First of all, as a new member and guest viewer for a while, thanks to everyone for sharing your knowledge and experience.
My car is Oct 2000 Z3 3.0 with M54 engine
The three amber lights of doom scenario... DSC, ABS and Brake... has been explored on lots of forums for a very long time but there might be people out there like I was, still struggling with diagnosis and fixing. Here’s my story of a fix.
One morning out of the blue without any prior warnings the three lights remained on after start up. I had previously purchased an Autel Diag-Link scanner with supposedly BMW specific software loaded. However it would not connect to my DSC/ABS module and just gave a generic OBD Vehicle Speed Sensor A fault code, which was not much use for getting to the details of the problem.
I then purchased a BMW scanner C110, much cheaper than the Autel, and it read the DSC/ABS system ok. It needed connection to the round 20 pin socket in the engine bay and wouldn’t connect to the DSC/ABS module using the under dash 16 pin socket. I had a 16 pin to 20 pin adapter cable already. They are easily available and quite cheap.
It showed the following hexadecimal codes:
5D90 wheel speed sensor front left electrical failure
5DA0 wheel speed sensor front right electrical failure
5DB0 wheel speed sensor rear left electrical failure
5DC0 wheel speed sensor rear right electrical failure
5DC3 wheel speed sensor rear right implausible
I reasoned that it was most likely the rear right sensor at fault, causing a shutdown of the DSC/ABS due unreliable speed information.
The rear sensors are both the same, left and right, and cost £78 each (July 2018) from the main BMW dealer. Don’t get cheaper copies in my opinion as I don’t believe they work reliably. The front ones are left and right handed and cost a little more. I purchased just one rear sensor.
Fitting was simple, a squirt of penetrating oil the day before on the 5mm allen bolt. Some gentle back and forth with the wrench until you’re sure it’s the entire bolt moving and not just the head and then unscrew it completely. After that out comes the sensor with a bit of twisting and pulling. It was quite dirty and a clean might have fixed it but I decided to go with the new one. Maybe try the old one again another time.
I had a look down the hole with a bright light at the reluctor ring and turned the hub all the way round to make sure there was no damage to the teeth on the ring. Unplugged old sensor from the blue connector and pushed new one in. Screwed new sensor into the hub and bolted road wheel back on.
Initially dash lights remained on but went out about 400 yds down the road from home. They haven’t reappeared so far after a few hundred miles.
Very pleased it wasn't the DSC unit at fault as BMW dealer quoted £1100 for just the electronic module. I understand you can get the modules repaired for a few hundred £££s if it ever comes to that.
I hope this helps.
My car is Oct 2000 Z3 3.0 with M54 engine
The three amber lights of doom scenario... DSC, ABS and Brake... has been explored on lots of forums for a very long time but there might be people out there like I was, still struggling with diagnosis and fixing. Here’s my story of a fix.
One morning out of the blue without any prior warnings the three lights remained on after start up. I had previously purchased an Autel Diag-Link scanner with supposedly BMW specific software loaded. However it would not connect to my DSC/ABS module and just gave a generic OBD Vehicle Speed Sensor A fault code, which was not much use for getting to the details of the problem.
I then purchased a BMW scanner C110, much cheaper than the Autel, and it read the DSC/ABS system ok. It needed connection to the round 20 pin socket in the engine bay and wouldn’t connect to the DSC/ABS module using the under dash 16 pin socket. I had a 16 pin to 20 pin adapter cable already. They are easily available and quite cheap.
It showed the following hexadecimal codes:
5D90 wheel speed sensor front left electrical failure
5DA0 wheel speed sensor front right electrical failure
5DB0 wheel speed sensor rear left electrical failure
5DC0 wheel speed sensor rear right electrical failure
5DC3 wheel speed sensor rear right implausible
I reasoned that it was most likely the rear right sensor at fault, causing a shutdown of the DSC/ABS due unreliable speed information.
The rear sensors are both the same, left and right, and cost £78 each (July 2018) from the main BMW dealer. Don’t get cheaper copies in my opinion as I don’t believe they work reliably. The front ones are left and right handed and cost a little more. I purchased just one rear sensor.
Fitting was simple, a squirt of penetrating oil the day before on the 5mm allen bolt. Some gentle back and forth with the wrench until you’re sure it’s the entire bolt moving and not just the head and then unscrew it completely. After that out comes the sensor with a bit of twisting and pulling. It was quite dirty and a clean might have fixed it but I decided to go with the new one. Maybe try the old one again another time.
I had a look down the hole with a bright light at the reluctor ring and turned the hub all the way round to make sure there was no damage to the teeth on the ring. Unplugged old sensor from the blue connector and pushed new one in. Screwed new sensor into the hub and bolted road wheel back on.
Initially dash lights remained on but went out about 400 yds down the road from home. They haven’t reappeared so far after a few hundred miles.
Very pleased it wasn't the DSC unit at fault as BMW dealer quoted £1100 for just the electronic module. I understand you can get the modules repaired for a few hundred £££s if it ever comes to that.
I hope this helps.
