[zltm089]

If it takes too long Sunny, you might want to ask them for a loan vehicle...and tell them ur not paying their admin/ insurance charge crap....

I got a 320d estate atmmmm.....good torque....170 bhp....but damn i miss my 335i....

and plus...i look like a family man!!!....( no offense to those with estates....just not for me!!!)

[zltm089]

I don't understand the whole carbon built up theory....on modern bmw engines , how could this happen?...and i've only done 10k miles...and servicing is up to date!!!

[SiKkBaSs]

Originally Posted by zltm089

If it takes too long Sunny, you might want to ask them for a loan vehicle...and tell them ur not paying their admin/ insurance charge crap....

I got a 320d estate atmmmm.....good torque....170 bhp....but damn i miss my 335i....

and plus...i look like a family man!!!....( no offense to those with estates....just not for me!!!)

Doubt they will. I'm a drop in user. Not under warranty, it ran out last year. I will try though if it takes long.

If they are working on guesswork with their remedies I'll end up spending a lot of money!!

Say they fix me up with new vanos valves, and the same shit happens again! That's what I'm worried about. I will go in next week for sure and tell them the deal, just a bit paranoid about spending the money and the problem not being dealt with.

[E92Fan]

Regarding Kevin's situation, yes there have been a few cases of excessive carbon build up on the intake valves, leading to poor running of the engine, spluttering, lack of power. It is a more common occurrence (relatively) on the N52 engine rather than the N54, although there have been more and more cases of it happening.

The crankcase ventilation pipe recirculates back into the engine in order to improve the emissions performance of the engine. This air contains vaporised oil particles that are supposed to be removed by two cyclonic filtration units in the cam cover. The filtration system is designed to remove the oil vapours from the recirculated air, therefore leaving a clean burn for the engine. In addition to this system previous non-direct injection engines used to flow petrol over the intake valves with the result that they were kept clean.

However, there is now a two-fold problem. Firstly because the engine is direct injection, no petrol passes over the intake valves, so there is nothing to keep them clean. Hence why the cyclonic filtration is so important. However there have been signs that this filtration system can get clogged up and fail, and this is normally due to incorrect engine oil being used in the system, although that is by no means the only cause of the filtration failure. Because this system gets clogged up, there is much less ability to 'cleanse' the recirculated air coming back from the crankcase. And so the problem goes round and round and gets worse and worse.

The carbon buildup can happen anywhere along the inlet side of the engine, so the remedy is not always the same between cars. However the fundamental problem still exists.

There are a few dealers that have been very proactive with sorting this problem out - Sytner High Wycombe and BMW Battersea to name but two.

I have had this exact issue of poor running, and it was diagnosed pretty quickly to a blocked cyclone unit in the cam cover. The intake valves themselves were very clean, so I caught the problem quite early on. A new cam cover was installed, and the engine has been good ever since.

I haven't heard of this carbon buildup causing engines to turn themselves off though, and then back on two minutes later running perfectly. I'll check up on the problem with your car Sunny and get back to you (although it probably won't be till Monday)

[SiKkBaSs]

Originally Posted by E92Fan

Regarding Kevin's situation, yes there have been a few cases of excessive carbon build up on the intake valves, leading to poor running of the engine, spluttering, lack of power. It is a more common occurrence (relatively) on the N52 engine rather than the N54, although there have been more and more cases of it happening.

The crankcase ventilation pipe recirculates back into the engine in order to improve the emissions performance of the engine. This air contains vaporised oil particles that are supposed to be removed by two cyclonic filtration units in the cam cover. The filtration system is designed to remove the oil vapours from the recirculated air, therefore leaving a clean burn for the engine. In addition to this system previous non-direct injection engines used to flow petrol over the intake valves with the result that they were kept clean.

However, there is now a two-fold problem. Firstly because the engine is direct injection, no petrol passes over the intake valves, so there is nothing to keep them clean. Hence why the cyclonic filtration is so important. However there have been signs that this filtration system can get clogged up and fail, and this is normally due to incorrect engine oil being used in the system, although that is by no means the only cause of the filtration failure. Because this system gets clogged up, there is much less ability to 'cleanse' the recirculated air coming back from the crankcase. And so the problem goes round and round and gets worse and worse.

The carbon buildup can happen anywhere along the inlet side of the engine, so the remedy is not always the same between cars. However the fundamental problem still exists.

There are a few dealers that have been very proactive with sorting this problem out - Sytner High Wycombe and BMW Battersea to name but two.

I have had this exact issue of poor running, and it was diagnosed pretty quickly to a blocked cyclone unit in the cam cover. The intake valves themselves were very clean, so I caught the problem quite early on. A new cam cover was installed, and the engine has been good ever since.

