[ayyy]

Hey everyone,

I encountered a weird error yesterday and noticed a considerable amount of fluid leaking from my engine bay onto the ground. I was hoping someone might have some ideas as what this could mean and how much I should worry.

Basically, I was snow drifting (yeah, I know) my E92 335xi yesterday (traction control all the way off holding the DTC button for 5 seconds) like I've done a good amount of times before, and in a particularly snow-less patch of the surface the car bogs and I get an error message on the iDrive screen somewhere along the lines of:

"All wheel drive system, DSC, ABS, and Emerg EBV malfunction. Limited drive stability. Drive moderately"

I can't attest to the accuracy of that error message, as it went away almost immediately after popping up on the screen. I just searched some keywords using google and found the above error message posted by someone else, so assumed it must have been that.

Either way, the car's traction control turned itself back on (traction light went away), but the car didn't feel like it was in limp mode or anything. The error message went away almost immediately, and car drove (and drifted) normally for the rest of the day, except for maybe a faint clunking when the wheel is at full lock. The error message has not come back since.

It sounds like in other threads that this is just caused by maybe a steering sensor, or in some cases something more severe like a bad transfer case or even ECU. However, I wanted to post a new topic about this since most other threads say the error popped up during normal/highway driving, or even upon start up, while mine came up as a result of pushing the car very hard and doing something it "doesn't like to do."

So, my main question is, is this a normal thing for the car to freak out when you're spinning all 4 wheels on the ground for an extended period of time? Like I said, this is not my first time drifting this thing in the snow, and have never gotten the error before, so it makes me a little nervous.

It's also worth mentioning that when stopping the car in the parking lot after this happened that a considerable amount of fluid had drained from underneath the engine bay. It produced that rainbowy reflection just like something soapy or oily would, but my engine oil reading remained at the maximum level. This tells me the fluid drained was maybe instead something from the transfer case or transmission. I've never noticed me leaking any type of fluid as long as I've owned the car, but then again, I've never been looking. Below are a couple photos of the spot on the ground (two different locations, so the leak continued for at least half an hour):




So, please let me know your thoughts and if I should worry. If anything, I'm more concerned about the leaking fluid than the error message, although I'm sure they're correlated.

Thanks in advance!

[JuniorB]

You have to determine what the fluid is,the dtc is brake fluid,it could be an overheat try resetting all codes and see if it returns. A steering sensor can also thro those codes. Funny things happen to cars when out of its normal state.

[ayyy]

Originally Posted by JuniorB

You have to determine what the fluid is,the dtc is brake fluid,it could be an overheat try resetting all codes and see if it returns. A steering sensor can also thro those codes. Funny things happen to cars when out of its normal state.

Thanks for that quick reply. Can you suggest any ways to determine what that fluid actually is? Aside from driving the car, parking it, and visibly spotting where the leak is coming from?

I'm sure the differential and the tcase was getting plenty hot during this session, as my engine oil temp was right about 250 this whole time. Upon parking and waiting 10+ minutes it would slide back down to 220 and remain until the next session.

I don't believe the car actually stored any codes, as the CEL hasn't come on nor did it flash or anything during this whole process. The ECU would only give off a code if subsequently the CEL went off, right? I have the torque app and therefore a code reader, but didn't think to run it to check codes since the CEL wasn't on.

[cwbmw]

You can't look under the car to see what's leaking?

[ayyy]

Originally Posted by cwbmw

You can't look under the car to see what's leaking?

After taking it for a short drive today, there was no leaking at all. Parked it for a few minutes and moved it and didn't see any fluid on the ground. I will continue to look for any leaks though and will make a note of exactly where it's coming from if that happens.

[cwbmw]

I'd be really hesitant to continue driving it. Anytime there is a leak, it happened for a reason. Things don't just leak and then not leak and you're OK forever. You should definitely pinpoint what happened and from where!

[ayyy]

Originally Posted by cwbmw

I'd be really hesitant to continue driving it. Anytime there is a leak, it happened for a reason. Things don't just leak and then not leak and you're OK forever. You should definitely pinpoint what happened and from where!

Right, getting a quote today from the stealership to diagnose where the leak is coming from as I can't see myself. The car does drive normally, however, but I realize that's not a reason to not investigate further and be cautious.

[ayyy]

Just gonna update this in case anyone finds it in the future. Stealership spent a while but ultimately found the source of the leak in the oil filter gasket. Seemed kinda fishy to me that it could be so simple and had nothing to do with that xdrive malfunction, but I'll take their word for it. They also scanned for codes, and like me found nothing stored in the ECU. So, fingers crossed it doesn't happen again!