[Phantom_9192]

All, similar issues here. I have a cheap Amazon OBDII reader and I've been using the OBDCarDoctor app on my iPhone. When all the lights are on, it reads no codes.
I have DCS, DBS, and hill assist errors and I verified that cruise control is non-functional. I have not verified turn signals or headlight tracking. Errors are intermittent and my wife tells me that one time they turned on when she hit the brakes.

Does this sound like the SZL issue or something in perhaps an ABS speed sensor? Again, I have no codes showing (unless I need to look deeper/elsewhere/with a different decoder).
Thoughts?

[Phantom_9192]

Update: I've tested some more and here are the results.
When all error lights are active (DBS, hill assist, DSC, nothing else), cruise control is non-functional but turn signals work correctly.
I was finally able to force the errors as they have been wildly intermittent. They appear to be heat-related as so far when the car is hot and temps are 95+, the percentage chance of the errors seems to be much higher.
Yesterday I discovered that given the right conditions, a hard stab on the brakes (almost an emergency-stop) initiated all of the errors. That's the only thing that I've found that will do it.
NO codes appear during the errors (left car on with error lights lit up and checked codes) or afterwards (after turning car off).

Today it's only 90 degrees and in a short drive, I couldn't get the errors to come up even with emergency-braking.

My thought is an ABS speed sensor that only fails when it gets hot. Any other ideas?
No codes is making it tough on me.
TIA!

[HiRev335i]

Well I thought these two warning lights (brake and steering angle sensor) were related to recent work I did were I had to move the steering rack. After reassembly I noticed my wheel to be skewed to the right. After a brief drive that is when warning lights popped up. I believed they were related so had the car aligned steering wheel is straight again then had the sas recalibrated. All of this to no avail still had the dreaded lights on my cluster. At this point I'm thinking new sas GREAT $900 Canadian + coding WONDERFUL! I stumbled onto this thread and at this point I figure what do I got to lose other than a few hours of my time. I got to the optical disc and this is where I got really skeptical upon a visual it looked in good shape with no noticeable film or gunk on it. I'm really thinking at this point this is a waste of time, I continued on regardless, cleaned the disc with alcohol and with a cotton swab cleaned the Ird. Reassembled started the car up and was completely astonished that the warning lights had vanished. Want to thank the OP and every one else's input on the cleaning procedure it definitely saved me. Let's hope it lasts!!

[panamahat]

Hi. I am new to this forum, but would like to add my experience related to this problem. I was baffled for months with the "steering angle calibration required" fault. I used my Foxwell scanner to calibrate, and as soon as i turned steering to either side, bang, DCS light comes to dash. I ordered bmw sensor kit and replaced, and same ending. Replaced a speed sensor which was also faulty, and no change. So i took apart the steering wiper stalk to check the disk again. This time i was looking at the electronics board and i saw that a small sector of solder embedded in the board had lifted and cut off. I got a small piece of insulated wire an soldered to both ends of that "track".
Put everthing back together, erased codes, and BAMMMM, no more DSC lights, turning lights turn off after turning now, DTC button works, and cruise control works!!

[adi_335]

THANK YOU!!! This diy has saved me over a grand. I had my dct and yellow brake light come on as well as my turning signals weren't turning off my themselves after the turn about 3-4 month ago. I've been driving with it until I bumped into this post. I didn't mess with the board just cleaned the disk and the sensor with alcohol 91%. Put everything back together upon start up turned the wheel all the way to the left then right and deleted my codes with mhd app. The lights went away...for about 5 hours and they came back . However my turning lights were still working properly after lights came back on. I then read more people's post on this diy and saw where one of the guys did alignment and calibrated the sensor. I went to the shop and did both of those things and it's not all gone. No lights no problem car is back to normal . Thank you again for all this information you guys provided!!!

[bobstiles]

2008 535i e60

The steering wheel and some of the inside were different than the pictures, but you saved my bacon. Just bought this car at an action. Had the christmas lights as described. Clean the wheel with 70% worked great.
Thank you, from 2018!

[JoB01]

Replaced the front control arms and bushings on my M3, and also the alternator a week or so back. When I got her back together- got the code for the steering sensor, and all the associated lights....

