Engine Malfunction

E

emie

New member
Hi,

My 2.8i is 4 months old (1000 miles). Whilst driving today the engine malfunction alert came up saying engine cannot work at full power, and car just went limp. Restarted and the light is gone. I am pretty certain though that now the engine is a weaker version of its former self, and also sounds weaker.

I've trolled through (at 4am!) every forum and have given myself a crash course on VANOS HPFP etc etc. Ultimately I guess I have to wait for the dealer to check it, but was wondering if anyone else has had this experience with a new-ish car. :|

Help!
 
There's no point in speculating without some ecu diagnostics.
It went in limp, gave an alert, so there is per definition a code (probably a whole bunch).

Read out the code, and it'll tell you why the car went into limp and reduces power.
What to do about that is a different story but it begins with ecu readouts. preferably with bmw software (that reads more codes than the basic PID's, but even that is a start)
 
emie said:
Hi,

My 2.8i is 4 months old (1000 miles). Whilst driving today the engine malfunction alert came up saying engine cannot work at full power, and car just went limp. Restarted and the light is gone. I am pretty certain though that now the engine is a weaker version of its former self, and also sounds weaker.

I've trolled through (at 4am!) every forum and have given myself a crash course on VANOS HPFP etc etc. Ultimately I guess I have to wait for the dealer to check it, but was wondering if anyone else has had this experience with a new-ish car. :|

Help!
Click to expand...

It's probably complaining at the lack of use it's getting (1000 miles in 4 months!!)
 
Get a code reader and see what faults have come up before doing anything else. And don't pay someone for it - you can save the cost of a reader by using it once!
 
Thank you for all your advice - got the code read and BMW assist said it was a valve malfunction and needed looking at.
When I brought it to the dealers though, they said they couldn't find any fault with it.
Quite confused now about what to do - it feels like a 2.0 instead of a 2.8 (I had test driven both before getting the 2.8 ), less responsive and quieter - but I have no way of quantifying or proving it. :(

What the BMW service desk person said was that once an error code has shown (even if it goes away after restarting car), the car works less efficiently until the codes are reset. Is that true?

@ InvisibleName : maybe you're right, just my car getting lazy and sleepy!
 
Sounds like you have a rubbish dealer to me. The car will have gone into limp mode for a reason and should be logged on the car and will need to be cleared and reset otherwise the car may not perform as it should, however once any codes are cleared the root of the problem still needs investigating. If the car doesn't feel right take it back preferably to a dealer who knows what they are doing.

Did BMW assist read a fault off the car and the dealer didn't?

Tim.
 
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