'97 528i radio stopped working

[floridaLandDepot]

Anyone have any ideas my radio suddenly stopped working. I found that if I turn the car off and back on again sometimes this works. However its difficult to sing and drive with the radio going in and out.

[teilai1]

This is amazing! The exact same thing happened to me yesterday!!! I have a 97 528i. The radio would not come on so I put the car in park, turned it off and restarted. The radio worked. Is anyone else having having freaky electrical problems with their 97 528i? I have a rear brake light sensor light that wont go off but none of my brakelights are out. Also, sometimes the door unlock button will work, other times, not.

[floridaLandDepot]

Teillai1, I haven't been able to get anywhere with my radio problem. I have the same issue with the door lock button. I can't wait to see what's next.

[hawaiidan]

98 528, began experiencing same about 1mo ago. Very reliable source advised change out broken frnt seat side covers (plastic w/ seat position buttons attached) as all dash electrical interconnected and one faulty connection can cause problems elsewhere ie stereo, steering wheel button functionality...

Replaced side covers as recommended and saw ~50% improvement in radio reliability on start up. Still had to do the 'turn to igniton, turn off, turn to ignition, turn off' routine at least once every other day.

On second recommendation, replaced battery ($170 from dealer - factor in Hawaii surcharge!) and now at 90% reliability w/ radio turing on when ket moved to ignition pos.

Interesting 'next symptoms' experienced after intermittent radio failure: steering wheel button functionality failure, cruise control failure, tilt wheel glitchiness - going up and down on its own while driving - FUN!, interior dome light failure when headlights on, and lastly wiper failure.

Battery seemed to make things much better but not 100% back to normal... HTH. - d

[hawaiidan]

Thought I would add the logic behind this fix:

E39 is smart enough to know when battery is not functioning at optimal and when key is moved to ignition position, onboardcomputer (OBC) identifies the problem and 'turns off' select non-necessary functions to ensure the battery has enough charge to start the car.

Here's a quick check for you: open the trunk, open battery compartment on the right, with flashlight and mirror if necessary check the 'eye' on your battery. If it is not green like the color of antifreeze, your battery should probably be replaced. Yellow eye indicates low battery charge, no color in the window or eye means time to get a new battery.

=d

[reddebl]

Originally Posted by floridaLandDepot

Anyone have any ideas my radio suddenly stopped working. I found that if I turn the car off and back on again sometimes this works. However its difficult to sing and drive with the radio going in and out.

I had the same problem. I read all the stuff on the internet to no avail. I fixed the problem by changing the electric part of my ignition switch. works perfect everytime. It also corrected an intermittent security alarm going off.

[reddebl]

ignition switch contacts are dirty changed mine and everything is perfect, radio steering wheel etc.

[dgannon]

Hi There,

I have an e39 2000 model 535. – TV/NAV system
Yesterday the radio / audio just stopped while I was driving.
Specifically the amber light next to the volume knob, which is usually on switched off, and the audio stopped. Also I noticed that where the radio station info is normally displayed on the top part of the tv screen it is not shown anymore. Also if I switch to tv mode I can see the stations picture, but no audio. I tried all combinations of buttons but with no luck.

If I turn off the car for a some time(+ 30 minutes) more than just off and straight back on. The radio will start working again for approx 15minutes then turn off again.

However I have noticed that the preset stations are gone.

Have anyone got any ideas what is going on and how to fix this problem???
Many thanks for any help

David

[rsn48]

I had a BMW techy tell me that the contacts to the radio can go bad. He said he could try cleaning the contacts, but often that was a waste of time. He suggested I put in an after market radio. Mine stopped coming on and off. The after markets I looked at meant having to give up the wood trim that goes over the radio, which I'm not willing to do.

He then suggested either a new BMW radio or check to see if I could get one from a junked car.

[dgannon]

Hi there,

So Have you got the TV version?
Yesterday my audio stopped working totally. I took apart the components in the trunk and removed the fuses also, then I started the car and let it run for several minutes. After which I replaced all bits normally.

After this the redio/audio came back on.
However while driving after another 15minutes it shut off again.
In the morning I drove to work and it was OK.
It is really strange, not to mention annoying. If you know of or can pass on the question to someone else for a solution I would really appreciate it

Thanks

David

[hawaiidan]

for six months, then problem came back but not occurring as frequently.

I cleaned ignition contacts not the radio contacts.

[Kevr]

Originally Posted by reddebl

ignition switch contacts are dirty changed mine and everything is perfect, radio steering wheel etc.

Interesting- I had the same thing happen to mine and it is all making sense now. I understand that the fm antenna in the 528 is a powered antenna which explains the cutting in and out of fm reception only. AM reception is unaffected. In addition, I also have had the random security issue where the alarm goes off- just to prove it can.

Question is, how do you change or clean the ignition contacts?

[Kevr]

Originally Posted by Kevr

Interesting- I had the same thing happen to mine and it is all making sense now. I understand that the fm antenna in the 528 is a powered antenna which explains the cutting in and out of fm reception only. AM reception is unaffected. In addition, I also have had the random security issue where the alarm goes off- just to prove it can.

Question is, how do you change or clean the ignition contacts?

Still don't know how to clean ignition contacts- But, I did find another 3 radio fuses in glove box panel, in addition to trunk fuses, with dirty contacts. Cleaning the trunk contacts didn't help. Upon cleaning the glove box fuses, all radio problems were fixed including the rotary volume control which quit working months ago.

[nickyseee]

It started with the the air bag light coming on,then no horn,no buttons on steering wheel would work,then the radio went out.Opened the vanity mirror everything came on.Any suggestions?Thank you.

[rsn48]

The 528i, especially the earlier ones like my 97 had a problem "motion sensor" in the alarm A better one has been built to replace the alarm that went off just for the hell of it, however in Canadian dollars it was around $330 (so lower in the states). What they did at BMW service was to disconnect the wire to the motion detector, the alarm still works, but not with motion sensing.