Does an R53 'store' fault codes?

[CrippsCorner]

Hi. Had my EML pop up a couple of times and couldn't find my own diagnostic tool anywhere... so booked it in for a looking over. Since booking it, the EML went off and hasn't returned! Does the R53 store the code so the garage will be able to see what it was going wrong? Or does it need to actually be on and faulty at the time of diagnosing? Thanks.

[CrippsCorner]

An abundance of replies here anyway, in case anyone in the future was wondering... yes the R53 stores codes. Turns out it was down to my lambda sensor - The garage said hopefully just a glitch, and to wait until it returns as it's quite a pricey replacement.

[and31]

My previous R53 did this from time to time-I think it was the post cat lambda
I just bought a cheap code reader and turned it off every time it came on

[E-bmw]

The post cat lambda on these does nothing, so I doubt it will have been that.

[and31]

E-bmw said:

The post cat lambda on these does nothing, so I doubt it will have been that.

Can it not still put the eml on if it’s having a hissy fit?
Nothing else wrong the my old r53 apart from that ...

[E-bmw]

I am 99% sure the answer to that is no.

You can monitor it but it is widely known that if the pre-cat sensor goes down the easy/cheap fix is to swap them over.

[CrippsCorner]

Mine's upstream (therefore pre-cat I presume) maybe I can give the swap a go first.

If it does come to replacement time, there seem to be lots of cheaper one on here. Any recommendations? Are you best off replacing them both together? Thanks.

[E-bmw]

CrippsCorner said:

Mine's upstream (therefore pre-cat I presume) maybe I can give the swap a go first.

What, the pre cat one has failed?

You have one pre & one post cat, the post cat one does nothing as far as EML goes, so if the pre-cat one fails it WILL put the EML on, in which case you will see a code for this.

CrippsCorner said:

If it does come to replacement time, there seem to be lots of cheaper one on here. Any recommendations? Are you best off replacing them both together? Thanks.

If the car is a keeper only use NTK or AT LEAST Bosch, or you will 90% be doing it again within 2 years.

[CrippsCorner]

Thanks. It's pre-cat that's failing... just rang my garage and it said it's not always as simple as swapping them over, as you can't tell from the diagnostics that it's definitely the sensor itself or something else upstream that's causing it to throw up an error. Though, he didn't work on my car himself and didn't have the paperwork handy - I do now, and the exact wording is:

130
Absent
Digital Motor Electronics (DME): catalytic converter upstream oxygen sensor fault (bank 1)

To be honest the car's going next year, baby number two on the way so need something bigger! So I don't need the best of the best.