RCM & SAMs

[Dean Fletcher]

Had a day off today and thought id tackle some car jobs.
Yesterday when I started her up there was a ton of faults. some which i believe to be battery related. After driving a few hundred miles some faults seemed to go. the attachment is the current list.
the rear control module am i right in thinking its the white box fitted behind the left rear passenger in the boot behind the lining?
when the car is in ignition position 1 i can her intermittent humming sound coming from this box, this is the window control module right? is this the same thing if not where is the VDS rear control module?

next question we have 3 faults from the rear SAM all seem to point to the cars protection? whats the best way to investigate this? i have checked all fuses for continuity and all seem fine. i thought it would be likely that its a fuse issue?

the last 3 faults are not a concern at the moment and not looking into.

thanks all

 

[Botus]

now u have a list of them, ensure battery is tip top, add support during each diagnostic session, rescan, wipe them out and then drive for 10 mins and see which came back

if it was battery related they will stay gone, other wise something to investigate but at least your are searching real faults not comms glitches due to voltage

 

[Dean Fletcher]

now u have a list of them, ensure battery is tip top, add support during each diagnostic session, rescan, wipe them out and then drive for 10 mins and see which came back

if it was battery related they will stay gone, other wise something to investigate but at least your are searching real faults not comms glitches due to voltage

Thanks I’ll keep you posted

 

[Botus]

shame you don't have more responses - that's quite a few "bits of fun", I suspect they may all be related - but I'm struggling to work out what the driver might be

If you get it charged up and don't have dash warnings, I wouldn't worry too much if you find much of the equipment is operating normally - its the sort of thing Mercedes later car's seem to notice - could be an aging bit of kit, a small change in resistance on some wiring somewhere or some software that doesn't do things as well as it should. These days I notice you hear this sort of thing with strange noises around various bits of the car on other brands too.

It would be great if we had insight in to what software changes were for and knowing what to apply to give all matching, compatible software. But there are legal / safety reasons they don't disclose the why to anyone.

It appears Mercedes "thinking" was everything is comfortable and doesn't need to rely on the software iteration in other modules on the car - but that is NOT the case. It seems true that much operates successfully, but some do need another module updated, or once one is updated another might now accept an update that was not visible (without doing other modules first). And then if that too is updated we discover (if we look) a critical update for another is now compatible. Its rather a mess, and they need to start again with how they make cars.

Very occasionally the dealer tools will alert the operator to the need to do another module. But I've seen it forget to do that during this session. Then when next plugged in it offers the change. And I've then see it make errors when you do that and break things, and then years later (I guess after other customer complaints) they realise oops, we never turned that on or configured this part correctly !!! Rather serious omissions, that should never happen.

BMW is the ONLY brand I know of that does things the best way - flash everything in the car during the same session, going around all modules in the car one at a time, in a set order, pushing all latest fixes and for belt and braces over write any module that isn't getting new software with a fresh copy of its current standard, then as each module finishes its individual programming, re-confgure everything in that module to its factory set up. If it dies you know the offending module or the next one in the loop that shouldn't be there as its not factory approved fitment.

Had this done on 1 car and 3 bikes (only the car played up as I had fitted the CD multichanger in the MOST loop and BMW though having pre wired the car for the module, wasn't aware it was now on the loop - so was trying to flash BT software to the CD changer - when I pointed this out they added the cd changer to a list of toys on the car (equiv of updating the Datacard) and the car updated without issue. It went much much faster (twin turbo nutter car), did better MPG, the gearbox worked better, and the interior toys got an update, allegedly updated the car to suite current dealer diagnostic tools and added current dealer info for all europe BM garages. And cost just £121 to do it on the car - On one of my bikes its only a 20min labour charge

 

[mioba]

BMW is the ONLY brand I know of that does things the best way

How dare you

 

[Dean Fletcher]

shame you don't have more responses - that's quite a few "bits of fun", I suspect they may all be related - but I'm struggling to work out what the driver might be

If you get it charged up and don't have dash warnings, I wouldn't worry too much if you find much of the equipment is operating normally - its the sort of thing Mercedes later car's seem to notice - could be an aging bit of kit, a small change in resistance on some wiring somewhere or some software that doesn't do things as well as it should. These days I notice you hear this sort of thing with strange noises around various bits of the car on other brands too.

