Right my family car is an e39 2003 530d sport, at the mot it failed on a rear number plate light out. Now after checking the bulb and finding 0volts at the bulb holder. Quick google revealed common problems with the tailgate wiring. Right so I peeled back the wiring grommet to find broken wires, did I quick repair and the light works.

At the same time I found problems with the central locking not working intermittently, so I removed the tailgate wiring completely and rewired it longer with neat solder joints, everything was working fine, but the central locking glitched once today, which is infuriating! Now where else could this problem be coming from, googling takes me down a million possible faults! Is there a way of diagnosing central locking faults with a pc? Obd covers power train only I think??

Cheers

 

hi mate had my bulb out but was bulb lol now my speakers dont work all apart fron drivers side one what about yours iv googled it mite be an amp?and my central locking played up the car dident respond to remote so tried it with key then remote works fine now and the key is self charger from ignition the fob dont have no batteries either.

 

use carsoft or p a soft bmw scanner,will give you the fault and any others too.

 

Ok thanks, even if the fault is intermittent, will it be logged?

 

Surely this is only applicable though if you have CAN-BUS, which I doubt the OP'S will due to the age?

Martin

 

on PA soft it will show stored faults and current faults.

Carsoft is better on older cars e34/32 etc but works ok on e39

 

Sorry but the E39 has I-BUS,works mostly the same way as CAN-BUS but only used in E36,38,39.

E39 upto 2001 (pre-facelift) has a round connector in the engine department,99-00 has both OBD port and round connector.
either way use the round connector for diagnose and obd for live data

Cheers

 

Awesome cheers guys

Cars booked in with BMW specialist Thursday to diagnose faults, random opening windows and locks are driving me nuts.....

 

wow they're gonna shaft you with a mad price i bet(& thats not even with labour)
outta curiousity have you checked your fob?? sounds to me like it could be dodgy