[aikimikey]

Greetings all. I've been reading for a while, but this is my first post. I guess I should start by saying thanks to everyone for a great resource-- I've gotten a lot of good information here! Two part post-- first a rant, then the questions. Feel free to skip the rant-- just need to get some things off my chest.

--Rant--

I bought my car, a 2006 330i, off lease about six months ago. It's been in the shop three times, all for problems that seem common/recurrent based on reading this forum. My latest problem appears to be a CCC failure, and since I travel a lot (an extra 1000 miles a month over normal usage) I'm just outside of warranty. My local dealer in New Orleans has been kind enough to inform me that it doesn't matter how many service bulletins I've been able to find, out of warranty is out of warranty. The dealer says that I can bring the car in about a week from now, and they will happily charge me $130 to start trying to determine what's wrong with the car. No guarantee they will be able to figure it out, but they'll call me if they decide they'd like more money for the troubleshooting phase. I've been warned it's likely to get expensive. From reading the forum and what I've been able to dig up elsewhere, it looks like I'm on the road to spending $1,000 to $2,000 replacing the CCC with no promise that will be the end of my problems.

Knowing what I know now thanks to the many threads on this issue, my problem started before the warranty expired (excessive battery drain, slow I-drive response, etc) but I was not familiar enough with how the car should work to recognize it.

It seems obvious based on the number of people who have had problems and the fact that the system has been completely redesigned that the CCC has a history of problems and failing to reach design life. The I-drive system is a very expensive option and is integrated with so many systems that I have trouble understanding why BMW is not more proactive about addressing the shortcomings of this particular design. I don't think anyone should be left to fend for himself in this situation. I feel like we pay a premium for the BMW brand, and the likely cost of these repairs is going to add to that. With the problems I have experienced in my short term of ownership I'm beginning to question the wisdom of paying that premium.

--End Rant--

My I-drive problem started as occasional reboot, rapidly progressed to continuous reboot, and then became no-boot. Now I have a blank screen, a controller that appears to be powered off (free spinning), and a head unit that will not turn off even after the car goes to sleep. The fan on the back of the unit and both optical drives spin continuously. I have to pull the fuse (#31 if you're wondering, and note that the Bentley manual has it numbered incorrectly as #32) to keep the battery from being run down.

I bought a new battery just in case it was a low voltage problem, and checked the fuse on the back of the head unit. No progress. All of the fuses associated with the system test as having continuity. As a bonus, it appears the simple act of disconnecting and reconnecting the temperature control in order to access the head unit has left me with a climate control system that will only do warm defrost no matter what I select.

Is there a scan tool available at a reasonable cost that will give me some idea what the state of the CCC is? It's expensive, and I'd rather not buy one unless it's really broken!

If I plug in a new CCC will it "just work" or will programming be necessary? If so, is there a scan tool available that would allow me to do this?

Are there other things (eg TCU) that could cause the CCC to kick into zombie-land like this? It seems like I'd get some kind of error message or something if the problem weren't the CCC.

I realize I may be in over my head here, but I can't help thinking the CCC is essentially a glorified car stereo and I should be able to replace it. I don't have a good feeling about paying my dealer for this work given their lack of interest and the apparently limited success of other people who have gone the dealer route.

Does anyone know a good shop in Atlanta or New Orleans that can do programming and troubleshooting for this kind of problem?

Whew! I apologize for the long and negative first post. If you're still with me, thanks for taking the time to read and I appreciate any help anyone can come up with. I promise to balance this post out with future happy stories, LOL!

Michael

[Technic]

Just pay the dealer for a diagnostic session and determine what is really wrong with the CCC and the climate control.

Then decide what to do.

[///Wald]

It is definitely CCC failure. I just replaced my CCC and it was not cheap. Luckily I got my part from Jason at Tischer BMW and had my local BMW dealership install it. I experienced all the issues that you had prior.

[aikimikey]

Thanks for the input, guys. I took Technic's advice and dropped the car off at a shop in Roswell (Performing Imports) this morning. They were recommended to me by Jim Wheeler in New Orleans. Hopefully I will have some news good or bad today.

Michael

[aikimikey]

update--

As expected, CCC is bad. The shop is concerned that there may be wiring damage, so they want to check the wiring harnesses.

[96vette]

Hi Michael,

I have a 2006 325i and I'm having the exact same I-drive problem, it won't reboot and I also had to pull the fuse in order to stop the drives from running continuously.

I have an appointment on Monday at Peake BMW but I'm sure they are going to say the CCC needs to be replaced.

How much did you have to pay for a new CCC module?

Greg

[aikimikey]

Dealer list on the part is about $850.

Tischer has it for about $600.

The garage I used charged about $1500 for the part, installation, and programming. I had some other things taken care of while the car was in, so I'm not totally clear on what went with what. I will be picking the car up today or tomorrow and will be able to give a more precise breakdown on costs. It will be interesting to compare Peake with the independents.

Good luck!

Michael

[96vette]

Originally Posted by aikimikey

Dealer list on the part is about $850.

Tischer has it for about $600.

The garage I used charged about $1500 for the part, installation, and programming. I had some other things taken care of while the car was in, so I'm not totally clear on what went with what. I will be picking the car up today or tomorrow and will be able to give a more precise breakdown on costs. It will be interesting to compare Peake with the independents.

Good luck!

Michael

Thanks, the worst part is my wife and I were already in the process of looking at new cars because we already have 96K miles on the 325 and I knew it was only a matter of time before we would be looking at expensive repair bills.

I've also been dealing with the annoying steering wheel lock issue.

We may decide trade it in as-is but it won't be for another BMW

Greg

[SpmnE9zero]

I just went thru all of this about 3000 miles ago, I was at 52000 miles and since my friends ar eth emanagers at the BMW dealership they contacted Corp BMW and they covered it. If you call corp and tell them the situation sometimes they will cover it if you are within so many miles of your warranty void. GL op!