Cleaned the sensor as described using 70% iso alchohol, some q-tips and a lint free microfiber cloth, reset the error codes in inpa, performed the calibration, and now everything is working perfectly. I would have been lost without this thread- thanks!!!

[ssric3]

It works. Dang it, I was skeptical of the soldering step but with nothing to loose, I tried putting the soldering iron where the last step described. And dang it, it worked!

I already tried disassembling the disk and cleaning it up with isopropyl alcohol, and cleaning the sensor. Assembled all back but got the codes. Bought a Foxwell NT520 Pro scanner and read the live data. It was definitely the steering sensor, since the angle reading changed when the steering wheel was moved slightly in any direction but once more steering angle was created the value increased rapidly and froze. So there I gave up and started thinking of getting a new unit.

Today, with time to spare, I decided to give it one last try and go through all the steps. I took my 20 year old soldering iron from retirement and used it on the solder joints it mentioned (Sensor, IR LED, Ribbon Cable terminals). One thing: I did notice one of the ribbon cables had some of its contacts with a dull shine (dirty). I cleaned them just in case. And I cleaned the disk one more time and made sure its surface was clean (used a light check for stains on the surface). Assembled everything back, got my scanner and read the live data of the steering sensor. This time it was returning values as I turned the wheel to either side! It was working! Re-calibrated the steering sensor and the 3 codes disappeared. After months of putting it off, my car is code-free again. Thank you OP!

[jamie323i]

Just wanted to add to the success stories, disassembled my 128i last night and inspected the optical disc and sensor. Thought it would be worth noting that mine was 100% clean as a whistle inside and had no visible damage. I reassembled and recalibrated with my foxwell nt510 scanner and bam! Everything works again, I suspect it may be a connector or cable or something, perhaps it just needed to be unplugged and plugged back in before it would recalibrate. In the end not totally sure what I did but it worked! Dirty optical discs may not be the whole issue for everyone.


Cheers and thanks to all contributors to this thread, saved me big time!

[leeks]

Hi guys,

having the much dreaded 005e46 error with no other errors (or indication of which speed sensor might be dead). So I decided to clean as per this guide.

Is it normal that my index seems off compared to OP?

I'm also missing a T6 torx so haven't been able to clean the sensor under but will do that soon.

Error didn't seem to go away for me, I only cleaned the front of the sensor disk, reassembled and connected the battery.

Cheers in advance.

UPDATE: I cleared the error by doing a "reset/calibrate" SZL/SAS in ISTA-D. I recently changed from a 17" square setup to a 18" staggered. Following an alignment, which massive adjustments, the error has been there ever since. I did get the error whilst on the 17", but I guess the bad alignment was also a trigger (error pops up after a long trip).

Nonetheless, my question remains, does the index look weird on my SAS?

[bluewater328]

Hard to tell as it could be just the angle of the picture, but your index does seem off. I don't know enough about the whole setup to say if thats a contributing factor for sure -- but it could be.

[Dovydas.B]

So yesterday I got yellow DSC and brake lights after quite a bumpy ride trough few deep pot holes. Inpa showed 5E46 fault. Indi checked suspension and everything was ok, just the wheels are curved and what I can see by my self the alignment is off, because steering wheel is a bit to the right. Live SAS data: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LOJ...usUwDCb2w/view

Did this method, I only reached the optical disk, because I didn't have the right torx screw to open the casing off sensor. Disk looked good, no damage in the coating. So I just cleaned everything, put everything back, deleted the errors and vualia no more lights. Quite a surprise!

After the fix, live INPA data of SAS more values was moving, second row from the left was changing when I turned the wheel. No AS

[cmde90]

I recently had mechanic friend replace my front control arms and after driving 4 miles down the street I had the yellow brake error, and yellow DSC error come up. He told me the old control arms were bent, and to have it aligned. Code reads 5E46 .

I took it to an independent to have it aligned which I thought would clear the code, but it is still present. I tried clearing the code on Bimmer Link but it still persists. Do you think this $.2 cent fix is the solution? OR is my problem related to the control arms.

[mrvedit]

The stability control system works by comparing wheel speeds with the amount the steering wheel is turned to determine if the car is slipping.
The ABS system also relies on wheel speeds.

