[cbeers]

Tonight my car pretty much told me to fuck off. Was driving along on the highway and went to pass someone, car shuttered and felt like it had a fairly large misfire and the car immediately went into limp mode with a yellow flashing "Service Engine Soon" light and the yellow half engine sign.

Managed to get the car off the highway and pulled off onto a small side road where I pulled these codes:

P29D0 - misfire, cyl 4
P29D1 - misfire, cyl 5
P29D2 - misfire, cyl 6
P30FF - pre-control boost control, boost pressure to leak from pressure line; error on loader 2
P29CC - multiple cylinder misfires (no shit, right!)

I cleared the codes and restarted the car. Immediately I could tell something wasn't right and it felt/sounded like the car was running on 3 cylinders. Threw another code:

P30BB - Injector, power level 2

After I cleared the initial misfire codes, the only code that kept coming back was the P30BB. I've never seen this code before, so I'm trying to figure out what it is exactly.

I'm now leaking a fair amount of oil too. I changed my oil two weeks ago and noticed there was a small amount leaking, but couldn't pin point where it was coming from. I made a post about it looking for some advice last week. Thought it might be a rear main seal leak, but I can't be sure. I've been keeping an eye on it lately and tonight is by far the most oil I've ever seen it loose in one sitting. If I had to guess, it might be a cup of oil/quarter of a quart? It's difficult to say. I didn't see that much on the ground, but judging by the rate I saw it dripping, what might be left on the splash guard, and what blew off while I drove it... it might be around that much. Could be less, could be more. I put a pan down tonight to catch what drips overnight.

About a month ago I had the crankshaft position sensor replaced (failed out of no where). Then immediately had two fuel injectors (cyl 5 & 6) replaced because of sever bogging/stuttering. The dealer did it under warranty due to them having replaced them less than 2 years ago. Apparently a solder came loose or something on the top of both injectors. They weren't extremely clear when they did it, which bothered me a bit.

I also replaced all the ignition coils and spark plugs last weekend because the car was due and I've been chasing a nagging bog/oscillation that occurs when I'm under low acceleration around 3k rpms. While I was at it, I installed a BMS OCC and a RB PCV as well since Ijust had a walnut blast done a few months back.

Thanks in advance for any help. I'm just about ready to bring this thing over to CarMax and fucking sell it at this point. Nothing but trouble with it since my warranty went up in April. Beyond pissed.


UPDATE: (9/14)
Tired to troubleshoot what I could today, here's what I tried and found:

Spark plugs on cylinders 4-6 have significant charring. Cylinder 5 is the worse by far and cylinder 6 isn't much better. I installed these plugs (OEM Bosch) last weekend, so they obviously took a beating last night.

Ignition coils appear fine. Pulled them and reseated all of them. Made sure all the plugs were firmly plugged in and none of the wires were loose/frayed/split. Everything looked fine with them.

Pulled the intake manifold MAP sensor while I was at it. Was quite dirty, so I cleaned it and reinstalled.

Checked all visible wires running through the engine bay and under the engine cover. Saw no splits, charring, or damage.

No visible oil on top of the valve cover or on the sides. Engine cover, oil pump, and oil filter housing were all clean as well. Very light film of oil seen in the OCC.

Just to be thorough, I tested all the fuses as well. No blown fuses. Opened the ECU compartment and just visually inspected the wires. No charring or signs of damage or shorts.

After going through everything I could think of, I cleared the P30BB code and started the engine. No dice; starts up but sounds horrifying. Definitely running on 3 cylinder. I turned it off immediately. Check the codes and the P30BB was there again, only code. Cleared the code and turned on JUST the ignition. Scanned for codes again and the P30BB was already there. So, now I know the P30BB is thrown prior to the engine being started. This is really making me think it could be a DME issue.

At this point, I don't have much of a choice but to take it to BMW and have them diagnose the engine issues as well as the oil issues. It's unlikely I'll have them do the repairs, I just don't have the tools or time to troubleshoot the car any further. Unfortunately, this means another tow fee to the dealership.

