Original subtitles

Bonjour à tous! Can you imagine what\h\h

could be the worst scenario for every BMW owner?\h Of course, when something is wrong with your BMW.\h

Imagine situation: you're walking\h towards your car. You have a good\h\h

mood. Nothing bad is expected to happen. You're opening your car. You're sitting inside\h\h

the car. You are pressing start stop button. Your engine starts running. And then you see this.

Of course, this is the most awful situation\h because check engine light is never good.\h

You will not expect check engine light, and\h it will not give you plus 10 horsepowers.\h

It just doesn't work in\h that way. It is always bad.\h

But is check engine light the end of the\h life or something can be done with that?\h

Of course, there's always that you\h can do something about all the errors.

Check engine light is one of the\h most critical errors that you could\h\h

have because you don't know why it happened. Sometimes it could appear with really tiny issues,\h\h

and actually you can continue driving. And of course, you have to fix it.\h

But sometimes you just have to stop your car\h immediately, and you cannot continue driving,\h

because more harm will be done to your engine. And\h engine is the most expensive part of your vehicle.

[Music]

Hello, I'm Vladimir, and you\h are on the BimDoc channel.\h

In today's video, I'll show\h you how to use ISTA like a pro.\h

What is a actual ISTA? It stands for\h Integrated Service Technical Application.\h

It is the software that BMW dealer use to\h diagnose BMWs and also to code and program those.

But today's main focus will\h be on diagnosing the car.\h

Why it is so critical to know how\h to diagnose your car by yourself?\h

Because to fix the car, several\h diagnosis will be required.\h

Modern cars, especially BMWs, are so complex. You just cannot fix it with a single wrench.\h

You need a computer with special software\h and some hardware to connect to the car.

For example, in our case, you have\h seen the check engine light is on.\h

But is it critical? Can I continue driving,\h or I have to stop the car immediately?\h

You don't know that. That's why today\h\h

I'll show you how to diagnose your car\h properly with professional BMW software.

If you are just the beginner and\h you don't know anything about BMWs,\h\h

how to diagnose those, for example, or even if you are pro user, believe me,\h\h

in today's video, you'll see some very\h good tips you were not aware before.

In today's video, I'll cover\h all the very essential parts\h\h

of the special software called ISTA:\h

how to connect to the car,\h how the interface looks like,\h

which button is meant for what, in\h what order to press which buttons,\h

and how to make the diagnose of\h essential elements of your BMW.

If you are for the first time on\h my channel, make sure to hit that\h\h

subscribe button not to miss the future videos. If you are among those who do support my videos\h\h

with the premium subscription, huge thanks to you. If you're a premium subscriber, you can see all\h\h

those videos, and the same video as well, way earlier than other subscribers.

And of course, you get access to some perks. For example, I'm answering to all the comments\h\h

by the premium subscribers with way more details. So if you're interested in something that was\h\h

not covered in the video, ask\h your question in the comments.

Let's jump into the car.\h Let's fire up the computer.\h

Let's start the ISTA and see how\h the diagnostics should be done.

In today's video, I'll be referring\h kind of often to my previous videos.\h

For example, the first question you might ask: “Hey Vladimir, where do I get that?”\h

See current video to understand how to install\h full software required to work with the BMWs.

To connect to the car, you will require, of\h course, the laptop with a special BimDoc sticker,\h

because it gives plus two to speed of\h the diagnostics and at least plus three\h\h

to the programming. And some interface.

For example, I'll be using the ENET cable\h because I'm sitting in the G series.\h

If you have another BMW, for example F series, the\h same ENET cable will be absolutely good for you.\h

If you have something else, for example older the\h\h

E series, then you'll require another\h interface like DCAN cable or the ICOM.

Of course, the ICOM is the official BMW hardware. It looks like that one.\h

It can be used to work with all the\h BMWs: E, F, G—I name it, series.

As I mentioned in the beginning of the video,\h BMW dealer use ISTA Plus to work with the BMWs.\h

They use it for purposes like\h diagnostics and coding and programming.\h

ISTA is used to diagnose all\h the BMWs—E, F, G—all the series.\h

And it's also used to program and code BMWs.

Either the whole BMW or some\h ECUs that have been exchanged.\h

ISTA Plus can be used to code and\h program only F and G series BMWs.\h

It cannot be used to code and program E\h series because E series is kind of old.\h

And for that you'll require NCS Expert.

But this is way another topic.

The connection sequence:\h

If you use ICOM, it doesn't matter in\h which sequence you connect to the car.\h

But with the ENET it's very important to\h start the engine or at least the ignition—\h

in case of G series, three times\h pressing quickly the start/stop button.\h

In F and E series you can just\h press it twice. It will be working.

Then, when the car—the engine—was\h running for at least 30 seconds,\h

you will connect ENET cable to the car, and only\h then you will connect ENET cable to the laptop.\h

This is required for all the ECUs—more\h specifically for the gateway ECU—\h

to boot up properly and make all\h his internal things correctly.

If you make it in vice versa order, you might\h not establish the connection with the ENET cable.

I'm connecting the car and\h loading up the computer.

As you have seen at the beginning,\h we had check engine light working.\h

You can see it on the dash. But have a look to the screen.

Over there we have notifications,\h and actually you can see there\h\h

is zero notification. So, no errors are present.

What could it mean? If you have anything super bad with your BMW,\h

normally you should have at least some kind of\h error message on your information display as well.\h

In our case we can see only the check\h engine and no errors present in the car.

It means that there is some problem with\h the engine, but it's not super critical.\h

And to get more details, we require\h more professional software like ISTA.

