[amama]

Hi there,

I'm sucking with this issue since 2 weeks. Please help me out or I will push the car into the damn river. Long story short:

2006/08 E92 330D Automatic

- Occasional red battery symbol error displays that disappeared in the past month
Errors in ECU were the following:

Faultcode: (0x4212) Glow plug cylinder 1
Faultset 1:
(appeared at: 174712.0km)
battery voltage:
14.83 V
Injection quantity:
11.82 mg/Hub
vehicle speed:
0.00 km/h
engine coolant temperature:
29.04 °C
Boost pressure actual value:
1004.31 mbar
Air mass per cylinder:
510.42 mg/Hub
Engine speed:
661.98 1/min
Pedal value generator:
0.00 %
Rail Pressure Is:
385.97 bar
State of the glow indicator:
151.00 -

Faultcode: (0x4222) Glow plug cylinder 2
Faultset 1:
(appeared at: 174712.0km)
battery voltage:
14.83 V
Injection quantity:
11.82 mg/Hub
vehicle speed:
0.00 km/h
engine coolant temperature:
29.04 °C
Boost pressure actual value:
1004.31 mbar
Air mass per cylinder:
510.42 mg/Hub
Engine speed:
661.98 1/min
Pedal value generator:
0.00 %
Rail Pressure Is:
385.97 bar
State of the glow indicator:
151.00 -

Faultcode: (0x4A18) Layer Generator
Faultset 1:
(appeared at: 174712.0km)
battery voltage:
14.34 V
Injection quantity:
8.66 mg/Hub
vehicle speed:
0.00 km/h
engine coolant temperature:
55.14 °C
Boost pressure actual value:
1004.31 mbar
Air mass per cylinder:
409.60 mg/Hub
Engine speed:
661.98 1/min
Pedal value generator:
0.00 %
Rail Pressure Is:
346.58 bar
ambient pressure:
984.62 mbar

- Once when parked for some minutes, slight burn smell around the car, no other symptoms. When got back to the car couple minutes later, no burn smell outside, but inside (before starting the car). No error messages until I got home and parked. Red battery came up right when finished parking, telling that there is no charge. Same error messages as above.
- Next day wanted to get to the repair shop with the remaining juice in the battery, lasted half way, battery went drop dead, ABS, ESP off, transmission to limp mode then just shut down completely, nothing has been working from that point, car stopped in the middle of the road, had to put on trailer to the repair shop.
- Repair shop took out and charged the battery, changed the alternator to a refurb valeo (incl. voltage regulator)

Here comes the fun, they put back the charged battery, started the car but got the red battery on dash. Alternator did not charge the battery at all.

- Erased fault codes in all the ECUs, they did disappear, apart from the glow plugs, alternator still did not charge at all. There are NO ERROR CODES ANYWHERE!
- Got a scraped alternator (incl voltage regulator) with the exact same original part number as the one was in the car, built in, no charge at all.
- Measured voltages on battery, jump start point, alternator directly, there is absolutely no charge from alternator
- Changed IBS to check if faulty, didnt help
- Changed Glow Plug Control Unit
- Changed Faulty glow plugs
- Checked all wires/ground wires visually and multimeter where possible
- Checked belt
- Changed crankshaft pulley
- Alternators (both the refurb and scraped ones) checked on bench, both working
- ECU asks for 97% alternator load according to the computer
- Engine starts without issues if battery has enought juice.

First repair shop conclusion: it should work, there is no signs of any issues and still when put together it's not working. It MAY be DDE, but just a guess as there are no error codes, no other ideas.

The car was at this mechanic for a week, then I did trailer to an other one, did the same checks during this week and the conclusion is the same, according to best practice and after checking everything there are just no signs at all of any issues and still, it's not working.

Nobody managed to find the origin of the weird burned smell, neither on any of the checked parts, nor visually, nor inside of the vehicle from the time it arrived to the first mechanic.

Any good clues experiences or anything that may help??? I would greatly appreciate.

Cheers!

[dsjr2006]

Did you try a new battery?

Double check ground wires and engine ground.

[amama]

Originally Posted by dsjr2006

Did you try a new battery?

Double check ground wires and engine ground.

Tried new battery, registered, didnt help. Checked grounds several times also.

[ptpending]

how did you checked IBS and what software did you use to read codes ?

[amama]

Originally Posted by ptpending

how did you checked IBS and what software did you use to read codes ?

Changed IBS to a 100% working one, didnt help. used DIS

[ptpending]

there is problem for 2005/2006 cars with clamp on the cable from generator to battery near battery compartment outside of the car
the clamp start to pass electricity very bad due corrosion and then breaks and if live wire have contact with body - there will be fire
many e9x or e8x cars in europe junkyards are after such fire
to check that cable you need to remove rear right wheel and remove wheel arch cover

another problem can be with alternator regulator
many alternator repair shops cannot install right regulator after repair because it is should be with ibs bus
also all transcievers (on dde, on oil sensor, on alternator and on ibs sensor) on ibs bus can be damaged by failed alternator

[amama]

Originally Posted by ptpending

there is problem for 2005/2006 cars with clamp on the cable from generator to battery near battery compartment outside of the car
the clamp start to pass electricity very bad due corrosion and then breaks and if live wire have contact with body - there will be fire
many e9x or e8x cars in europe junkyards are after such fire
to check that cable you need to remove rear right wheel and remove wheel arch cover

another problem can be with alternator regulator
many alternator repair shops cannot install right regulator after repair because it is should be with ibs bus
also all transcievers (on dde, on oil sensor, on alternator and on ibs sensor) on ibs bus can be damaged by failed alternator

The original alternator got tested just today, it's also working. Which means the car produced alternator error code, then failed to charge anymore, but the generator did not fail, nor any other mechanical component like cables ibs or such. Just ordered a new DDE + CAS, gonna program it next week and see how it does. If it works, even tho the alternator worked perfectly on the bench, I'm not putting it back, as it may kill the new DDE also, since there is no way to find out what else could have killed the DDE if thats the case.

[ctuna]

In one of your diagnostic printouts it says 14.4 volts that is
about right for the alternator output. Do you also measure that
at the battery because that should charge the battery.

If you don't measure that at the battery there is a voltage drop
somewhere. Hows the ground strap from the bottom of the engine
to the chassis.

[amama]

Originally Posted by ctuna

In one of your diagnostic printouts it says 14.4 volts that is
about right for the alternator output. Do you also measure that
at the battery because that should charge the battery.

If you don't measure that at the battery there is a voltage drop
somewhere. Hows the ground strap from the bottom of the engine
to the chassis.

14,4 Volts was before the actual failure. That time occasionaly the alternator error code came up, but not constantly. After that, the charge completely stopped.

[amama]

DDE alternator signal checked with oscilloscope, signal matching with the one seen on a working and charging car. ffs ...
also, I noticed that my scanner has been showing "alternator load" stuck at 95% for a while now

[rinsch]

Have you solved this?