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      02-11-2019, 07:47 PM   #1
GTIGUY1992
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Rear Axle Differential Lock Error

Getting this error in my 2017 M2 (manual) whenever I get stuck in snow (happened twice these past 2 days on our steep driveway just moving the car around).

I don't drive the car during winter weather, thus I leave the summer tires on and bone headed-ly got it stuck on our driveway for a brief period. While wrestling with getting it unstuck I got this error message, I was in traction mode and slipping the clutch and giving it a little extra throttle- nothing too crazy, never really even went over 3.5-4K RPM if I recall.

Do you guys think this is cause for concern? Or were my attempts at getting out of the snow in poor taste and causing undue stress/heatsoak on the drivetrain? Debating whether to make an appointment with the dealership or just call it a mulligan and keep an eye on the car's diff this summer.

Thanks for your help.
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      02-12-2019, 09:18 AM   #2
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https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1382873

https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1130911

Could be anything from a simple sensor failure due to low voltage from not driving it enough in the winter or you may have overheated the diff and damaged something while you were trying to get it up your driveway. You won't know till you take it in and get the fault code read and the car inspected. My advice would be to get it sorted ASAP as new parts sometimes take weeks to deliver from overseas.
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      02-12-2019, 11:21 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewc89 View Post


https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1382873

https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1130911

Could be anything from a simple sensor failure due to low voltage from not driving it enough in the winter or you may have overheated the diff and damaged something while you were trying to get it up your driveway. You won't know till you take it in and get the fault code read and the car inspected. My advice would be to get it sorted ASAP as new parts sometimes take weeks to deliver from overseas.
Thank you will do! I'll update the thread once completed. Thanks everyone
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      02-12-2019, 10:53 PM   #4
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Something not right with your car, because I've been driving mine through snow both last winter and this winter (using snow tires) and have never seen this error.

I've even done some repetitive circular patterns in snow-covered parking lots...
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      02-13-2019, 05:16 AM   #5
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Originally Posted by ZPrime View Post
Something not right with your car, because I've been driving mine through snow both last winter and this winter (using snow tires) and have never seen this error.

I've even done some repetitive circular patterns in snow-covered parking lots...
Ha, yeah I figured that what I was doing was no worse (or better) than just doing ~5 minutes of donuts in the snow.
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      03-01-2019, 08:53 PM   #6
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Well as an update to the issue, dealership took a look at everything during a routine oil change appt. and their equipment recommended only a software update. The SA stated that there was no further action required on their part, nor were they able to replicate the fault.

Overall very unfruitful, but I haven't had the issue reoccur even for me in quite some time now... And I tried to launch the hell out of the car in attempt to replicate the error as well.
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      03-03-2019, 02:06 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GTIGUY1992 View Post
Well as an update to the issue, dealership took a look at everything during a routine oil change appt. and their equipment recommended only a software update. The SA stated that there was no further action required on their part, nor were they able to replicate the fault.

Overall very unfruitful, but I haven't had the issue reoccur even for me in quite some time now... And I tried to launch the hell out of the car in attempt to replicate the error as well.
Thanks for the update. Intermittent issues like that always suck, especially when you can't replicate them. It's like "Well, where the F*** am I supposed to go from here" haha. It could be something like the computer saw an out of spec value at one of the sensors for a split second because conditions happened to be the perfect storm for it, tripped the fault code, then never saw the same condition again to re-trip it.

Of course we want to tell the dealership ASAP to prevent it from causing a bigger issue, and make sure it's taken care of before warranty expires, but sometimes all that can be done it to monitor the situation and get more data to diagnose with if it happens again.

