[den656]

Hi all , bit of an odd issue seems to have cropped up this weekend , dropped my 318D 2009 into my local garage, to have a new coolant thermostat (Febi ) , new lambda (Bosch ) , and the EGR taken off and cleaned as the car was idling a bit lumpy, and mpg had dropped ,after plugging it in , it showed oxygen sensor not working,and coolant temp after an hour run was only about 65 degrees , so dropped it in to hopefully get sorted .
Picked it up,all is good, but on the way home the EML came on ,the main one with the half shaded engine symbol we all know and love , but literally only for a second , no codes on the check you can do with the cruise control stalk , and no noticeable power loss or anything , and all ok , carried on , all seemed ok,then about twenty minutes later ,the same again ,EML light on for a brief second then off again , any ideas guys ? Spoke to the garage, they said pop it in and happy to have a look, just wondered if there was something I could hopefully suggest as causing it to save some time ? , many thanks ,Dennis .

[rasa bmw]

here we go,,,you should have seached before buying that stat,,,bmw only when comes to stats,,now you will be wondering if its duff..also replace egr stat if its got one,,suspect yours may not ...needs read by a proper code reader..inpa/carly/foxwell/protool..or worse a dealer ....

[brman]

what is so special with bmw stats? I keep on reading that only bmw will do but every other car I have had to change one on (and I have had 20 to 30 cars over the years so done a few) works fine with a 3rd party stat.
Is there really something special about bmw ones or is this just an urban legend caused by a few dodgy ones?

fwiw I just bought the two stats for my 320d (can't remember if I went for Behr or Febi) so I will test them before fitting and come back and eat my hat if either is faulty

[rasa bmw]

Originally Posted by brman

what is so special with bmw stats? I keep on reading that only bmw will do but every other car I have had to change one on (and I have had 20 to 30 cars over the years so done a few) works fine with a 3rd party stat.
Is there really something special about bmw ones or is this just an urban legend caused by a few dodgy ones?

fwiw I just bought the two stats for my 320d (can't remember if I went for Behr or Febi) so I will test them before fitting and come back and eat my hat if either is faulty

do a search and find out..they last longest than the after market ones,,doesnt meann they are good,,just better than whats out there

[brman]

Originally Posted by rasa bmw

do a search and find out..they last longest than the after market ones,,doesnt meann they are good,,just better than whats out there

I have done a search, nothing particular conclusive apart from lots of people saying what you did. Maybe my search skills are not up to it but I struggle to find more than a couple of posts by people who actually had a problem.
I am not saying everyone is wrong btw. It could well be that the BMW parts are more reliable. Trouble is, it would appear that the factory BMW parts struggle to last 100k miles which means they are not exactly reliable themselves! On the other hand I have not any problems with febi parts in the past.

I promise to report back in a year or two how reliable my cheepy parts have been

[rasa bmw]

Originally Posted by brman

I have done a search, nothing particular conclusive apart from lots of people saying what you did. Maybe my search skills are not up to it but I struggle to find more than a couple of posts by people who actually had a problem.
I am not saying everyone is wrong btw. It could well be that the BMW parts are more reliable. Trouble is, it would appear that the factory BMW parts struggle to last 100k miles which means they are not exactly reliable themselves! On the other hand I have not any problems with febi parts in the past.

I promise to report back in a year or two how reliable my cheepy parts have been

i also buy febi/meyle etc etc,,but for stas "no" bmw use febi/meyle and loads of other manufacturers for parts..wahler/behr for stats for instance,,,loads of posts wherevfolk have bought circoli from ecp etc..i too have an after market egr stat in my 335d,,last owner did it,,and its fine,,dont know what brand,,but he bought a bmw main stat also...my 330d has bmw stats ..changed when i bought car

[brman]

Originally Posted by rasa bmw

i also buy febi/meyle etc etc,,but for stas "no" bmw use febi/meyle and loads of other manufacturers for parts..wahler/behr for stats for instance,,,loads of posts wherevfolk have bought circoli from ecp etc..i too have an after market egr stat in my 335d,,last owner did it,,and its fine,,dont know what brand,,but he bought a bmw main stat also...my 330d has bmw stats ..changed when i bought car

fair enough.

[den656]

Thanks for the input guys , and just glad it’s not something potentially worse I was imagining that some mystery wire had been pulled out or something .
Now the fault code doesn’t stay , but the light coming on randomly and for only a second,is this purely that the car ‘doesn’t like ‘ the thermostat, or is it potentially a problem and is boiling my car .
will be looking to pinch a friends solus ultra this week to see what temp the coolant is at, if it is sitting at around 87 or so,all would be ok ? Or should I just get a bmw stat and get it replaced ? As an aside no EML yesterday or today so not sure if the car has grudgingly accepted it lol ,cheers all .

