TRANSMISSION STATUS SYSTEM ERROR ODB FROM SCR CONTROL UNIT TO THE DDE

I did top up the Adblue the other day (Refill now shows 1.5L and 8000 miles range). And for about 20 miles the error cleared, I thought I had cracked it. Only for the error to return. I also noticed that whilst driving down a fairly straight/flat road the refill level would jump from 2L to 1.5 L. I have no idea if this is normal or not?

Does this mean a thing to anyone in terms of which step I should take first?


I will update once I have carried out these steps, wish me luck :-)

Check your wires leading to SCR metering valve. I would also focus on the SCR metering unit as you are not experiencing the countdown error or wrong def error. It's super easy to access. Btw. If you end up trying to remove the metering unit, it might get stuck due to def crystallization build up. Let it soak up a bit (spray it).

[Richardemsley22]

Originally Posted by W37V

Check your wires leading to SCR metering valve. I would also focus on the SCR metering unit as you are not experiencing the countdown error or wrong def error. It's super easy to access. Btw. If you end up trying to remove the metering unit, it might get stuck due to def crystallization build up. Let it soak up a bit (spray it).

Thank you again for your help. I plan to try and locate the metering unit this weekend. I understand it connects near the front of the exhaust. Is it located behind any covers? Or once the car is up I the air should it be fairly visible?

[W37V]

Originally Posted by Richardemsley22

Thank you again for your help. I plan to try and locate the metering unit this weekend. I understand it connects near the front of the exhaust. Is it located behind any covers? Or once the car is up I the air should it be fairly visible?

I don't think it is blocked with anything. I am too lazy to go to the car right now to check.

But this is what it looks like:
https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/obj/1VnYBr6KCY

[Nuts]

I've just received this error too. It's still under main-dealer warranty, so I'll get it looked at properly and report back.

[W37V]

Originally Posted by Richardemsley22

Thank you again for your help. I plan to try and locate the metering unit this weekend. I understand it connects near the front of the exhaust. Is it located behind any covers? Or once the car is up I the air should it be fairly visible?

Originally Posted by Nuts

I've just received this error too. It's still under main-dealer warranty, so I'll get it looked at properly and report back.

How are the emissions regulations in UK?

Here is my pure speculation:
In US, if there is anything related to the emissions system failure, you will get a countdown to no start because BMW does not want you to drive "dirty" car (unlike VW diesel-gate). If they are more lenient in UK, you might as well have the same issue as what would cause countdown in US.

[Richardemsley22]

Originally Posted by Nuts

I've just received this error too. It's still under main-dealer warranty, so I'll get it looked at properly and report back.

Thank you....

[Richardemsley22]

Originally Posted by W37V

How are the emissions regulations in UK?

Here is my pure speculation:
In US, if there is anything related to the emissions system failure, you will get a countdown to no start because BMW does not want you to drive "dirty" car (unlike VW diesel-gate). If they are more lenient in UK, you might as well have the same issue as what would cause countdown in US.

That's a fair comment, I'm not entirely sure. I've read on forums about people having the countdown. I'm just not sure where the posters are located.


And I suppose I was being lazy too. If I just got myself under the car I could prob spot it quite easily. I've looked at Adblue/SCR diagrams and most cars look similar in the respect of the location of key components.

When I get under the car I will try and get some pics as well.

[Nuts]

Ok so I've heard back from the main dealer today and not good news for me.

Confirmed that my NoX sensor is broken and is likely a result of poor grade AdBlue being used in the system. The dealer has tested the fluid in the tank and apparently it contains too much moisture. I assume that means it has been watered down???

Anyway, luckily I've only had the car a few weeks, so Aberdeen BMW will be fronting the costs which, perhaps unfortunately for others, is not covered by warranty. So they will be draining down the system replacing the sensors and doing road tests to see if any other parts have been affected. They also mentioned potential warnings from the EGR system which could be related.

To add insult to injury, I discovered a leak from my sunroof on the way to the dealer this morning after rain over the weekend. They've discovered that the draining tube has been blocked which caused water ingress. It needs to be stripped down and refitted.

Total bill so far £2,800 and rising. 10 man hours labour alone they say. Not good news for Aberdeen BMW.

[W37V]

Originally Posted by Nuts

Ok so I've heard back from the main dealer today and not good news for me.

Confirmed that my NoX sensor is broken and is likely a result of poor grade AdBlue being used in the system. The dealer has tested the fluid in the tank and apparently it contains too much moisture. I assume that means it has been watered down???

Anyway, luckily I've only had the car a few weeks, so Aberdeen BMW will be fronting the costs which, perhaps unfortunately for others, is not covered by warranty. So they will be draining down the system replacing the sensors and doing road tests to see if any other parts have been affected. They also mentioned potential warnings from the EGR system which could be related.

To add insult to injury, I discovered a leak from my sunroof on the way to the dealer this morning after rain over the weekend. They've discovered that the draining tube has been blocked which caused water ingress. It needs to be stripped down and refitted.

Total bill so far £2,800 and rising. 10 man hours labour alone they say. Not good news for Aberdeen BMW.

Yeah... Not quite the whole picture. Your def was fine. They blame def, but def has almost nothing to do with it.

This is the same issue that would def cause countdown to no start error in US.

Per ista, the procedure is as follows:
- test DEF for moisture. The test is not super reliable. They just match the color against the strip and it is very sensitive. (don't quote me on it) I think the normal range of water is like 40 to 44. If you have 44.5 you are out of bounds and dealership will tell you that you have to replace the def before they will run further diagnostics. They can't guarantee that DEF is the issue, but they have to do it anyways.
- After they replace def, then they run another diagnostic telling the car to check all sensors. That test takes about 1 hour of car just idling while hooked up to computer. Only then, the car can tell you which sensor failed.
So far, from what I have seen, the front NOX sensor is the main culprit and tends to fail. It's not difficult to replace, but it is just annoying. That is the same part that failed on my car.

I think the reason why front nox sensor tends to fail is because it is exposed to much higher stress then the rear one. Higher temperature, close proximity to def nozzle, higher chance of water (from def) getting to it, etc. Stupid thing just fails.

Regarding the drain.. sorry to hear that. These drains tend to fail especially if you don't use your sunroof much. Gotta keep those channels clean. There are few threads on them on these boards. You could use different ways to clean the pipe. There is no need to run a new pipe.

[Richardemsley22]

I really hope mine is something simple. I didn't find time at the weekend to check. I'm just hopeful of a simple cause, based on ODB error didn't mention a NOX sensor.

My car had a service pack and I've self filled Adblue since, so I'm confident I've had quality solution in my car

I will still post an update after I have checked.

Wish me luck :-)