[bholyk]

Hey Everyone, I picked up a beautiful 2016 estoril blue M235i xdrive roughly 3 weeks ago (now has 1050 miles on the clock). First and foremost I absolutely LOVE this car! I came from a 2014 Audi S4 and while I loved it, this feels much more driver oriented with less body roll, no understeer, and much more feel in the steering, but back to the point...

The car is stock, except I did a mirrortap the day after I got the car with an Escort Max 360 detector and yesterday I put in crystal smoke side reflectors (which my finger tips are still numb from trying to get out the factory ones).

Last night, I was not driving spiritedly and was in "manual mode." I slowed down and downshifted from 6th to 5th and my dash went out. It came back on a second later and did the sequence as if I had just started the car. Then shifting from 3rd to 2nd it did the same thing. Each time it was only for a second and did the starting sequence of the car when coming back on. The engine never died, but since I was slowing down I don't know if I was down on power during this time. I then pulled over, turned off the car, restarted it, and completed the rest of my 1 hour drive home. It was normal for the remainder of the trip.

When I got home I checked all of my fuses (both under the hood and in the trunk) which were fine and now I have no idea where to go from here. I know the dealer is always a possibility, especially with a new car, but they are 40 min away and since it is not doing it now I cant imagine them finding anything.

I try to follow the "if something goes wrong it is likely the last thing you changed," but i cant see how the new reflectors would cause this.

Finally, I did do a search and found things like the alternator, battery, dimmer switch, and fuse box. The fuses were fine and all the other things were only mentioned on older cars, nothing brand new.

I appreciate any help anyone can provide! Thanks!

TL;DR: M235i, LOVE it, brand new, last night dash turned off and reset twice while driving but then was fine and still is, fuses are all ok, HELP!

[bholyk]

Since it was the last thing that I did before this took place, I just went out and pulled the front wheel well liner to make sure that I didnt yank any wires yesterday when putting in the reflector replacements. As far as I can tell everything looks ok and nothing looks disrupted.

[BMWZ4]

Wouldn't it make more sense to disconnect the Escort since that's the piece that's connected to the system? Not that it's the issue, but no way it's the reflectors.

[bholyk]

Yeah, that definitely would make more sense; I didnt actually think it was coming from the reflector install (just needed to try something, haha). I just dont know why the detector would affect it now after being installed for 3 weeks, but I guess something like that could happen at any time. As much as I don't want any problems at all, I wish it was something that was constant so it could at least be actively sought after.

[Cyberdemon]

I would say wait until it happens again, if it does bring the car in to the dealer. Without it being reproducible it could have just been the computer having a brain fart. I've had these on rare occasions, but usually restarting the car solves it and they have not returned.

It's possible there is a bad connection or some other problem, but it could just be a German car gremlin.

[bholyk]

That is what I was leaning toward as well. I just needed a little reassurance that there is a good possibility that it could just have been a glitch and will likely not return. And if it does, off to the dealership she goes. Thanks!

[merlin3008]

This same thing used to happen to my 328xi with no mods at all. I would be driving along and then all of a sudden it was if the electronics would reboot. Nothing else would happen. It really only occurred about once every 6 months or so.

[golf4501]

Dash rebooted or iDrive? My iDrive screen has rebooted twice in my 20 months of ownership. Had a similar problem once with my 330, both cars had no issues after the reboot.

[bholyk]

Originally Posted by merlin3008

This same thing used to happen to my 328xi with no mods at all. I would be driving along and then all of a sudden it was if the electronics would reboot. Nothing else would happen. It really only occurred about once every 6 months or so.

That is exactly what happened to me and it hasn't happened since that night. Hopefully mine is like yours and it is either very rare or never happens again. Good to know that I am not the only one and it likely is nothing to worry about.

[bholyk]

Originally Posted by golf4501

Dash rebooted or iDrive? My iDrive screen has rebooted twice in my 20 months of ownership. Had a similar problem once with my 330, both cars had no issues after the reboot.

Just the dash. The iDrive screen remained on and normal the entire time, as did all of the controls under the iDrive screen. I guess when cars are this electronically complicated they glitch every once in a while.

[rmastbro]

I have been reading through these posts and also want to chime in.

I am also experiencing a similar issue on my 2016 M235i with my instrument panel resetting in Florida, USA.

It only happens in my case with the following conditions:

- A destination MUST be programmed into navigation. If a destination is not programmed I can't repeat this issue.
- Only experienced issue on a portion of a road in Orlando, FL area (1000ft) and stops happening when continue to drive on road. Also when I turn off my destination at the traffic light while the problem is happening, the problem goes away which I find interesting

Here's a video with exact symptoms that user ut745 posted on Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:00 pm.

Starts happening around 1:00 minute into video.

[imley]

I ran into this issue last Friday with an almost brand new 2016 328i, I took the car to the dealer, they said that they actually had similar cases before, it would happen at certain area in the city with the navigation on.

After some software update, they returned the car to me, so far everything works fine.

[DJHakim]

I have the same issue in my MY16 F34 (02/2016 build). Suddenly, for ~3 seconds, my dash goes black, all dials fall to zero, and the I think the iDrive screen goes black. I did not notice if the climate display turns off. The car still drives fine with no apparent loss of climate control or power steering.

BMW service was not aware of the problem, so they ran a full electrical test and did not turn up any faults, no ODB faults recorded and none to the key fob. Since it is intermittent, it is hard for me to catch/record, but they sent me home only to come back soon after it happens again. I joked with my SA that it only happened while driving westward on one part of the highway (but not every time). Perhaps not a joke!!

Is there is a bulletin for this issue, PLEASE DO SHARE!!! Can you ask the dealer to give you the bulletin number?

[MattUK]

I've always had this in modern BMW's, my M6 would do it from time to time as would iDrive, I just put it down to a bug and it autorestarting itself

[jpnh]

Do all of the cars that are experiencing the restart equiped with Nav?

[DJHakim]

I am not sure. Per the nav factor, I was not 100% certain that I was navigating when it has happened to me, but I almost always navigate. Given info here, I am going to try to reproduce the fault. I think I may have to be in a particular lane.

My guess was that the issue had to do with the battery constantly charging and how I drive on that particular stretch of road. I never would have guessed that a bug in nav could shut off gauges!

[redcars]

I've seen this once with my '16 228xi. Didn't tie it to the nav, but it was most likely set.

[captain-goodnight]

It happened to me once with nav on. Took it to my dealer and they updated the software. I don't recall exactly where I was when the cluster reset so I can't verify if the update fixed it. The bulletin they listed on my invoice is SIB 62 06 16.

[DJHakim]

Thanks to these forums/users, I can reproduce the issue by navigating and driving through the region where I recall it occurred. Kudos to for IDing the secret recipe. Now if I could get the SAs to stop wasting my time.

[MarcoZandrini]

There's a software fix for the gauge clusters in the 230i and the M240i cars. I stopped by the dealer this AM and the SA gave me the paperwork showing the BMW AG/NA ordered stop code. These cars can't be delivered to the customer until the problem is fixed. The NHTSA will not issue an official recall notice until BMW AG has the new software read for reflashing the cluster. This may impact the iDrive and other dash computers.

[3.0L]

FYI: Dashboards will intermittantly go dark if you miss a car payment.

[P2]

I'm experiencing this same issue. It's only happens in one spot or the globe (that I can find so far) with a destination loaded in NAV. I told the dealer about it last summer. They said they never heard of it before and blamed my Dash Cam.
But now I see there is a bulletin thanks to captain-goodnight. Next time I'm at the dealer, I'll point this out.
I've uploaded SI B62 06 16 as a PDF.