BMW E39 M5 5 Series Keyless Not Working 

I had same problem with my e39 m5. Bought key off ebay, it worked great for 2 weeks then it stopped working or intermittent. I thought it was signal issue, replaced so many parts and it would only work temporary. Finally i got a new key from Bmw dealer. Been 5 years and has not have any problems since.

I should've said yesterday to check your frequencies. From memory, there were 3 or 4 different frequencies used by BMW, depending on where in the world the car was being shipped. The replacement key may be on a slightly different bandwidth to the antenna, hence why it's not reading and no sync technique is working properly. IHKA from memory is to do with climate control/heating/air con, but I have a funny feeling it also controls things like central locking, courtesy lights etc. And most likely, the memory seat positions, which are also tied into the door mirrors. I can't tell you what the fix is sorry, as haven't encountered it. But might give you some ideas.

Thank you

To change the frequency, press and hold the unlock button while pressing the trunk release button 5x

Just watched over ur Supercharged E39 Saga, if i may suggest is to go over ur all ur wiring on ur car, fuses, module (specially ur connection on the front door going in inside the fender onto ur gm3, check under neath the seat for the fuses and ground wiring, trunk fuse battery cable and pay close attention to the ekp module, also on the driver side under neath the seat carpet check ur grounding, under the drivers dash is the ews and also a relay, one u locate all of these check voltage and what not and then clean and protect them with anti corrosion and oxidation. Dont forget the dme box and clean the inside and make sure ur drain are draining on all four corners. the wiring and proper contact for these cars is key but neglected hence the gremlins pops up everywhere. also u need full and healthy car battery whenever ur testing anything and or add jump battery to make sure ur current is constant. Doing this will eliminate a lot of the variables and will have a better testing result. These cars hate aftermarket electrical add ons and when testing i will do a separate test with the aftermarket stuff disconnected. Lastly u have to find only one line u can connect power without disrupting the current or flow i forgot which pin to tap to get clean power (i know where it is but forgot what its called ), Tapping on lets say the headlights and etc will cause problems in future coz again Euro cars don't like aftermarket stuff. Hope this helps and would love to see a healthy M5 and a happy driver/ passenger as well lol! Love ur channel and the mods u did on ur Bmw's.

IHKA = Integrierte heizungs und Klima Automatik = heating and AC AUC-Sensor = Automatische Umluft Controlle = Sensor to automatically turn on the recycling of the air when going through a tunnel or so maybe also have a look at the GM3 - in the E46 the GM5 is a good candidate to look at when you have problems with the cenral locking / K-Bus

Just watched your key video and I noticed a couple of things that I found out by messing with mine for hours. First the manual for the car has the correct syncing and programming order for your car. Holding the unlock button while simultaneously pressing the unlock button three times and simultaneously releasing the unlock button and the third press of the lock button is important. My fob wouldn’t program unless the third lock button release was at the same time as the release of the unlock button. Then after programming the key it says to reinsert the key and turn it on to finish the programming. It also says that all keys should be in car, doors shut, and unlocked, windows up before starting. It also differentiates between syncing and programming. To sync keys it says to turn on and off to position 1, 5 times rapidly then removing the key and doing the button press sequence for each key and then reinserting the original starting key and turning the car on to finish. I had both original diamond keys and the valet key but one diamond key didn’t lock/ unlock so I charged it and tried to program the spare and not only didn’t it work but it deprogrammed my working key. I had to resync and reprogram my original working key without the presence of my spare to get it back to where I started. An exercise in frustration. They say that the dealer will sync and program keys for a fee when purchasing a new key. For what they charge they should do it for free. I think that the battery is dead in my spare and that is causing the problem so I need to see if that key is signaling when the buttons are pressed. If the battery is dead then I may cut it open and replace it. If it’s signaling, I’ll just make do with the one. I’ve resisted going the inpa route with cables and programming as I don’t have the time to delve that deep into 22 year old electronics. I’ll just enjoy the car as it is.

Where u get the seats

Remote modul is voor Japanese e39, because they have the infrared keys. So that module is not for your spec car. Keys just seems like a faulty batch, chip not correctly coded, thats why they don't keep the code, just swap the boards, leave the ews chip and only swap the central locking part

You are so persistent, I would have given up a long time ago 😂

You spending money is not a surprise, it's why we watch this channel! Ha

andrew pull the dodgy keys apart and see if they have glass coil transponders in them or ceramic transponders then see if the e46 key has the same i bet they are different glass coil one can get faulty if the key is dropped thus ceramic ones are best cheers glenn

Can you take us step by step for if you actually lose every key copy om this exact model

Change the batteries in the E39 keys ,who knows how long they been sitting on a shelf in China. I would guess they sell way more of the E46/E53 style keys so maybe those are working because they are newer stock with fresher batteries .

I'm in exactly the same situation but my seats are original and working fine (2003 early e53) so hopefully you can rule that out. The AK90 corrupted my EWS module, (I took multiple reads and saved as backups before first writing), it wrote but would never verify what was written was correct - then I noticed corrupt garbled characters had been written - tried to restore using backups - all were corrupted without enough in common to make a working file. long story short I had to put a matching ecu+ews+key in from a breakers to get it mobile again while I try to get a new ews3 pre programmed from BMW. - I used a "Key Programmer Editor Durable For BMW EWS Editor Version 3.2.0 EWS HIGH QUALITY" I after struggling with 2 AK90'S, I thought the locking issue was down to the alien ecu but after watching your exact same issue I'm interested to see if you resolve it. Best of luck!

I would try changing the batteries

What happened to the e39 M5 side mirrors?

The bmw fobs eat batteries. They do this quite alot when battery is getting low in fob. Try some decent batteries in fob. They quite often will work once then not again. If you remove and refit battery it will work once and once only again. I know its probably the first thing you tried but it happens alot.

Can you take the guts out of the E46 key and put it in the E39 key?

Going for the Castaway beard? 😉

I'm in the states in texas and no one is bmw certified in my area

This is my problem same with aftermarket key. The original key are lost from old owner 😔

DWA diebstal warnung anlage is the alarm

When mine does this, it's battery in key.

Is it because you are still in the car when you are trying to unlock it???

AUC is a pollution sensor, if it detects pollution it turns the recirculation on, climate control should work ok without it.

The suspense is killing me. Can't wait to hear how you eventually get this sorted.

Who would have thought cheap Chinese keys don't work as advertised

First