[jwduffett]

OK so I am posting this because there is nothing that I could find that was similar to the issues I was having.

So my daughters 2013 X3 xdrive28 was parked in my drive way and we had a really hard rain/storm for about an hr or so late evening. The next morning my daughter told me that her car had a large pool of water in the driver side floor board. I told her to get a towel and soak up as much as she could and she did. She went on to work and later when she got home she said that there was still lots of water and so I investigated and found the cause was most likely a clogged sunroof drain on the driver front. I determined that it was indeed clogged so I applied some air pressure to the line and got it cleaned out.

So later that evening I decided to take it to the store and when I started it, it threw a check engine light up and also started saying Chassis Stabilization: Drive Moderately and also Drive-train Malfunction:. Well it was a turtle getting it to move. It put the car in a semi limp mode.


So after that I knew I needed to get the car dried out so I removed the driver seat and side moldings so that I could get under the carpet and foam and did whatever I could to soak up and dry up water.

Ok dry now so time to figure out whats going on. My scanner not expensive one kept saying something about the Steering Angle Sensor but I was not convinced that this was the cause because the water was no where near this sensor. After exhausting all my leads I turned to my local mechanic shop that doesn't really work on German cars but will take them on if he can.

He diagnosed that the cause of these errors was the Accelerator Pedal Sensor. $150 part and all is good. I guess the sensor had too much fun in the pool of water.

I hope this helps anyone who comes across this issue.

[pungo]

Good they got it resolved without a huge expense.

Exactly where is the line that you applied air pressure to unclog the drain.

[jwduffett]

Originally Posted by pungo

Good they got it resolved without a huge expense.

Exactly where is the line that you applied air pressure to unclog the drain.

There are four drains on the Sunroof tub, one in each corner. If you undo the hex screw holding the windscreen you can see the corner drains. Be careful tho on how much air pressure that you use because from what I have heard you can cause the small elbow tubing in the pillar to come loose and then cause an even bigger problem. I poured some water down mine afterwards and checked to make sure that there was water coming out from the wheel wells.

[MADBMWX5MC]

I've had many headaches in the past with clogged drains...at least once a year, we need to go in there and clear it out...you will be amaze the amount of crap goes in there....

[updowntop]

I had almost identical problem but leak not diagnosed yet. I had water on floor and chassis stabilization error and limp mode. I was not able to drive the car since limp wasn't adequate to merge into traffic. I parked it overnight and eventually drove a couple of miles to home. I was lucky I guess because the error popped up just as I reached my driveway. It could not limp up the driveway.

Coincidentally, I got a charge battery warning so I charged it while wet vac'ing a couple of gallons of water from under the accelerator pedal.

I cleared the codes with obdlink and haven't seen chassis stabilization return but water is still coming in somewhere. I am suspicious of firewall penetrations for wiring harnesses or maybe a hole with plastic cover behind the brake boost.

Sunroof drains seem ok. They drain into a well under the brake master cylinder. I am trying to get the carpet out but stuck at the front under the dash mount. I'll cut it, I guess. With the thick foam backing on the carpet I can't see it ever drying without taking it out. I have to find where the water is coming from, too.

I did find the driver's rear door had a failed membrane seal. That's been butyl taped and I don't see any leak now. The front door outer gasket doesn't seem tight when I close the door over a strip of paper at the door handle area and the same level at the front of the door. Spraying water in those areas doesn't show any leaking though.

There is a lot of wiring that's submerged due to this leak. no telling what errors could crop up. Also wondering if that could have caused the battery to sag. It's not being driven enough to keep the battery charged though so I don't think I can be sure. Using a battery maintainer now.


FWIW here are the codes related to chassis stabilization:

[airmarc]

Originally Posted by jwduffett

OK so I am posting this because there is nothing that I could find that was similar to the issues I was having.

So my daughters 2013 X3 xdrive28 was parked in my drive way and we had a really hard rain/storm for about an hr or so late evening. The next morning my daughter told me that her car had a large pool of water in the driver side floor board. I told her to get a towel and soak up as much as she could and she did. She went on to work and later when she got home she said that there was still lots of water and so I investigated and found the cause was most likely a clogged sunroof drain on the driver front. I determined that it was indeed clogged so I applied some air pressure to the line and got it cleaned out.

So later that evening I decided to take it to the store and when I started it, it threw a check engine light up and also started saying Chassis Stabilization: Drive Moderately and also Drive-train Malfunction:. Well it was a turtle getting it to move. It put the car in a semi limp mode.


So after that I knew I needed to get the car dried out so I removed the driver seat and side moldings so that I could get under the carpet and foam and did whatever I could to soak up and dry up water.

Ok dry now so time to figure out whats going on. My scanner not expensive one kept saying something about the Steering Angle Sensor but I was not convinced that this was the cause because the water was no where near this sensor. After exhausting all my leads I turned to my local mechanic shop that doesn't really work on German cars but will take them on if he can.

He diagnosed that the cause of these errors was the Accelerator Pedal Sensor. $150 part and all is good. I guess the sensor had too much fun in the pool of water.

I hope this helps anyone who comes across this issue.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for posting this! Exact same thing happened to our 2014 X3. BMW was about to spend numerous hours diagnosing. I showed them this thread and turns out its the exactly the same issue. They ordered the pedal module and we should be good to go!!

[okayr]

Seems to be quite a frequent problem causing a lot of headaches and damage for people. I had passenger side flood and luckily no damage was done. You would think something like clearing these drains would be part of inspection. I'm paranoid now and clean them out every 6 months.

[KC87ZB]

I have had intermittent water in the passenger floor area when heavy rains. My drains are clear from the last incident and my door seals are good. After doing some reading around various forums I ran into an interesting solution.

The passenger side has a wire loom that exits the bulkhead at an upward angle, right where the drain is located. At the right flow rate the water can contact the loom and walk backwards down the loom into the car.

I have not yet but will be adding drain nipple extensions and small hose clamps to ensure this isn't the reason I am getting water in the car.

Anyway, just though I would share this. I was able to get a caliper around the drain nipple and looks to be about 0.7inches in diameter. Planning to fix this weekend and will advise final tubing size.