Selflevel susp inactive?

[pseto]

After hitting 3 large buckets of golf balls, I get this error message pulling out of the parking lot. After a mile, I decide at the next light to shut down and start 'er back up. Error message goes away. The manual says to take SAV into stealer when getting this message, but I assume thats only when it continues to stay lit?

I've made 2 more trips afterwards, so it doesn't look like it'll come back on. Should I worry?

There was another thread about this, but i didn't have a rough ride or any other lights go off (maybe it'll be different in the AM). I guess others have had this too, but is there a fix?

[surreal]

yeah...its nothing big usually....but take it to the dealer in the next week

[PapX5]

I had the same thing happen. Took it in and it was a faulty sensor...replaced under warranty. No big deal.

[pseto]

Well, no more warranty for me. Anyone know how much this may run?

[jmagne]

Guess I found why the issue is so common. Honestly, not wise from BMW engineers on that one .
I had the same SELFLEVEL SUSP INAC. message on my X5 4.4i '05.
I had had my car diagnose by BMW dealer (see post http://www.xoutpost.com/472994-post12.html) and the problem raised is "Ride-level sensor, left faulty".
I looked for more information on that sensor and found this:
http://www.bmwmotorsports.org/BMW_docs/x5selflevel.pdf

The sensor is a hall sensor which sends a DC Analog output voltage to the EHC module.
The voltage range is approximately .5 to 4.5 volts. The voltage increases with increasing
vehicle height and the nominal voltage at normal ride height is approximately 2.5 volts. The
right side rear sensor is a double sensor, the additional sensor is an input to the headlight
leveling systemand has it’s own power supply, ground and signal wires.

So 3 wires there: POWER, GROUND and SIGNAL.

The ride height sensor is an angle Hall sensor which is activated by a ring magnet. The ring
magnet is polarized vertically from north to south.
The magnetic field line of the ring magnets intersect a Hall cell. The Hall cell is arranged in
such a way that only the horizontal components of the field lines are evaluated. This results
in different field line strengths at different positions of the ring magnet. The Hall cell measures
the field strength of the magnetic flux and converts it into an analog signal with a voltage
level between 0.5 and 4.5 V.

A magnet... very few chances to be faulty to my opinion. I then had a closer look to the electrical connection and here is my conclusion/fix:

The electrical connector is a waterproof connector because of it's location (right over the suspension arm) BUT.. the connector has 6 rooms with only 3 actually wired:



The result is that the 3 empty holes retain water that gently goes down into the connector...

• unplug your connector
• cleanup connections with contact cleaner
• fill the 3 empty rooms with a little drop of silicone
• plug it back

Now have to go back to dealer again to have my fault codes reset and verify all is working properly

[BMWLOVER]

Yea mine ahd this problem too after i had just finshed washing the X. After starting it again it didn't ever come back. But i still took it to the dealer and they replaced a sensor.

[Brit6]

The part that becomes faulty is the arm gets gunk and stuff in it and it does not move freely anymore and causes the error. I have 2 sitting infront of me right now, i am replacing the right rear because the check engine code informed me that was the one that had the problem.

I have the same connector, but the 3 spare holes in mine have 3 rubber plugs to prevent the water and dirt going in there. When i removed the sensor, the arm doesnt move freely and get stuck in places. Will replace it on friday when the new bracket and screws arrive.

I will update the other thread and this one if possible.

Originally Posted by jmagne

Guess I found why the issue is so common. Honestly, not wise from BMW engineers on that one .
I had the same SELFLEVEL SUSP INAC. message on my X5 4.4i '05.
I had had my car diagnose by BMW dealer (see post http://www.xoutpost.com/472994-post12.html) and the problem raised is "Ride-level sensor, left faulty".
I looked for more information on that sensor and found this:
http://www.bmwmotorsports.org/BMW_docs/x5selflevel.pdf


So 3 wires there: POWER, GROUND and SIGNAL.


A magnet... very few chances to be faulty to my opinion. I then had a closer look to the electrical connection and here is my conclusion/fix:

The electrical connector is a waterproof connector because of it's location (right over the suspension arm) BUT.. the connector has 6 rooms with only 3 actually wired:



The result is that the 3 empty holes retain water that gently goes down into the connector...

• unplug your connector
• cleanup connections with contact cleaner
• fill the 3 empty rooms with a little drop of silicone
• plug it back

Now have to go back to dealer again to have my fault codes reset and verify all is working properly

[jmagne]

Originally Posted by Brit6

... i am replacing the right rear because the check engine code informed me that was the one that had the problem.

How did you get the check engine code and match information with right level sensor?
Thought this could only be retreived by DIS @ Dealership

[Brit6]

That i could not do on my own.

I had an indy shop run the code from DIS.

PS: Thanks for the link, it was very informative.

Originally Posted by jmagne

How did you get the check engine code and match information with right level sensor?
Thought this could only be retreived by DIS @ Dealership

[jmagne]

Originally Posted by Brit6

PS: Thanks for the link, it was very informative.

You're welcome.
In fact, try to open directly http://www.bmwmotorsports.org/BMW_docs/. There are plenty of other usefull info.