New E86, few niggles

C

CoupeJ

Member
Hey,

I've copy and pasted this from the original post just to give context, with a little extra at the end:

Bit of a heartbreaking day really. Travelled best part of 7 hours by train to collect, saw her and she's gorgeous, sounds sweet as a nut, pulls well etc.

Driving home and the EML comes up with error P0012, told the seller and he's being decent and sorting the money out. Assuming it's a VANOS solenoid? Reckons it had one previously due to an EML so maybe a cheap one was thrown in?

Other than that, the drivers heated seat illuminates all 3 lights but no heat, any ideas?

And the oil service light just came up, but it was serviced quite literally two days ago with the invoice and stamp to back it up.

Anyone know their way around these in Hull or the local area? More than happy to come across for your experience to have a look and reward with many beer tokens!

I'm hoping the oil service will be fine once I do the reset shortly, but I'm a bit concerned about the Vanos system. She ran home very well, kept at around 30-75 depending on the cameras and she gave me 39mpg so she's running well. Only very occasional flutter at idle, but she shifts fine, I'm leaving a board under her now to see if she drops any oil but going through the history and invoices she's got an immense history and whatever she needed was done, so hopefully it's just good/bad timing and I can spend a few hundred quid on the solenoids and fix it, but any hints on this or aa surefire method to tell rather than spunking 140 quid on them and still being in the same boat?

Thanks in advance,

A furious, yet very smitten new e86 owner!
 
bigwinn said:
I'm down in Lincoln and happy to help
Click to expand...

Thanks man! Just a question though, would running the car 60 odd miles with this fault be fine? I know it's impossible to say without knowing what's wrong but just wondering if it's fine as long as you're not hooning it?

Also, side question but just done an oil check and it's asking for 1L. Could this be related to the solenoid fault? I wouldn't want to run it with a litre more than needed, it literally only just had a service and maybe 400 miles since so doubt it needs it. Had a MDF board under it since it got home so a few hours and not a drop anywhere, and no obvious leaks I could see with a torch so hopefully faulty something.

Less than a day into ownership and I'm already learning the quirks 😂
 
CoupeJ said:
bigwinn said:
I'm down in Lincoln and happy to help
Click to expand...

Thanks man! Just a question though, would running the car 60 odd miles with this fault be fine? I know it's impossible to say without knowing what's wrong but just wondering if it's fine as long as you're not hooning it?

Also, side question but just done an oil check and it's asking for 1L. Could this be related to the solenoid fault? I wouldn't want to run it with a litre more than needed, it literally only just had a service and maybe 400 miles since so doubt it needs it. Had a MDF board under it since it got home so a few hours and not a drop anywhere, and no obvious leaks I could see with a torch so hopefully faulty something.

Less than a day into ownership and I'm already learning the quirks 😂
Click to expand...

I wouldn’t want to tell you something that then causes you £ or worse

If it were me I’d be putting oil in it but that’s my personal view, but would be questioning what actually happened at the recent service?!?
 
I'd suspect they only put a 5l can of oil back in it when they re-filled at the service. The 3.0si takes about 6.5 litres. It takes a while for the engine to work out the oil level, which probably happened on your motorway drive.

The heated seat problem may be due to a faulty centre switch unit or a faulty thermistor. I bet Stuart Bigwinn has spares of both of these. The switch unit would be the quickest to swap and try.
 
I'd forget about the heated seat and sort the rest out for now.

It's not as if you will be needing the seat working for a few months yet. Gives you time to focus on the bigger issues.

Can you not check the oil levels manually on the face lift or is it by the computer only?
 
SonnyA85 said:
I'd forget about the heated seat and sort the rest out for now.

It's not as if you will be needing the seat working for a few months yet. Gives you time to focus on the bigger issues.

Can you not check the oil levels manually on the face lift or is it by the computer only?
Click to expand...

It's the electronic one only, which I've checked and it's requesting the litre. I've ordered some proper solenoids, bought the pair because I want to sort it properly and will replace them once they arrive. Coming in from Germany so may take a week or two but worth it. Seem easy enough to do having scanned the guides. I'll sort the DISA out too, but she's my third car so she isn't moving unless she HAS to. As bigwinn mentioned, it might not be worth it if it creates more issues than it fixes driving it so I'm quite lucky in that regard.

Whilst I'm waiting for it to arrive, I think I'll disconnect the battery, undo the seat and see if any connections are dodgy. At least it'll be one off the list haha.

Such a shame, you could tell the seller was gutted too and he did ensure it was driven properly and took it for a very solid drive so he wasn't trying to shift it quickly, and he pointed it out to me at the time but it's typically so far away and on a Sunday. Got a reader arriving tomorrow that's a little more expensive so hoping it points me in the right direction, I just daren't overfill if it's giving a dodgy reading for no reason.
 
Pretty big design flaw if no way to check manually as the cars get older and sensors begin to act funny.

Overfilling will cause all the seals to burst and potentially cause parts to be damaged so your right not to want to overfill.

What you could do is drain the oil and measure it then put it back in.

Last time I did an oil fill on mine I used Castrol engine shampoo and it took an additional 2 litres over the last time it was done. So it also depends if there is sludge left in it or not how much they actually take but at least you could get a ball park figure of what's in it from measuring what comes out and putting it back in.
 
I guess the only real way to know is to drain the oil out and put a measured 6.5 litres back in, then see what it says.
Cost you about £40 but better than running the risk.
 
SonnyA85 said:
What you could do is drain the oil and measure it then put it back in.

Last time I did an oil fill on mine I used Castrol engine shampoo
Click to expand...

Waa thinking the same thing. Only way to be sure of the quantity.

Sorry, I have to ask, do you use conditioner as well and when it's done do you have to drive around in that slow motion bouncy action like all the adverts? :D
 
So I've taken it to bits and checked the DISA, are the N52s a rubber gasket or has this one already been sorted? Looks perfect to me and in the right position with no play so that's good.

The light was reset and went out for a drive, started her up and the idle was shocking, all over and very different to how it was when I bought it. I did specifically ask him to leave it cold which I can only assume he did as it wasn't hot, but the day was about 30 degrees so there was some heat in the bay.

However the only light on now is the emmissions, so hoping the higher quality scanner made for bmws gives mme another code which I can search for, but my bet is going to be solenoids, or poor quality spark plugs were used. I'm assuming spanking VANOS solenoids would fix the poor idle, the erratic power delivery and hopefully the emmissions light?

Side point, checked under the seats where its clearly had a vac and looks like a plug is undone. Once I've got some free time I'll whack the battery off and have a good look at it, but as you both say for now the main focus is the engine!

Any other insight is appreciated!
 
enuff_zed said:
SonnyA85 said:
What you could do is drain the oil and measure it then put it back in.

Last time I did an oil fill on mine I used Castrol engine shampoo
Click to expand...

Waa thinking the same thing. Only way to be sure of the quantity.

Sorry, I have to ask, do you use conditioner as well and when it's done do you have to drive around in that slow motion bouncy action like all the adverts? :D
Click to expand...

Conditioner gets used regularly for the battery :thumbsup:
 
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