[die$el<3]

Hey guys was wondering what's the longest anyone in here has gone without having cbu? I'm at 140k miles and haven't had a cbu cleaning yet. I recently noticed my morning idle is a little louder and sometimes feels rough or as it misses for maybe 2 seconds but then it's perfectly fine. Is it possible that I have somehow gotten beyond lucky ? I do mostly city driving to my work which is 10 miles each way 5 days a week.

[dmanb2b]

Originally Posted by die$el<3

Hey guys was wondering what's the longest anyone in here has gone without having cbu? I'm at 140k miles and haven't had a cbu cleaning yet. I recently noticed my morning idle is a little louder and sometimes feels rough or as it misses for maybe 2 seconds but then it's perfectly fine. Is it possible that I have somehow gotten beyond lucky ? I do mostly city driving to my work which is 10 miles each way 5 days a week.

I recall seeing a few here with a 100K+, but not a lot. Curiosity killing me though, because I would think short driving runs would be a great environment to build CBU, how did you accumulate 140K miles driving 20 miles per day

[die$el<3]

I've put in 25k miles as the second owner of the car, the previous owner drove it up to 115k miles and they told me it was mostly highway miles. The last 25k miles by me has been mostly city due to my job location.

[Pat_335D]

I'm at 184k and I'm just getting my carbon cleaning done now for the first time along with all 6 glow plugs, glow plug controller, 1 injector, and replacing the vacuum lines

[die$el<3]

Originally Posted by Pat_335D

I'm at 184k and I'm just getting my carbon cleaning done now for the first time along with all 6 glow plugs, glow plug controller, 1 injector, and replacing the vacuum lines

Nice my engine light for the glow plug controller recently came on, but my mechanic said I could keep driving on it without a problem. Did you get a code for the cbu?

[Mrdeezy]

Originally Posted by die$el<3

Nice my engine light for the glow plug controller recently came on, but my mechanic said I could keep driving on it without a problem. Did you get a code for the cbu?

Your mechanic is not very good.

[dmanb2b]

Originally Posted by die$el<3

I've put in 25k miles as the second owner of the car, the previous owner drove it up to 115k miles and they told me it was mostly highway miles. The last 25k miles by me has been mostly city due to my job location.

Got it, yeah that makes a lot more sense then. Just recently there was a 37k mile example floating around with CBU cleaning procedure already completed. My assumption is that it was stop n go traffic.

[lnxguy]

Originally Posted by Mrdeezy

Your mechanic is not very good.

Driving around with a busted GP controller in Orange County is nothing to worry about, lol.

[die$el<3]

Originally Posted by lnxguy

Driving around with a busted GP controller in Orange County is nothing to worry about, lol.

Hahahah it doesn't get cold here really ever.
Are you from Oc as well?

[NC335d]

Originally Posted by Pat_335D

I'm at 184k and I'm just getting my carbon cleaning done now for the first time along with all 6 glow plugs, glow plug controller, 1 injector, and replacing the vacuum lines

So you must still be running the alphabet? How many warranty repairs, etc., on the emissions system have you had during your tenure? Just curious, since I haven't heard of anyone talking about a car with 180k + miles on here that is still running completely stock.

[lnxguy]

Originally Posted by die$el<3

Hahahah it doesn't get cold here really ever.
Are you from Oc as well?

Nope, your neighbour to the north I've been driving around with a #5 glowplug fault (Controller) for months. And it's not exactly warm here. I've got the spare part, but it hasn't affected my cold starts yet.

[Pat_335D]

Originally Posted by NC335d

So you must still be running the alphabet? How many warranty repairs, etc., on the emissions system have you had during your tenure? Just curious, since I haven't heard of anyone talking about a car with 180k + miles on here that is still running completely stock.

Minimal and yes the car is stock but it won't be like that much longer. Only problems I've had have been in the past 20k, DEF tank went bad (still is bad) along with the throttle and I had a spare EGR that I swapped in when I replaced the throttle.

[Pat_335D]

Originally Posted by lnxguy

Nope, your neighbour to the north I've been driving around with a #5 glowplug fault (Controller) for months. And it's not exactly warm here. I've got the spare part, but it hasn't affected my cold starts yet.

We're getting into the 30s here in Maryland and I've been driving around with a bad plugs and now the controller too for months. Since it's been cold I've been driving my e32 740il instead

[Mark M]

Originally Posted by lnxguy

Nope, your neighbour to the north I've been driving around with a #5 glowplug fault (Controller) for months. And it's not exactly warm here. I've got the spare part, but it hasn't affected my cold starts yet.

To those with faulty glow plug controllers, the likely real fault is a bad coolant thermostat which causes the glow plug controller to work overtime during engine operation and then burn out. Ask me how I know.

[die$el<3]

Originally Posted by Mark M

To those with faulty glow plug controllers, the likely real fault is a bad coolant thermostat which causes the glow plug controller to work overtime during engine operation and then burn out. Ask me how I know.

interesting, how would one know if their thermostat is bad ? And how did you know ?

[Torqu3]

Originally Posted by die$el<3

interesting, how would one know if their thermostat is bad ? And how did you know ?

Get an app and a Bluetooth enabled OBD2 adapter. Or access the coolant temp through the secret menu and monitor. Temp for our cars floats right at 80 Celsius I believe. Someone here should know the exact number. I just know it doesn't deviate from that number. If you're below or above that number, you need a new thermostat. It's a pretty common thing.

[Mark M]

Originally Posted by Torqu3

Get an app and a Bluetooth enabled OBD2 adapter. Or access the coolant temp through the secret menu and monitor. Temp for our cars floats right at 80 Celsius I believe. Someone here should know the exact number. I just know it doesn't deviate from that number. If you're below or above that number, you need a new thermostat. It's a pretty common thing.

Exactly. Correct thermostat operation is about 88 degrees C.

My old one was barely getting above 70 C for a while. Then one day I began getting glow plug codes. I changed the Tstat and glow plug controller. No more codes and slightly improved mpg since the car is running at optimum temps.

Do a search. Failed thermostats are popping up more often on this forum. The kicker is the car won't throw a code for a bad tstat unless coolant temps stay at 60 C or lower. By then the car is running poor and rich as the dde is stuck in warm up mode.

[Yozh]

I did have shadow codes for a failed thermostat. Not sure of the perfect triggers for that one, but if there is a shadow code for coolant plausibility or similar, bingo. Monitoring coolant temperature is a good way to see what is going on.

[die$el<3]

So just checked my engine temperature and it barely gets past 70 when driving. I had to stop and idle for over 5 minutes to get to 88. I did some research and it seems our cars have two thermostats? Is this true ? And should I just change both ?

[Persian Whisperjet]

Originally Posted by die$el<3

So just checked my engine temperature and it barely gets past 70 when driving. I had to stop and idle for over 5 minutes to get to 88. I did some research and it seems our cars have two thermostats? Is this true ? And should I just change both ?

You car has one thermostat and it sounds like it's time! I got mine last month from ECS Tuning for $55.

[Yozh]

Originally Posted by die$el<3

I did some research and it seems our cars have two thermostats? Is this true ? And should I just change both ?

Euro versions have two. One for engine and one for EGR cooler.

[Torqu3]

Originally Posted by Persian Whisperjet

You car has one thermostat and it sounds like it's time! I got mine last month from ECS Tuning for $55.

Not sure if everyone's thermostat is blowing due to poor design or age, but if it's poor design and they're likely to keep breaking, it may be worth getting it from FCP for the lifetime replacement warranty.