[bobyyy]

Hi,

I have a e92 335d and the past 2 weeks i have been having starting problems, sometime it starts and sometimes it doesent, it very rarely starts in the morning, but usually starts in the afternoon.

Ive tried my friends battery in it as well, he came back round next day to take his back again and we put mine back in and it started fine, then as soon as it was running i took it too the garage ive checked all the cables as well, My brake fluid needs changing too but haven't got round to doing it yet. I took it to someone a few days ago before i took it to the garage and got an error called "INSTRUMENTAL CLUSTER".

I have took it to a garage and ive parked it there,

The garage rang me yesterday and said they havent found any error codes for it yet and wont start at all... they have been working on it since monday now


Anyone else experienced this problem?

Cheers
Bobyyy

[MiamiOffshore]

How cold is it when you're experiencing this? Difference in temp in morning and afternoon? Dont' know a thing about the 335d, but from what you've described the symptoms sound suspiciously similar to diesel problems I've experienced with other vehicles. Does your "wait to start" light come on? (Assuming they've deleted glowplugs altogether in the 335d, again I don't know). When it fails to start what kind of activity are you going from the engine? When it does start is there a lot of exhaust smoke right when it fires up? Is it white?

[bobyyy]

Thanks for your post,

Its about 5C in the morning and maybe 12 in the afternoon, The wait to start light does not come on at all, never seen that. It just keeps cranking and cranking but doesent start, it starts throwing all sorts of faults on the i drive like low oil abs failure etc. When it gets going its perfect though. About the smoke, there is no smoke from the exhaust when it starts up

Fault codes i have gotten:

486D control unit software fault
46D1 control unit internal 4
46D3 control unit internal 4
4A61 EWS control tampering

I got it going and took it down to the garage and they cant find any fault codes or access the ECU.

[vase330]

I had something similar to this, but my car is 335i. My problems started from day one. It stalled out and just simply shut down barely a mile and a half from the Munich delivery center after I took delivery during my ED trip. They sent a mechanic over from the main dealership to investigate. He couldn't get it to start, so they towed it in across the street and put 3 guys to work on it while I waited. 2hrs later, they got it started sent me on my way. Nothing happened during ED until I got the car back in the US, and it was seating at the dealer bay dead 4th day after they gave it back to me. Other symptoms included doors wouldn't lock, comfort key stopped working, lights on one side would sometimes not come on. It was crazy. Then starting issues and when it starts if it so decided to, there would be this loud shrill noise coming from somewhere. They thought it was the audio system but couldn't find it. Anyway the car would just totally act erratic. A few dealership refused to work on the car. I had less than 15K miles on it, and it was not even a year old. In the end, after a few months of having the car go from dealer to dealer and being completely undrivable most of the time. BMWNA offered me a buy back. the forum for August 2007 see if you get some of the symptoms I was having.

It was not great, but a barely ok deal. I wasn't really happy, so they offered me a new car, but since it was going to take a long time to get an exact configuration replacement, I was hesitant not knowing if new car would be the same. So they decided to just replace all the electronics from CCC, I-drive, CANBUS even the amplifier in the trunk. Took the mechanics at OpenRoad BMW of Edison NJ 2 weeks to put it all back all together (I saw the car completely gutted thought they never get it back together and working again! Wow!! ) Anyway everything was sent back to Germany for analysis, I never heard what the issue was, other than it was electronics failure of some unknown nature. They gave me back my car and I have never had any non-mechanical issue with it again. Wild goose chase is what the manger called it.

[DieselDiner]

I have not read of anyone on the various forums in the U.S. having this type of problem with their 335D. Bear in mind that the population of 335D's is much smaller in the U.S. than over there, so there is a lower population of cars as a result. So, fewer 'opportunities' for someone to experience your problem.

How old is your car? How many miles? If your local garage cannot access the ECU, you might be well advised to get your car to a BMW dealer, so they can properly access the ECU and (hopefully) determine what is happening. Please keep us updated on your progress, as your experience might be valuable knowledge for D drivers over here. Good luck!

[bobyyy]

Thanks for your replies,

Car is a 06 reg and has done 84k miles, Rang the garage up today and they said we dont know what the problem is, we cant start it at all.

So i'll have to take it down to Stratstone/BMW by towing it or something. Hopefully they can access the ECU.

Vase, That sounds awful, i dont think mine is that bad (yet) but thanks for your info, ill try and find your thread

Ill keep you lot updated and hopefully can get it fixed soon

Cheers

P.S The guy said he thinks it might be something to do with the immobiliser...

[vase330]

Originally Posted by bobyyy

Thanks for your replies,

Car is a 06 reg and has done 84k miles, Rang the garage up today and they said we dont know what the problem is, we cant start it at all.

So i'll have to take it down to Stratstone/BMW by towing it or something. Hopefully they can access the ECU.

Vase, That sounds awful, i dont think mine is that bad (yet) but thanks for your info, ill try and find your thread

Ill keep you lot updated and hopefully can get it fixed soon

Cheers

P.S The guy said he thinks it might be something to do with the immobiliser...

It sounds like its a canned response. Believe it or not, I got that too, but in my case they were blaming the LoJack. Sorry man, I know its not funny now, but latter you will see the humor. Just how stupid do BMW dealers assume we are sometimes? I went from Maryland, North NJ, Central NJ, Virginia, resorted to angry emails, letters and frustrated calls to BMWNA and finally to Edison NJ, before they solved it. And technically they really didn't solve it, they just swapped out all the significant electronic components. Ok with me as it has 100% reliable since then. I was made as heck back then, but that dissipated and I am glad I elected to keep the car. It has put a lot of grins on my face since. Still IMO BMW service sucks, and I don't get them always deferring to clueless dealers. Nothing got solved until they decided enough was enough took over my case.

