Messages

1

Engine management / M42 e30 running very rich and stalls when idle

« on: August 31, 2018, 11:58:31 PM »

I have a very annoying problem. My engine is running very rich and black smoke is visible. the smoke and smell of unburnt fuel at the exhaust is so strong it is not possible to stand there more than half a minute.

these are the stuff on my car...

- e30 with e36m42 engine
- has AC installed (e30 type)
- oxygen sensor plugged even though exhaust has no cat
- diagnosis keeps showing error code 100 (control system error - Amplifier error stage 1).
- idles badly and stalls ALL the time especially when hot or when car is coming to a traffic light.
- misfiring due to running too rich. and can hardly accelerate
- Very hot DME. so hot it is not possible to touch it.

i do not know what caused this.

i have changed the following:

- new crankshaft sensor;
- new camshaft sensor;
- replaced air flow meter with a known good one causes the same problem;
- swapping the DME with a known good one;
- changed the DME relay to a new one
- DME relay

the strange thing is when the air flow meter is unplugged it idles well. but of course the car cant accelerate.

there is a lot of "klak-klak" sound below the dashboard/glovebox when the engine idles. the kind of sound like when you turn on AC. what kind of device under it produces this? it seems to switch on and off when it idles.

===================
the DME is very hot. the casing of DME is too hot to even touch it. is this normal? I feel that this maybe due to insufficient power to the DME? because as soon as the AFM is unplugged, it idles well and smooth. and with AFM, it sputters and the rpm goes up and down running very rich giving black smoke.
===================

i am really at wits end now. i dont know how to troubleshoot this and dont know what the culprit it.

please help.

thanks.
teo

2

Electrical / Re: service indicator lights wont go off even months after doing manual reset

« on: December 13, 2017, 09:50:49 PM »

Thanks and I guess you are starting to believe Dave and I. In regards to the battery, they are soldered. If you decided to try it your self, you need to find rechargeable batteries, have them charged, which can be a challenge as the batteries must have soldering tabs. If the batteries leaked and damaged the board or there are bad solders, the batteries won't help. A new board with 1 year warranty is around $150. There is no way to delete the board like older BMWs. I tried once to do the batteries and was more of a pain. Swapping the board is very easy IMO.

Good luck

thank you for your reply.

i have a spare instrument i had 10 years ago. not sure if it can be used. i will open it to have a look. perhaps just swap the board that comes with the batteries. can a 10 year old batteries be still usable and able to be recharged?

thank you once again

3

Electrical / Re: service indicator lights wont go off even months after doing manual reset

« on: December 13, 2017, 03:24:32 AM »

No. The Service Interval LED lights/inspection/timer and the entire gauge cluster are powered by the car's primary starter battery & electrical system. The SI board batteries only provide power for the SI board memory chip. If the SI batteries are dead, the memory chip doesn't store the settings, so the inspection & timer lights will never go off. There are a few different variations of the SI batteries, be sure to get the correct replacements. The NiCD version can also have a single cell fail, which causes all sorts of odd results.

i just disconnected the main battery and then turned on the ignition key to ON and found that the SI lights and none of other lights are on. So you are right about the main battery powering these lights.

I just dislike taking out the SI cluster... too much work. the last time i took this out was in 2004 to change the melted plastic gears for the speedo.

now, is the battery easy to replace? i heard some saying these batteries have to be soldered and i don't like this. these are rechargeable batteries of industry standard size i guess?

thank you.

4

Electrical / Re: service indicator lights wont go off even months after doing manual reset

« on: December 09, 2017, 08:59:09 AM »

No. The Service Interval LED lights/inspection/timer and the entire gauge cluster are powered by the car's primary starter battery & electrical system. The SI board batteries only provide power for the SI board memory chip. If the SI batteries are dead, the memory chip doesn't store the settings, so the inspection & timer lights will never go off. There are a few different variations of the SI batteries, be sure to get the correct replacements. The NiCD version can also have a single cell fail, which causes all sorts of odd results.

Hi Dave;

Hmmmm.... I remember clearly that the LED lights light up when i turn on ignition key with my main car battery disconnected.

I will disconnect the main battery and test if the SI lights light up? According to your explanation it should not since these are powered by main battery right?

So let me get this right...

- SI batteries only power SI memories and no lights
- Main car battery powers all other things - revv meter, econometer, speedo, LED lights and all other warning lamps on the cluster. is this correct?

I have been driving my car since February 2004 and I have never changed the SI batteries. I have done some 564,000km so far. And the cluster has never failed. What is the lifespan of these SI batteries?

thanks.

teo

5

Suspension / Re: Cracked subframe - can i weld it?

« on: December 08, 2017, 10:06:50 PM »

I wouldn't recommend welding that part in-place. That's not as bad as it looks, there's a lot of metal there. I wonder if a front subframe impact sheared the flange vertically? It looks like the crack is propagating down the wend bead too, with a little rust helping it out.

In any case, I'd swap it out with a good used replacement. Front subframes are pretty common and cheap around here. You can't really tell how bad that damage is without removing the entire frame. With an engine support bar it's not really that bad to remove. You can do it in an afternoon.

Better you found out about this before it failed!