Let's go into the computer, firing up ISTA.

If you still haven't seen my installation video,\h\h

make sure to see it. So what do we have here?

First of all, the version of\h this—you can see it is version 4.39.\h

What does it mean? Super important comment. And second, it is super important:\h

Do not go for the newest ISTA\h possible. Go for the most stable one.

In the video where I was showing how to install\h the ISTA, I was using the ISTA version 4.28.\h

Now I'm using 4.39 and I guess I'll soon\h switch to something newer like 4.51 or 50.\h

Why you don't have to go to the newest one?\h

Because to make the diagnostics, you\h don't need all the super new databases.

For example, the ISTA version 4.39—it\h was released, I think, in 2023 or-ish.\h

So whatever the car is that was\h produced older than 2023, you will have\h\h

absolutely no problems diagnosing that car. And even with the newer cars, for example,\h\h

if it was produced, for example, G23 series LCI— it is produced in 2025,\h\h

but it's based on 2018 year technology. That's why you'll be absolutely okay with that.

So, don't go for the newest\h one—go for the most stable one.

This is how the main window looks like.\h

What you can see here:\h different settings and so on.\h

First of all, to make it more\h convenient, you have to expand it.\h

Either use that button up right over\h here—some versions could not have it.\h

You should just press two times on the\h upper bar and you'll be absolutely okay.

So, top left—you can see different windows. Why it's required?\h

For example, we're in the window number one. You can switch to two, three, and so on.

In the dealership, when the dealers work\h\h

with the BMWs, one ISTA can work\h simultaneously with several BMWs.\h

For example, in window one I can connect\h remotely to one of the ICOMs and scan one car,\h

and in another window connect to another car\h and make the same procedure at the same time.\h

If you're just using for your car, it doesn't\h matter in which window you are starting.

Next thing—this thing is important.\h It's called connection manager.\h

If you press over here, a new window appears,\h

and you can actually see what\h connection type you're going to use.\h

In our case it's ENET. If you'll\h be using ICOM, it will be ICOM.

Next one—the print. It is very important. I'll leave it to the end of the\h\h

video—how to use that. It is super handy, believe me.

Settings—you click settings\h and different settings.\h

Just see my video about how\h to install and configure the\h\h

BMW software. Everything is told over there.

Before the connection, make sure the\h connection type is selected correctly.\h

For example, in our case we're using\h the ICOM in local area network.\h

This is absolutely correct setting. Pressing OK.

And what else we can see here—the new,\h finished, and active/inactive window.\h

You will see the connections\h that are active at the moment.\h

At the moment we're not connected to\h any vehicle, that’s why it is blanked.

Finished—you will see the previous\h connections to the vehicles.\h

In different versions of the\h ISTA, sometimes it works properly,\h\h

sometimes it does not work properly. It depends on the version you are using.

You have to make sure you are in the new window.

Next one—we can either read out\h the information from the vehicle.\h

This is the step that will be required.

Model code—you can just type in the model code. Model code you can just ignore.

The tab Basic Features—actually\h Basic Features is super handy thing.\h

You'll be able to see different wiring diagrams\h without connection to the vehicle itself.\h

But—very important highlight—not all\h versions of the ISTA will have that tab.\h

And actually, some versions, for example\h the current version 4.39, it has that tab,\h

and even if you select whatever vehicle\h to work with that vehicle type offline,\h\h

it will not work. It will just crash.

It is based on the different\h versions of the... Important remark:\h

As I told, not all the versions of the ISTA\h will have that Basic Function start working.\h

It is super useful—for example, you are working\h at home, you're not connected to any vehicle,\h

and you need to see some kind\h of wiring diagrams or whatever\h\h

other information that ISTA could provide.\h

It is super handy, but it's not present\h on all the versions of the ISTA.

The last ISTA version I'm aware of\h where that tab was working was 4.28,\h

but it's a bit outdated for diagnostic purposes. But it's good to see different wiring diagrams.

If any of you, dear subscribers, are aware of\h new versions of the ISTA that are actually stable\h

and that tab is working properly\h offline, write in the comments.\h

It will be very interesting to see those.

Let’s establish connection to the vehicle. The thing we need to do:\h

you have to be sure you are in\h operations mode because other tabs,\h\h

they are just grayed out— except the Operation Fluids,\h\h

where you can see how much oil and so on\h will be required for different vehicles.

Operations → New → Read out vehicle data. Down right, you have two different options:

Without vehicle test—it will\h just read out information from\h\h

the vehicle, but not performing the full test. Basically, it's kind of useless, only if you want\h\h

to see the general information about the vehicle. But for our case, press Complete Identification.

New window should pop up—it\h is the connection manager.\h

You select the type of your connection. Why that connection manager is required?\h

For example, if you're working\h at the dealership level,\h

and you have several ICOMs over the Wi-Fi\h or wirelessly connected to different cars,\h

you can select to which ICOM to connect.

Pressing over here—Set up connection. The vehicle data is being read out.\h

The good sign that you have the connection:\h

the first top left over here—you should\h see the VIN code of your vehicle.\h

And then all the rest of information will start\h appearing as it's being read out from the vehicle.

From that sheet, actually, you can\h see a lot of very useful information.\h

Let’s wait while the vehicle is being read out,\h

and I’ll tell you different tricks and tips I have\h learned during the years working with the BMWs.

[Music]

If the chip tuning was done on your vehicle,\h

newest versions of the ISTA—I guess it was\h newer than 4.28, 28 or 31, something like that—\h

will actually... they have\h built-in chip tuning test.\h

And on the BMWs of G series, you will see\h that chip tuning was done on that vehicle.