[brman]

Originally Posted by den656

Thanks for the input guys , and just glad it’s not something potentially worse I was imagining that some mystery wire had been pulled out or something .
Now the fault code doesn’t stay , but the light coming on randomly and for only a second,is this purely that the car ‘doesn’t like ‘ the thermostat, or is it potentially a problem and is boiling my car .
will be looking to pinch a friends solus ultra this week to see what temp the coolant is at, if it is sitting at around 87 or so,all would be ok ? Or should I just get a bmw stat and get it replaced ? As an aside no EML yesterday or today so not sure if the car has grudgingly accepted it lol ,cheers all .

Well, I suspect our little discussion on the reliability of thermostats is not actually relevent to your problem
Normally a stat problem would not show an EML but there is a hidden menu for seeing what the engine temperature is:

( a bit long winded but does show you how to get to the water temp eventually)
Set that up and go for a long run and you can monitor what the ecu thinks the engine temperature is. Of course that does not rule out a dodgy temperature sensor but if the temp looks ok (I would assume high 80s is good) then I think you can stop worrying about thermostats. fwiw I currently have dodgy stats in my 320d and have never had an EML or error code recorded for it.

Assuming temperature is good then I would look elsewhere for the cause of your EML light. Assuming this only started after the work was done I would be looking at the lambda sensor or EGR and first check for dodgy connections or stuff that could have been disturbed when that work was done.
Not that I am an expert on the E9x cars, I only just got mine and am trying to sort my own problems out

[rasa bmw]

just a thought,,have you checked your coolant level ?

[den656]

Ha, literally occurred to me earlier today ,and yes coolant level is good cheers , will be chucking it into the garage in the week just to ask them to double check all connections and will be hooking it up to check coolant temp too ,cheers all .

[BimmerLad]

Originally Posted by den656

Ha, literally occurred to me earlier today ,and yes coolant level is good cheers , will be chucking it into the garage in the week just to ask them to double check all connections and will be hooking it up to check coolant temp too ,cheers all .

Do you have access to an OBD reader? As an out the box thought how bad was the previous lambda sensor? I guess it's possible your ECU has gone mad with the STFT and is leaning or riching the STFT like mad to bring the long term into scope and that's triggering a quick "out of tolerance" error?

[brman]

thread drift again, but I have just fitted my 3rd party stats today. I tested them first to make sure they worked and they did, fitted both and my engine is now running at 88 to 92degC consistantly. I know that doesn't say anything about reliability so I will report back if they ever fail.

oh, except I realised they are actually Behr stats (not febi) which are original fitment on the car. In fact the egr stat was identical to the BMW one I removed except on the replacement the bmw logo and part number had been ground off.
On the other hand the main stat did not even have a behr logo (despite being in a sealed behr/marle box) and was made in italy. So if anything turns out to be unreliable it will be that one.

[Nel2014]

Which stats did you change mate?

[brman]

Originally Posted by Nel2014

Which stats did you change mate?

both, main and EGR.

I haven't tested them properly but the original EGR stat was definitely faulty (open when cold) but the original main stat was closed when cold, so could have been ok. I changed it anyway.

[Nel2014]

Mine is a 320d and gets to mid and high 80's. When I come of the gas a bit it sometimes goes down to low 80,s then 77-79 Then I get cold air from the heater blowers. It's a BMW main stat.
Not sure if its faulty, think I also may have an airlock as well in heater matrix

[den656]

Just to come back to this thread, as I know usually they die a death with no update .
Thank god it has sorted itself out , EML light has gone with no messing,and I think/hope that Bimmerlad was potentially right as I did wonder that myself, the car getting info that previously had been omitted so throwing a bit of a fit but settled down once it was all ok , will be plugging it on next week to check the coolant temp , but my mpg readout was at 42 mpg but has crawled up to a much more respectable 51.3 so that is all good ,but now thinking should I get my egr stat changed too lol ,cheers for the help,Dennis .

[brman]

Originally Posted by den656

Just to come back to this thread, as I know usually they die a death with no update .
Thank god it has sorted itself out , EML light has gone with no messing,and I think/hope that Bimmerlad was potentially right as I did wonder that myself, the car getting info that previously had been omitted so throwing a bit of a fit but settled down once it was all ok , will be plugging it on next week to check the coolant temp , but my mpg readout was at 42 mpg but has crawled up to a much more respectable 51.3 so that is all good ,but now thinking should I get my egr stat changed too lol ,cheers for the help,Dennis .

if it is getting 51mpg now I would leave it alone!

[brman]

Originally Posted by Nel2014

Mine is a 320d and gets to mid and high 80's. When I come of the gas a bit it sometimes goes down to low 80,s then 77-79 Then I get cold air from the heater blowers. It's a BMW main stat.
Not sure if its faulty, think I also may have an airlock as well in heater matrix

doesn't sound right. Mine (with two new stats) was sitting at 88 to 92 today regardless of whether I was pootling on the motorway or driving round town.

That said, even when mine would only get to 65 ish it still gave warm air from the heaters so maybe you do have an airlock?