INPA HowTo Comments Thread

[Robert T]

If you have any comments on my INPA HowTo, please put them here, as the KB thread is locked.

KB thread is here.

Cheers R.

[pingu]

Very good. Have you had the courage to "activate" anything yet? On the E46 you can remotely control the mirrors and the radio . You can also remotely control each motor on the roof, but I don't want to try that one as it could cause some serious damage if I tried to open the roof before unlocking it . One of the other forum members mentioned that he activates the ABS pump when he is bleeding the brakes.

I'll have to check to confirm, but I'm sure that on my INPA the errors are in English, but the "Smoothness" is in German .

One small note is about wheel speeds. It might be a good idea to emphasise that the wheels must not be powered with the suspension unloaded as this puts excessive load on the CV joints.

[Robert T]

I did have a go with "Activate" on the Instrument Cluster, but I forgot to take screenshots. Some quite nice tests like headlight buzzer (which drove me nuts for a while until I figured out how to exit the test!) and telltale check (not all the lights come on though). The fun ones were the dial checks where you can set a value for the gauge to read - V-max with zero revs anyone? There was also a test for simulating 100 kph to see what the speedo reads - I did take a pic of this, and I'll add it to the KB article when I get the screenshots to go with it.

We might try the ABS activate on Mike's car at the weekend. I think that one is going to be a bit scary.

Most of the interface is in English (with a few spelling mistakes), but I was getting error code descriptions in German. Dave found an earlier version with the errors in English. I haven't had time to take it apart yet to find which files contain the error messages, as they should be a relatively easy swap.

I might clarify the wheel speed comment - I meant rotating the wheel by hand to check that you get a reading, NOT with the engine running on jacks/axle stands! - or by driving the car in a straight line to check they all read the same (with someone else operating the laptop).

Cheers R.

[XVar]

I can't remember exactly what option it's under (central locking?) but there are some extremely useful screens for alarm fault diagnosis in INPA which show the current status of every single alarm contact/sensor, great for finding which one is stuck open/closed and causing your alarm to go nuts. Perhaps worth finding these and adding them to the KB article?

[Robert T]

If I can find it, yes of course I'll add them, Ben. Using BMW software at the dealer I have also seen a log of what triggered the alarm on my car, so I'll have a dig for that as well.

Where I will struggle is getting info for some of the other models with different control units which use a different INPA script to interrogate them. Hopefully I can get some of this from our planned diagnostics meet.

Cheers R.

[Inferno]

i'm sorry, what exactly is INPA???

[BladeRunner919]

i'm sorry, what exactly is INPA???

BMW Diagnostic software.

[Inferno]

ah ok, i'm already downloading what else do i need to make it work? some OBD cable from ebay and a laptop for example? anything else?

[Brian H]

Robert,

The site below shows a good selection of INPA fault codes which we could somehow try to incorporate, maybe this is a different KB article? Also included is some info on different modules.

INPA Codes

Brian

[swamper]

where would we get INPA from

[Brian H]

where would we get INPA from

Hi Swamper

INPA can be downloaded from the Internet from various sites, once you have this you will also need a cable to connect to the car which can be sourced of eBay, the software install from the Internet can be troublesome and time consuming. BMTECHNIC offer a diagnostic cable and supply software which seems to be easy to install and use at a reasonable price, I opted for the cable kit with the 20 pin connector as well as the OBDII cable.

Brian

[swamper]

thanks Brian

[Robert T]

I had another screen capturing session today, so I have updated the KB article with some more shots of the menus and activate screens.

Brian, that site looks interesting - I'll take a look when I get a chance.

Cheers R.

[Robert T]

Another quick update.

The orange service light came on yesterday, along with the Oil Service light, so I plugged the diagnostics in again and learnt two things:

1) That the Service information screen now shows "SII distance 14988 [km]" which is just a fraction over half of the "distance inspection interval 29952 [km]" and as it says "amount of service per interval 2", I think it is safe to conclude that this will carry on counting up to 29952 at which point it will show "Inspection". Interestingly the car just turned over 62,000 miles yesterday as well.

2) Disconnecting the battery seems to clear any error codes. I had some codes logged against the Instrument Cluster and Engine and these have gone without my clearing them.

I'll do another check after it has been serviced and see what it says then.

Cheers R.