Help! Before the missus kills me!!!

[bmchuckleyou]

Hey guys,

So, I just finished replacing the CCV in my wife's 528iT. Looking at the membrane, at first I couldn't even see a hole, but then I found the tiniest little hole ever. Couldn't believe something so small could cause so much of an issue with idling and acceleration.

Anyway, after completing that job, the 528iT was running great; very smooth.

UNTIL....

Missus calls me today, says the car is acting strange and; just as she said that, the engine started to shut off on her. While on the phone, she tries to start the engine, which turns over and fires up for a few seconds before dying.

I rush out to go see if I can get the car back up and running.

Again, first couple of times I tried to start the car, it would run for a few seconds then die. After that, it would just not turn over at all, only cranks.

I scanned the car with 1.36 and got the following codes:

202 Lambda Regulation Bank 1 Post Cat
203 Lambda Regulation Bank 2 Post cat
24 Fuel Injector Cyl 4

My best guess is that a leaky injector in Cyl 4 caused the engine to flood, but I'd be really happy to hear any other suggestions so I can fix this thing before i get !!

Oh, battery is brand new and alternator is fine.

Thanks guys

[Poolman]

Clear the codes and see if the car will crank. Might just be a fluke. The work you did on the ccv shouldn't cause an injector to flood out.

[Trainwreck914]

Are you sure the connections you made on the ccv at good. Could be one of the hoses popped off causing massive vacuum leak. I'd retrace my steps

[geargrinder]

If there's a correlation I'd suggest it's a vac leak maybe from something that popped off from the work? Thatd explain the mixture errors on both banks.

[Poolman]

What year 528 is this car? If it has single vanos, the ccv isn't hooked directly to the intake manifold and hooked into the air intake after the maf.

[StephenVA]

Clear codes and then Check the main air intake and see if the little boots and hoses are still attached as they are hard to connect. If you have a major air leak the MAF sees zero flow.

[bmchuckleyou]

Trainwreck + Stephen,

You guys might be on to something.

I took a closer look and it looks like the top vent hose popped off the connection to the CCV. Seems like the clips weren't catching onto the CCV for some reason, which allowed it to work its way off.

Unfortunately, while I was trying to push the hose onto the CCV the hose snapped in a couple places. I tried taping the hose up with a fair amount of duct tape and got the end to fit snug to the CCV (still not perfect, clips seem unable to "snap" on), but the car will still not start.

Is it possible the plugs were fouled by fuel because the lack of air due to the vacuum leak?

Thanks guys.

[geargrinder]

Yep. Toleyooso.

Is it possible the plugs were fouled by fuel because the lack of air due to the vacuum leak?

Possible but more likely your adaptation trims got all forked up from running w/ the vac leak. Most likely the leak started small then 'opened up' over time until it was so bad you had the no start.

Try resetting adaptations (clearing codes should do that). I've seen that happen any number of times w/ cars w/ vac leaks (no start from adaptations going off the charts).

[Poolman]

That top hose on the CCV, it hooks to the ccv and then the distribution unit. That hose needs to be set at a 90 degree angle then turn into the ccv to be locked in. The hose isn't just set in place then pushed on. I do this quickly by removing the power steering resiviour and the purge valve , which allows my hands in under the intake to reach everything.

[bmchuckleyou]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Would having the hose taped up right now suffice until I can pick up a new one?

I'll try clearing codes and starting her up again tomorrow.

Thanks again.

[StephenVA]

Maybe, depends on your tape job.

At this point, may I suggest taking a walk through all the work you did, checking all (ALL) the connections, hoses to the intake, and the bellows (AIR TUBE) and make sure everything is connected, that the electrical connectors are in the right positions and attached, and the MAF is in the right direction.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ixed!!!-w-Pics!!!

[Poolman]

Too add, you should take a look at a couple of DIY vids on doing this job, might give you more insight, too something you missed.

[bmchuckleyou]

Hi guys,

So after rechecking the CCV work, changing spark plugs and adding new fuel, it seems it may be an unrelated issue.

Looking around the car, I noticed the carpet on the front passenger side (Left side for us in Aus) was wet. I peeled the carpet back a little and noticed that under the carpet and foam, there was a large puddle of water sitting in the tray. I pumped out about a litre of water and I've put some towels in there to soak up whatever they can. Unfortunately, it's going to be raining all week, according to the weatherman. Pain in the A, since its been pouring down for the last few weeks.

[thepeaklevel1]

Check the brake booster area, sometimes debre gets in there and clogs the drains

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[geargrinder]

DOH. Unfortunately a common occurrence. Usually on the right side of the car causes the most electrical havoc though...

- - - Updated - - -

And the other likely candidates for water on these cars are the sunroof drains (soft tube comes off the tray up under the headliner and can pull off or otherwise not be connected fully) and the 'vapor barrier' inside the door ie. the plastic sheet glued to the inside of it to keep water out.

[bmchuckleyou]

DOH. Unfortunately a common occurrence. Usually on the right side of the car causes the most electrical havoc though...

- - - Updated - - -

And the other likely candidates for water on these cars are the sunroof drains (soft tube comes off the tray up under the headliner and can pull off or otherwise not be connected fully) and the 'vapor barrier' inside the door ie. the plastic sheet glued to the inside of it to keep water out.

My car is RHD. Not sure if wiring is reversed from LHD to RHD.

