BMW On-Board Computer Hidden Menu for E90 E91 E92 E93

The BMW E9X (E90, E91, E92, E93) 3Series produced between 2004 to 2013 is a great machine offered with various engines and bodystyles to suite anyone. Whether or not you are a new owner or have owned it for a few years , you might not be aware that BMW has worked in some undocumented hidden features and kept them a secret. Here's a very short peek of the many features you can access, some are cool and some can help you service your:

• Be able to switch the temperature units readout.
• Light up your dashboard like a Christmas tree - useful to find faulty lights.
• The current speed readout in a digital format – useful when comparing You can check your speedometer's accuracy with an external GPS.
• Fuel sender unit debugging by knowing how many liters of fuel are currently in the tank.
• Actual VIN number of the car – useful when buying the car and want to make sure that all matches to what is in the engine bay.

Navigating through OBC

At this point the OBC should display data in a "XX.YY" format.

e.g. If the BC displays "01.00", that means Main Menu 01, sub menu 00 To toggle between the menus, you need to use again the odometer button:

• While the display reads XX.__ press the button repeatedly to select the main menu option (XX) when reaching the desired main menu option, wait for 2 second for the display to read XX.00, at this time pressing the button will select the sub menu (YY)
• To go back to selection of a main menu (XX), press and hold the button for 2 seconds, until it shows XX.__ again.
• To leave the hidden/service menus press and hold the button for 10 seconds, or remove the key.

 

Unlocking Secret Menus

By default the available main menus are 01, 02 and 19. To access the remaining menus a secret code is required which can be found under menu 01.00.

• Unlock code needs to be calculated from adding the last 5 digits of your VIN number together. Say your VIN is XX12345, you take the last 5 digits (12345 in this case), and add them all up, so 1+2+3+4+5=15. Meaning your unlock code is 15.
• To enter the unlock code, go to main menu 19, and wait until it asks for the unlock code. Now press the button until it reads your unlock code (15 in our example), and the display will show 'lock: off'.
• Now all menus are available.

 

Note: The main trick, is to not take too long before you enter input, if you wait too long, the thing times out and takes you back to the regular readout.

 