Yes. I agree it is better to swap out with a used one. but a good used one is not easy to find and often many in the yards are rusty. I have a small collision on the right side when the right front tire hit a road curb in 2014. i think this might be the cause of the missing sheared part. but as  you can see also the cracks propagating at the bottom helped by rusts.

i spoke with a mechanic and he too suggested to have it removed to weld to strengthen it. he argued there should be rubber bushes but i think this thing is anchored to the body by just 4 bolts. where are the bushes? are the 4 bolts have rubber inserts acting as bushes?

meanwhile, i also discovered a missing hex nut that is used to fasten the engine mounting (on the same side where cracks on subframe are found) - see picture. perhaps this loose mount contributes to the cracks of my exhaust header. even after welding the exhaust header for cracks it happened again in less than one year. i think engine starts vibration caused the exhaust header cracks.

6

Suspension / Cracked subframe - can i weld it?

« on: December 08, 2017, 11:25:08 AM »

i recently found out i have a cracked subframe at one of the fastening points of the front subframe. right side. see photo. it looks bad. i have no idea how i got this. seems like a piece is missing and you can see the cracks seem to grow.

now, is it possible to weld this thing without taking out the subframe? this is a lot of work to take out.

anyone of you ever had this?

advice please.

thank you.

7

Electrical / Re: service indicator lights wont go off even months after doing manual reset

« on: December 08, 2017, 10:39:06 AM »

what i mean is the SI batteries are the ones responsible for the cluster LED lights right?

8

Electrical / Re: service indicator lights wont go off even months after doing manual reset

« on: December 08, 2017, 12:02:16 AM »

i thought the batteries are responsible for powering up the LED lights?

9

Electrical / Re: service indicator lights wont go off even months after doing manual reset

« on: December 04, 2017, 11:15:29 PM »

i am not sure why everyone is pointing definitely to weak batteries or simply batteries be the culprit? i recently had a "clock" sign light up. and the fact that the LED lights are bright suggest that batteries are unlikely to be the issue. could it because i have reset the service lights using the paper clips too long?

if batteries are the issue here, then those lights would not be brightly lit up.

- econometer works well.
- speedo works well
- rev meter works well
- all lights on the cluster work well. no sign of weak batteries
- brake warnign lamp, alternator, oil pressure etc all work normally and ok.

- the damn LED service lights just refuse to go off even after 4 months./

10

Electrical / Re: service indicator lights wont go off even months after doing manual reset

« on: November 06, 2017, 09:50:54 PM »

do research and you will see, the lights is never the issue. I have dealt with this many times already as well as others on the other boards. Its the function that has the issue, like reseting. Also, eventually this will cause a larger drain on the battery because the charging of the batteries will never stop, even with the car off. Also, the gauges, RPM and MPG will get affected. They function through the SI board. My 2nd SI board in owning my car for 10 years started with this last year, reseting not working... I just replaced it.

you said "resetting not working... i just replace it".

replace what? replace the entire instrument cluster?

you also mentioned "charging of batteries". are instrument cluster batteries charged as you use the car?

what decides the service lights going off based on mileage and duration of use? is this decided by DME or the instrument cluster has some logic built into it? all lights on the instrument cluster are brightly lit. thus, i think the issue is not the battery.

thank you.

11

Electrical / Re: service indicator lights wont go off even months after doing manual reset

« on: November 05, 2017, 06:02:18 PM »

why would you think so? the LED lights are brightly lit. they just won't go off!

12

Electrical / service indicator lights wont go off even months after doing manual reset

« on: November 04, 2017, 08:15:03 PM »

i did a manual service reset in july following the methods described by shorting pin 7 with ground...

all the service lights had turned green. great. but i feel something's not right. even after months of driving an d more than 10000km later the lights do not go off one by one. what is wrong?

13

Engine + Driveline / Re: e30 M42 Getrag 240 gearbox

« on: May 27, 2017, 07:35:52 AM »

i have found a gearbox with the following tag on the housing

​240.0.0370.90

What does this # mean? According to seller it is from e30 m40. but my # is 240.0.9005.60

Anyone has knowledge of Getrag part # cross refering to BMW #? I am not sure if this means the housing is correct and the gear ratio.

thank you once again.

teo

14

Engine + Driveline / e30 M42 Getrag 240 gearbox

« on: May 26, 2017, 08:11:52 AM »

after 7 years and 210,000km, my brand new gearbox has finally failed. lots of grinding noises in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th gear. But 4th gear is perfectly smooth and quiet. I have no idea what happened. gear oil is changed two months ago and the oil mysteriously disappered, while there doesn't seem to be any cracks on the housing nor leaks at the output shaft seal. A lot of fine iron specks due to grinding deposited at the drain plug. This problem happened after i climbed and descended from twisty roads in mountains. a lot of fun and expensive repair now.

I believe the internals - syncros, bearings are done. Therefore, I have to get a known good one. Its is too expensive to repair and may not have parts since this is a very old gearbox.

I have a RHD car, would a gearbox meant for LHD fit well? The part # for my gearbox is BMW part # 23 00 1 222 035 = 240.0.9005.62 (GETRAG number Getrag 240). I cannot get much info from bmwfans.info

Now I have come across so many variants in eBay of this for e30/e36, with all different #s. How do i know the transmission ID is the right one (gear ratios)? And many seem to have different #s on the housing. A gearbox meant for e30 m40/m42 USA will it definitely fit my car? Mine is a european version of e30 september 1989.

Getrag Germany told me the lifespan of this old gearbox is roughly 250,000km and it is best to get one with roughly 100,000 plus km.

Please help me with your experts advice.

Thank you

teo

15

Engine + Driveline / Re: e30M42: engine jerks losing ignition resulting in stalling

« on: March 01, 2017, 11:12:49 PM »

i connected the AFM today and it is able to start and does not stall. but it idles rough. haha, i have no idea what is going on.