Another Day Another Problem

[wattsie]

Having owned my 03 E85 3.0i Z for 7 months now... I have had the following problems:

Throttle assembly - towed from the motorway
Window Regulator
GM5 relays
Wipers not sitting right
Broken Cupholder
Window regulator again
New lock for glovebox
Random blown fuses

And to top it off today, I was forced into the hard shoulder with another barrage of warning lights on the dash and the engine running like it was firing on 3 cylinders!

The engine rumbles and shakes at tick over but luckily doesn't stall... so mr AA man recommended that I drive it home/garage carefully as it was running ok at higher 'driving' revs (1500+)

So went back to my local garage who fixed my original throttle body and asked them... they think that its unlikely to be the throttle again, but recommended smoke testing the engine as they were suspecting air leaks.

Anyone had any experience with this before? I have the yellow EML light and yellow engine light on.

Just plugged my cheap-nasty code reorder in and got the following engine codes:

P1632 'Throttle Valve Adaptation; Adaptation Condition Not Met'
P0171 'system too lean bank 1'
P0174 'system too lean bank 2'
P0300 - pending 'random / multiple cylinder misfire detected'
P0301 - pending 'cylinder 1 misfire detected'
P0304 - pending 'cylinder 4 misfire detected'
P0305 - pending 'cylinder 5 misfire detected'
P0313 - pending 'misfire detected low fuel level'

This would lead me to think its a throttle problem that has caused misfires rather than an air leak?

I love my Z, but at times I get FURIOUS with its unreliability!

Wattsie

 

[AlanJ]

Could be as simple as coils failing particularly if it runs better at higher throttle settings - common problem on Zeds. Worth checking each coil.

 

[Machine monkey]

Agree with Alan that seem very logical. I have got some of the same symptoms when I googled in to error code p1633 and p1632 the wire harness was mentioned. Apparently it can be a week link. The problems could be down to bad connections???

I have not looked into my problems yet but will keep you posted. As for air leaks never done a smoke test?? But a wrongly connected/ not connected pipe was cause to similar problems on another bmw with Similar problems on another fourm.

Good luck wattsie

 

[wattsie]

How do i check the coils? Is this a case of just unplugging each in turn and seeing if the engine note changes or is there a more technical way?!

Ill have a google.....

wattsie

 

[bcworkz]

While misfires can certainly (and even likely) be coil packs, the lean or low fuel errors indicate an air leak or injector problems. Also check the idle control valve, some have had problems with this, which runs in parallel to the throttle valve.

 

[wattsie]

Quick update:

I drove to work yesterday morning and the Z ran perfectly, Idles steadily, had tons of power... perfect!

I did fill up the night before, wonder if the fuel has pushed some crap out of wherever it was or something!

Weird... but not complaining!

Now just time to wait for the next problem! haha!

Wattsie

 

[andysat]

 

[micz4]

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