Understanding Lexia

Ok guys, i got my lexia today and after some trial and error, i managed to get it working on a virtualbox windows xp install, i took it out to my car tonight and after navigating round the glitch (for those who dont know the lexia glitch is where the device will not recognise the car unless you initialise the system in this order:plug the lexia tool into the car and laptop, then start diagbox, then select car to scan, remove tool from laptop for 5 seconds plug it back in wait 5 seconds then select to scan with lexia tool) anyway, i performed a quick scan on my vehicle and at first everything seemed normal , the only fault i had was that the multifunction display is not connected to the radio (i assume this is due to the aftermarket cd player that is installed).

(faults are in pictures)


Next i worried myself by going into the abs ecu where i got the message saying "warning, this diagnostic session deactivates the ABS function above a speed of 10kph. Road tests which cause the ABS to be activated must therefore not be performed during this as the Electronic Brakeforce Distribution function is no longer functional." i pressed F7 here to back right out of this to the main menu and did not press enter and then rescanned the car to make sure there were no ABS faults (there werent) however i am still worried that i have deactivated the EBD or something being in that menu (probably just be me being a nervous noob), but please can someone tell me i havent just to assure me?

ps i have no idea why the thumbnails for the pics are upside down but when i click to view them they go the right way up! cheers
i also went into the bsi section to read the faults log, and i found loads of old and weird faults in here, one saying there was a temporary oil level sensor fault, i can verify this as i have seen sometimes when i switch the ignition on the oil level just has 6 flashing lines and doesnt give me a reading, however if i switch the ignition off and switch it back on again i get a reading, no idea why it does that. however the stranger thing is that my current milage according to lexia is 235034 km but the milage at which fault dissapeared is recorded at 250760 km (some faults even show the fault disappeared at 260000km). i would suspect that the car has been clocked at some time in its life but i have the full service history which prooves the milage, is it just a weird glitch?

other faults i had are "brake contact permenent press" which sounds very worrying and 62 times i have had the fault "Communication fault between the BSI and the ECUs on the comfort van" and i also had "communication fault with the control panel ECU" and "oil pressure".

Please can you guide me through what steps i should take to fixing these faults
any help would be greatly appreciated,
thanks.

samstagmoonyham wrote:Please can you guide me through what steps i should take to fixing these faults
any help would be greatly appreciated,
thanks.

samstagmoonyham wrote:however the stranger thing is that my current milage according to lexia is 235034 km but the milage at which fault dissapeared is recorded at 250760 km (some faults even show the fault disappeared at 260000km). i would suspect that the car has been clocked at some time in its life but i have the full service history which prooves the milage, is it just a weird glitch?

Its up to the lexia user to enter the mileage when faults are cleared, not a glitch, just bad entering. Mines similar with a mix up of KM and Miles.

samstagmoonyham wrote:other faults i had are "brake contact permenent press" which sounds very worrying and 62 times i have had the fault "Communication fault between the BSI and the ECUs on the comfort van" and i also had "communication fault with the control panel ECU" and "oil pressure".

I would ignore some of them, temporary faults come and go. If you change the stereo you can get errors, disconnect the battery, etc.

For the oil level one, do you really want to go digging through the wiring loom, testing along the way only to disturb something more important?

samstagmoonyham wrote: the only fault i had was that the multifunction display is not connected to the radio (i assume this is due to the aftermarket cd player that is installed).

Yes, this is correct. You can go into the configuration and unconfigure the stereo, or at least downgrade, less damage to do there and easy to fix if it all goes wrong.

samstagmoonyham wrote:Next i worried myself by going into the abs ecu where i got the message saying "warning, this diagnostic session deactivates the ABS function above a speed of 10kph. Road tests which cause the ABS to be activated must therefore not be performed during this as the Electronic Brakeforce Distribution function is no longer functional." i pressed F7 here to back right out of this to the main menu and did not press enter and then rescanned the car to make sure there were no ABS faults (there werent) however i am still worried that i have deactivated the EBD or something being in that menu (probably just be me being a nervous noob), but please can someone tell me i havent just to assure me?

