BMW Owners - Please Read!
03 July 2012, 01:51 PM
#34
Scooby Regular
What's not to like? You press a button and it's on. Press it again and it's off. It's not a secret test of manliness you know 
In my 7 series it's just perfect. The Auto-P feature is superb. Pull up to a halt and the handbrake comes on automatically, put your foot on the throttle and it comes off again. I can manually switch the feature on and off by pressing my thumb on a button on the steering wheel, ideal for those occasions when you want to creep rather than stop
In my 7 series it's just perfect. The Auto-P feature is superb. Pull up to a halt and the handbrake comes on automatically, put your foot on the throttle and it comes off again. I can manually switch the feature on and off by pressing my thumb on a button on the steering wheel, ideal for those occasions when you want to creep rather than stop
03 July 2012, 02:24 PM
#35
Seriously you like electronic handbrakes?
I hate them
Can't open the door to reverse park in a tight space....it applies the brakes "for my safety"
There is a 1 second lag between holding the foot on the brake and the button responding. I.e if I apply the foot brake and turn off the handbrake too quickly (in the correct sequence)....it''ll go"BLING" and tell me how to use it on the dash, when that is exactly what I've done!
The auto-p hill holder turns the brake pedal rock solid making you think the brake booster has failed. If you've ever driven a car with a failed brake booster (which used to happen on BMW diesels - they even did a recall), you'll appreciate how alarming this can be. The lag/hestitacy between it turning on and off is also annoying when trying to pull away quick from a busy junction.
When parking up; It applies the main vehicle brakes first then applies the handbrake afterwards, but keeps the main brakes held on, only when you switch off the ignition it will release the foot brake, but only after about 5 seconds after switching off.....If you happen to be getting out of the car on a hill during this time, the car rolls by 3 inches making you jump back in thinking the handbrake has failed and the car is about to roll away! (and sods law dictates the day I ignore it - it WILL roll away
).
If the car breaks down in a dangerous place and need to be pushed/towed to safety, the only way to manually release the handbrake is to get the BMW tool/widget out of the tool kit in the boot and operate a lever/bolt underneath the boot floor. Once you've done this the handbrake will not work at all and has to be reset by the dealer!! If its also an automatic gearbox and it suffers a electrical failure, you have to get another widget out of the tool kit and operate a level underneath the ashtray. And you can only re-engage park when electrical power is restored.
All this faffing to push a car out of a parking space so it can get on to a recovery truck!! Any other car its release the handbrake, release steering lock, and stick it in neutral.
From a independant/DIY mechanic's point of view (this especially applies to VAG cars with the same system), you cannot change the rear brake pads without first connecting a diagnostics computer to the car and telling it to release the rear brakes, then you have to enter the command so the handbrake system knows you have fitted new pads and has to recalibrate itself....if you don't do this, it will wreck the rear brake calipers as it will burn out the handbrake motors. We've had customers come in with knackered rear calipers due to the ignorance of other repairers or because of a DIY pad change...and for over £500 for a set of calipers makes it an expensive oversight!
Stupid stupid stipid....what is wrong with a lever,cable and fulcrum pivot on a shoe/caliper?
The Vauxhall system is even more stupid; as its still the same handbrake system.....but a motor pulls on the cable instead of a human. FFS. It doesn't replace anything except the human part, with a motor that fails to work properly alowing the car to roll-away (comming to a watchdog episode to you soon...again! ).
Bear in mind these systems are fairly new.....you just wait for ten years when these cars are old and worn out and start playing funny beggars....coming soon a BMW 5 series rolling down a hill near you!
Rant off.
And bring back the e39 M5!!
I hate them
Can't open the door to reverse park in a tight space....it applies the brakes "for my safety"
There is a 1 second lag between holding the foot on the brake and the button responding. I.e if I apply the foot brake and turn off the handbrake too quickly (in the correct sequence)....it''ll go"BLING" and tell me how to use it on the dash, when that is exactly what I've done!
The auto-p hill holder turns the brake pedal rock solid making you think the brake booster has failed. If you've ever driven a car with a failed brake booster (which used to happen on BMW diesels - they even did a recall), you'll appreciate how alarming this can be. The lag/hestitacy between it turning on and off is also annoying when trying to pull away quick from a busy junction.