I haven't heard of this carbon buildup causing engines to turn themselves off though, and then back on two minutes later running perfectly. I'll check up on the problem with your car Sunny and get back to you (although it probably won't be till Monday)

Yeh that's fine, car is inactive till Tuesday anyways. I was planning to go to Edmonton IKEA meet as well. FFS!!!

[zltm089]

Originally Posted by E92Fan

Regarding Kevin's situation, yes there have been a few cases of excessive carbon build up on the intake valves, leading to poor running of the engine, spluttering, lack of power. It is a more common occurrence (relatively) on the N52 engine rather than the N54, although there have been more and more cases of it happening.

The crankcase ventilation pipe recirculates back into the engine in order to improve the emissions performance of the engine. This air contains vaporised oil particles that are supposed to be removed by two cyclonic filtration units in the cam cover. The filtration system is designed to remove the oil vapours from the recirculated air, therefore leaving a clean burn for the engine. In addition to this system previous non-direct injection engines used to flow petrol over the intake valves with the result that they were kept clean.

However, there is now a two-fold problem. Firstly because the engine is direct injection, no petrol passes over the intake valves, so there is nothing to keep them clean. Hence why the cyclonic filtration is so important. However there have been signs that this filtration system can get clogged up and fail, and this is normally due to incorrect engine oil being used in the system, although that is by no means the only cause of the filtration failure. Because this system gets clogged up, there is much less ability to 'cleanse' the recirculated air coming back from the crankcase. And so the problem goes round and round and gets worse and worse.

The carbon buildup can happen anywhere along the inlet side of the engine, so the remedy is not always the same between cars. However the fundamental problem still exists.

There are a few dealers that have been very proactive with sorting this problem out - Sytner High Wycombe and BMW Battersea to name but two.

I have had this exact issue of poor running, and it was diagnosed pretty quickly to a blocked cyclone unit in the cam cover. The intake valves themselves were very clean, so I caught the problem quite early on. A new cam cover was installed, and the engine has been good ever since.

I haven't heard of this carbon buildup causing engines to turn themselves off though, and then back on two minutes later running perfectly. I'll check up on the problem with your car Sunny and get back to you (although it probably won't be till Monday)

bloody hell

[SiKkBaSs]

I'd be more than willing to take my car to somewhere other than these dealers tbh. Every time I go they piss me off.

Check this as well, I've got:

-General Service to do (under the car for rust check and headlight check £120 WASTE OF TIME)
-Rear brake pads need replacing
-Slight problem with the steering wheel too. Makes a dodgy noise when on full lock.

Life is great

[F104]

Below from bmw.com. Looks like your valves are in either most advanced, or most retarded mode. Most lilely valve is stuck open (as it takes power to rotate a camshaft forward against valve motion), and valves are in advanced mode al the time. From the below that's likely to cause problems at idle / low load.
I don't know for sure either, I just like to try and understand things

cheers,

[SiKkBaSs]

Originally Posted by F104

Below from bmw.com. Looks like your valves are in either most advanced, or most retarded mode. Most lilely valve is stuck open (as it takes power to rotate a camshaft forward against valve motion), and valves are in advanced mode al the time. From the below that's likely to cause problems at idle / low load.
I don't know for sure either, I just like to try and understand things

cheers,

Wow Thanks for the effort.

[E92Fan]

Originally Posted by F104

Below from bmw.com. Looks like your valves are in either most advanced, or most retarded mode. Most likely valve is stuck open (as it takes power to rotate a camshaft forward against valve motion), and valves are in advanced mode al the time. From the below that's likely to cause problems at idle / low load.
I don't know for sure either, I just like to try and understand things

cheers,

Sickbass might have a Vanos issue, but that doesn't explain why it is so sporadic. If the valve system is permanently advanced due to a stuck valve, then the problem would manifest itself all the time. A possible Vanos failure wouldn't explain why the entire car turns itself off and activates the ELV (steering lock), which technically should only happen when the key is removed from the slot. If the Vanos were to cause an engine failure, the engine would stall but you should theoretically still have steering functionality. Doesn't make sense at all.

Further to that, there's no telling whether there is a Vanos issue at all, so you can't say that it's likely to be a sticking valve. Strangely, it might be more likely that there is a problem with a short or connection in one of the control modules that controls the steering column and start/stop button and nothing to do with the engine at all.

I won't speculate any further till I know more...

[willhollin]

Sounds like an electrical fault to me. With it being intermittent it will be a pain to nail down I expect.