That's why if you have tuned your BMW\h and you're going to the BMW dealership,\h

they will know it exactly when\h they’re making the diagnostics.\h

They don't need to make any additional test. It is the first indicator. Be aware of that.

[Music]

You will understand when the diagnostics is done—\h

over here, no processes are running anymore. You have seen that it was written "finished."

And when you can see the picture,\h you can see the ECU tree.\h

It is the tree of all the ECUs. It means the diagnostics has been completed.

One more important highlight. At the moment, I'm using the standalone.\h

What does mean standalone? It actually is being cracked,\h\h

so we can use it with the offline computer.

BMW dealers—they use online official,\h with the license, and so on and so on.\h

Initially, I thought, “Hmm, it would be very\h\h

good to have official online to work\h with all the BMWs professionally.”\h

Actually, I do have it—with the\h license and without the license—\h

but personally, I prefer the ISTA without\h the license because it is way faster.

Just for the comparison—reading out of\h that vehicle, it took me like 2 minutes.\h

If I'm reading out the same\h BMW with the same computer,\h

but with the online ISTA,\h it will take half an hour,\h

because it needs to communicate with\h the BMW server, send information there.

It is super slow. And standalone versions—they’re way more stable.

With the online version, with\h the official ISTA—it crashes.\h

For example, you’ll be reading\h out the car for 20 minutes,\h\h

it crashes, and you have to start all over again.\h

That's why diagnostics at\h dealership level, sometimes—\h

sometimes takes hours just\h to read out the vehicle,\h

without even going into the details\h what’s actually wrong with the car.

This was a small hint about difference of\h the official version and standalone version.\h

It is important to understand that.

Let's go back to our ISTA. As promised, let's start with all the details.

If you press Vehicle Details,\h

this was the screen you have\h seen while reading it out.

What useful information you can find over here? And actually it is important, of course.

Top left—VIN code, the mileage in kilometers\h and miles, the engine type B57 D30.\h

It is a 3-liter diesel engine. Super important to know the I-level factory.\h

From here you can understand\h what was the shipment version—\h

the software version of the\h vehicle when it was produced.

So that car was produced in 2017 in July.\h

I-level actual—it actually shows at what level\h of the software is the vehicle at the moment.\h

As you can see, I have 2021\h and March level software.

HMI version—it is important also to know if you're\h making, for example, the CarPlay activations.\h

My NBT EVO—it has software\h version of year 2021 and November.

Very often over here in Map Version, you\h should also see the type of the map installed.\h

For example, in my case it should\h be written NBT EVO over here.\h

It means I have NBT EVO head unit.

This was the information that could be found\h on that screen, and actually it is important.

Next—the Vehicle Equipment.\h

You can see the different codes that\h actually installed in the vehicles.

In the CAFAS—it is Driver Assistant ECU— you can see the code ID, what does that code do,\h

and actually also if the code is accepted or not.

For example, if one of your\h functions is not working correctly,\h

for example the speed limit\h information is not displayed—\h

it is the road sign recognition.\h

And over here, if you can see\h the FSC status as "rejected,"\h

it means something is wrong with the code\h and that’s why your function is not working.

And same for the head unit retrofits. You will see what retrofits\h\h

were done on that vehicle. In my case, it is the rear LCI lights installed.

If you haven't seen that video before,\h\h

that's actually a very good video to see. And all the equipment installed in my\h\h

vehicle—you can scroll down and you\h can see all the equipment over here.

It is important to understand that that list— it is read out from the vehicle itself.\h

It is not read out from\h any BMW server or anything.

So even if you're using the online, that\h information will be read out from the vehicle,\h

not from the BMW servers.

Next tab—Control Unit Tree. Over here you can see different ECUs.\h

Every ECU is represented with a certain box. It will be with different colors.

You can see the color code down here. If you can see whatever ECU with the green,\h\h

it means zero errors are stored in that ECU.\h

If it is yellow, it means some\h errors are stored in that ECU.

It is not bad, it is not good. It just means there are some errors.

If you can see some issues in the red,\h it means that ECU is not responding.\h

Either it doesn’t have power\h because of blown fuse, broken wires,\h

or that ECU is just broken and not\h working anymore. It’s definitely not good.

And the blue ECUs—it means you have started\h\h

the software update with some\h ECU and something went wrong.\h

So that ECU is still responding,\h but it cannot operate as it should.

In my car, as you can see, I\h have only greens and yellows.\h

It is absolutely okay state. Preferred state is of course all the green.\h

But with the G series, it’s super\h hard to achieve all the green ECUs\h\h

because the cars are so sophisticated. They’re registering every single error.\h

That’s why you will always have some yellow ECUs. It’s absolutely okay.

What else you can see here— you can see these are connected\h\h

with different lines. Those are buses.

For example, you can see that K-CAN\h bus is depicted with that gray color.\h

You can see it over here. So all those ECUs are connected with one bus.

Or for example, if you can see that\h each red, pink, whatever color is that,\h

you can see by the color code—it is the FlexRay. FlexRay is super fast ECU.

If you click here, it will be highlighted\h what ECUs are connected with that.\h

And it’s important to know on\h what bus what ECUs are located.

Sometimes it is super important for diagnostics. For example, if all the ECUs\h\h

on one bus are not responding, most likely it’s not that all the ECUs went bad—\h

that something is wrong with that bus or with\h the gateway through which that bus is operating.\h

That’s why it also helps. Sometimes\h it could be a very useful trick.

Let’s continue exploring ISTA. One more thing to highlight.

You can see that some ECUs,\h they could be a bit gray.\h

It means that current ECU is just selected.