Instead of dealer hoping, you might want to pressure BMW GmbH? or whoever is in charge over there. One honest dealership in NW, NJ told me why they turned me away and refused to work on the car after 2 days..."We realize this car is practically a lemon with seemingly impossible to diagnose issue. Let's just say we put in a week of work but solve nothing, we don't get reimbursed by BMW. We only get paid for fixing something, if we can't do it in two days its not worth pursuing further. I don't see anyone figuring this mess out in 2 days. Not being mean here, but we are a business. I'd say take it back to the dealer that did the sale. Technically they have an obligation to you to take care of you even if it means a month..." so, there in lay the quandary. Until that time, I had nothing but BS to go by. So I called BMWNA and relayed what I was told...Bingo! Field Rep took over and said they will take it from there to conclusion. You might want to look into that. Hopefully your warranty still in force?

[bobyyy]

Went to the garage today, the guy had engine to pieces and would take about 1-2 hours to put all back together, he rang me up few hours later after putting the key in and an error popped up on the sat nav and was something to do with the steering wheel rack or something like that..

Im going down there to try and start it tomorrow, i think it could immobiliser.... I'll keep you updated, ill post a message tomorrow evening

Cheers
Bobyyy

[DieselDiner]

Originally Posted by vase330

It sounds like its a canned response. Believe it or not, I got that too, but in my case they were blaming the LoJack. Sorry man, I know its not funny now, but latter you will see the humor. Just how stupid do BMW dealers assume we are sometimes? I went from Maryland, North NJ, Central NJ, Virginia, resorted to angry emails, letters and frustrated calls to BMWNA and finally to Edison NJ, before they solved it. And technically they really didn't solve it, they just swapped out all the significant electronic components. Ok with me as it has 100% reliable since then. I was made as heck back then, but that dissipated and I am glad I elected to keep the car. It has put a lot of grins on my face since. Still IMO BMW service sucks, and I don't get them always deferring to clueless dealers. Nothing got solved until they decided enough was enough took over my case.

Instead of dealer hoping, you might want to pressure BMW GmbH? or whoever is in charge over there. One honest dealership in NW, NJ told me why they turned me away and refused to work on the car after 2 days..."We realize this car is practically a lemon with seemingly impossible to diagnose issue. Let's just say we put in a week of work but solve nothing, we don't get reimbursed by BMW. We only get paid for fixing something, if we can't do it in two days its not worth pursuing further. I don't see anyone figuring this mess out in 2 days. Not being mean here, but we are a business. I'd say take it back to the dealer that did the sale. Technically they have an obligation to you to take care of you even if it means a month..." so, there in lay the quandary. Until that time, I had nothing but BS to go by. So I called BMWNA and relayed what I was told...Bingo! Field Rep took over and said they will take it from there to conclusion. You might want to look into that. Hopefully your warranty still in force?

Dude, he's in England. The car is at his local garage. BMW has not even seen the car yet. Did you read his posts?

Sorry about your experience, don't blame you one bit for being p*ssed.

[bobyyy]

Thanks DieselDiner,

Ive picked the car up today from the local garage and it started alright but it has no power... , it's really slow up to 3500 revs after that it flies

Any one else experienced this? i think im taking it down to bmw later today

Cheers
Bobyyy

[vase330]

Thanks DieselDiner, didn't realize BMW has not seen the car. I just read the symptoms and sounded exactly like my car used to do. I am not sure the diesel and gasoline cars use the same electronics either. But electrical failure resulting in the weirdest of symptoms is not unheard off, that's all I was saying.

[SomeRandomer123]

Sounds HPFPish :S. Do the diesels have HPFP? I do know they still have glow plugs just to pre-heat the combustion chamber and only had to wait about 2 seconds one morning to start our 330d. The temp was minus 19 Degrees C however! It shows a little coil symbol then cranks when ready. Normally, even when getting in and starting almost immediately, there is no delay!
Hope your 35d gets sorted!

[DnA Diesel]

Originally Posted by SomeRandomer123

Sounds HPFPish :S. Do the diesels have HPFP? I do know they still have glow plugs just to pre-heat the combustion chamber and only had to wait about 2 seconds one morning to start our 330d. The temp was minus 19 Degrees C however! It shows a little coil symbol then cranks when ready. Normally, even when getting in and starting almost immediately, there is no delay!
Hope your 35d gets sorted!

Our cars have a VHPFP, a Bosch CP-3 running 1600-1800 bar (~23,500-26,500psi), but to be honest, this sounds DME-related, not fuel pressure. If the fuel rail isn't up to specified pressure, it likely wouldn't start at all.

bobyyy, unless your garage is well-versed in BMW diesels, I would take your car back to the dealer...it may initially seem more expensive, but the diagnostics should find the problem fairly quickly.

Good luck.

Regards
D.

[bredi]

Aren't there two turbos in the 335d? One for lower rpm and one for higher?
Maybe the lower one is problematic? including start? When I had start and power issues in my 335i, it wound up being the turbo. Fixed with recall.

[hotrod2448]

I hope he got it sorted out since this thread is almost a year old.

[bredi]

Originally Posted by hotrod2448

I hope he got it sorted out since this thread is almost a year old.

oops.

[hotrod2448]

Originally Posted by bredi

oops.

I do wish he would have come back and said what it ended up being just to help educate the rest of us.