Yellow Engine Warning Light / Cam Position Sensor

[Felix79]

While I was out last night in my "M" with dad, I let him drive on the way home from the store and while he was caning the living snot out of it, the dreaded engine warning light came on.

I admit, I was seething at how he was red lining , but just before I was to tell him to calm down the engine warning light came on in yellow. With my old man's E46 M3, he had the same thing happen to him before and usually it was an O2 sensor. We had thought the dealer might have used RON 95 when he put some petrol in the car when I collected it.

He asked me to come over in the afternoon and they could read the fault and clear any error codes. It's come up with a "Cam position sensor" fault. He cleared it and tried starting the car up again (it was not wanting to restart easily) and the engine warning light came on again and the same error code was logged. He cleared it again for me and then we got my car booked in next Tuesday morning, as he is replacing the sensor for me on the warranty.

I drove back home to Oxford and the warning light has stayed off, but the car still struggles to start right away when it's hot. Leave it a few mins and it fires right up again.

 

[ph001]

Does sound like that's the problem, fairly rare failure on the M's but certainly not unheard of. Can't really see how him caning it would be responsible though so maybe just coincidence. I think as long as all the fluids were up to temp the S54 actually benefits from a good old Italian tune up every now and again - it's certainly designed for it.

 

[Felix79]

Does sound like that's the problem, fairly rare failure on the M's but certainly not unheard of. Can't really see how him caning it would be responsible though so maybe just coincidence. I think as long as all the fluids were up to temp the S54 actually benefits from a good old Italian tune up every now and again - it's certainly designed for it.

Admittedly, just before we left Tesco's it didn't want to start up first time, which was the first time we had noticed it. I think I was more upset about him taking it up past seven grand because I've not had the confidence to push it remotely, as I last drove a RWD car 7 years ago and I'm paranoid about binning it, when I've had it less than a week. I think it was more of a case of lucky timing, as it's happening now when I have a warranty on the car.


Dad seems to be finding many, many, many reasons for me to let him use it lol! It was good to see him enjoy himself behind the wheel again. Even when he had his M3, he was rarely able to have any fun driving it, as he always had my mum with him!


I know we are both looking forward to the start of the "show" season next year, as it's always a father 'n' son activity. We even went to local car meets in both our cars and a lot of my car buddies really enjoyed sharing their cars with him, as he adores cars and is so enthusiastic.


At first, we both thought it was an O2 sensor, as we've seen it happen on his M3 before and after reading, a common enough failure with the S54 (I think).

 

[Felix79]

Got my car back today and it's running much better. I really felt the car come alive when I pushed it and I'm glad it's made a difference. It may be in my head, but I do think it's picking up better and now I feel confident in pushing the car more.