[F104]

Agree entirely with E92fan as well. Our cars have PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation). One method is to disconnect this entirely as 70's, 80's and 90's car had (eg vent to atmosphere). I'm not sure if that is good, as crankcase gasses contain oil, as well as water and exhaust gasses, so you do want to get them out.
On the US side of this forum there's loads of threads on OCC, Oil Catch Cans (but also on Google, Wikipidia etc). I'm considering one of these, or make one myself as everything on the US side is focussed/engineered for the 335i engine

[E92Fan]

Originally Posted by F104

Agree entirely with E92fan as well. Our cars have PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation). One method is to disconnect this entirely as 70's, 80's and 90's car had (eg vent to atmosphere). I'm not sure if that is good, as crankcase gasses contain oil, as well as water and exhaust gasses, so you do want to get them out.
On the US side of this forum there's loads of threads on OCC, Oil Catch Cans (but also on Google, Wikipidia etc). I'm considering one of these, or make one myself as everything on the US side is focussed/engineered for the 335i engine

The Oil Catch Can is a very useful device and well worthwhile in my opinion. It sits in line to the crankcase ventilation line, and collects oil deposits from the air before it gets recirculated back into the intake system. You can check to see how much oil is being collected, and empty accordingly. Just don't let the OCC get too full, otherwise you'll just get blowthrough of condensed oil straight into the intake system! We can't vent the crankcase to atmosphere as the engine is designed to run as a closed loop.

Even if the OCCs that are available are destined for the 335i, it doesn't mean you can't use one on a non-335i - the principle is the same. You might have to modify the lines a bit, but even then I doubt there's much work to do.

[F104]

i don't think we have any closed loop control that would detect an open PCV, but think we agree open PCV is not good either.

As for OCC's i've looked around and came to these
- Riss Racing - simple tank design, currently complaints of leaks
- greddy.com & similar - all the same, also a simple open can with OTT in/out connections
- Mckinneyraceworks.com - Seems family business, but one of the best currently availabe in my view, although small.
- e42draftsdesigns.com - expensive, audi/universal based, but too small filter area in my view
- eliteengineeringusa.com/Catch_Can.html - same thing, corvette based, nice can but minimal filtration area


So I'm thinking McKinney, or doing something differently myself. My own thinking is based around a coil out of soldered 90 degree 18mm dia or so copper connectors. Should give smallest diameter spiral (3" outer diameter or so), relative high g-forces to get oil out, provide cooling to get water and stuff out as well , and have low restriction so it still recirculates gasses at a high rate,

[E92Fan]

I've had no leaks from my RR catch can - however I did redo all the seals with copper washers

[F31-340i]

e92fan - does this mean the cyclonic breathers in the diesels are still prone to potential clogging? dealer told me this only happened with the old foam design in E46. I wasn't entirely convinced.

[Tunna_uk]

Sikkbass mine is the same, its lumpy for only a few seconds on idle after cold start, it almost stalls sometimes, new plugs made no difference, I have to put a few revs on for a couple of seconds untill it clears. Then its perfect. I am letting mine develop, can't afford a trip to the stealers at present, if I could, I would have the software updated first.
If its a carbon build up or such, my advice would be to go out late at night on a quiet road and give it a damn good thrashing.

See if that makes a difference.
I did that on mine and its got no worse since buying the car. can't do ity any harm
Also put in some High performance fuel...
Whats the history on oil changes-hvae they been stretched out,
Whats your mileage?

[yatin c]

sikbass, zltm, i agree its frustrating when your car breaks down, whatever the reason, however complicated the explanation, or however good or bad the service you get when its repaired. sometimes all you want is a car that works and only requires you to fill it with fuel and get routine servicing. personally i dont think they exist!

[zltm089]

Originally Posted by yatin c

sikbass, zltm, i agree its frustrating when your car breaks down, whatever the reason, however complicated the explanation, or however good or bad the service you get when its repaired. sometimes all you want is a car that works and only requires you to fill it with fuel and get routine servicing. personally i dont think they exist!

hmmm...yeah they do....peugeot 406... no engine warning lights, no major annual regular servicing, get kwik fit to change the tyres and maybe the oil service....thats it really...

but then again....they look shit and are as slow as fcuk...

[zltm089]

update....
I forwarded some of Tony's comments during the weekend...

Just spoke to the service guy at the dealership today....he confirmed that they did changed some parts mentioned in Tony's comments, however the engine warning light still came on...

they are now looking to test the injectors....they trying to get a set of injectors from another 335i and test it on mine....

apparently, they will get one tomorrow...

[SiKkBaSs]

Dropped mine into the dealers today. Will see what they come up with...

[SiKkBaSs]

Originally Posted by zltm089

update....
I forwarded some of Tony's comments during the weekend...

Just spoke to the service guy at the dealership today....he confirmed that they did changed some parts mentioned in Tony's comments, however the engine warning light still came on...

they are now looking to test the injectors....they trying to get a set of injectors from another 335i and test it on mine....

apparently, they will get one tomorrow...

How do you do this email thing with BMW? Is this for under warranty peeps or something? I hate being locked away in the dark. Seems all they do is take my car, do some checks for 20-30 mins, charge an hours labour then charge for frickin' parts as well ALL in their little space. Sux!