Author Topic: I need some Serious $#%@#$in Help seriously (Read 26725 times)

fiftytakedowns · « **Reply #15 on:** February 12, 2011, 05:53:29 PM »

Quote from: pdxmotorhead;101405

When you unplug the DME it resets to a standard map, then as the engine runs it attempts to compensate for what it perceives as the optimum settings.

The newer pump gas SUCKs for storage, If the tank was below 1/2 its very possible the fuel went bad. The fuel should have a light sharp smell not a heavy varnish smell, often the exhaust will smell real odd if the fuel is dodgy...

It sounds absolutely crazy but If the head itself is not really grounded directly to the battery neg You can have weird ground paths in the motor. I've had a handfull of race cars where 2" of ground strap grounding the head to the block has fixed weird ignition problems, as well as bad DME grounds... Its the reason the rice tuners have the ground spiders under the hood of their turbo cars, makes up for the shoddy factory wiring...

You could also have a thermal issue as someone pointed out, crank sensor or cam sensor that is freeking out when warm. probably tests good when cold.

Good Luck.

Dave

I had around 2 gallons in the tank, that was stored for around a month. then I put in 20 dollars worth 2 days ago, and have been going through that trouble shooting.

I just grounded the head with a cable to the chassis, Ill ground the head to the block with another ground cable.

Do you think I should throw in some seafoam in the oil or gas? or replace the injectors? I have another set of injectors.

The car doesnt drive at all ONLY idles when cold, and when warm it just misfires occasionally.

I have a spare coolant Temp sensor Ill throw in to see if that helps any. Whats teh sensor next to the Coolant temp sensor? isnt that just for the Gauge?

Is it possible that the COIl on Plugs coils are grounding out on the Plate itself? I did notice that Cyl #1 had weaker spark than the others, but IT was getting 12Vs and it wasnt the coils fault. I also checked out the resistances between the DME pinout and the Coil wire and it seemed to check out OKAY.

WTF.

pdxmotorhead · « **Reply #16 on:** February 12, 2011, 07:38:35 PM »

I've tried mixing 20 gallons of brand new premium with 3 gallons of tired stored gas, ended up draining the tank. The rotten fuel just kills the good fuel.

The guy distributor buy race fuel from says if the air in the tank is more than 10% of the volume the odds are the fuel will go stale. Stabil fuel stabilizer is a good thing in a project vehicle.

I'd unhook the coil connections and use a ohm meter to see if the parts that are not supposed to be grounded aren't. I thought the main core of a coil is usually grounded, it should not effect function, the windings are the weak point, if they short to ground you going to lose spark,the usual cause of coil failure is the insulating varnish on the winding getting old and starting to leak current across to other windings. as long as the winding to frame ohm reading is in spec and the winding resistance is in spec your usually OK.

Dave

fiftytakedowns · « **Reply #17 on:** February 12, 2011, 10:28:54 PM »

See what was really interesting was that I was not having any trouble getting good spark from the coils, whichever coil was hooked up to number one was having a weaker spark than the other three. I checked this by pulling out all four coils and attaching them to spark plug wires which were attached to the corresponding cylinders. then I would pull the plug wire from the coil, and observe the spark arching between the coil and the plug wire. It was clearly a weaker color on cyl #1 no matter which COIL was attached.

That being said, the connector was getting a sufficient 12V to both grounds.

-Im not sure I understand how I check coil connections to places that are vs arent spupposed to be grounded.

Im getting really upset/depressed/ and frustrated with this car, I put in another 14 hours today replacing the Temp sender, the Coolant temp ssender, soaking the injectors in carb cleaner, pulling all the wires, checking for fraying checking the box under the intake plenum. testing the resistances between the DME and the coils. I also attached a large cable between the head and the block. NO avail.

What is sounding like the car is getting No fuel at all, the narrowband starts showing it going lean. I dont know what is goin on.

