e46: 99-01 central locking failure

[hybrid 1043]

Hey guys, I thought I would post my findings after 2 very painful years of "on the piss" central locking BMW e46 ownership.

Something for you other e46 /e90 e92 owners to look forward too in the future if you don’t already have the problem I’m not sure about the 5 series.

So my problem started after a service at JC BMW. They had completed a software update to my vehicle. the next day on a hot (not humid) day I noticed it too several goes to get my car unlocked.

I rang JC and explained the issue to them and low and behold they blamed my aftermarket AVS alarm.

This didn't really sit well with me, however I finally got around to going to see my alarm installer / AVS manufacture. AVS removed the alarm from the equation and what do you know ... problem was still there.

After reeeeaming the net for more detail I came across this, and plenty of _moan_ threads to back it up. My problem is I was searching the wrong topics around after market alarm failures etc etc when in fact it turns out its a generic Siemens / Tyco relay failure in the GM5 module.

The dealerships in this country I don’t think know about this yet or refuse to acknowledge it (in my customer experiences), research turned up BMW certainly do know about it, but their fix is for the customer to pay around $1000 to get the GM5 replaced.

Here is the low down on it here and a good explanation of my currently problem. This effects all e46 from 99-01 with Siemens electronics .. and is not country origin specific. Sooner or later .. it will happen no matter what import / nz version you have. If you have Siemens electronics ... fun times for you

http://www.bmwgm5.com/

Bung relay contacts

Relay map

The other bummer is this problem now effects e90/92 vehicles.

[bmw.maniac 1]

Very interesting. I bet if Siemens/BMW spent a mere $1 per unit more to get better quality solder/metal for the contacts this wouldn't happen.

The same thing happened in my G4 iBook. Went fine for two years, and then all of a sudden wouldn't boot up unless I put pressure by the touch sensor mouse. I ended up G-clamping it too my desk!!

After lots of research it turned out to be cheap solder used the contacts to one chip were slightly dodgy. After taking it apart and placing a small piece of plastic to keep pressure on the chip it worked fine!

[hybrid 1043]

This is more a problem with the relays themselves just wearing out / getting crusty and not the quality of the solidering.

[westy 614]

Bloody E46's.

[hybrid 1043]

After sourcing the relays, Brendon and I set to work this afternoon on perminantly fixing the stuck relay / central locking failure.

Out comes the GM5.

As you can see the white box and board electronics. Also the relays on the left (the central locking VCR's)

Out they come.. Because the boards electronics are convered in a sealant we scrape this off. The solder is of the high temp kind so unfortunitly a normal soldering iron wont do .. I own a professional varible temparture workshop iron so it was nearly maxed out doing this job.

New realys (tyco / seimens) soldered in.

I cant really take a photo of the locking working but Im happy to say it works 100% everytime. Even with the doors open which it just would not do before. Very happy camper.

Brendon and I are thinking of offering this service to others. Im looking to source the relays in from hong kong. The job itself take a little over an hour. But we could offer a repair service if other people are interested?

[jochen 4]

Very interesting. I bet if Siemens/BMW spent a mere $1 per unit more to get better quality solder/metal for the contacts this wouldn't happen

....

After lots of research it turned out to be cheap solder used the contacts to one chip were slightly dodgy.

Remember to levy a suitable amount of frustration at the environmentalists

To protect the environemnt, solder is now lead-free

But lead-free solder doesn't have the same properties as solder with lead, hence a lot of solder joint problems are starting to occur in appliances / cars made in the early years of lead-free solder.

Lead-free solder has improved, but there remains a decade or so of soldering that will have problems in time.

Not just BMWs, but everything that gets hot, vibrates, and is subject to a harsh enviroment.

[elmarco 56]

Remember to levy a suitable amount of frustration at the environmentalists

To protect the environemnt, solder is now lead-free

But lead-free solder doesn't have the same properties as solder with lead, hence a lot of solder joint problems are starting to occur in appliances / cars made in the early years of lead-free solder.

Lead-free solder has improved, but there remains a decade or so of soldering that will have problems in time.

Not just BMWs, but everything that gets hot, vibrates, and is subject to a harsh enviroment.

That's not quite correct Jochen. The EU directives still allow for lead to be used in solder for automotive (and other transport like trucks, trains, marine and aerospace) applications (as it is normally recycled not landfilled like toasters and TV sets etc). I'm not sure if BMW were using lead free solder 10 years back or not...

You are 100% right about lead free solder being problematic though - it is still a major headache to those in the electronics industry. And some of the early lead free solders were just as bad environmentally....

[hybrid 1043]

Just to clarify before this jumps off topic ... this problem is not a dry joint issue with the soldering.

[BradSymes 0]

Brendon and I are thinking of offering this service to others. Im looking to source the relays in from hong kong. The job itself take a little over an hour. But we could offer a repair service if other people are interested?

Apologies for bringing up an old thread, but I am having this problem too. I was wondering if you guys got around to offering this service?

[htra024 0]

Sound like my problem too. My one is E46C328 00. I do not have alarm, just the remote key only. To lock the door, I just needed to press once however, to open the door, some time it worked immediately after one press but sometime I had to press a few time then. Last week, I spent 15mins trying to open the doors but I could not then have to put my key in the door lock to open it. I first though the key is running out of battery. I openned the key, clean the batteries inside, scew it back in then the key is no longer working with the car even the red led is still blinking when pressed.

Any one have any idea how to fix this?

Sorry for my bad english

Thanks

Kelvin

[hybrid 1043]

You have the same problem.

Jump on here and buy the correct central locking relays from the website owner.

If your not into doing this yourself. Find an auto sparky and point them at this thread. They will get it pretty quickly how to fix.

Total cost will only be about $100 for relays and some time for the sparky to do it. They need to be careful they dont lift the copper tracks on the printed circuit board.

As for the key not working anymore ... you would have un-associated the key from the vehicle.

follow this thread to fix that.

http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/forums/index....showtopic=19404

[jordyboy2 0]

This is also on my list of things to do my little brothers wont work at all now, and mine is getting more unreliable by the day

[hybrid 1043]

It's usually worse in summer with heat or when the interior gets hot. Another problem is pushing the remote button so much flattens the battery which amplifies the problem.