Hello,

I have a 2003 R53. Lately, in hard right hand cornering around an exit ramp, the Tire pressure monitor, ABS, and Traction control lights come on. If I turn off the ignition and back on the Traction control and ABS lights come back on for a few seconds, then go off. I would expect this means that I have a problem with a wheel sensor. I have an Android phone with the free version of Torque and an OBD/bluetooth dongle. It seems to read the engine temperature, boost, etc. fine, but it doesn't show many any messages that I can find when these lights are on. Any idea how to troubleshoot this?

-Eric

 

Bad wheel sensor. Search for Trifecta.

 

Any idea how to find out which one using an ODB/ELM adapter and an android phone, or without taking it to a dealer?

 

No real way to find out at home. Its a cheap part (like $50) so the best way for at home is to guess left or right front and install. Reset the tire pressure sensor and imake sure all the lights go away. Drive around for a few days to make sure it stays fixed. They are notorious for working intermittently as they break. If lights come back, then re-install the old one and swap out the other side. Re-do test. If the lights still come back then likely both need replacement.

 

Just out of curiosity, what are the tire pressures on all 4 tires? Are they all equal?

 

Another very common place to look is the right front wheel. The wire going to the sensor can get next to the crank pulley and be rubbed in two. Guess how I know this...

 

If all the lights are coming on, it is usually a sign that the abs sensor is going bad. Do a search on this forum.


http://www.minicarparts.net/Parts/34_52_6_756_384.cfm

 

When there are a lot of discrepancies in RPM amongst 4 wheels in normal driving pattern beyond some threshold set forth in the traction control system those warning lights may go up.

The ABS/wheel sensor detects the wheel spin (to work the ABS and other traction control features) and the low inflated tire rotates faster than the properly inflated tires when going straight due to smaller diameter. With this given condition, when ABS has to kick in, it sorta throws off the balancing act for the ABS; trying to detect correct speed for individual wheel/tire by applying pulse to different channel equalizing wheel spin, but that is the equalized speed measured at the sensor reading RPM of the "axle", not how fast the wheel/tire combo is traveling WRT rest of the wheel/tire combo.

Try Rock Auto for parts. I found some of them if available they are cheaper.

Or it could be simply bad ABS/wheel sensor(s) misleading computer to think that the wheels are spinning at different speed when they are going straight.

IIRC the early R50/53s had indirect tire pressure warning system that counts number of rotation of each wheel through the ABS sensor and determine if there is a low pressure tire by detecting fast spinning tire at the axle due to smaller diameter tire which is under-inflated.

I would check the tire pressures first. Then do other things that people suggested.

 

Any update?

 

i had the dsc and tire pressure light on for like 2 months... tried a lot of stuff but it still wont go away, until i went to go get my wheel align and it disappear...

 

Must have been off by a lot to a point to cause computer to think that there is a lotta discrepancy amongst rotations of them 4 wheels.

That goes to say, it is not just the bad sensor, it involves those things that affects the rotations of the wheels.

 

Ok, so I just had the traction control light, ABS, and low tire pressure lights come on but I also took the mini through the automatic car wash yesterday so I checked the tire pressure and aired the tires up and unplugged the battery for at least three hours to reset the modules so then we will see what happens ....

 

So what happened?

 

Curious!!

 

Currently all of the lights came back on after resetting the modules so this weekend I will have it tested to determine which if any wheel speed sensors are bad and get those replaced. Hopefully this will be the end to a full year of repairs .... transmission, clutch, alternator, tires, brakes, rotors, radiator, and exhaust .... I am ready to be done for a bit!!

 

If you need to reset the modules again, this might help..

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ni-viagra.html

Edit: I promise this has nothing to do with actual viagra. This is not spam. I am actually trying to help.

I realize how this looks.

 

Hey all,

It looks like this thread's been going on for a while in my absence. Just thought I'd give an update, for what it's worth, not much. I posted this back in June and my lights stopped coming on a few weeks after this.

I'm not sure what happened. I moved and so haven't been driving on that particular on-ramp since that time. However, I have been driving I'm pretty sure as aggressively around other ramps and haven't had it happen.

Maybe it was a tire pressure thing? However, I'd think a tire pressure discrepancy should cause only the TPMS light to come on, not the other two.

Maybe I had a problem with a wheel sensor and it "fixed itself?" I assume these sensors have magnets and some kind of inductive coil type thingie? Kind of surprising the problem would go away, then. If they were optical sensors, I could see a lens getting dirty and then getting clean again.

-Eric

 

Actually, it may not have been anything more than that you were spinning that inside front wheel and the computer thought that it was low on pressure. That would explain the various warnings that you got.

In the Gen I MINIs BMW used the ABS sensors to look for low tire pressure. If all the wheels are at the same pressure, they will all spin at the same speed. If a tire gets low on pressure, it will spin faster. The computer sees this and sends a low tire pressure warning. I think this can also happen if you spin the front wheel by aggressive driving in a corner. This can be fixed by driving more slowly

 

So update, we found a lose nut laying on the connection to a wheel speed sensor and all lights have been off since!!

 

The traction control should be there to prevent the inside wheel from spinning. If I'm cornering hard, I see the traction control light flickering as I start feeding in the power when coming out of an exit ramp.

It was under similar conditions that I had all three lights come on at once, back in the June timeframe.

-Eric

 

I've just had this on mine and after putting it on a Snap On diagnostic - it was the steering angle sensor at fault.

I'm leaving it for now, the car is a lot nicer to drive with DSC permanently off.

 

Or getting an LSD.

 

Shouldn't make any difference unless you're pushing it so that the DSC want's to kick in. That said, I'll thumb mine off when I want to do some spirited driving, like flooring it out of corners and spinning up both front wheels just for the fun of it.

 

I have been dealing with this for a while too. I looked on e-Bay and found new wheel sensors for under $20.00 and free shipping. I figured for that price it would be worth the risk.

Removed the old one and did a comparison to the new one, exactly the same in ALL respects. Installed the new one and the trifecta of lights have remained off.

Observation: The dealer wants about $120.00 for a new wheel sensor, I saved $100.00 and have an identical part to OEM and am very happy with it.

 

Best answer by far.