If you highlight the ECU—or not even\h highlight, if you just hold the mouse\h\h

over the ECU when it’s highlighted— you can see more information about that.

For example, you are the first-time\h user of the BMW diagnostic system,\h

you don’t know what the COMBI is— you can see over here,\h\h

it is Instrument Panel. It means the cluster.

Or ACSM—you highlight it, you hold a bit,\h and it will be written: Crash Safety Module.\h

So it is the module for the airbags.

And a lot of other useful information. For example, down here in the same open window,\h

you can see what software is inside the\h ECU, even without going to that ECU.\h

Those small hints could be\h sometimes very useful and handy.

Control Unit List—it is exactly the\h same thing as Control Unit Tree.\h

It’s just represented in another way.

Operations Report— basically every time\h\h

you read out something with the ISTA,\h it will just make the full report.\h

I will show you how to work with that closer to\h the end of the video. I hope not to forget that.

Info from Service Consultation— we have no information available\h\h

because my ISTA is not connected online.

So let’s go back to the Control Unit Tree. We have already done the diagnostics.\h

But now let’s see what’s\h actually wrong with my vehicle\h

and why the check engine light is working.

Down left—you can see the Fault Memory.\h

It is 8. It means 8 errors are\h present in my vehicle at the moment.

To see what are those errors,\h you have to go down right—\h

you can see Display Fault Memory.\h

You press there and you will have\h the overview of all the errors.\h

You will see the error code and\h the description of the code—\h

and very often even what\h ECU is causing that error.

Also, very important: If you have check engine light on, as in our case—\h

over here on the left, you will see what error\h could be causing that check engine light to be on.

Very often, check engine light is\h never a good error and has to be fixed.\h

Because I’m at the moment located in Paris and\h I’ll be staying here for a couple more months,\h

I cannot fix those at the moment.

Those are not super critical. I’ll fix those ASAP when I go back to Estonia.

Let’s go through all the errors.

The functional limitation of ConnectedDrive\h\h

Headunit H—it’s not important. My services, they are a bit hacked,\h

so head unit is working as it should. Don’t pay attention to that.

Exhaust temperature sensor upstream\h of oxidation catalytic converter—\h

it is just a description of the error.\h

But the thing we can see—it\h is non-existent at the moment.\h

It means that that error\h only appears time over time.

If I’ll press down left over\h here Delete Fault Memory,\h

that error will be gone and\h it will appear sometime soon.\h

We don’t know at what time.

To get more information about whatever error—\h

let’s go, for example, to the same error:\h Exhaust temperature sensor upstream.\h

You make double-click on that. New error appears.

It is super important—in that\h window you’ll see way more\h\h

additional information about every single error.\h

You can read when that error appears. You can even see more information.

And the most important—you go to the Details, and over here there’s a special table.\h

You’ll be able to see, for example,\h that error appeared four times.

The first time it was appearing—it\h was with that kilometer reading.\h

And the last time it appeared—it\h was with that kilometer reading.\h

So basically I have traveled 400 km and that\h error appeared four times during 400 km.

What could it mean?

Making the diagnostics is not only reading\h the car with the help of the computer.\h

You also have to understand how it works.

Let’s take, for example, the\h previous error we have seen.\h

You have seen that the error was\h present four times for 400 km traveled.\h

What would it mean?

For example, if you have\h traveled 20,000 kilometers and\h\h

error appeared only once or twice— it is like 20,000 kilometers.\h

And if the error is not active, you\h can just delete it and forget about it.

Because whenever whatever value\h goes outside of the range,\h

the ECU automatically registers the error. It’s absolutely okay behavior.

But if the error is repeated\h consistently over a short period of time,\h

it means the error is\h presently physically present.

For example, one of my sensors—it\h has either the wiring problem or the\h\h

sensor itself is not working. If it was the wiring problem,\h\h

the error would be appearing way more often—\h

basically every time I start the engine\h and the engine ECU makes all the checks.

Because it’s only four times for 400 km, I can\h assume it’s the error of the sensor itself,\h

and the sensor has to be replaced.

Where the sensor is located—we\h will be able to see a bit later.

So, the error was present four times. What else we can see?\h

The error code. The timestamp, for\h example, when that error was present.

You can see that error was\h present on the 12th of April\h\h

the first time and the last time. So it was present during one day.

You can even see what was the injection\h rate and all the other parameters:\h

what was the intake air\h temperature, the ambient pressure,\h

what was the speed of the—driving speed.

For example, the first time it was\h present I was driving a bit fast.\h

I guess I was somewhere on the German autobahn. At least I hope it was not in the middle of Paris.

And so on and so on and so on. So all those super important details.

And System Content—it is\h representing the same information.\h

You can see the error was present four times. And you can see a bit more information.\h

You can see during what mileage it happened,\h what was the voltage inside the sensor,\h

outdoor temperature, engine\h temperature, and so on and so on.

For some errors, it is super\h important to see all the data,\h

to understand and make some logical conclusions.

Let’s go on.\h

And actually you can see that error—it is the\h check engine light is present with a gray.

And what does it mean?\h

It could be gray, yellow, or some other colors. And actually in the same table you should see—\h

on some errors it will be written that it does\h not cause the check engine light to be on.

And with that specific case, it writes\h that actually it could cause the\h\h

check engine light to be on.\h

So it could be the issue why\h we have check engine light on.

But actually, the actual reason why\h I do have the check engine light on—\h

it is the Swirl Flap Controller Position. You can see it’s not present at the moment.

Double click over here to see all the details.\h

That error was present for 13 times. I guess it is exactly the same time range.