I do worry though, as I would think the no start problem would have happened when it was raining. The car died after a period of a few sunny days. Plus, the car was starting after the car stalled, but it would just die when the accelerator was pressed. To me, that points more to the ccv hose having come off, or an unidentified fuel issue.

[thepeaklevel1]

Thats what would happen with the muscle cars, you'd hit the gas n it the revs would ramp up a bit n then stall, but it was a million times easier to fix-adjust the carb, or have it rebuilt, change the pcv valve n your good to go.

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[StephenVA]

Thats what would happen with the muscle cars, you'd hit the gas n it the revs would ramp up a bit n then stall, but it was a million times easier to fix-adjust the carb, or have it rebuilt, change the pcv valve n your good to go.

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These "issues"were from accelerator pumps, metering jets, and power valves going bad. Nowadays there are a host of sensors and actuators that do all that and stay in adjustment more than 5K. The real challenge on repairs is the mind change required at the tech level from symptom to diagnostics to repair procedures. Much more thought is required as you cannot just "richen it up a bit" to mask other issues. (Cause/symptom = part failure). It really is the old TEST don't Guess process magnified times 50.

[bmchuckleyou]

I just thought I might add there is another weird symptom.

When the car initially stalled, it indicated that there was just under the first notch on the fuel level indicator. However, after cranking the car a few times the level dropped slowly, then the fuel light came on and then the level indicated went way below empty. I added about 1.5 Gallons and the level went back up to one notch.

[geargrinder]

These cars have 2 fuel sensors. The dash reading is a 'slow buffered' average of the 2 and there's a 'siphon pump' hose and dingus that works to suck the gas from the drivers side half over to the passengers side half. When that gets screwed up you can have funny things, as there could be an amount of fuel in the drivers side of the tank that's not making it over to the (passengers) side w/ the pump. The dash gauge will read the average of "some" and "none" and show "gee there should be some gas there" but no fuel is available.

Not saying that's your problem, but some of the weird level issues can be attributed to the slow buffering and the averaging taking effect over time.

[bmchuckleyou]

Hey guys,

In case anyone needs this information in the future:

It turns out the fuel pump died. New pump installed (PITA) and it took a bit of cranking but it started running.

For anyone who intends to replace their fuel pumps, I would recommend buying the whole pump assembly, rather than just getting a pump and trying to install it into the old assembly.

The only issue I have now is that the car started to overheat after idling for a while, but I think that might have been the fact that I might have introduced some air into the system while attempting to identify the problem last week. Will bleed the system and see how it goes. Wish me luck!

[geargrinder]

To explain the weird gauge stuff, the cross pump works on a siphon principle, and indeed if the actual pump was dying it might not be delivering enough pressure to pull the fuel over and causing weird issues and imbalance in the tanks.

[bmchuckleyou]

So, after fixing the cooling issue (just needed bleeding), the car was running great...

UNTIL...

Car die this morning and won't start again. this is driving me nuts.

New pump is a Pieburg.

I'm going to try changing the fuel filter, otherwise i'm thinking injectors?

There is a strong fuel smell coming from the car still.

[bmchuckleyou]

After wasting a whole bunch of time today replacing the fuel filter, the car still would not start.

Just before I was about to give up on the car, I put in a can of fuel. After several attempts to start the car and lots of cranking, the car fired up, so I was able to drive it home.

I am at a loss to explain whether the car was out of fuel. The gauge was reading at nearly one notch and the trip computer was indicating about 40 miles range (the trip computer was calculating about 12mpg).

I opened the cluster and ran test 6, which read 108000. It looks like there is either no fuel in the right tank or it is not reading the tank level correctly. Any ideas??? Not sure if this ties in to why the car died.

I know that usually, if you run out of gas, the car will "hiccup" a few times before it shuts down, but all I got before the car died was a reluctance to accelerate and then the engine shut off (which is what also happened to my wife the first time it happened).

[geargrinder]

Unfortunately I could have told you the filter was a waste of time - compared to old school cars, those filters are huge and almost never significantly clog - there's scads of 200k mile cars running around on the originals. Even if one was to get somehow massively impaired, it wouldn't be a no-start unless somebody poured, I dunno, epoxy resin into your gas tank or something. But at least you have peace of mind of a nice new filter.

I think you aren't paying enough attention to what I've been saying about the two tank halves all along - although checking the gauge secret function was indeed a great idea - well done there.

Pretty clear you have some problem with the cross-siphon. Your old fuel pump is likely to be totally fine (if I were you I'd hang onto it as a spare...)

If you're lucky, its just the cross-feed connection on the main pump side, so you can re-check your connections there. If not lucky, then its over on the other side and you have to open both sides of the gas tank to get it all checked out.

For the interim, the advice would be - JUST STOP DRIVING AROUND LOW ON GAS. As long as the tank is > 1/4 full or so it'll slosh between the 2 sides without the pump. If you want to test the theory, run down low through that point until it dies and try another iteration of - run out of gas / check cluster secret readings / put in a few gallons and see if it starts. Prob good idea to carry a small can of fuel in the trunk.

Oh, and yeah indeed - modern cars aren't like old carb'd cars - pretty much running out of gas happens with very little hiccup sputtering. You run out, car dies, and thats more or less it. Maybe you'll get one sputter start out of it but not much more. The fuel pickups are pretty effective/efficient and the injector systems have no buffer like a carb float bowl so when it goes dry, suddenly injector rail pressure is gone and its completely over.