It's been 2-3 years having this car. and after this timing chain rebuild I did It's not even driveable. and I even double checked the cam timing. What the fucking fuck Im about to just pull this engine and go 24V or Just part it out, or sell It. Im really really feeling down.

fiftytakedowns · « **Reply #18 on:** February 12, 2011, 11:11:13 PM »

Anyone who finds out the problem Will get a VDO gauge set that I have. as incentive.

fiftytakedowns · « **Reply #19 on:** February 13, 2011, 12:04:13 AM »

New hint:

I have ECu1, and ECU2.
-Start with ECU1 drive car for about a mile, misfiring occurs, first with one like quick hesitation, then it progresses to get worse, and worse.
-Pull over. pull out ECU 1, put in ECU2, (ECU2 still displays the same problem right off the bat,), pull out ECU2, put in ECU1, problem goes away until about a mile of driving...
-repeat.

OTHER symptom that may tell a lot about the problem.
-> If I can luckily Downshift to get the engine to be past 4500RPM it will not occur up there. Only misfires between 2k-4500 RPMS. IF I decelerate under 4500 rPM it will still misfire.

DesktopDave · « **Reply #20 on:** February 13, 2011, 08:52:25 AM »

I don't know if this is related...sounds like it might be...I found a link over at e46forums about Bremi packs failing due to internal insulation failure. Mine are all Bremi, makes me worry a bit. The odd thing is that the BMW TSB recommended changing all of them...not one at a time, like when the Bosch coils fail.

I know you tested with another set of coils, but I'd probably try the original external coils & wires if you still have them. I have three known good coils from an e30...if you need them for testing I'll send 'em along for postage. $5 gets you a flat rate box...send them back when you've fixed it. I wish I had all four, but I sent one along with my spare DME to another member who had similar problems.

Here it is, along with a few others:
Bad DME & coil thread
Bad motor wiring harness thread
Bad #3 wire thread

There is a date stamped on the coil for production week/year. The effected Bremi coils are 42/2002 or earlier, or in the range from 01/03 up to 24/03. Mine are all older than 2002, so I'll be on the lookout for this too. Likely they were pulled from an M70; nobody who owns a newer BMW will touch the Bremi coils so they're cheap. IIRC, the early Bosch units were also pretty bad, the Bremi's were supposed to fix the trouble.

It doesn't fit your symptoms exactly, but it's close. Any chance you'd take those coil packs to a dealer to have them tested? Know anyone with a GT1? If you were closer I'd hook you up with my BMW mech buddy...I try to avoid dealers as much as possible, but there's a place & time for everything. Not that many BMW dealers will touch anything older than 2000, but it might be worth your time. I hear your frustration, I hate when I can't get a car or bike running right. But trust me, once you get this car running right you'll be glad you did.

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=226581
SITUATION
Engine may run rough and "Check Engine" light is illuminated. Misfire faults are stored in DME control module.
CAUSE
Reduced ignition firing power of BREMI coils due to coil internal insulation deterioration.
CORRECTION
Follow the appropriate Test Plan from DIS Plus/GT1.
If BREMI ignition coil is found to be defective, and the production date stamped on top of other coils housing's is
42/2002 or earlier, or in the range from 01/03 up to 24/03 all six coils must be replaced . For replacement instructions
refer to RA 12 13 511 found in BMW TIS.
Only coils manufactured by BREMI are affected. BREMI coils are easily recognizable by the all black, shiny housings.
Bosch coils, which can also be fitted in M roadster/coupe and M3 vehicles with S54 engines, are not affected and should
NOT be replaced as a set. Bosch coils have a silver, aluminum housing.

fiftytakedowns · « **Reply #21 on:** February 13, 2011, 03:40:51 PM »

Obviously it's a fuel issue. Its getting fuel Cut for some reason.

spark plug is speckled Lean hardcore.

fiftytakedowns · « **Reply #22 on:** February 13, 2011, 04:34:59 PM »

What are the Three relay boxes, I think the far right one might be the issue, is there a way to jump it?

DesktopDave · « **Reply #23 on:** February 13, 2011, 04:47:55 PM »

If you're looking at the firewall from the driver's fender like I tend to do, they're the main motronic relay, FP relay & O2 heater relay.