You can see the same data and so on. And you can see all the same\h\h

errors that are present over there. And over here, actually you can see:\h

The current fault code causes\h the indicator lamp to be on.

Let’s check the same thing with\h the previous one—at the same place.\h

It has caused in the past,\h

but at the moment fault does\h not trigger drive information.\h

So it shows that that error is not\h causing the check engine light to be on.

But that one is more interesting.\h

You can see how much time it was\h present, and so on and so on and so on.

Why all the errors start at the\h same date and at the same time?\h

Let’s make the conclusions.

Because this is my vehicle,\h and I’m working with that,\h

I have deleted all the errors to understand\h when that error starts and so on.\h

Of course, if you have never deleted any\h errors, you’ll have way longer error history.

You have to understand also that deleting\h the errors is not fixing the issues.\h

If the errors are physically\h present in the vehicle,\h\h

just deleting those will not fix your car. It just sometimes helps to understand.

For example, the car rides.\h You’re making the diagnostics.\h

And you can see like 100 different errors.\h

Going through all of those\h will just take so much time.

That’s why it’s sometimes way more\h easier to delete all the errors,\h

drive a car for some time—half an hour, hour— and you will see what errors appear.\h

And only then start with the actual diagnostics.

Because you’ll just waste too much time trying to\h\h

sort out all the errors that were\h present in the car in the past.

Let’s close that window.\h

I’ll show you a bit later how\h to go even into more details—\h

to the same error and other\h errors that we do have.

For example, the Bottom Radiator\h Blind: Possibility Blocking.\h

It’s not present at the moment.

We can open it up and we can see:\h

error is present only once. It was present like 400 kilometers ago.

So most likely it is not the error\h that will be always happening.\h

Just... yeah, you can just\h delete it and forget about that.

And so on and so on and so on.

The most important thing in the\h ISTA—that actually how it could help:\h

when you have read out the errors,\h you can press Calculate Test Plan,\h

and this is the real beauty of the ISTA.

Because ISTA will actually suggest you\h what you could do about that error.\h

For example, the Swirl Flap—over here\h we can see different errors present.\h

And whatever is ABL, it means it will\h be running the special measure plan,\h

and will actually guide you how\h to measure, what to do, and so on.

For example, let’s take that Swirl\h Flap Activator, those errors,\h

and let’s check—how are my flaps actually\h working or not working in the vehicle.\h

And let’s try to make some deductions from that.\h

Is it super critical or it\h has to be fixed instantly?

Small side remark—\h

with the swirl flaps on the older\h engines like M and N series,\h

if whatever is wrong with the swirl flaps,\h you have to deal with that almost immediately.\h

Because the swirl flaps could be broken, go\h inside the engine, and cause a lot of harm.

On B series—at least on my vehicle— I have done the diagnostics before.\h

I have the error with the swirl flaps\h present only when the engine is cold,\h

because they’re just not in the range.

You’ll see it in a moment. So, you highlight the\h\h

error you are interested in and you press Display.

And actually it will go you through\h all the procedures that are required.\h

On the left side you can just\h see what will be happening.

So basically we have the error present.\h

Swirl flap position controller\h sensor signal too low.

So, in one of the positions—either\h in the open or closed case—\h

the swirl flaps are not working properly.

In the description and the\h details, you can see all the same:\h

Sum up, System content, the same thing.\h

And the description—basically how to\h check one, how it works, and so on.

But what we're interested in—let's press Continue. It shows us how to check if everything is okay,\h

which sockets, which pins to check, even the wiring diagram, the swirl flap activator.

If we press over here—See flap activator—\h

it will actually show you where is the\h intake manifold installation location.

So it is our engine. It is the gearbox. So where is that located.

And you can see—you can actually\h read all the information:\h

how the intake manifold works,\h

what are the swirl flaps, why they’re\h required, and so on and so on.

You can see a lot of very useful information about\h whatever part of the vehicle you are looking at.\h

So, super useful—believe me, I have read\h all that, that’s why I’m skipping that.

We can press again Continue, and actually it shows you—\h

so, with the help of the engine ECU, it could actually measure\h\h

the performance of the swirl flaps and tell us how bad they are—or not so bad.

It will offer us different functions. For example, let’s make the test of\h\h

the swirl flaps and let’s see how\h they actually work or not work.

Pressing Continue. It actually will\h\h

show what test it will be doing. Different tests require—\h

for example, that test requires that engine\h should be at operational temperature.

You have to read all that thing,\h all those instructions through,\h

and actually tell what are the good\h or bad conditions for whatever error.

I will not waste your time reading all that.

And at the moment, my engine is running. You can see the progress over here.\h

And you can see the swirl flaps activating— with the red one, it is the desired position.

So the swirl flaps should be—by\h default, they are in open position.\h

They should be closing over\h here and opening over here.

So you can see the right corner\h is the opening of the swirl flaps.\h

And by all the diagram, you can see\h that they're opening absolutely okay,\h

but they are not closing to\h the full extent as they should.

All the tests—they take some time. Different tests take different time.\h

The amount of the tests that you can\h actually perform with the vehicle\h

depends on how new is the vehicle,\h what ECUs are installed over there.

Of course, G series allows to make way more\h\h

diagnostics with the help\h of ISTA than the E series.

And now, let’s just wait while the test continues.

The test has been finished. You can even see—go back and see how it works.

So we can see the swirl flap activator.\h

They were working, working, and at some\h point they were just not operated anymore.

I don't know if it should be in that way or not. We’ll see that in the next screen.

We press Continue. And actually—the\h\h

setpoint values were not achieved. Behavior of flaps is not okay.

