[PSYCHO_GUNDAM]

The incident first started about a few months back. I was driving my BMW to a friends house to have my valve cover gasket replaced since I kept getting a bad smell through my ac vents. I stop at autozone to pick up the gasket and once I stop at a red light, I get the Service Engine Soon light and I get a weird sound that makes it sound like diesel engine. Later on I found out that it could be a misfire. Later down the road a few weeks later, my wife is driving my BMW. She stops at a red light, once she depresses the brake, the car immediately shut itself off and was very hard to steer away from traffic. Once we got the car to a safe location, we tried starting it but all it was doing was giving us a small crank for a brief amount of time before it chokes. Since then, I have recently replaced both vanos solenoids, camshaft position sensor, and the eccentric shaft sensor. All of which did not do anything. I also bought an OBD scanner and these are the codes if anyone can help me out!

OBD SCANNER CODES:
-P13B4
-P13B6
-P0012
-P0016
-P1014
-P1006

[aj90]

Most of the codes correspond to something wrong with the timing. Have you changed the VCG yet? If not, make sure to look at the timing chain and make sure it hasn't come off or come loose. The only other thing I would guess is the valvetronic motor. Also if you have access to INPA you might want to read the codes from there as well because they are BMW specific.

[PSYCHO_GUNDAM]

I have changed out the valve cover gasket and I inspected the timing chain and it doesn’t seem to have any sort of slack. Only thing I haven’t changed out yet would be the valvetronic motor.

[DameJ.M3]

Not sure if you figured it out yet but I had something quite similar happen to my car. Turned out to be my engine ground located under the car on the driver side. It's worth checking for any corrosion or tears.

[PSYCHO_GUNDAM]

And would that be the reason it doesn’t want to start?

[DameJ.M3]

Originally Posted by PSYCHO_GUNDAM

And would that be the reason it doesn't want to start?

Was the reason why my M3 wouldn't start. Originally the car only started when it was warm/hot outside. If it was cold it either wouldn't start or after trying to start it for about 10-20 minutes it would barely turn over. By not start I mean the electronics all powered on just fine but the starter didn't even attempt to turn over. When the cable finally separated I started getting a bunch of codes for all 8 cylinders and both actuators. You can check the ground and see it's condition. Here's what mine looked like.

[mecheng77]

Here is a video to show how to determine if the cable is bad and how to fix it. I’ve never seen
One tear like that

[Boxmanselim]

Hey PSYCHO_GUNDAM, did you ever figure this out? I have the same exact issue happen a few days ago.

[vilord]

I had oil that leaked from the valve cover gasket get into the spark plug holes, then soak into the igniters and short them out. The 'diesel' feeling was because it was only running on 5 cylinders for me.
I had to replace 2 of the igniters due to oil saturation.