Therefore, considering the work done, IMHO the most likely problem is that the wheel speed sensor was either disconnected or damaged.

A wheel alignment is a good idea, but in the interest of saving money may not be necessary, especially if the car seems to drive straight, steering wheel is centered, etc.
IIRC front caster and camber aren't adjustable anyway. (Some of us install camber plates to adjust it for track use.)
Wrong "toe" will wear the tires. Generally, any "toe out" will make the steering very twitchy. A tiny bit of toe-in is standard. Too much will make the steering feel sluggish, and of course wear the tires and reduce gas mileage. Its not hard to learn to "eye ball" toe by having the steering straight and while squatting low, look how the outside of the front tires align with the rear tires. If the front and rear track width are the same, the outside of the fronts will align with the outside of the rears with a zero toe setting. If the fronts point inside the rears you may have an undesirable toe-out condition. If the fronts point out from the rears, you almost certainly have too much toe-in.

[NickRay]

Thanks for the writeup @yikes98, just did this to my car. The pin connectors had very little solder on them and weren't soldered all the way around. I've been having this problem intermittently with my car so hopefully this was the fix. Will update if this did not solve the problem.

IMO, the hardest part of the job is getting the steering column cover back on. The majority of the work is easy if you have previous soldering experience on through hole or surface mount.

[jericho_17]

I'm tempted to do this DIY after reading all the good results.

I started having brake, tpms and dsc lights a couple of months ago and received the 0094B5 and 005E43 codes.

Lights are intermitent, they light up when i'm at low speeds or parking, and they turn off by themselves after a short driving or when I restart the engine.

Two questions:

1. Should I clean just one side or both sides? I see some people saying that the backside is delicate and encoded and should not be touched.

2. If the cleaning doesn't work or I find a cracked disc, the rebuilt kit also requires coding it to the car? I saw another DIY in which the disc is broken and they replace the disc with a used and matching part number and in that case they say it doesn't need coding.

thanks

[aakrusen]

You only need to clean the side that the prism-thing is on that is reading the disc. I doubt you'll find any cracks, it's likely just dirty. If it's anything like mine was, it will look crystalline in nature, like sugar collecting on the disc. Follow the instructions and you'll be back on the road in no time.

[jericho_17]

Originally Posted by aakrusen

You only need to clean the side that the prism-thing is on that is reading the disc. I doubt you'll find any cracks, it's likely just dirty. If it's anything like mine was, it will look crystalline in nature, like sugar collecting on the disc. Follow the instructions and you'll be back on the road in no time.

I haven't been able to find ispropylic alcohol, can I use 3m Quick Drying Contact Cleaner 16-102?

[aakrusen]

Originally Posted by jericho_17

I haven't been able to find ispropylic alcohol, can I use 3m Quick Drying Contact Cleaner 16-102?

Good question, these days it's probably harder to find certain cleaning materials. I don't know enough about the disc material and any coatings it may have on it, so be careful not to go to crazy on whatever you use. Soapy-water may be sufficient, but it wouldn't hurt to stay away from cleaners with ammonia in it. Ammonia can react with certain adhesives and plastic that might not help in your scenario.

[calicoupe]

Hi there! Just wanted to post another success story and huge thanks to OP. FWIW, when I took my SAS apart, the disc was perfectly clean and I could see no issues, debris, not even a speck of dust anywhere. But since I had it apart, I cleaned the disk, IR LED, sensor, and optical lead with 91% isopropyl and a microfiber towel and I also performed the 'xbox red light of death solution' that i found via google from suggestions on this thread. All I did there was use a heat gun in circles for 4 minutes on both sides of the board, focusing on the LED/sensor area. It's been 2 weeks and still working well!

[l8nit3]

Firstly, thank you for the info, my error lights are now gone after a thorough cleaning! Super useful tutorial.

I know this is a long shot due to being an old thread, but it s the only place with info specific to my problem:

Once rebuilding I completed the tutorial, everything worked wonderfully, however my entire turn signal stalk is not working.

I do, however, still have general BC and menu functions working. I have checked the ribbon cables going to the small motherboard inside, and each seems fully connected.

Is there any other possibilty before biting the bullet and purchasing a full new turn signal stalk?