Big Ben in my BMW 5 series ....

Check the boot for large bells ;-}

There is a button in my car that says MEMO. This button is to set a reminder that you want to do something, perhaps set the radio to BBC, or whatever. The button is a toggle, press it to turn the feature on, press again to set it to off.

Sounds like you have set a speed reminder or something similar. Perhaps it's quite cold outside - under 4 deg C = frost warning.

Lights on when door open?

Oodles of things.

Read the handbook and look at all the setting you can set with iDrive and zero them all - then you could add up all the numbers in the VIN code and press the dash reset that number of times to bring up the computer reset system - that's the E65 system don't know if the 5 series is the same but a chat with a dealer wouldn't go amiss.

E39? E60? model year? Give us a hint.

R / John

On my E39, when the memo feature is enabled, I get a tone at one minute before the top of the hour.

On my E38 you can activate 3 beeps about 20s before the hour - useful to put the radio on for the news.

No idea if it's an E39 or E60, all I can say is that it's the current model (3 years old).

That's it .... that's it .... Please, where can I deactivate it ? :-))))

Since you have I-drive - you may want to go to the friendly local dealer and ask one of the sales-droids to demonstrate how to disable "MEMO"..

I'm certain no normal mortal could find it within the labyrinthine menus of I-Drive.

Usually iDrive gives the option on the top line - look for it ... on-off

try it -- too simple for mere mortals?

E60 then. You'll find the function somewhere in Idrive (WhyDrive?). Isn't there a pretty comprehensive manual for this?

R / John

Yes, there is a manual .... Is it pretty comprehensive, probably .... But it's also quite large and doesn't contain a good index for quick access !!

I finally found a feature called "Memo" under the clock setting; that's the Big Ben !!

Thanks to all of you for your ideas :-)