It could cause— why it could be caused?\h

Because the swirl flaps could be jammed and so on.

One month ago, when I was performing\h the diagnostics for my vehicle,\h

the test was still okay. And actually, by the shape of those diagrams,\h

I can see that the situation with the\h swirl flaps is getting worse and worse.

If I was in Estonia, I would immediately stop the vehicle,\h

open the hood, and actually\h take off the intake manifold\h

and see the exact state of the swirl flaps.

In what situation are they? Are they falling apart or not?

And of course, replacement of the intake\h manifold with the swirl flaps is required,\h

because those are not separate things.\h

For example, the refurbished intake\h manifolds are also available on the market.

Do not buy any B-parts. Always prefer the original parts\h\h

or the refurbished parts. They will be okay.

At the moment, I cannot do\h anything about that error.\h

I don't see—I don't feel any\h power reduction in the engine.\h

And I guess the swirl flaps—they’re\h just stuck in one of the positions.

It shows us all the additional\h information about the same errors.\h

So, in the open position and in the\h closed position—how are they failing?

And actually, you can just select End\h Functional Check and press Continue.

Boom. And over here you have to make the next decision.

So, I guess there is nothing wrong with the plugs.\h

No point to check those. We can just finish that error.

Basically, the error cause\h will be the swirl flap control.\h

Not the controller is faulty,\h

but the swirl flaps are defective by themselves and they have to be replaced.

Unfortunately, they have to be replaced\h with the intake manifold together.

This was the example how you\h can go deep inside the error\h

and see what’s actually\h happening—how critical that or not.\h

And of course, if you know how to\h make the diagnostics by yourself,\h

then you can monitor the situation.

For example, in my case, the error\h was not as severe two months ago,\h

but it is way more severe now. And that’s why at least I am aware,\h

so I can take the risk based\h on the information I have—\h

not just taking the risk because of the risk.

Let’s go back to the computer. I’ll show you a couple more very\h\h

useful tricks about the ISTA—how\h you can diagnose your vehicle.

What else do we have over here? Other super important functions.

If you go to Vehicle Information\h and Control Unit Tree,\h

you can go inside the different ECUs\h and see the parameters inside of those.\h

It is also very critical\h for diagnosing the vehicle.

For example, let’s go to the DDE, or\h digital diesel electronics—or engine ECU.\h

You press Call up ECU Functions to go\h inside the ECU and see some more parameters.

For example, on diesel cars,\h the state of the diesel particle\h\h

filter is very important parameter. Because the diesel particle filter—it\h\h

lasts for each 200,000–250,000 kilometers. And that’s why, if you're buying a purchased\h\h

vehicle, it is important\h to know the state of that.

For example—engine speed, coolant temperature.\h

And let’s scroll down to\h the diesel particle filter.\h

Highlight whatever is connected\h to diesel particle filter,\h

and also scroll down and\h highlight the Pressure Read State.

You can see the engine RPM. If you press the gas pedal, you can see\h\h

the engine is going up—so it’s absolutely okay. The coolant temperature at the moment also.\h

You can see the total distance remaining for\h particle filter—it is 167,000 kilometers.

At the moment on my dashboard, I can\h see 160,000 kilometers all in all.\h

And actually, the particle filter should\h last each for 100,000 more kilometers.\h

But you can see the prediction\h is almost 200,000 km.\h

It means that the condition of the\h particle filter is actually very good,\h

if it has not been reset by someone before.

But because it’s my vehicle,\h I know it has not been reset.

The distance traveled since last regeneration— you can see last regeneration was done 700 km ago.\h

You can see even the engine\h operating since last regeneration—\h

so engine was working for 11\h hours from the last regeneration.

And one very important value—the lowest one:\h

The differential pressure. You can see the pressure of the\h\h

exhaust gases before the particle filter. When the engine is idling, that pressure\h\h

should be no more than 10 hectopascals. You can see at the moment it is below.

If you’re revving up the engine, you can see the engine is revving.\h

So at full throttle—or in\h diesel case, it is 4,000 RPMs—\h

it should be no more than\h 150, okay, 200 hectopascals.

If the back pressure is higher than that, it\h means that the particle filter is clogged up,\h

and either it has to be regenerated\h or it has to be replaced.

In our case, you can see last\h regeneration was done 700 km ago.\h

Regeneration is done every 1,000 km plus/minus. So at the idle I can see it is\h\h

close to the upper value. I would prefer it to be lower.\h

But believe me—after\h regeneration, it will be lower.

So, we can turn off those values and do All, and let’s see what else we can see over here.

A lot of useful things. For example:

Operating hour since engine start and\h Operating hour counter pressure state.\h

So you can see the engine was working\h since I started it for such a long time.\h

It’s just the time how much it takes to\h make the video—so at least kind of time.

And Operating Hour Counter—it is\h the engine operating hour counter.\h

You cannot reset that so easily. You will need very\h\h

sophisticated tools to reset it. That’s why it is a very good value to know.

If you divide it by the kilometers, you’ll\h get the average speed of the vehicle.\h

And based on that you can also make some\h deductions about the status of the vehicle.

For example: Number of driving cycles since the fault\h\h

memory was deleted—let’s press Read State. You can see 5.

It means that when I deleted the error memory, the vehicle went to sleep five times.

If you go to the vehicle before purchasing it,\h

you can see that cycle is zero. It means the errors were deleted just before you.

It doesn’t mean something is super bad, but it doesn’t mean good either.\h

Sometimes it means that someone\h wants to hide something.

And here are a lot of different\h values that should be checked.

