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  #1  
Old 12-30-2007, 01:02 AM
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Exclamation "SERVICE ENGINE SOON"

The "SERVICE ENGINE SOON" indicator light turned on today when my wife turned on her 2007 X3 ,3.0si with 11K miles on it. The light remains illuminated and has not gone off since then, except when the cars is turned off. There is no difference on engine performance, yet, that I can tell when driving it. What can the problem be at 11K miles? A sensor or an exhaust valve issue? The owner's manual states "exhaust values are deteriorating". The light is always on and not flashing. Have anyone had this problem before and around the same milage? And what was the diagnostic? And how many miles would it be safe to drive it before I could take it to the stealer for a diagnostic without doing any damage? I know is hard to know exactly what the problem is without having it connected to a diagnostic code reader, but I'm just curious on what other peeps have experienced with their X3s at around the same milage. I hate taking it to the dealer. The techs at my dealer have no idea on what they are doing. I had my experience with them just programming my alarm the way I wanted, not to mention getting the sirius to work right. Is a good thing they don't work with airplanes. BMW dealers need to get their act together when dealing with maintence/service requests from their customers. They need real techs,well trainned and with lots of experience that love working on BMW cars. Is a shame because BMW is a great driving machine, but a great driving machine could only remain in such way as long as the techs performing the schedule maintenace and repairs are true professionals and love what they do.
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  #2  
Old 12-30-2007, 01:23 AM
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autozone will scan it for free before you take it to the dealer. or pay a mechanic somewhere $5 to scan and read the code to you. thats what i do all the time. before you take it to the dealer make sure you know whats wrong with it or they will just rob you, but in your case your car still has warranty on it, why not let the dealer scan the code?
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  #3  
Old 12-30-2007, 01:27 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NOVAX5
autozone will scan it for free before you take it to the dealer. or pay a mechanic somewhere $5 to scan and read the code to you. thats what i do all the time. before you take it to the dealer make sure you know whats wrong with it or they will just rob you, but in your case your car still has warranty on it, why not let the dealer scan the code?
I will end up at the stealer, eventually. I was just wondering who else had the same problem and what the diagnostic was. I want to see if this is a common problem at around that milage on the 2007 X3s.
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  #4  
Old 12-30-2007, 03:33 AM
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The single most common cause of the SES light is the gas cap being loose. It can be cross-threaded, or just not tight, and if it doesn't seal there is a fault due to the evaporative emissions system controls sensing a leak. Any chance the vehicle was refueled the day the light came on, or the day prior?

Check the gas cap, tighten it up, and see if the code goes away within a day. It won't go out immediately, but it will self-reset. If not, book it at the dealer.

If it isn't the gas cap, it is more likely to be a sensor than anything internal in the engine.

Good luck.
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  #5  
Old 12-30-2007, 11:33 AM
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My wife did fill the tank 3 days prior the SERVICE ENGINE SOON light came on. She hasn't driven the car much after that. Anyway I did removed the gas cap, although it was closed properly, and re-installed it. The light still remains on. Is the resetting of the SERVICE ENGINE SOON light, assuming it could be the gas cap not installed right, by any chance time sensitive or milage sensitive? Also, can the butterfly oF the exhaust valve located at the right exhaust chrome tail pipe cause this SERVICE ENGINE SOON light to come on if defective? I do hear a ratchetting noise about 1 or 2 seconds after the car turns on and the butterfly of the valve almost closes, but not completely. I do notice once the car is off that the butterfly opens completely. Is this the way its supposed to work? Is that noise normal on 2007 X3s? What exactly is the purpose of that valve on the tail pipe?
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  #6  
Old 01-03-2008, 09:32 PM
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Thumbs up

Update on the SES light. Today I took the X3 to work, about 13 miles drive and about 7 days after the SES light came on. I requested an apointment for today, with the dealer, for the SES issue. I was supposed to have taken it afterwork. After I finished work, I got in the X3 turned the ignition key on and the light illuminated for 2 secs or so and then it turned off by itself. Apperently, it was definetly the refueling that some how tripped the system. And I guess the driving caused it to reset. Anyway peeps thanks to all for answering this thread. Specially JCL! You were right on the money, with regards to the most common SES indicator comming on issue. Hopefully, this helps out other bmw newbies, like me, in the future.

Thanks again!
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  #7  
Old 01-04-2008, 01:40 AM
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Glad it worked out.

Jeff
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  #8  
Old 01-04-2008, 09:14 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JCL
The single most common cause of the SES light is the gas cap being loose. It can be cross-threaded, or just not tight, and if it doesn't seal there is a fault due to the evaporative emissions system controls sensing a leak. Any chance the vehicle was refueled the day the light came on, or the day prior?

Check the gas cap, tighten it up, and see if the code goes away within a day. It won't go out immediately, but it will self-reset. If not, book it at the dealer.

If it isn't the gas cap, it is more likely to be a sensor than anything internal in the engine.

Good luck.
HMMM.... now there is a "check gas cap" light so the SES doesn't come on when the cap is not on.

On my 06 the cap was bad and that light was on all the time. I took that thing to the deal at least 20 time and each time I told them "I think the cap is bad" and each time all they said was "can't duplicate the problem".

The car was under warranty and they wouldn't give me a new cap no matter what I said.

Finally I wrote a letter to BMW and within a few days the dealer called to ask me to bring the car in. I told them the "I think the cap is bad" they gave me a new one off I went and off went the light forever.
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  #9  
Old 01-04-2008, 10:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DWill
HMMM.... now there is a "check gas cap" light so the SES doesn't come on when the cap is not on.
Good catch. I had not seen that light, ever, but I checked our '07 X3 owner's manual and it is listed.

However, it appears that the SES light is also involved. The manual says that the SES light will come on if the cap is opened while the engine is still running, and that the check gas cap light will come on if the gas cap is left loose after the vehicle is restarted.

Seems a bit complicated to me, but I guess it kept another design engineer employed for a few weeks.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that the gas cap light is triggered by a mechanical contact on the cap, and that the SES light is triggered as always, by an out-of-range pressure reading in the fuel tank and carbon canister evaporative emission control system, most usually caused by a loose cap or cracked hose. It appears that this may have been the problem the OP had if in fact reseating the gas cap fixed it; if not, I would still go with a sensor as the most likely culprit.

Thanks for the post, DWill.
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  #10  
Old 01-23-2008, 09:43 PM
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Question SES light on again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It happen again! Yesterday, I put gas and today the SES light came on again. Well, about a week or so ago I bought a code reader (ACTRON CP9180) and decided to to read the OBD codes. It turns out I get the P0326 code which says is a knock sensor. The gas that I put is BP (premium). I was previusly using the premium gas from COSTCO. Anyway, I did a reset and the SES light went out (off). I didn't hear the engine make any knocking noise nor the car felt rough when driven, at the time the light was on. And the light so far has not come on since I did the reset. My questions I guess are, can refueling cause the SES light to come on with a P0326 code generated from the OBD computer, even though I used always the correct fuel octane? And if I do have a bad knocking sensor, how come it doesn't come on after I do the reset? Knocking is the result of detonation, and detonation is caused by improper ignition of the fuel. Any idea guys why I'm I getting the P0326 code when I do the refueling?
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