Occasional Loss of Power at Highway Speeds

[Mikekugel]

(See pic) A device like this can help to monitor overall car voltage. Sagging voltage can cause weird gremlins.

13.6V to 14.5+ is what you'll want to see.

Attachment 623302

I have that device as well, dang cars without Volt meters huh. Just don't trust those little lights, as some cars have computer controlled alternators, and they shut down at traffic lights,,,gas savings. They will go red, and you will think there is a problem. You can test it by turning on a hvac blower, as when the computer detects a load, it will energize the alternator. Otherwise, great device.

[JDP530]

I had a few minutes today to check resistance on a few parts that Shogun had outlined earlier in the thread. As I have mentioned above, engine starts easily and runs very well except for the occasional low/off throttle response where it feels like its going into LHM, but as soon as I get back on throttle it accelerates just fine.

Battery voltage at terminal block under hood with engine off was 12.45 v.

CIS #6 was .3 ohm
CIS 12 was 1.9, considerably higher than oem spec

CPS cyl 1-6 509 ohms
CPS cyl 7-12 543 ohms

Right coil primary was .6 ohms at terminals 1/15
Right coil secondary at terminals 15/4 was 10 kohm

Left coil primary was .6 ohms
left coil secondary was 10 kohm

I will replace the donut on wire #12 and see if that makes any improvement.

[JDP530]

I too had this problem. I noticed that you refurbed your DK's all the way down to the gears. There is a very good chance that your wiper arms are not reinstalled exactly equal. If they are clocked differently the DME's will get conflicting signals, and this may be what is causing your issues. In my case, after pulling the DK's off, and upon inspection under better lighting, and using a small metal ruler I could see about a 60 thousands difference compared to the peg. Once I got the wiper arms as equal as I could see with my old eyes I sprayed CRC electronic cleaner on the variable resistor plate, and the brushes etc. reassembled, and reinstalled. I took the car out, and did three runs up to 5k rpm, coasted down, and parked, let it idle for five minutes, and everything was fixed, yay! Bye the way, I have been running NGK BKR6EK plugs and the newer Bosch coils for over three years with no issues. My car runs like an ape,,love it. Good luck..

Mikekugel, I am wondering now if I may have a DK fault similar to what you found wrong. I did the run up to 5k rpm in first gear twice (is three necessary), but I did not realize that I need to let it idle for 5 min if that is the correct procedure. And, when I tore down the DKs I made the mistake of bending one of the wipers and used a pair of tweezers to straighten it out so maybe its out of calibration.

[Mikekugel]

Mikekugel, I am wondering now if I may have a DK fault similar to what you found wrong. I did the run up to 5k rpm in first gear twice (is three necessary), but I did not realize that I need to let it idle for 5 min if that is the correct procedure. And, when I tore down the DKs I made the mistake of bending one of the wipers and used a pair of tweezers to straighten it out so maybe its out of calibration.

I have done the synchronization a few times when I was playing around with DME chips. My understanding has always to do 3 runs up to 5,000 rpm, coasting down each time to 5-10 mph, then after the third run up, pull over, and let the car idle for about 5 minutes.
The wiper arms in the DK's need to be clocked the same as you look down at them. I used a small metal ruler, and a bright light and eyeballed them using the pin of the body for reference. You can use a small torx screwdriver to clock / move the arms, as are just a push fit. I used 2 small blade screw drivers to pull the arm up and off their shafts, and then just pushed them back on with my fingers, and then again with the torx screwdriver. It also helps to pay attention to the wear on the resistor plate when you are initially setting the clock of the wiper arms. If this doesn't work, a possibility is that the resistor plate has worn out tracks. I have heard that it is possible to slightly bend each of the small wiper arms so that the run on a different part of the resistor. I have never tried it. My suspicion is that your problem is in the DK's, and the clocking, it doesn't take much to cause grief.

[JDP530]

I have done the synchronization a few times when I was playing around with DME chips. My understanding has always to do 3 runs up to 5,000 rpm, coasting down each time to 5-10 mph, then after the third run up, pull over, and let the car idle for about 5 minutes.
The wiper arms in the DK's need to be clocked the same as you look down at them. I used a small metal ruler, and a bright light and eyeballed them using the pin of the body for reference. You can use a small torx screwdriver to clock / move the arms, as are just a push fit. I used 2 small blade screw drivers to pull the arm up and off their shafts, and then just pushed them back on with my fingers, and then again with the torx screwdriver. It also helps to pay attention to the wear on the resistor plate when you are initially setting the clock of the wiper arms. If this doesn't work, a possibility is that the resistor plate has worn out tracks. I have heard that it is possible to slightly bend each of the small wiper arms so that the run on a different part of the resistor. I have never tried it. My suspicion is that your problem is in the DK's, and the clocking, it doesn't take much to cause grief.

Mikekugel, do you have any photos of the wiper arms you are referring to? I bent one of these wiper arms in the photo on one of the DKs in my car. I am not sure if you are referring to the same wiper arms or something else. Thanks,

IMG_20171128_195704422.jpg

[Mikekugel]

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[Mikekugel]

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I'm hoping that these photos can help, I'm not all that familiar with uploading.

[JDP530]

Well, I think I found the problem with the intermittent loss of power I have experienced since putting the car on the road a month or so ago. I had a chance to drive up to the lake today where I put all the old parts that I removed and replaced. I brought back the two spark plug wires with sensors and had a little time this evening to install one temporarily on cyl 12 because that CIS was showing a higher resistance, varying from 1.5 ohm to as high as 2.5 which seems odd since its a passive sensor.

Thank you Shogun for posting up the specs for the primary and secondary ignition components. Specs made it easy for me to check and evaluate the parts.

So I drove the car across town on expressway this evening and I did not experience any loss of power at partial or low throttle position. The old wire I used appeared to be in good condition and it is a BMW part. Resistance at terminals 1 and 2 was .3 ohms. So I am really happy car is running so well now. I will get it out again tomorrow and check to be sure its right.

I did call Kingsborne who makes the wire set that Turner sells. They were very gracious and offered to send one wire with sensor. I did offer to pay for it since I wasn't sure the sensor was faulty. They only charged me $12 plus $4 shipping and it should arrive in a couple of days. I will need to remove the complete set on left bank and install either the old BMW wire ore new replacement into the harness since I only have the spare wire hanging by zip ties.

Will be interesting to see if the ignition error code is eliminated once I can clear the code.

[dragon850]

Very easy, you have a common problem. Code 16 is a cylinder position sensor, it is the sensor that is attached to the ignition wires 6 and 12. You either have bad ignition wire that does not have pulse or CPS is bad.

Just what I said it was 2 weeks ago

[JDP530]

I've got to make a revision. I'm in my car now and it's gone into a permanent trans failsafe mode! Back to the garage for more evaluations.

Car ran great last night and again this morning until I was several miles into my drive when it went into trans fail safe mode.

[JDP530]

I stopped to get a bite to eat. Tried doing the stomp test with no luck. Went back to car after lunch and it's back to running normal again. Drove home and figured out what I was doing wrong with the stomp test. I was actually stompping the pedal too fast.

So I'm getting fault codes 1247 and 2247. Going to drive it and see if it goes back into trans failsafe mode again. I'm wondering if the heat might have anything to do with it after it warms up?

[JDP530]

Another update! So I just spent 1 1/2 hours driving the car around and it never did go back in trans failsafe mode!