For example, we had the\h problems with the swirl flaps.\h

We can press Read State. You can see the desired\h\h

position is that percentage, and actuator is in absolutely wrong position.

And actually you can see—so\h I’m changing the engine speed.\h

Flaps should be completely open now, and actually you can see those are\h\h

almost stuck in one of the positions. Those are not moving as they should.

So my conclusion is: My flaps—they are stuck\h\h

due to the faulty level of the lever of the flaps.

Charging pressure—how your turbine is working.\h

You can see the nominal value and the before— so desired position and the actual position.

Those values can differ a bit. It is absolutely okay.

Fuel pressure supply or rail pressure. For example: what is the pressure\h\h

inside the common rail? Nominal value is the\h\h

value that should be there. And it is the actual value.

If you change the speed of the\h engine, the values will change.\h

And those should be very close to\h each other—no bigger difference.

And just—we are scanning all those values. You can make way more deeper diagnostics.

In addition to diagnostics scan, you can trigger the different components.\h

Different ECUs will have\h different options to play with.

For example, with the control, we can play with the turbine correction,\h

EGR bypass flap, or with the swirl flap— you can open and close it, and so on and so on.

Let’s make it a bit more spectacular. Let’s go, for example, inside the BDC ECU.\h

It is the body—the main ECU.

And let’s try to open one of the windows. So we go inside the BDC.\h

We can Call up ECU Functions. Let’s go inside there—Component Triggering.\h

And you can see—you have to\h find the power window function.

So: closing, opening, driver power\h window, driver side power window.\h

Yeah, that one.

Why it’s important? For example, if a window\h\h

is not working and you want to make sure— is it the problem of the actual button,\h\h

control button, or the window motor itself?

For example, you're pressing the button\h as you usually do, and nothing happens.\h

You cannot know if it's the\h problem of the button or not.

But with ISTA, you can press Trigger Component.\h

I'm pressing over here, and you\h can see my window is opening now.

Or I can, for example, close it. So in driver side, I’m selecting the right\h\h

option and pressing the trigger component— and the window is closing.

It means everything operates as it should. So most likely the button is faulty.

The button is not faulty in my case—it\h was just the example how you can diagnose.\h

And believe me, almost all the functions\h of the vehicle are present in there.\h

You can try a lot of different things.

Going through all the issues, showing\h all the functions will just take ages.\h

I will not do that. I’d rather prefer to\h\h

show you something more useful and beneficial.

Let’s go to the Vehicle Management. Over here we have way more tabs present.

For example, the Software Update tab— it is grayed out, as you can see.\h

It is because my ISTA is not connected\h to the databases for the software update.

And why? You can see the version of my ISTA—it is 4.39.\h

It is way outdated, because at\h the moment it is April of 2025.\h

The newest database should be from\h the ISTA 4.52, if I’m not mistaken.

And that ISTA is not compatible. Yes, you can connect different versions of\h\h

the ISTA with different databases. But why to do that?\h

I prefer to use the ACS to update the software.\h

How to do that through the\h ACS—see following video.

Let’s continue.\h

Service Function tab—it is\h one of the tabs super useful.\h

Over here, if you go, you can see a lot of\h different things that are present there.

The thing I want to show you— the tests.

We can go again to the Diesel Engine Electronics. And there are different tests present—if you need\h\h

to test your swirl flaps, and so on and so on. If you were unable to find any functions inside\h\h

the ECU, as I have just shown you a moment before, you can find those tests over here.

But the Smooth Running Control—\h

it’s one of the tests I usually\h perform when diagnosing the vehicles.

Yes, yes, yes—press just Continue. Perform a rough running measurement.\h

Continue, continue. Make\h for 30 seconds and continue.

Over here you can see the minimum and\h the maximum value that is allowed.\h

I’m pressing Continue. And now the engine ECU\h\h

will actually measure how much fuel is\h going through the different injectors.

You can see, because I have a 3-liter\h diesel engine with six cylinders,\h

you can see every injector—how\h it’s actually working.\h

Is it getting enough fuel?\h

Is it going to bypass a lot\h of fuel? And so on and so on.

If that difference—if those\h differences are very high,\h

you can make some deductions about in\h what condition are the fuel injectors.

Fuel injectors in modern engines\h are super important components.\h

That’s why testing those is important.

You can see that all injectors are okay. And you can see the rough deduction over here.\h

If the difference is more than\h 1.0 between different injectors,\h

it is a small sign that some\h injectors are going to be bad soon.

But as you have seen, the values there— those are from 5 to minus 4.\h

So the range is kind of big before\h those values are outside of the range.

You will not have any errors on your dashboard.

And close, close.

What else you can find here—\h

in the Body Function, for example,\h you can see the Voltage Supply.\h

You can activate the battery rest state. You can put the vehicle to sleep.

But actually, we need to\h determine Battery Condition.\h

Overview Battery Values—pressing the continue.

And you can see—during the last 5 days— how the battery was charged,\h\h

how it was 5 days ago, and how it was going,\h\h

getting more empty and empty, because inside Paris I’m not driving so much.

Also you can see the Battery Index. It is 85.9%.\h

It means the battery is\h still in kind of okay state.

If it goes way below, like 80 or 70%, you\h might consider replacing your battery.

Also you can see how many hours the battery\h was charged, up to what percentage, and so on.

So, inside the ISTA, you can\h find a lot of useful information.\h

Also in the ISTA, it is possible\h to see all the wiring diagrams—\h

how different ECUs are\h connected, what bus is used,\h

what are the parameters of every single\h wire, what color it is, what pin is used,\h

how those are connected, and so on and so on.