This one is useful, give it a go and don't be scared. Activate the test, then go for a short drive with lexia still connected and running. You will be able to review each of the wheel sensors detected speeds and converted speeds. Useful if you have ABS/ePAS/Speedo issues.



If you leave the screen or switch off the ignition, the test ends.

for "brake contact permenent press" go into lexia and read the position of the brake pedal, depress the pedal and check it toggles between the two states. If it doesn't you may have a faulty brake switch.

You can see brake pedal and handbrake status in live data:
Enjoy your lexia tool

A useful tip is to screen capture using either the lexia screen capture option or windows Alt + Prt Sc option and paste into paint. You get the images in the correct orientation and they are clearer to read than a photo of a computer screen.

C3CAR wrote:

samstagmoonyham wrote:Please can you guide me through what steps i should take to fixing these faults
any help would be greatly appreciated,
thanks.

samstagmoonyham wrote:however the stranger thing is that my current milage according to lexia is 235034 km but the milage at which fault dissapeared is recorded at 250760 km (some faults even show the fault disappeared at 260000km). i would suspect that the car has been clocked at some time in its life but i have the full service history which prooves the milage, is it just a weird glitch?

Its up to the lexia user to enter the mileage when faults are cleared, not a glitch, just bad entering. Mines similar with a mix up of KM and Miles.

samstagmoonyham wrote:other faults i had are "brake contact permenent press" which sounds very worrying and 62 times i have had the fault "Communication fault between the BSI and the ECUs on the comfort van" and i also had "communication fault with the control panel ECU" and "oil pressure".

I would ignore some of them, temporary faults come and go. If you change the stereo you can get errors, disconnect the battery, etc.

For the oil level one, do you really want to go digging through the wiring loom, testing along the way only to disturb something more important?

samstagmoonyham wrote: the only fault i had was that the multifunction display is not connected to the radio (i assume this is due to the aftermarket cd player that is installed).

Yes, this is correct. You can go into the configuration and unconfigure the stereo, or at least downgrade, less damage to do there and easy to fix if it all goes wrong.

samstagmoonyham wrote:Next i worried myself by going into the abs ecu where i got the message saying "warning, this diagnostic session deactivates the ABS function above a speed of 10kph. Road tests which cause the ABS to be activated must therefore not be performed during this as the Electronic Brakeforce Distribution function is no longer functional." i pressed F7 here to back right out of this to the main menu and did not press enter and then rescanned the car to make sure there were no ABS faults (there werent) however i am still worried that i have deactivated the EBD or something being in that menu (probably just be me being a nervous noob), but please can someone tell me i havent just to assure me?

This one is useful, give it a go and don't be scared. Activate the test, then go for a short drive with lexia still connected and running. You will be able to review each of the wheel sensors detected speeds and converted speeds. Useful if you have ABS/ePAS/Speedo issues.



If you leave the screen or switch off the ignition, the test ends.

for "brake contact permenent press" go into lexia and read the position of the brake pedal, depress the pedal and check it toggles between the two states. If it doesn't you may have a faulty brake switch.

You can see brake pedal and handbrake status in live data:

bsi-shows-child-locking-status.jpg

Enjoy your lexia tool

Hi thanks for the repsonse, i am enjoying all the options i have with lexia, i will ignore some of the errors like the oil sensor as that is no problem. but how do i downgrade the stereo? (i will get the com2000 adapter at some point so i can control the stereo via the steering wheel.) and how do i access the live data? also i noticed that whilst my car may not have ESP fitted the ESP system works off the ABS ECU,so would there be a way of activiating it on my car? and similar on my dads car, he has an ealier 52 8v hdi which has a source button on the wiper stalk instead of a trip computer button, could i just get an updated wiper stalk with a trip button from a scrappie and enable the trip function in lexia? the engine must have all the sensors as i have seen it done on a xsara with the 1.4 hdi engine on youtube.

also i dont know if lexia can help me with this but whenever i deadlock the car the child locks come on and stay on untill i deactive them by pressing the button or lock the car without the deadlocks and unlock it again?

samstagmoonyham wrote:but how do i downgrade the stereo? (i will get the com2000 adapter at some point so i can control the stereo via the steering wheel.)

