ssmirnoff
12-02-2013, 04:18 PM
Hi guys, I finally decide to ask the community for help.
I've been struggling with my problem for over a year now, but it's getting worse with the cold weather.
Car: 2003 e39 530i manual 120,000 miles
So the problem: misfire cylinder 3 with cylinder cutout
INPA code: 240 burning fail Cylinder 3
DIS code: DME - F0 DME: Misfire, cylinder 3 - Combustion miss with cylinder cutout (P1347 or P0303) - Combustion miss during warm-up...
When the engine is cold, it is shaking and misfiring. If I keep rpm over 1000 it's running better and smoother, then when left idling. When it's fully warmed, the engine runs not 100% smooth but at least 70-80%. It's still shaking a little, but runs like 20 times better when started cold. If I start it in cold in leave it idle, within about a minute I would get SES light and the car would shake very badly, and cylinder #3 would become turned off until restarting. If I start the car in cold and start driving within 15 seconds, the engine would warm up, and no light would be displayed and no error thrown, and as said earlier - no misfire when fully warmed.
I've tried to diagnose the problem myself and with mechanics and no success so far :(
- Checked intake rubber pipes - all look OK.
- Checked DISA - looks and works good.
- Check idle valve - looks good and clean
- Crankcase ventilation valve seems to function and all pipes look OK
- Changed valve cover gasket (just too take a look inside)
- Swapped spark plugs - the error stays the same in cylinder #3
- Swapped coils - the error stays the same in cylinder #3
- Swapped injectors - the error stays the same in cylinder #3
- Compression test - 180 on all cylinders on cold engine
- No blue/white smoke on cold start
Also to note: sometimes after not running for a couple of days I have a lifter noise on start for 10 seconds. At one period of time, in summer, it would not dissapear, and mechanics told me that some lifters would need to be changed. I did engine oil flush 2 times and it went away, reappearing randomly only on first cold start for a couple of seconds. I later switched from Castrol 5w40 to Mobil 1 0w40 and the car started to burn oil after high rpm (>5000) driving, and injectors look dirtier with carbon deposits on them.
Two weeks ago, I gave up, and brought the car to a local BMW specialist, who was checking the car for a couple of days. The smoke test found that there was a huge leak under intake where the CCV is located, so they replaced it with all new pipes, and now there is no more leak. The car still shakes and misfiring, BUT now it's not cutting out the cylinder #3 for some reason. There is no more SES light on the dashboard but the car (engine) still shakes until warmed to normal temperature. The whole 'diagnosis' with CCV replacement, cost me a big amount of money, only to hear that they cannot find the problem anywhere.
They tested every single electrical wire running to coils and to injectors, and all are good.
They switched my computer with another one from same engine and no difference.
Leak-down test was also good.
Swapped MAF sensor - also no difference.
In the end the mechanic told me that they've tested everything without opening the engine, and everything just looks perfect/good, and they don't know what is the problem. There is a little possibility that this may be a bad VANOS, and the only way to see is to change it for another one, but I'm not very convinced that this might be the problem.
I'm writing all this here to get an advice what is my best next step to fix this problem.
Is there any other test that can be done to find the problem ?
Is it worth to open the engine and repair the problem or is it better to just put a used engine.
I've been struggling with my problem for over a year now, but it's getting worse with the cold weather.
Car: 2003 e39 530i manual 120,000 miles
So the problem: misfire cylinder 3 with cylinder cutout
INPA code: 240 burning fail Cylinder 3
DIS code: DME - F0 DME: Misfire, cylinder 3 - Combustion miss with cylinder cutout (P1347 or P0303) - Combustion miss during warm-up...
When the engine is cold, it is shaking and misfiring. If I keep rpm over 1000 it's running better and smoother, then when left idling. When it's fully warmed, the engine runs not 100% smooth but at least 70-80%. It's still shaking a little, but runs like 20 times better when started cold. If I start it in cold in leave it idle, within about a minute I would get SES light and the car would shake very badly, and cylinder #3 would become turned off until restarting. If I start the car in cold and start driving within 15 seconds, the engine would warm up, and no light would be displayed and no error thrown, and as said earlier - no misfire when fully warmed.
I've tried to diagnose the problem myself and with mechanics and no success so far :(
- Checked intake rubber pipes - all look OK.
- Checked DISA - looks and works good.
- Check idle valve - looks good and clean
- Crankcase ventilation valve seems to function and all pipes look OK
- Changed valve cover gasket (just too take a look inside)
- Swapped spark plugs - the error stays the same in cylinder #3
- Swapped coils - the error stays the same in cylinder #3
- Swapped injectors - the error stays the same in cylinder #3
- Compression test - 180 on all cylinders on cold engine
- No blue/white smoke on cold start
Also to note: sometimes after not running for a couple of days I have a lifter noise on start for 10 seconds. At one period of time, in summer, it would not dissapear, and mechanics told me that some lifters would need to be changed. I did engine oil flush 2 times and it went away, reappearing randomly only on first cold start for a couple of seconds. I later switched from Castrol 5w40 to Mobil 1 0w40 and the car started to burn oil after high rpm (>5000) driving, and injectors look dirtier with carbon deposits on them.
Two weeks ago, I gave up, and brought the car to a local BMW specialist, who was checking the car for a couple of days. The smoke test found that there was a huge leak under intake where the CCV is located, so they replaced it with all new pipes, and now there is no more leak. The car still shakes and misfiring, BUT now it's not cutting out the cylinder #3 for some reason. There is no more SES light on the dashboard but the car (engine) still shakes until warmed to normal temperature. The whole 'diagnosis' with CCV replacement, cost me a big amount of money, only to hear that they cannot find the problem anywhere.
They tested every single electrical wire running to coils and to injectors, and all are good.
They switched my computer with another one from same engine and no difference.
Leak-down test was also good.
Swapped MAF sensor - also no difference.
In the end the mechanic told me that they've tested everything without opening the engine, and everything just looks perfect/good, and they don't know what is the problem. There is a little possibility that this may be a bad VANOS, and the only way to see is to change it for another one, but I'm not very convinced that this might be the problem.
I'm writing all this here to get an advice what is my best next step to fix this problem.
Is there any other test that can be done to find the problem ?
Is it worth to open the engine and repair the problem or is it better to just put a used engine.