It is very important for diagnostic purposes. You can also find everything that in there.

Unfortunately, I cannot show you\h all the information in one video,\h

because that video is already super long. I predicted like one-hour long video.

But I’m covering that thing—how\h to use the wiring diagram—\h

in the video when I was\h working with the headlights.\h

See that video—you’ll get\h more information about the\h\h

wiring diagrams, and so on and so on and so on.

If you need to make the battery\h replacement, you have to register it.\h

You’ll find that function over here.

For example—Register Battery Replacement. If you need to do something with the seats,\h\h

for example normalize the driver\h seat or the passenger seat—\h

depends on the seats you have—you can do it here.

In the Chassis Suspension,\h

if you have to regulate how\h your steering wheel operates,\h

make all the calibrations—it\h can be done through the ISTA.

So basically, this is the must-have\h tool for all the BMW owners.

Okay, what else? I want to show you two more things:\h

how to clear the errors,\h

and how to print out the information you have\h been reading out before in professional way.

Before we clear any errors,\h as you can see over here—\h

if I press Delete Fault Memory List, it will delete all the active errors,\h\h

and only non-active will remain.

But before that—you can see\h that printer icon over there.\h

This is the thing that not\h many users actually know.

So we can print and select Fault Memory List.\h

And over here—Print to File. Press OK.

Error log has been saved. As easy as that.

So you don’t need to make any screenshots,\h\h

printing, and so on. So where is it saved?\h

You go to your computer\h where the ISTA is installed.

So it should be— different setups use\h\h

different installation. But in the ISTA folder,\h\h

you have to find the folder called Print. You filter it by date—today is 22nd of April.

And you open the PDF. And you can see the error log present here.

This is the document that actually the BMW\h dealer is printing you when making diagnostics\h

and charging you at least €100 per one printout.

But over here—you can see\h all the needed information.\h

Very professional.

And now, let's clean all our errors. We just press Delete Fault Memory.\h

Pressing Yes.

And it will tell us what we need to do.\h

If the engine is running,\h we’ll turn off the engine.\h

Or if it's unable to turn off the engine,\h it will tell us to turn off the engine.

When working through the ICOM, it is\h able to work with the car more precisely.\h

With the ENET, it’s unable. That's why it tells us: turn off the car.

Press Next, and then it will either\h automatically turn on the diagnostic mode,\h

or we have to do it manually—Activate PAD Mode.\h

Because through the ENET\h cable, it is unable to do that.\h

With the ICOM, it will be\h doing that automatically.

[Music]

And after deleting all the\h errors, it scans the car again.

And at the moment, we can even see—\h

for example, in the engine\h ECU, it shows zero errors.

It means that everything is fixed.\h

Of course not. It was—we just deleted the errors.

Now the engine is hot, so most likely the error will not appear.\h

But when the engine will cool\h down and I’ll turn it on again,\h

my swirl flap error will be present again.

And you can see only two errors present. We can go again to the Fault Memory.\h

So, Satellite Model is not\h active—that’s with my head unit.\h

And Remote Battery Control is under\h voltage—so I have to charge my display key.

Let’s start the engine.

At the moment on the dashboard, I can see that\h check engine light is not working anymore.\h

Yeah—it’s absolutely okay because\h we have deleted the errors.

We can make the Start Vehicle Test again. Why it is necessary?\h

Because before that I deleted\h the errors, the engine was off,\h

we turned on the diagnostics\h mode, scanned the car,\h

and that’s why there were no errors present.

But now I started the engine, and we can see\h in the engine ECU one of the errors is present.\h

We’ll see what error appears. It means that error is becoming critical,\h

and we have to deal with that\h ASAP—as soon as possible.

Display Fault Memory—and you can see:\h

Swirl Flap Controller Position Sensor. So swirl flaps are most likely now\h\h

stuck in one of the positions. And it is absolutely no bueno.

I have showed you the most important\h parts you have to know about the ISTA.\h

Of course it was not the complete video, because it’s just impossible to fit into one.

It is not the Lord of the Rings trilogy— yeah, it will just take so much time.

I really do hope that you\h enjoyed the current video,\h

because it was super useful. That video will save you a lot of money.

Just by making the diagnostics by yourself, you’ll be able to know in what state your car is,\h\h

what’s the problem with that, and so on and so on. It is just so valuable information.

If you still haven’t subscribed\h to my channel after seeing that\h\h

wonderful video, feel free to do so. Also hit the like—and see you next time.

Bye.

And one more afterburner— basically the swirl flaps are working again.\h

You can see the pattern is not as it should be. And over here, you can see—for example, over here.\h

So they failed to open or close completely. And I’m just continuing monitoring those.

So yes, they are working somehow, but over here—and again it’s running—\h

you can see they were closed,\h and they are not opening again.\h

So they are stuck again somewhere. So it is definitely not the bueno situation.

I’ll open the hood now, and let’s see\h what’s happening actually over there.

Bye-bye.

I open the hood and my daughter— actually, she started the program\h\h

because she is the ISTA professional now. She knows at least the same thing as you.

But actually I cannot hear those working. Yeah, so they are stuck in one of the positions.

And actually during the test drive, we’ll see—does\h\h

it affect the engine performance or not? But at least now we know what to deal with.

To be continued.

This is one more test about the swirl flaps. It shows the health indicators.\h

And actually you can see—those\h are going already to red.\h

It means, yeah, it’s not\h working anymore as it should.

As actually as we have seen. So basically, they are stuck\h\h

in one of the positions. So this is one more test to\h\h

see the health of your swirl flaps. Those have to be dealt immediately.