It would be great if we had insight in to what software changes were for and knowing what to apply to give all matching, compatible software. But there are legal / safety reasons they don't disclose the why to anyone.

It appears Mercedes "thinking" was everything is comfortable and doesn't need to rely on the software iteration in other modules on the car - but that is NOT the case. It seems true that much operates successfully, but some do need another module updated, or once one is updated another might now accept an update that was not visible (without doing other modules first). And then if that too is updated we discover (if we look) a critical update for another is now compatible. Its rather a mess, and they need to start again with how they make cars.

Very occasionally the dealer tools will alert the operator to the need to do another module. But I've seen it forget to do that during this session. Then when next plugged in it offers the change. And I've then see it make errors when you do that and break things, and then years later (I guess after other customer complaints) they realise oops, we never turned that on or configured this part correctly !!! Rather serious omissions, that should never happen.

BMW is the ONLY brand I know of that does things the best way - flash everything in the car during the same session, going around all modules in the car one at a time, in a set order, pushing all latest fixes and for belt and braces over write any module that isn't getting new software with a fresh copy of its current standard, then as each module finishes its individual programming, re-confgure everything in that module to its factory set up. If it dies you know the offending module or the next one in the loop that shouldn't be there as its not factory approved fitment.

Had this done on 1 car and 3 bikes (only the car played up as I had fitted the CD multichanger in the MOST loop and BMW though having pre wired the car for the module, wasn't aware it was now on the loop - so was trying to flash BT software to the CD changer - when I pointed this out they added the cd changer to a list of toys on the car (equiv of updating the Datacard) and the car updated without issue. It went much much faster (twin turbo nutter car), did better MPG, the gearbox worked better, and the interior toys got an update, allegedly updated the car to suite current dealer diagnostic tools and added current dealer info for all europe BM garages. And cost just £121 to do it on the car - On one of my bikes its only a 20min labour charge

Thanks for the huuuge response that was a good read. It won’t be until the weekend now when I get to have a look at her again. I’ll make sure the battery’s charges and re check.

 

[V6Matty]

Have you got a charger Dean? If not you can pop over and borrow mine

 

[Botus]

Hardware and software mischief these days, welcome your thoughts on whats happening here....

A change by a german motorcycle manufacturer, only in one market (where oddly the class action law suits have very big claws), how can you just remove this mounting bolt if it was actually necessary, and then why have they only done this improvement for one market ?

New model year bikes before Production Date July 17, 2020

TSB

SITUATION
During assembly, an additional mounting bolt was installed on the ABS pressure modulator instead of
a plastic rivet. This changes the vibration behavior of the ABS modulator. When the motorcycle is
frequently used at very high engine speeds, vibration damage to the components could occur.
CORRECTION
The additional bolt must be removed and a plastic fastener (rivet) must be installed in its place.

the older bikes always had the plastic bit, so its reverting later USA bikes (I presume from accidental european designed to fail spec) back to "USA standards"

 

[Dean Fletcher]

Have you got a charger Dean? If not you can pop over and borrow mine

Thanks very much, I bought one last lock down. You all moved in now? Was cycling past Greystoke the other day

 

[V6Matty]

Thanks very much, I bought one last lock down. You all moved in now? Was cycling past Greystoke the other day

Yes all here now, slowly dragging the the house into this century, it was built in 1982 and just the one set of owners in all that time and nothing was ever changed lol

 

[Dean Fletcher]

Yes all here now, slowly dragging the the house into this century, it was built in 1982 and just the one set of owners in all that time and nothing was ever changed lol

Hahaha sounds like our house. Glad your all in. Lovely quiet village