When parking up; It applies the main vehicle brakes first then applies the handbrake afterwards, but keeps the main brakes held on, only when you switch off the ignition it will release the foot brake, but only after about 5 seconds after switching off.....If you happen to be getting out of the car on a hill during this time, the car rolls by 3 inches making you jump back in thinking the handbrake has failed and the car is about to roll away! (and sods law dictates the day I ignore it - it WILL roll away
).If the car breaks down in a dangerous place and need to be pushed/towed to safety, the only way to manually release the handbrake is to get the BMW tool/widget out of the tool kit in the boot and operate a lever/bolt underneath the boot floor. Once you've done this the handbrake will not work at all and has to be reset by the dealer!! If its also an automatic gearbox and it suffers a electrical failure, you have to get another widget out of the tool kit and operate a level underneath the ashtray. And you can only re-engage park when electrical power is restored.
All this faffing to push a car out of a parking space so it can get on to a recovery truck!! Any other car its release the handbrake, release steering lock, and stick it in neutral.
From a independant/DIY mechanic's point of view (this especially applies to VAG cars with the same system), you cannot change the rear brake pads without first connecting a diagnostics computer to the car and telling it to release the rear brakes, then you have to enter the command so the handbrake system knows you have fitted new pads and has to recalibrate itself....if you don't do this, it will wreck the rear brake calipers as it will burn out the handbrake motors. We've had customers come in with knackered rear calipers due to the ignorance of other repairers or because of a DIY pad change...and for over £500 for a set of calipers makes it an expensive oversight!
Stupid stupid stipid....what is wrong with a lever,cable and fulcrum pivot on a shoe/caliper?
The Vauxhall system is even more stupid; as its still the same handbrake system.....but a motor pulls on the cable instead of a human. FFS. It doesn't replace anything except the human part, with a motor that fails to work properly alowing the car to roll-away (comming to a watchdog episode to you soon...again!
).Bear in mind these systems are fairly new.....you just wait for ten years when these cars are old and worn out and start playing funny beggars....coming soon a BMW 5 series rolling down a hill near you!
Rant off.
And bring back the e39 M5!!
Last edited by ALi-B; 03 July 2012 at 02:26 PM.
03 July 2012, 02:59 PM
#36
Scooby Regular
There is a 1 second lag between holding the foot on the brake and the button responding. I.e if I apply the foot brake and turn off the handbrake too quickly (in the correct sequence)....it''ll go"BLING" and tell me how to use it on the dash, when that is exactly what I've done!
The auto-p hill holder turns the brake pedal rock solid making you think the brake booster has failed. If you've ever driven a car with a failed brake booster (which used to happen on BMW diesels - they even did a recall), you'll appreciate how alarming this can be. The lag/hestitacy between it turning on and off is also annoying when trying to pull away quick from a busy junction.
When parking up; It applies the main vehicle brakes first then applies the handbrake afterwards, but keeps the main brakes held on, only when you switch off the ignition it will release the foot brake, but only after about 5 seconds after switching off.....If you happen to be getting out of the car on a hill during this time, the car rolls by 3 inches making you jump back in thinking the handbrake has failed and the car is about to roll away! (and sods law dictates the day I ignore it - it WILL roll away
).If the car breaks down in a dangerous place and need to be pushed/towed to safety, the only way to manually release the handbrake is to get the BMW tool/widget out of the tool kit in the boot and operate a lever/bolt underneath the boot floor. Once you've done this the handbrake will not work at all and has to be reset by the dealer!! If its also an automatic gearbox and it suffers a electrical failure, you have to get another widget out of the tool kit and operate a level underneath the ashtray. And you can only re-engage park when electrical power is restored.
All this faffing to push a car out of a parking space so it can get on to a recovery truck!! Any other car its release the handbrake, release steering lock, and stick it in neutral.
All this faffing to push a car out of a parking space so it can get on to a recovery truck!! Any other car its release the handbrake, release steering lock, and stick it in neutral.
From a independant/DIY mechanic's point of view (this especially applies to VAG cars with the same system), you cannot change the rear brake pads without first connecting a diagnostics computer to the car and telling it to release the rear brakes, then you have to enter the command so the handbrake system knows you have fitted new pads and has to recalibrate itself....if you don't do this, it will wreck the rear brake calipers as it will burn out the handbrake motors. We've had customers come in with knackered rear calipers due to the ignorance of other repairers or because of a DIY pad change...and for over £500 for a set of calipers makes it an expensive oversight!
03 July 2012, 10:41 PM
#38
).[/quote]
OMG you've got me on board now! The programming that the 7 series needs is ridiculous. Replace the battery and it needs to be paired to the car by the computer.
[/quote]I knew I'd get there in the end
03 July 2012, 10:52 PM
#39
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Join Date: Oct 2006
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Crazy to read. Under 2 minutes to steal a bimmer with a obd key programmer. First bmw forget to fit indicators and now they have a alarm with a blindspot to the only place the key can be cracked in minutes.
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