amber vert light but no codes on ISTA?

[bucketlover]

the convertible top on my s30i has been inoperable since I bought the car 2 months ago, and I have been looking through this forum and others, but when I plug the car into ISTA via OBD, the CTM shows no fault codes, even though I am unable to open the roof and a fault light pops up on the dash... any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thank you for your help

[bucketlover]

I am very new to ISTA so there is a likely chance that I am missing something though

[B21]

CTM could have died..but it shows it’s alive?

Have you tried to issue commands to the CTM via ISTA?

[javis20]

Is the tray in the trunk/boot in the down and locked position?

[bucketlover]

Hello, sorry for the late response, upon a second scan of the vehicle, it seems the car doesn’t have communication with multiple modules, and I have the codes S 0082 (CTM), S 0085 (DSC), S 0099 (parking brake), S 0105 (roof function center), S 0114 (control unit), S 0162 (satellite tuner), S 0180 (safety module), and S 0212 (junction electronics)…. Seems like a major electrical problem, is the way forward checking fuses and relays from here? I find it odd that last time I ran this test all modules showed up functional and green, but all of a sudden they are all showing as unresponsive? The parking brake is fully functional and I don’t have a warning for the DSC either which has me confused, thank you in advanced for your time!

[bucketlover]

Originally Posted by javis20

Is the tray in the trunk/boot in the down and locked position?

The tray is in its locked and down position

[javis20]

What is your battery voltage with the car not running?

[B21]

Originally Posted by javis20

What is your battery voltage with the car not running?

Check battery condition carefully…apparently adequate batteries can throw major fault codes like this..fully charge battery and test again..

[bucketlover]

alright, so i didn’t have my digital dmm so i used a manual one, it was roughly 11.5-12v while the car was off. i am charging the car right now and will rescan once more when the battery is fully charged.

i rescanned the car right now, though, and the CTM is now green and active again for some reason? the top still does not open, and on the diagnosis scan screen for the CTM the drive flickers constantly between (not available) and (stands), while both relays flicker between (closed) and (not available).

upon looking further, all the functions are flickering between not available and their current state.

the car started misfiring shortly after i scanned it last time, i forgot to mention, but has not persisted and has been a one time problem, not sure what that was about. this bank 2 misfire also occurred after it was scanned for a PPI when i bought it and once when i ran a scan with a portable code reader. i know it’s a far shot that it’s related, but maybe it could be worth mentioning.

once charged, are there any important things to do before scanning again? resetting all codes etc? thank you both again for your help through the process!

[bucketlover]

i decided to scan once more before heading inside, and weirdly enough, all of the modules are back online lol… battery is still charging and not full.

however now i have a K-CAN line fault that isn’t currently existing (although im not sure how much i trust this). on the “component triggering” portion of the CTM, the “automatic close system, close” responds and i can hear the system working from inside the car, but the other “open” does not make any noise, although it does say “activation finished”. I’m lost past here, so any help in diagnosis would be greatly appreciated, thank you

[bucketlover]

last reply until the battery charges 😅 codes are back i guess. i scanned four more times and each time different results came back; first one was most modules not being able to be communicated, then a code for “Permanent SAE code” S 0758. second time through, no SAE code but the return of the KCAN fault and some of the units on the control tree seem to be lost. third same as the second, and the fourth a k-can line fault but more components than any other scan thus far. not sure if this changes anything but i turned off the car completely for scans 2 and 4, but left the car on from the previous scan for 1 and 3…

[B21]

You MAY have a can bus fault..caused by possibly one of many things…in which case it’s a job for an auto electrical specialist…I’d be tempted to get a new battery first..so many ‘faults’ are caused by batteries going bad..

[javis20]

You really need to start with a fully charged battery for ISTA to function properly. And you should be using the battery charger even with a full battery.
I believe 95% of your problems right now are battery related.

[bucketlover]

I woke up today to the car charging and as I was looking at other forum pages, similar to what you said with the battery issue, that the battery may have never been registered to the car. I can’t believe I never checked this but now that it’s registered, the windows go down, but nothing else. One step forward i guess? The close button lights up green after the windows go down but no front latch, no motor i can hear, nothing else.

With the battery fully charged, I restarted ISTA, put the car into the ignition on position again, and ran the program, and the tree and fault pages are pretty similar to before, but now the faults show up as 0km/mi instead of my current mileage. The date code on the battery shows 10/23, so is relatively recently replaced, would it work if i swapped batteries with a known, working battery? I did notice though that there is a white residual mark at the bottom of the foam in the battery storage, could there have been water intruding in there?

[bucketlover]

i’ve been calling around and it seems that the dealership is the only one that can reliably diagnose this for me, i know you two aren’t around Los Angeles, but if anyone else could help with a shop that deals with these convertibles it would be greatly appreciated.

I have called the M Shop, Bimmer PHD, DTM Auto Salon, the recommended shops closest to me. dealer charges up to $299 for diagnostic, so worst comes worst i guess i’ll go to them…

[bucketlover]

very stupid on me, i misclicked the latency on the com 1 port on setup hence the module errors… fixed that and now the module errors are all gone. now just a top issue with windows going down, close button lighting up green, but no response anywhere else. all sensors now read properly,(not with not available) but no fault codes still. sorry for wasting your guys’ time on the problem thus far…

additionally, upon “resetting control unit”, the red top fault light shows up but no faults on the ista program. unsure if that is an indication that the top was reset or something else.

[B21]

So storm in a teacup…those usb latency errors do catch a lot of folks out..obviously we aren’t clairvoyants..the roof module is touchy..doesn’t take much to upset it..often in a transient way..

[bucketlover]

as for the module errors, they were indeed a storm in a teapot. the roof issue persists, however, despite having no codes at all…

[B21]

So you can’t open the roof on the buttons with the engine running and no fault codes ?

Motor runs?

Relays click?

I think I suggested CTM failure ..

[bucketlover]

yes, no fault codes but the process stops after the windows drop completely… if i hold the button past this, the close button lights green but nothing else, no motor or relay i think.

would a CTM failure result in the module still being green on ISTA? i will test with a multimeter in the near future

[javis20]

I would check the following...

1. Look in the FRM module, which controls windows and lighting, and make sure it know the front side windows are completely lowered.

2. Look in the JBE (junction box electronics module) to confirm the rear side windows are lowered.

3. Check what the KOMBI is treading for outside temperature. If sensor is defective and reading too cold the convertible top won/t work.

Your not seeing a fault because it's just waiting for all conditions to be met before operating. The CTM does not do everything, it requires some signals from other modules.

[bucketlover]

I couldn’t see the window position through the FRM and JBE modules like you said, but in the window position part of the CTM, it states all as “open” (as opposed to intermediate or closed), and the KOMBI outside temp reads as 33C so i think there’s no issue there either…