Felt Sluggish?

S

simonlpearce

Senior member
On way to work this morning all is well, car is running sweet.

Get into the 'fast lane' and go to pass someone in 6th and the car barely moves, was doing around 65 at the time. Dropped it down a couple of cogs and again very little power but slowly crept up to 80. Pulled off at services had a look/listen, no untoward noises. Switched car off for a minute or two then carried on my way. Car seemed fine again the little stop :?

No engine lights or anything, is running on 98 Ron fuel, though normally is run on 99 from Tesco.

I know i need to get it on a diagnostics so will find someone with INPA to do some code reading for me. Other than that any suggestions?
 
Could be a number of things, sorry to be a bit vague...

MAF sensor? Fuel filter? Drive by wire?
 
In neutral, does it rev freely?

Does it run perfect stationary as well (i.e. not hunting)?
 
Was no hunting on idle and seemed to rev fine at standstill, though didn't really try as such.

I suppose any suggestion is a stab in the dark really until i get it on a diagnostics machine.
 
Having a google the symptoms i had were similar to that of a failing vanos soleniod pack! Hope its not, but will keep an eye on it and see how things pan out.
 
I was going to say *potenatially* VANOS related, ie. not engaging correctly (or at all), a loss of torque could absolutely be linked to this. On the other hand it could be a number of other things totally unrelated. INPA will help you more here, although if its an intermittent problem it might not be immediately obvious from INPA readings. Annoyingly INPA won't allow you to run the VANOS test program that you can on M3's, I presume due to the difference in ECU's. There's probably a work around or different software to do it but not done that much research into it as so far.

For what it's worth the coil pack wouldn't be the end of the world. Beisan System do an uprated coil pack for $150, fairly easy install on it's own it would appear. I'm doing a whole VANOS upgrade mid Decemeber with Beisan parts, including seals, coil pack, bolts, oil disc, anti rattle, the lot basically. I'm expecting good results from what other users of M3's have reported. Seeing as we share the same VANOS unit with the E46 M3's there's no reason why ours wouldn't fail eventually in the same way, especially as our cars aren't getting any younger.

Hopefully I'll have a postive result to report back come December :thumbsup:

**By the way do you get any splutter/misfire type effect when stabbing the accelartor pedal at idle? Any dip in revs when the car's returning to it's normal idle position? Just wondering if you've got any symptons of the hesiation issue that's plagued a fair few owners....massive thread on it somewhere on the forum
 
Hi Andy,

Thanks for this feedback. Yes i did have read up on the besian site about the swap procedure, it looks a darn site easier than the Vanos procedure that i need to do on my E36 M3 Evo, which is a complete unit off jobbie.

I do agree though that its likely only a matter of time before Z owners start seeing the same sort of problems the guys with M3's are, including the dreaded head gasket which seems to be rather highly reported these day on cutters.

Who know's maybe i will be lucky and it was just a blip with some dirt on a sensor or something similar. At least that's what im hoping anyway.

I look forward to a detailed write up from you though on your change/uprgade :thumbsup:
 
simonlpearce said:
Hi Andy,

Thanks for this feedback. Yes i did have read up on the besian site about the swap procedure, it looks a darn site easier than the Vanos procedure that i need to do on my E36 M3 Evo, which is a complete unit off jobbie.

I do agree though that its likely only a matter of time before Z owners start seeing the same sort of problems the guys with M3's are, including the dreaded head gasket which seems to be rather highly reported these day on cutters.

Who know's maybe i will be lucky and it was just a blip with some dirt on a sensor or something similar. At least that's what im hoping anyway.

I look forward to a detailed write up from you though on your change/uprgade :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Cheers for the heads up with the head gasket! Wasn't aware of that problem tbh, I guess most of ours are low mileage enough not to worry so far, I might get James at Redish to do a compression test the same time as the VANOS work then just for piece of mind!

Bloody VANOS is a pain in the arse tbh, great when it's working as it should, not the most reliable bit of engineering though it would appear. Funnily enough the VANOS on my old E36 M3 Evo was goosed, £800 later and a trip from Mr.Vanos fixed it up, the wallet was not happy for the rest of the month though :x
 
I suggest everyone does a Vanos Slush fund... I am going to start paying £25 a month into an account... When My Vanos needs doing the money will be there and waiting! :driving:
 
ITAG said:
I suggest everyone does a Vanos Slush fund... I am going to start paying £25 a month into an account... When My Vanos needs doing the money will be there and waiting! :driving:
Click to expand...

i have the complete vanos system brand spanking new for when the time arrives, also same for the rod bearings :| :| :| :|
 
Don't see the point in a new Vanos from BMW, will have the same parts in that will fail again...Better to upgrade your existing unit with uprated parts.
 
So this happened again this morning, but this time the EML came on. It definitely feels vanos related as power was definitely down and most certainly there is no vanos kick. It seemed to sort itself out once the car was warmer so as a short term i am thinking a change of oil grade could help until i can get it in for an overhaul.

Will report back soon with findings on the diagnostics and any changes i make.
 
It is and i will speak to the garage i got it from, but knowing what garages are like no doubt there will be some small print somewhere that gets them out of jail. Either way its only a few hundred quid to sort so whether i pay or they pay its not too big a deal.
 
Is going back to dealer on Thursday (soonest i can get it there) for diagnostics.

Looks like im back to the track car for the next few days in case its anything worse than expected.
 
Have you tried disconnecting the maf & going for a drive? If power has returned then that's your issue.
Regards
 
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