Drive Cycle Reset

Who knew that such a thing existed?  Certainly not TBG and I.

His 2014 BMW's dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree.  There were unusual rumblings from deep within the vehicle.  He called and was told to bring it in right now.  He did.  They worked on it for a day or two, reset the doohickey on the whatchamacallit, and all was well.  

Or so we thought.

The car drove beautifully.  TBG took his notice from the DMV to the Emissions Testing Center with a smile on his face.  He left 10 minutes later, with a deep frown.

Apparently, all that work at the dealership involved turning off certain important sensors and computers.  Those have to go through a Drive Cycle Reset in order for the car to be tested.  If the sensors aren't available to be tested the car has not failed the test; that would be something the Emissions Testing Center could help us with.  There are signs alerting us to that.

If the sensors aren't ready to be tested a Not Ready paper is produced.  No one is upset that this occurred.  Just drive it some more, on the highway and in town, and you'll be fine.

He did just that for a week.  Went back to the ETC. Still wasn't ready.

Rinse and repeat.  Three more times.  The last time, we drove with a print out from the interwebs with detailed instructions on resetting the drive cycle.  This included 0-50 from a dead stop, idling in gear, overrunning (letting the engine slow the car, not the brake), and a variety of slow down and speed up intervals that had me using the timer on my phone to be sure we met every specification.

It was a ridiculous but enjoyable afternoon.  Not so much the result today when, for the 4th time, the car was unready to be tested.  The technician was delightful and apologetic.  He'd seen this story before.  He had nothing to offer except condolences for the situation.  The office next door could have helped us if the car had failed, but not ready was not something they were equipped to handle.

Off to the dealership, which had nothing to offer, either.  Their Service Manager could drive the car around and try to reset it, but there were no guarantees.  The representative was awfully sorry.  So were we.

I am now waiting for the BMW Genius to reply to my email.  Perhaps there will be a solution. Perhaps not.  The problem is that the test must be completed in order to renew the car's registration, which expires on the 31st of this month.

He probably shouldn't drive the car with expired tags.  He can't reset the drive cycle unless he drives the car.  This is a conundrum. 

If the BMW Genius can't help us, he will just have to try not to let a police car get behind him and notice his 2024 tag.  If he's stopped, he has ream of paperwork in the car to explain the situation.

Fingers crossed............