Hi Guys

Driving back from LA today to San Diego, fine for 2 hours, eventually I hit traffic after going freeway speeds for ~ 1 hour, I slow down almost to a stop then *bling* all the lights that usually come on when I turn on the ignition appear on the dash. I immediately notice the "Service engine soon" light and others, but can't really remember as am in panic in middle of freeway. Engine seems to have gone completely.

Luckily I was on a slight hill and could swap on to hard shoulder and parked it.

Tried to restart it a couple of times, nothing. Then realized I was in "Drive".

Back to "Park", restart - all is well and drove on with no more issues.

Anyone got any advice? It's almost like the engine stalled, there was no oddness before or after the event... very strange.

2005 MCS Auto

 

The Service Engine Soon (SES) light is tied to emissions, overboost, loose fuel cap, things like that. When the SES lights up, don't freak out... Just have the codes read and see what the deal is and take care of it.

Motor on!

 

Hmm thanks. Trouble is I didn't see any error codes or anything. It just lost power and "died". No issues restarting and motoring on either...?

 

You need to pull the codes with an OBC reader. You can see what caused the car to die and if the condition still is present.

Example I let my neighbor drive my MC40 #211 because she had both of hers in the shop (her '07 R52 and her '12 R56) and she got all upset because she saw the SES light popped and freaked her out for a minute. She pulled over and shut it down and restarted the car to see if the light would go out, it didn't. A week later I pulled the codes and it was OverBoost and Running to Lean codes. Errors were not currently present, (I think she was getting on it ... rocking and rolling and backed off the throttle after running it up to redline, and back fed fuel into the exhaust for the lean code). I cleared the codes and not an issue.

Yours, well until you see what the codes are no way of knowing what caused it... Just another way of BMW getting you into the shop.

Motor on!

 

I had a similar problem and it ended up being the accelerator pedal. Since the throttle control is electronic there is a position sensor on the pedal. The sensor can start to wear out and get dead spots (open circuit). The ECU can go crazy when it hits a dead spot. Mine died two different times when coming to a stop. I replaced the pedal assembly and all is good. The pedal assembly is easy to replace.

Did the SES light stay off after you restarted the car?