New E86 Purchase & Q's

W

Weathersbubble

Member
Hi all,

Bought me a silver E86 in Jan having lurked here for a while. Been enjoying the car for a month, especially the London -> Birmingham drive on that snowy Sunday last week.

It's replaced my Triumph Herald as the 'practical' daily driver, & after getting used to it I've found there's an intermittent DTC fault.

Jobs for the list are going to be possibly replacing some minor worn trim & looking after the bolsters on those sweet red leather seats. The car lived in the Algarve for a while so it's not sat wet & that's always a good thing, and with only 66K on the clock I'm planning on leaving it pretty standard. It's had a minor service since my purchase (oil, filters, etc), but is there anything you guys think should be done now?

Appears to be a (very) intermittent TC issue where there's a beep & the traction control cuts out. Dealer is going to pay to have the pump refurbed, but I'm not getting the warning lights you'd expect, despite the infamous 5DF0 and 5DF1 codes (plus the DSC light doesn't flash when TC intervenes). Had a few codes and the indy garage thought they could be down to a flat battery? I've attached the printout below. I'd like to check to see if the codes have returned since they were cleared, what OBD readers do you guys use, is it worth looking at Carly?

I also wonder if you have a local garage you trust in (SW) Birmingham, I'm out of town here & would like to avoid the cowboys?

Just nice to have a car that starts every time!

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Hi and welcome to E86 ownership from a serial Coupe owner.

It must feel very different to drive after your Triumhph Herald! Anyway it looks like you have found a good one.

You might have read about the electric water pumps on these engines dying. My first one needed a new pump at 60K miles but my 2nd seemed to be on the original one when I sold it on 91K, so it's hard to predict. If it does die the engine overheats in less than a mile, so it's a recovery job. Which is why some people replace the pump as a preventative measure, but as new ones cost around £250 it's not a cheap job.

Low batteries can cause randon electrical issues - maybe your car sat for a while at the dealer. There should be a date stamped on the negative battery terminal so that might be a good starting point.

Quite a few people use Carly, but the annual charge they introduced has put some off. I bought a C110+ scanner for £40 based on what I read on here, but haven't needed to use it so cannot comment on how effective it is!

If nobody recommends any garages here is a link to BMW specialists from another website that may be useful:- https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=72&t=796191
 
5DF0 and 5DF1 codes almost always point to the ABS pump without exception. I would place a small wager that the next time you get the warning lights on, tapping the and pump with a wooden mallet will fix it temporarily. If so, it’s a couple of hundred quid to have it fixed somewhere like ecutesting.com with lifetime warranty. It’s a very common failure.
 
Cheers guys, water pump might move to top of the ToDo list.
I was looking at those C110 or C130 scanners so I might make the jump and buy one now.

Look forward to making it to a meet once the world stops chucking out pandemic shaped fault codes...
 
Another vote for the C110 unit to diagnose these cars.
And welcome to the forum/coupe life :thumbsup:
 
Congratulations.

Look no further than Noel at NCB AUTOKRAFT.

Utter brilliant and tell him Anil sent you. :thumbsup:
 
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