I will update this post again when I hear what BMW has to say.

[cbeers]

Could it be a DME failure?

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1011235
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=734162

Similar symptoms, but doesn't explain the extra oil I lost tonight.

[Miko226]

Check your oil supply lines to the turbos.

[cbeers]

Checked the turbo side of the engine today while I was troubleshooting other things.

I saw no visible oil anywhere on that side of the engine. From what I saw, it looks like the oil is focused on the throttle body side of the engine near the rear and down low.

[FRMTL2_335i]

No smoke?

[cbeers]

Honestly, I haven't checked because I never felt safe enough to run the car long enough to get out and check to see if there was smoke.

If there is, it's not billowing smoke that I saw while sitting in the car.

[j1gilles]

Originally Posted by cbeers

Could it be a DME failure?

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1011235
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=734162

Similar symptoms, but doesn't explain the extra oil I lost tonight.

+1
Here is your answer...

[Jklad]

He's an automatic, so I'm wouldn't think he fried the dme bc that's supposed to happen only to mt. I would lean towards the injectors frying out - this same thing happened to a friend of mine recently on his 07 at, and he replaced all injectors and plugs to fix it.

Oh, and I seriously doubt the oil Leaks are related, unless you got a low oil warning because you didn't tighten something down, in which case you'd have much bigger problems...

[cbeers]

The dealer just replaced two injectors (5 & 6) two weeks ago and before that I had all 6 replaced by them last April. The misfires occurred on cylinders 4-6 which means if it was the injectors, the dealership fucked up installing the two new ones two weeks ago, or it's something else. The oldest injector out of the 3 cylinders was on cylinder 4 and that spark plug had the least damage/charring to it.

[Continue5]

Unplug the negative terminal on the battery, remove engine cover and remove all ignition coils

wait 15 minutes.

Throw all the ignition coils back in but switch up 4 5 6 to 1 2 3 and vice versa..

If that gets your car to work then you need some new ignition coils.

let us know if that works.

[cbeers]

Brand new coils. Just installed them last weekend.

The car is at the dealer at the moment. I'm letting them try to diagnose it and see what they have to say. Cheaper and quicker to have them do it then for me to have to take a day off work to hopefully figure it out.

[Snypa]

DME

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1011235

[cbeers]

Heard back from the dealership...

DME failure is the winner (loser). And the oil leak is a bad rear main seal, which is what I expected. I just didn't think it was going to get as bad as it has as quickly as it has.

BMW wants $2000 to replace DME and $1800 for the rear main seal.

I know I can pull the DME and send it to get repaired for around $500, but the rear main seal is for sure hosed. When I asked how bad it was (in the hopes I could live with it a bit longer) the SA said it was about 8 out of 10, 10 being horrible.

Has anyone used N54DME.com to get a DME repaired? I know there's a few posts floating around here from people who have used them, but I just want to see if there are any horror stories I might have missed.

Calling around to get a few estimates from shops in the Northern Chicagoland now, but if anyone has any more recommendations on shops that could fix a rear main seal I would appreciate.

[Jklad]

You should be able to source a new msd81 dme for 1100, labor for swapping only the dme should not be more than 30 mins to 1 hour (or 2 hours if they have to "program" it.).

That sucks about the rear seal. Ask them to make sure it's not oil pan or valve cover.

[cbeers]

Fairly certain it's not the oil pan or valve cover because both gaskets have been replaced about a year ago. My dealership (Knauz BMW) was really good about spotting any oil leak when I was under maintenance and just taking care of it.

[kfrazie1]

You could try the diy DME repair. I think it's just replacing the transistors.

[cbeers]

Debated doing the DIY method, but soldering ain't my strong suit and I don't have a whole lot of experience with computer boards and what not. I think I'm going to ship it down to N54DME.com in Texas and let them fix it.

Sounds like some people have had good results with them.

[Jklad]

Perhaps an electronics shop in the area can do the soldering for you. I wasn't able to locate one when mine fried, too much goin on with work at the time, but it should be pretty easy for anyone with that skillset.