But glad it hasn't come back, even under the additional launch stress you gave it, and I hope it stays that way.
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      03-17-2019, 11:11 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewc89 View Post


https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1382873

https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1130911

Could be anything from a simple sensor failure due to low voltage from not driving it enough in the winter or you may have overheated the diff and damaged something while you were trying to get it up your driveway. You won't know till you take it in and get the fault code read and the car inspected. My advice would be to get it sorted ASAP as new parts sometimes take weeks to deliver from overseas.
Why assume there is anything wrong here just because it says "error". The error message happens to be perfectly normal under described conditions with summer tires. You just have to have minimal understanding of how these systems work and what happened. The differential was working hard as would be expected when buried in snow. That is why you will get this message every time when "rocking" the car out of snow in a manual. Don't assume error means something wrong. My car gives the same message if I get stuck in snow and do some back and forth to try to get it out. There was no need to get dealer involved.
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      03-18-2019, 08:14 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Autostrada66 View Post
Why assume there is anything wrong here just because it says "error". The error message happens to be perfectly normal under described conditions with summer tires. You just have to have minimal understanding of how these systems work and what happened. The differential was working hard as would be expected when buried in snow. That is why you will get this message every time when "rocking" the car out of snow in a manual. Don't assume error means something wrong. My car gives the same message if I get stuck in snow and do some back and forth to try to get it out. There was no need to get dealer involved.
The error message itself instructed me to consult with a service center. Sooo, I am not sure why you would choose not to do so but to each his own. Dealership service tech also mentioned that this was not normal behavior under any operational load.

More importantly I was never rocking the car as I normally would when stuck in snow, as I was not stuck- I just lost traction on a slope for a few minutes. Big difference between rocking a car (and inducing drivetrain shock and gear backlash) and slightly slipping a clutch dude.

I'd be concerned if a locking diff had such a low level of usability as I've lived in the upper midwest for over a decade and owned several sports cars with mechanical LSD/Haldex/E-Diff/etc. which never exhibited this type of behavior...
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      06-22-2019, 01:31 PM   #10
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I got this message yesterday along with several others (chassis stabilization, TPMS, collision warning systems) and my DCT would only engage reverse, neutral and 2nd. I ended up needing to get it towed to the dealership and they won't have a chance to really look at it until Monday now.

I was at the race track with it, I'd got 2x 20 mins sessions in, then had lunch and upon going out to fire up for the afternoon the messages started firing off. It was quite a disappointing turn of events, I'd been making good progress in the morning.

So you just had a software update and nothing else? It sounds like my issues were almost certainly more widespread than yours, I hope they can sort them out properly because I don't want the same thing happening at my next track day which is 5 hours away!
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      06-23-2019, 06:54 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tux2005 View Post
I got this message yesterday along with several others (chassis stabilization, TPMS, collision warning systems) and my DCT would only engage reverse, neutral and 2nd. I ended up needing to get it towed to the dealership and they won't have a chance to really look at it until Monday now.

I was at the race track with it, I'd got 2x 20 mins sessions in, then had lunch and upon going out to fire up for the afternoon the messages started firing off. It was quite a disappointing turn of events, I'd been making good progress in the morning.

So you just had a software update and nothing else? It sounds like my issues were almost certainly more widespread than yours, I hope they can sort them out properly because I don't want the same thing happening at my next track day which is 5 hours away!
Yes they ran a software update, and stated that they could not get the issue reproduced themselves (it happened in a very specific situation). It has never come back up since then so I really don't know if that update solved it or if it was just a once off software glitch.

For what it's worth, I track my M2 as well and I have never had this issue at the track, so it sounds like yours might be a different root cause/issue altogether. Mine is a 6MT, but yours sounds a lot more like a transmission issue rather than a pure diff issue.

Best of luck and let us know what the news is. My first track day I boiled my fluid and got crazy chunking on the crap continentals within my first two sessions hah, 2.5 hours drive one way completely wasted because I couldn't even run again as I had such bad vibrations.
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      07-01-2019, 08:04 AM   #12
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Yes, it seems like my issue was different. There were issues on the 5V lines and they traced it to a faulty Valvetronic motor so they replaced that and the accelerator pedal module. That has cleared everything so I suppose the diff lock error was probably triggered by a fault somewhere else in the system rather than something with the actual diff. I don't think there was any software update for me, their notes don't include anything and I still have all my coding.

I think the transmission issue was probably also just a limp mode due to faulty readings.
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