So I have a 318i E90, 2008.
A few weeks ago, the car start violently shaking etc. and sounded/felt like it was running on 3 cylinders.
I drove It home and turned it off. Start back up and it seemed to work okay for it a bit, then it start playing up again. It set of a CEL so I got an OBD reader and checked what code; Misfire of Cyl1.
To see if it was a coil issue, I moved toe coil from Cyl1 to Cyl2, the fault code followed so I replaced the coil.
It ran okay for a couple of days, but then started playing up again. I took it to BMW and they came back and said that 3 fuel injectors needed replacing, a NOX sesnsor and recommended a spark plug change. (They also had replaced all the ignition coils under a product enhancement).
The car wasn’t quite right, through idled a little better.
I recently had it checked by another “Specialist” who reckons it’s the VANOS solenoids. (I had to have it checked by him, as the dealer I purchased the car through, second hand, said this was there preferred specialist).
My car has little over 52,000Km’s on the clock, so still very new.
Current situation;
- NOX sensor has been replaced
- Spark plugs have been replaced
- Car idles a little differently [low ish] (I can only explain that it sounds more like a diesel sound, than it used it)
- There is almost like a power surge when accelerating in low rpm/gears. Usually only happens when the car is warm/hot.
- Taking off in first gear or starting to reverse, the car sounds like its hesitating/struggling.
- There is a noise under the bonnet, almost like a quick ticking sound. When you raise the revs and let it fall, the tick disappears till it gets to 2000-1500rpm, then it starts again. Quite often it will just stop when idling for a minute or 2, then start again.
I really don’t know what it could be at this point… Fuel injectors make sense, and it sounds like it. My colleague explained to me that my injectors sounded quite noisy. We also hooked up to the OBD port and watched the wideband oxygen sensor and the Air/Fuel ratio which is apparently meant to sit at 1.00 lamda and 14.7% respectively, and mine was reaching 1.7xx lamda and 20% odd respectively, till when I reved, it went back down when I reached around 2,500rpm-3,000rpm, when you noticed it seemed like the engine just decided to kick in.
Any ideas what this could be? I’m really at a loss, and considering I’ve already had to shell out $600 for a NOX sensor, I want to be sure I’m replacing only the parts that need to be replaced.
Here is a couple of videos of what I'm talking about
:
Rev drop, doesnt always happen. Conditions: cars warm, slightly tap the throttle at idle, doesnt consistantly happen;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32949409@N06/8516847076/
This video just shows the ticking sound;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32949409@N06/8515772183/
This video the ticking disappears , then reappears shortly after.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32949409@N06/8515772183/
EDIT: Also worth mentioning, the only codes it has thrown are;
- Misfire Cyl1
- Misfire Cyl2
- NOX Sensor, Warming up
- Mass Air Flow sensor, high input
Don't believe there were any others... at least not that i can think of.
Oh, and I have also cleaned my MAF sensor, that issue hasn't come back.