Menu	Display	Translation	Notes
01.00	FGSTNR (Fahrgestellnummer)	Vehicle chassis number	Last seven characters of the VIN.
01.01	K-Zahl W / T (Kilo-Zahl Wirklich / Tacho)	Tacho in thousands True/Tacho
01.02	BMWTNR (BMW Teilenummer)	BMW Part number of Instrument panel
01.03	COD DIA	Diagnostic code?
01.04	KI HSTLDATUM (Instrument Kombi Herstellungs donnée)	Instrument Panel Manufacturing date
01.05	HW AEI	Hardware revision	First part is probably the hardware revision of the instrument panel. Unclear what the second part (AEI) is
01.06	SO	Software version
01.07	KODIERDATEN	Coding data
01.08	CAN	Can Bus version
02.00	KI ESSAI (Test Instrument Kombi)	Instrument Panel Test – aka Christmas instrument panel test	When the display shows 02.00, click the button one more time to start the test. Causes all indicator to light up, and gauges to go to max.
03.00	UNBELEGT	Unused	On some older cars (pre-E90), this menu contains service data.
04.00	Verbe-MOM (Verbrauch im Moment)	Current fuel consumption in l/100km
04.01	Verbe-MOM (Verbrauch im Moment)	Current fuel consumption in l/hour
04.02	D-VERB1 LIT (Durchschnitt Verbrauch im litre?)	Averages - Consumed fuel in Liter
04.03	D-VERB1 WEG (Durchschnitt Verbrauch im Wegstrecke?)	Averages - Distance traveled
04.04	D-VERB2 LIT (Durchschnitt Verbrauch im litre?)	Averages - Consumed fuel in Liters
04.05	D-VERB2 WEG (Durchschnitt Verbrauch im Wegstrecke?)	Averages - Distance traveled
05.00	RW-VERBE (Reichweite Verbrauch)	Range Fuel usage	This is used to calculate how much further you can drive
05.01	RW-MOM (Reichweite im Moment)	Estimated range until tank is empty
06.00	RÉSERVOIR LRS (Tank Liens Rechts Summe)	Remaining fuel in left and right fuel tank, and total (Left-Right-Sum)
06.01	TANK-ANZ PH	Total fuel tank content
06.02	TANK-OHM LR	The raw resistance values returned by the left and right fuel level sensors.
07.00	KTMP-MOM (Kühlmittel Temperatur im Moment)	Current coolant temperature
07.01	ATMP-MOM (Außen Temperatur im Moment)	Current Outside temperature
07.02	ATMP ADC (Analog Digital Converter Außentemperatur)	Raw temperature value from Analogue Digital Converter
07.03	N-MOT-MOM	Current Engine revs per minute
07.04	N-VWF-MOM	revs per minute limit on M cars whilst engine warming up (increase in blocks of 50rpm as temp rises)
08.00	V-EFF	Current speed
08.01	V-ANZ	Speed shown on indicator
08.02	V-SZ	Cruise control speed on indicator
08.03	DGESCH1 WEG	Distance travelled 1
08.04	DGESCH1 ZEIT	Total Time driven 1
08.05	DGESCH2 WEG	Distance travelled 2
08.06	DGESCH2 ZEIT	Total Time driven 2
09.00	UB	Voltage
10.00	KM / WOCHE	KM / Week
10.01	GELB CBS HA
10.02	SC-STATUT
10.03	CBS-MODE
10.04	TAG-ZAEHLER (Tag Zahler)	Day Counter
11.00	ZEIT-EINH (Zeit Einheit)	Time format	12 or 24
11.01	WEG-EINH (Wegstrecke Einheit)	Distance format	KM or MLS
11.02	TEMP-EINH (Temperatur Einheit)	Temperature format	° C or ° F
11.03	Verbe-EINH (Verbrauch Einheit)	Fuel Usage format	l/100km, km / l or mpg
12.00	V-Ankunft (Veranschlagt Ankunft)	Estimated until arrival
12.01	ANK-Zeit (Zeit Ankunft)	Estimated Arrival time
13.00	AUDIO	Sound Test	Press button to play BLINKER, ACC Gong, CCG and DG sounds
14.00	FS-EINTRAEGE (Fehler Speicher Einträge)	Memory error entries
14.01	FSP01 (Fehler Speicher Position 01)	Memory Error Entry 01
14.02	FSP02 (Fehler Speicher Position 02)	Memory Error Entry02
14.03	FSP03 (Fehler Speicher Position 03)	Memory Error Entry03
14.04	FSP04 (Fehler Speicher Position 04)	Memory Error Entry04
14.05	FSP05 (Fehler Speicher Position 05)	Memory Error Entry05
14.06	FSP06 (Fehler Speicher Position 06)	Memory Error Entry06
14.07	FSP07 (Fehler Speicher Position 07)	Memory Error Entry07
14.08	FSP08 (Fehler Speicher Position 08)	Memory Error Entry08
14.09	FSP09 (Fehler Speicher Position 09)	Memory Error Entry09
14.10	FSP10 (Fehler Speicher Position 10)	Memory Error Entry10
15.00	PORT 00h
15.01	PORT 01h
15.02	PORT 02h
15.03	PORT 03h
15.04	PORT 04h
15.05	05h PORT
15.06	PORT 06h
15.07	PORT 07h
15.08	PORT 08h
15.09	PORT 09h
15.10	PORT 0Ah
15.11	PORT 0Bh
16.00	DIMMRAD CAN	Dashboard lighting
16.01	PHOTO-ADC	Day light measurement
16.02	DIMM-PWM SZ
16.03	DIMM-PWM DK
17.00	DISP-Heiz	Display heater on / off
17.01	NCT1 NCT2
17.02	KONTR-PWM
18.00	CC-TEST	Check Control Test
19.00	UNLOCK	Unlock menu
20.00	KORR-VERBR (Korrekturfaktor Verbrauchsanzeige)	Correction factor - usage	Fuel consumption correction factor
20.01	1ER KORR	1st correction	Change the 'ones' digit of the correction factor
20.02	10ER KORR	10th correction	Change the 'tens' digit of the correction factor
20.03	100ER KORR	100th correction	Change the 'hundreds' digit of the correction factor
21.00	RESET?	Software reset

Note: The above is known to work with the BMW E9X range, however might work with other BMW's of the same era.