[aikimikey]

Picked the car up this a.m.

Part: $1074.29 (!!!)
Labor: $299.88


No option to contact corporate and beg for a warranty extension since I went with an independent shop. I bought the car used from a non-BMW dealer so I think it's less likely they'd be interested in hearing my story. Good to have sound and nav again. Bad to spend so much $$$!

Good luck, Greg. Be sure to let us know how it turns out. Trying to decide if there's an advantage to independent shops.

Michael

[96vette]

Originally Posted by aikimikey

Picked the car up this a.m.

Part: $1074.29 (!!!)
Labor: $299.88


No option to contact corporate and beg for a warranty extension since I went with an independent shop. I bought the car used from a non-BMW dealer so I think it's less likely they'd be interested in hearing my story. Good to have sound and nav again. Bad to spend so much $$$!

Good luck, Greg. Be sure to let us know how it turns out. Trying to decide if there's an advantage to independent shops.

Michael

Wow..It sounds like they also charged you for the core.

Evan @ Tischer quoted me $687 for the CCC plus a $500 refundable core charge.

Greg

[aikimikey]

I questioned the shop owner about the part cost when he called with the estimate. He was pretty up front in explaining that his source for the part charges in the neighborhood of $800 and he adds a %30 mark up on parts. The total was in line with what others have paid, and I'm kind of in a jam being 500 miles from home with no other transportation, so I bit the bullet.

If you're sure it's the CCC and not something else, you could save a lot of money DIY provided you had access to a shop willing to do the programming at a reasonable cost. If I were at home and had more time to spend on it I think I would have done some more homework before I decided to just pay up. C'est la vie. I did have some phone conversations with Jim Wheeler of BimmerWerks in Harahan about the problem, but I didn't get around to asking him if he would do the programming. It would be interesting to see how Peake would answer that question-- betting on "no."

I did pull the CCC in my car to check the fuse on the back, so replacing it wouldn't be much more to do. Of course, I have the benefit of hindsight assuming the shop here is telling the truth. It would suck to put a new CCC in, spring for programming, and then find out it's still dead. Technic gave good advice in that regard, IMHO.

There are problems short of total CCC failure that can look like CCC failure. Hopefully you'll be lucky and it just needs a boot file rebuild or some such. I'd keep my fingers crossed for you, but you may not want that kind of luck, LOL.

Michael

[96vette]

Originally Posted by aikimikey

I questioned the shop owner about the part cost when he called with the estimate. He was pretty up front in explaining that his source for the part charges in the neighborhood of $800 and he adds a %30 mark up on parts. The total was in line with what others have paid, and I'm kind of in a jam being 500 miles from home with no other transportation, so I bit the bullet.

If you're sure it's the CCC and not something else, you could save a lot of money DIY provided you had access to a shop willing to do the programming at a reasonable cost. If I were at home and had more time to spend on it I think I would have done some more homework before I decided to just pay up. C'est la vie. I did have some phone conversations with Jim Wheeler of BimmerWerks in Harahan about the problem, but I didn't get around to asking him if he would do the programming. It would be interesting to see how Peake would answer that question-- betting on "no."

I did pull the CCC in my car to check the fuse on the back, so replacing it wouldn't be much more to do. Of course, I have the benefit of hindsight assuming the shop here is telling the truth. It would suck to put a new CCC in, spring for programming, and then find out it's still dead. Technic gave good advice in that regard, IMHO.

There are problems short of total CCC failure that can look like CCC failure. Hopefully you'll be lucky and it just needs a boot file rebuild or some such. I'd keep my fingers crossed for you, but you may not want that kind of luck, LOL.

Michael

I don't know conclusively that it is the CCC however based on my research it appears to be the most probable but I am hoping it can be corrected with a software update. I'll let you know when I get the verdict from Peake.

Greg

[96vette]

UPDATE:

Technician "thinks" it's the CCC. He can't even get the diagnostics to communicate to the module. $1300 to replace and re-program the computer.

on a side note, the tech said the new CCC will also fix the ELV (steering wheel lock issue)

[MB330]

Well, don't mean to

This morning pull out from garage - ding-ding-sing - Get SOS icon crossed and screen stack on home page.
Reboot - everything get back to normal. 4 month before warranty end - make me
This is my first reboot in 3 yr.

[96vette]

Originally Posted by MB330

Well, don't mean to

This morning pull out from garage - ding-ding-sing - Get SOS icon crossed and screen stack on home page.
Reboot - everything get back to normal. 4 month before warranty end - make me
This is my first reboot in 3 yr.

Definitely bring it in before your warranty runs out.

Our i-drive worked flawlessly for nearly four years then last week it suddenly rebooted itself once then it was lights out.

[MB330]

Originally Posted by 96vette

Definitely bring it in before your warranty runs out.

Our i-drive worked flawlessly for nearly four years then last week it suddenly rebooted itself once then it was lights out.

Virus?????

[330iLiiike]

Im having the same issue... idrive out, no audio, hear what sounds like a fan running 24/7... I saw another post indicating fuse#31 should be taken out to stop this, is that right? What else does that fuse control? just wondering if it will affect other areas that may be working properly. Thanks

[skiboard06]

so call me the local dummy, but...

What does CCC stand for?

I'm scared to get my i-drive now.

[330iLiiike]

took me forever to find out...
"Car Communication Computer"

[bulakenyo]

I got blank screen too! Everything else works. Dealer recommend to replace CCC and JBE. I bought on ebay a CCC that came from another vehicle. DIY-installed it and the display came back. However, no audio, no sat radio, no ipod interface, no voice command. I need programming at the dealer for $275. I will update how it goes this week.