Z4 Service Engine Light

[Steiner]

Hey,

I took the Zed on a short impulse road trip last night, with the top down in the midnight sun. Pretty awesome, but a big downer was when I had to drive "off-road" for a short while. In other words, I had to drive on a classic country road (which wasn't all that bad) but I didn't exceed 5 km/h and the total driving distance on that road was about 1 km. After I hit the main road again I notice that my service engine light had ignited.

I'm not sure how worried or cautious I should've been here. I took a good look at the engine bay, hoping to spot something that went amiss on that short span of road I had to drive. Everything seemed fine, but I'm far from an expert. Is it okay to drive the car? Should I be expecting something major? The manual says that I should have it looked at by professionals as soon as possible, which I intend to do tomorrow morning.

Thanks!

 

[Lillywhite]

I would suggest it's your 'emissions light'.

 

[TINO]

Mass air flow pipe has a split, very easy to do and cheap. dont go off road it is not ment for it (TRACK IT).

 

[Adamski]

I had the mass air flow pipe split on route home from buying my zed. Think the part is c.£60 - shouldnt be too expensive to fix

 

[Steiner]

Mass airflow pipe! Is that the pipe that comes out of the air filter box?

I know that off-roading isn't ... recommended on a car like this, but in this case it couldn't be avoided.

The engine runs fine though, it's very stable and the fuel consumption seems to be fine. I had been driving with the top down and the heater blowing at near full power for quite a while and as such it became a bit fuel thirsty.

But all in all, is the car safe to drive?

 

[bcworkz]

Heh, "don't go off road". Hard to avoid entirely in Iceland! Could be a split, could be a lot of things.

Steiner, if it's running OK, it's OK to drive, it's just polluting more than normal. Get the trouble codes pulled and see what they have to say. If it's just one code with one occurrence, you may get away with clearing the code and it'll not return. Just keep a record of what it was and when for future reference. I've had this happen a few times and none have yet to return.

If it's more serious, the codes will point the direction to start looking for problems.

 

[Steiner]

Awesome, thanks for all the help guys. I'll stop by at the garage tomorrow and have them pull the code and see if anything is off.

 

[Steiner]

Well, found the culprit!



Seems like this was torn before I just before bought the car. I've already ordered a replacement, but I'm hoping to do some sort of a temporary fix before that one arrives. The part was ~7.200 kr (35 GBP / 55 USD) from the dealer, which came as a surprise to me. Buying it online would've set the final price at 13.500 kr (66 GBP / 103 USD), and this is the same dealer that wanted to sell me a hardtop for 1.900.000 kr (9300 GBP / 14550 USD) :lol: .

The garage reset the code for me and cleared out the air-bag light at the same time.

This is where the hose is located:



Thanks again for the help.

 

[Rikesh Parmar]

Guys

Need some helpful advise and guidence. I drove over a pot hole which scared me as I thought I took the front bumper off but no body damage. However, soon after the yellow Engine Light came on. Car felt fine still gunning at 80 mph with no lagg or misfire and still achieving 48 - 51 MPG. Light went off by itself after 100 miles of driving, but later came back on the following day. Called RAC recovery and he switched it off using laptop and said P1100 code found.....? what does this mean?

Did another round trip of 200 miles and light off but then came back on. Car runs fine no fuel issues and runs smoothly apart from the Engine symbol in the dash.

Can someone advise and help with what it could be.

Also can someone advise on a good fault code reader for BMW Z4 for around £35.00

Thanks in advance

Rik

 

[markeg]

Rik - if you know the code, check it against this list. I don't see a P1100 code there though? For fault readers, lots of guys use OBD readers from ebay (see here)

 

[Bing]

Can't help with the fault code reader Rik, but have you checked the pipe in the pics above ? Seems to be the most common problem related to this light coming on.

 

[Bing]

Steiner - £9,300 for a hard top ??? you could get a whole Z in great nick for that over here...

 

[Rikesh Parmar]

Thanks, but in your opinion is it okay to drive with the yellow eng light on. I'm no mechanic but know when a car feels bad to drive or not and mine feels okay. Do you think I'm damaging something each time I drive her?

 

[GaryH]

When my yellow light cam eon BMW said its an advisory light, its ok to drive the car but get it resolved as soon as poss. If it turns red, then its not ok to drive the car. I had to drive over 100 miles home in mine with the yellow light on and it was no problem. Obviously dont rag it though.

 

[SimonAW]

Hi all,

First post here and I have just had the same thing happen to my wives Z4, popped to Badbury Rings near where we live for a drive and split the same pipe pictured above. I have to say I am so relieved to find this forum and post as I was a bit stressed that I had broken her new car!

Can anyone let me know the part number or better still a link to it on a good supplier? Would this be a job an owner could do? I'm no mechanic, but I am knowledgeable enough to replace my own discs and pad etc...

Thanks in advance

 

[SimonAW]

Just as an update, I did forget to write that the engine is a 2.2 and it is an 2005 E85. I am looking at the realoem site, but I cannot seem to find it still!