Its in lexia somewhere, I think BSI configuration. These screen shots may help.

samstagmoonyham wrote:and how do i access the live data?

Look for the parameters option, it somewhere in the lexia options, follow the menu in the yellow rectangles across the top of the screen shot to get an idea where to look

samstagmoonyham wrote:also i noticed that whilst my car may not have ESP fitted the ESP system works off the ABS ECU,so would there be a way of activiating it on my car?

If you add the steering and yaw sensors, I don't see why not. If it was an option for your car, you should be able to add it like a dealer. If its not an option, you will have to do more work (update more hardware or flash more firmware).

samstagmoonyham wrote:and similar on my dads car, he has an ealier 52 8v hdi which has a source button on the wiper stalk instead of a trip computer button, could i just get an updated wiper stalk with a trip button from a scrappie and enable the trip function in lexia?

I tried this and couldn't get it to work. If you dig deep enough into lexia its possible to see the trip data for MPG, but I can't get it all to come together and work. It may just be the car I was working on as it has some other odd faults. Give it a go, what have you got to loose?

samstagmoonyham wrote:also i dont know if lexia can help me with this but whenever i deadlock the car the child locks come on and stay on untill i deactive them by pressing the button or lock the car without the deadlocks and unlock it again?

I have not played with that option, but if anything can sort out computer problems on the C3, lexia can.

Have you looked for any engine ECU and/or BSI firmware/software updates, it would be worth doing these too if you plan to enhance the cars features by adding hardware.

hi, cheers for the response, i didnt get a chance to do anything with lexia today as i was playing with the brakes (it appears i need a new rear left caliper)

C3CAR wrote: Have you looked for any engine ECU and/or BSI firmware/software updates, it would be worth doing these too if you plan to enhance the cars features by adding hardware.

By any chance, could any of these updates install themselves as soon as lexia connects to the system, its just that my dads car is noticably quieter since i plugged lexia into it and i took mine out for a drive today and it is accelerating even harder than it did before, i mean even 3rd gear is pushing me right back into the seat now. its like when you buy a more powerful car, you can feel the extra torque alot in the first week but then the feeling disappears as you get used to it, but when i drove it today i got that feeling the car was more powerful again.

samstagmoonyham wrote:By any chance, could any of these updates install themselves as soon as lexia connects to the system,

No, you have to go through the menus to install and follow the procedure to the letter.

samstagmoonyham wrote:its just that my dads car is noticably quieter since i plugged lexia into it and i took mine out for a drive today and it is accelerating even harder than it did before,

Maybe you cleared some faults temporary faults while you were in lexia?

C3CAR wrote:

samstagmoonyham wrote:By any chance, could any of these updates install themselves as soon as lexia connects to the system,

No, you have to go through the menus to install and follow the procedure to the letter.

samstagmoonyham wrote:its just that my dads car is noticably quieter since i plugged lexia into it and i took mine out for a drive today and it is accelerating even harder than it did before,

Maybe you cleared some faults temporary faults while you were in lexia?

yes i did clear some faults on both cars actually, on mine it was just the multifunction display fault i cleared and i cleared an abs fault and power steering fault on my dads one, sadly i will have to take a week off of playing with lexia as next week i am doing the caliper, rear exhaust hanger, crank pulley and a new fanbelt!, apparently mot's from used car salesmen are worthless, whilst the crank pulley wouldnt make the car fail the mot, the fact that the handbrake is only holding from one side and the exhaust hanger has rotted away completely would!