Quick ISTA+ question

[E46m3zcp]

Hey Forum,

I’m trying to diagnose a problem with my idle that bounces and the car stalling. The car cannot be driven as it will stall every time. So I got my hands on ISTA+ and I scanned the car and “calculated the test plan”. Now I’m in a procedure called “dme” and the screen is this and nothing seems to happen, except a spinning icon in the square in the top left corner. The LED and n my OBD adapter is blinking irregularly (I’m assuming it means its communicating with the car). So should I just wait one more hour or what? What is this screen and what is going on 😆?

ps excuse the upside down photo. The forum puts it this way, I tried uploading an upside down photo to compensate and its still posting upside down.

Thanks

[Cubieman]

Not sure what test you are trying to run but I know for a few things on ISTA, like a vanos test for example, you need and ICOM, possibly even a legit ICOM.
I have seen the Chinese copy of the ICOM not work on one occasion with ISTA on an E92.

[E46m3zcp]

Thanks for your response. This is ISTA+ / diagnostics only. The workflow I followed was
1- scan the car - worked flawlessly
2- go to see error memory, saw all the errors
3- clicked calculate test plan
4- went to dme related test and hit display.

I was assuming i would get in a test procedure or something but I get this informational screen and nothing happens. The LED blinks... so it seems like it's communicating but Idk why. It's probably querying for my vin every 30ms stuck in a loop. At this time I'm pretty sure it's useless to wait more, as I've been waiting for 30 mins and no error message comes up or anything.

[Cubieman]

Hmm, I assume your cable is set up correctly (COM 1/latency 1), are you sure it's a KDCAN cable? Does it have a button or switch?

[E46m3zcp]

It does have a switch (which is pressed down) - there are many ECUs that cannot be accessed without the switch pressed down (most body ecus), I bought it from bimmergeeks

EDIT: sorry I forgot to say, the latency timer option was set to 1 according to instructions I followed from Mike's Easy BMW Tools (this was done while setting up the other tools like INPA). (also mentioned here: http://www.bimmerfest.com/attachment...ta-pdf.794992/ but that's for programming and not compatible with the E chassis)

Also a latency timer of 0ms doesn't make sense. A COM port latency timer is a setting that determines how often the data in the receive buffer of a serial port is transferred to the application. What would 0ms mean?



I may be wrong (someone let me know) but I think the port doesn't matter, as long as it's consistent with the obd configuration like port 9 here (mine is set to 1, this is just a screenshot from some tutorial):

[E46m3zcp]

I'm curious when you say ICOM. I am reading through ISTA+ setup linked above and I see some TCP setup instruction that I have not done. I'm able to use any INPA functions. So what would this setup mean? I am not familiar with ICOM.

I'm using a K+DCAN cable.

[Cubieman]

Sorry, 0ms latency was a typo, 1 is correct.

ICOM is an OBD interface used by BMW, they are quite expensive, Chinese copies can be had for <50% the price of a real unit but they sometimes do not work 100% of the time.

Some functions of ISTA are not available without the use an ICOM with the E46 chassis, others with more knowledge could elaborate more than myself.

[Tomba]

What happens when you click the [Down] button on the bottom?

[E46m3zcp]

It was showing two lines of additional general info like in the screen shot. Nothing much.

[Tomba]

ok, ISTA might not handle the old DIS functions good enough. Do you remember which test/ error code it was?

[E46m3zcp]

The test was one of the tests in the "test plan" which was simply called "dme". I don't have more details about what it does, but it was put there related to the codes that were read when I hit "calculate test plan"

I just did my subframe reinforcement, so removed fuel tank (and did a lot of stuff unrelated to the engine).
My car's idle now oscillates until the engine stalls after about 10 seconds after starting it.

I found out the code were "stalled" codes after erasing the memory and reading again.
They were semantically something like:

• Throttle potentiometer 1
• Throttle potentiometer 2
• Inconsistencies between 1 and 2
• Throttle potentiometer 1 and 2 faulty
• Fuel pump relay

I don't remember the exact phrasing but that is what they meant. It points to both TPS, I'm aware.

After erasing and reading again (without starting the car, just with the key in the ON position), only fuel pump relay returned. I'm about to change it but ISTA+ fuel pump relay procedure tells me there are 4 relays under the glovebox, but my car only has 3 (which is kind of disappointing because ISTA+ knows my VIN number and should give me specific information...)

I'm guessing it's the relay in the trunk boot, under the right side carpet cover. But I need to double check.

[bmwfnatic]

The entire “dms” menu seems to not work without an ICOM, I wonder if the underlying script files could be edited to make it work, since the same stuff clearly works fine in DIS.

[oceansize]

Question, why use ISTA and not INPA? INPA will give error codes and is much simpler to use plus you won't be wondering whether or not your software issues are ICOM related.

[bigjae46]

With ISTA+, you need an iCOM. Its a module that goes between the computer and the OBDII connector. A regular K-DCAN cable won't work with ISTA. An iCOM is about $500 the last time I checked.

Use INPA or spend the money to get an Autel unit - I think its $600. That can do all of the test functions you can't do in INPA.

[E46m3zcp]

Question, why use ISTA and not INPA? INPA will give error codes and is much simpler to use plus you won't be wondering whether or not your software issues are ICOM related.

Because I thought ISTA+ could give me a more methodical approach to diagnosing. INPA is good if you know what you want to read exactly. I thought ISTA+ could read codes, and make a tailored test plan, then run automated tests to refine it and pinpoint the diagnosis by giving you advice based on the data it read. Turns out that with my current setup I cannot do what I thought was possible.

With ISTA+, you need an iCOM. Its a module that goes between the computer and the OBDII connector. A regular K-DCAN cable won't work with ISTA. An iCOM is about $500 the last time I checked.

Use INPA or spend the money to get an Autel unit - I think its $600. That can do all of the test functions you can't do in INPA.

I wish I knew more about what ISTA+ can actually do before investing $600. If it's what I think it is, it's worth the investment. Also it's odd that ISTA+ didn't give me an error message like "unable to communicate with ICOM" or something like that. It displayed the page (my upside-down image above) like if everything was fine, but the info listed didn't help me at all with the diagnosis (it's like if it was missing something, but no error message or failures from the software). Do you know what the Autel product name is?