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FRM Module Corrupted?

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BeardyJon

Active member
Edinburgh
How do I know for sure if my FRM module is corrupted or bricked? I've noticed a number of issues developing with the car since retrofitting LCI headlights and I'm trying to get to the bottom of what's happening before I do anything.

I've coded the car with Carly in the past to enable things like auto folding mirrors, etc. The car has run issue-free for years since doing this. I recently had to code the voltages of the new LCI headlights up to eliminate flickering using Bimmergeeks ProTool. At this point I noticed a couple of issues:

  • The auto-headlights function stopped working
  • The auto-wipers function also doesn't seem to control the wipers beyond just turning them on and off (they don't react/change speed according to how hard it's raining)
  • The driver door window occasionally doesn't dip down when opening/closing (only occasionally)
  • The instrument cluster stopped showing the digital speedometer
  • After starting the car all the dashboard warning lights stay on for longer than they used to (maybe 30 seconds or so)
  • The instrument cluster throws a warning and gong whenever the key is inserted without the engine on (so basically whenever I insert the key or turn the ignition off
  • The parking sensors no longer beep, despite the volume being turned up

I've done a bit of reading and most of these issues don't seem to be listed as the usual FRM faults. Headlights and indicators still work as normal, etc. I've checked ECU fault codes in ProTool and the only code it's throwing out is E596 on the FRM indicating the FLA/High Beam Assistant is not responding.

Does anyone have any clues as to what's going on? Did coding the FRM brick it?
 
FWIW, bricking means to have an error during programming the functional code that stops it don't anything at all. And often means that it can't then be reprogrammed.

Here it sounds like the coding has reset the options differently to what they were before because it's used a default profile rather than having read out your existing settings and just modified headlight voltage. So you've told it that it doesn't have auto sensors on the screen, you don't want the digital speedo, you would rather have the American bong at all opportunities setting etc etc.
 
What’s the state of your battery? Although what smorris_12 says could well be your issue
 
smorris_12 said:
FWIW, bricking means to have an error during programming the functional code that stops it don't anything at all. And often means that it can't then be reprogrammed.

Here it sounds like the coding has reset the options differently to what they were before because it's used a default profile rather than having read out your existing settings and just modified headlight voltage. So you've told it that it doesn't have auto sensors on the screen, you don't want the digital speedo, you would rather have the American bong at all opportunities setting etc etc.
Click to expand...

Ah I see. Thank you, that clears it up a little bit. What do you think the solution is here? In ProTool is it possible to reset/restore to factory settings so that I can go in an re-code the bits I want? I'm a bit nervous that doing that is going to f**k it up even further...

Chippie said:
What’s the state of your battery? Although what smorris_12 says could well be your issue
Click to expand...

The battery was replaced about 18 months ago for a brand new one, so I don't expect it to have many problems. In terms of charge, I think it should be ok as I did a 600 mile round trip just last week and haven't used the car much since then except for a couple small trips into town.
 
BeardyJon said:
Ah I see. Thank you, that clears it up a little bit. What do you think the solution is here? In ProTool is it possible to reset/restore to factory settings so that I can go in an re-code the bits I want? I'm a bit nervous that doing that is going to f**k it up even further...
Click to expand...

I'm afraid I don't know ProTools, my car's have not got new enough to need more than INPA! Ideally you want to be able to read out all the current FRM settings so you've got some sort of baseline (tho I think that boat has already sailed) and then try a factory reset. If you end up even worse off you can then write back the saved settings. It depends whether the factory reset tells the module to reset itself (and that the module happens to have a copy of the settings that it came out of the factory with) or if it's simply a write back of defaults in ProTools (which is where you sound like you are at the moment.)

Generally for a body module there's not too much to screw up so if you can go thru turning things back on again, you should get back ok. It's not like, say, an ABS module where there might be all sorts of inscrutable options (wert_01, wert_02 and wert_03) that control different slip angles based on different countries road quality.
 
As posted above. Sounds like your settings are all off.

Go back and reactivate all the bits that need activating. You can deactivate that annoying bong too.
 
I had a similar issue last year, I sent the FRM off to a place in Peterborough, they sorted whatever the issue was with a lifetime warranty for about £40, was about a four day turnaround. No issues since 👍
 
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