[MidWillamette335d]

New guy here. Just go a 2009 335d and this forum has been invaluable. Long time Toyota guy, know them (and the engineering) like the back of my hand, I like to wrench, I like to tinker. Needless to say this car has been a bit challenging...I named it Adolf. Back story...

Was doing a bathroom remodel for a family. This car was sitting in their side yard under a tree. Leaves everywhere, moss in all the nooks a crannies, spider-webs everywhere, etc. I asked him about it and he offered it to me for a song, I just couldn't pass it up, at that point it had already seduced me. He told me it had a litany of problems, which I can confirm. He had the carbon cleaning done 10's of thousands miles ago, and he suspected that was the problem again as it went into limp mode and lost all power. I was hopeful and and willing so I gave the dude a grand and had it towed to my house as the battery was dead.

First thing, got new battery. 170.00 from Autozone, Duralast Gold H8-DLG 900 CCA Group 49. Was able to read stored codes, not good, had like 15 of them. Took the intake manifold off, the CBU was really not that bad, at least not enough to have the walnut blast I thought. It was more like a a smear of carbon on the runners, not gunky or anything like that. I bore scoped the runners and valves and although there was some build up, it didn't look that bad at all, probably better than 95% of the pics I've seen on here with those issues. I did clean the intake manifold and swirl flaps when it was off, as well as the TB and EGR valve. Got new pressure actuators and silicone vacuum line as the original line was pretty nasty and cracking. Verified the waste gates and changeover valve with a vacuum pump...they all held constant vacuum. Put in 5 gallons of B5 diesel with boosters and additives to condition the old fuel and increase the cetane rating thinking the other owner just used convenient B20 not knowing any better. Put it back together, I was feeling good at this point.

The car fired right up, revved nice. Took it for a test drive and that's when it went to hell...limp mode activated. This thing could not get out it's own way. However I did get some good info. Bad thermostat was immediately evident with my scan tool (BAFX adapter with Torque app), engine temps never topped 145* from idling to driving on the hwy.

Got these verified codes after the drive: P21a8, U0106, P14a3, P064c.

Research on here told me that a bad thermostat causes a host of problems...glow plug module premature failure, DPF regen not performing, etc. Two of those are related to codes I have. I just installed a new thermostat with housing and a new glow plug module. The GPM was a huge pain in the ass as the connector had bonded to the module, took me like an hr to finagle it off, by far the biggest pain for me so far on this car. The thermostat was not as bad but still kinda lame with the lack of slack in the hose connectors. Upon pulling the thermostat housing I could see that the thermostat was stuck open. Anyway it's done. Hopefully this takes me to some cleared codes and into a regen cycle to clear some more codes.

BTW, gotta give a shout out to FCP Euro, got their oil change package and it was like 40 bucks cheaper than sourcing the items locally myself, I also got the thermostat from them. I think they're in Connecticut and I'm in Oregon and I got the thermostat in 2 days, still don't know how that happened. Speaking of oil, changed it by pulling it out of the dipstick tube with the 7.00 harbor freight pump, worked but took about an hr.

In the interim, got new cup holders as the original were toast, super detailed the the inside, sucked moldy almonds from the crannies in the seats, stuff like that. The car had been sitting for so long it had mold and mildew all over the interior. Dislocated my middle finger scrubbing the crap out of it...I really hope it pays off...

Looking forward to actually being able to experience the potential this car has...