You can jump it with a wire from terminal 87 to 30 on the socket. It's a 5-pin relay, when it's not powered pin 30 shorts to pin 87a. When it's powered it'll short pin 30 to 87 instead. It should turn off fairly quickly after the car starts though. Once the O2 sensor gets up to temperature the DME turns the heater off, since the exhaust gas is hot enough to keep the O2 sensor accurate.

Makes me wonder why your car doesn't like an unheated sensor...maybe it's bad? I thought you'd recently replaced it?

fiftytakedowns · « **Reply #24 on:** February 13, 2011, 07:28:10 PM »

Quote from: DesktopDave;101450

If you're looking at the firewall from the driver's fender like I tend to do, they're the main motronic relay, FP relay & O2 heater relay.

You can jump it with a wire from terminal 87 to 30 on the socket. It's a 5-pin relay, when it's not powered pin 30 shorts to pin 87a. When it's powered it'll short pin 30 to 87 instead. It should turn off fairly quickly after the car starts though. Once the O2 sensor gets up to temperature the DME turns the heater off, since the exhaust gas is hot enough to keep the O2 sensor accurate.

Makes me wonder why your car doesn't like an unheated sensor...maybe it's bad? I thought you'd recently replaced it?

I put in a different relay box that I had laying around and it seemed to fix that problem... and It was the box closest to the Fuse box, the 4 pinned one.

DesktopDave · « **Reply #25 on:** February 13, 2011, 08:33:29 PM »

That's the main relay...guess it was overheating & partially killing the DME power. Weird. Good to hear that you're getting results. Good thing you have a spare!

fiftytakedowns · « **Reply #26 on:** February 13, 2011, 08:38:20 PM »

Quote from: dkbmxer002;2395889

what do you mean exactly when you say you cover the intake so you create a vacuum?

also how hard was it to replace the relay box? or do you mean you pulled one of the relays?

I pulled one of the Relays that sit next the fuse box. the three up top that are covered by the plastic harness cover.

I create a vacuum by putting my hand over the front of the AFM. then opening hte throttle with the other hand. you can see the intake bellow collapsing, and the noise of a leak near the intake. I cant find it.

Here are Some driving symptoms:

occasionally the stuttering will start occuring between 2-3K rpm, and when It does, here is wat the car does when that happens:
IF I floor it I can sort of stutter through the missfire until i get out of the zone, then past 3k rpm and then pulls hard to redline. If I pull off the gas, but downshift back into the zone without letting the car cruise at a lower rpm for a bit it will stutter if I get back into that zone.
If I put it in nuetral and let the car idle for a second, or two, I can slowly (without any load) accelerate through that zone, and then it goes away and I can drive normally until it shows up again, usually within 5 minutes.

the event only shows up UNDER LOAD! or cruising, USUALY cruising. Never at WOT, or SMashing through the gears.

sailer6460 · « **Reply #27 on:** February 13, 2011, 09:08:19 PM »

Have you checked over the whole mess of emission hoses to see if any have split, have a hole in them, or are simply disconnected? Just my 2 cents.

fiftytakedowns · « **Reply #28 on:** February 14, 2011, 12:16:39 AM »

Quote from: sailer6460;101460

Have you checked over the whole mess of emission hoses to see if any have split, have a hole in them, or are simply disconnected? Just my 2 cents.

I doused everything all hoses, gaskets ETC in WD40 as well as Carb cleaner to see if it would change the idle speed or make anyhting noticeable and I had no avail.

also, after letting the car cool down completley, It still has the cold start problem, where it is impossible to drive when cold, It will only idle. merely bogs down off the bat

B318M42W · « **Reply #29 on:** February 14, 2011, 04:38:29 PM »

maybe a large vacuum leak near the #1 cylinder. i personally think that finding vacuum leaks with other products that are supposed to rev the engine is difficult. Instead i pressurise the intake (under 5 psi), listen and then spray soapy water where the sound seams to come from. Unless it's a lot of vacuum leaks, pretty sure they aren't the culprit for your missfires.

Just for the heck of it, did you try other spark plugs?
list of new/swapped parts?

how are your plugs right after the missfire? indicate lean/rich situation? oil fouled?

If i read right, this started to happen right after your timing chain refresh?