new to bmw. need diagnostic help

[Dusterbd]

i apologize for the picture quality, but this was the best I can do. these codes were just pulled with bmw scanner 1.4.0 (my first use of the software, so theres no guarantee I didn't screw it up). car is a 1999 528i touring, automatic. stock as far as I can tell, 173k on the odometer.

what should I start looking for? all 4 o2 sensors are new, the previous owner stated he rebuilt the ccv and cleaned the MAF and TB, fresh gas and plugs, and no vacuum leaks found at this time. car runs great after code clear, light for 02 sensor comes back almost immediately. always bank 2. misfires come after about 8-10 miles. then it keeps missing until codes are clear. I had been using a generic obd2 scanner until tonight.
20180802_181908 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

[Dusterbd]

29FfYfh]29FfYfh[/COLOR]]20180802_190109 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
[/COLOR]cleared codes. switched connectors between banks. 4 mile drive. cel back on almost instantly (200 yards and 5 minutes or so), but drove reasonably well. didnt detect the misfires i was getting previously. however, the code didnt follow the sensor near as i can tell.
would you agree?and can i check harness voltage at the connector? i know it would work on a GM, but this is european. additionally, TIS doesnt have a legend of what letters correlate to what colors on the wiring harness, at least that i can find. anyone have easier wiring diagrams for these?

[osc911]

You can access wiring diagrams online if you search for BMW WDS. I think you have a vacuum leak and/or DISA valve problem. Having just been though a similar process on the same engine I would suggest using a smoke machine to completely sort all leaks. I removed the MAF and used this inlet to smoke it out. Are your sensors genuine parts?

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[Dusterbd]

I doubt the new sensors jim put in are bmw. My bet is bosch from orielleys.

Im almost positive that theres a vacuum leak as well, however i didn't think it would cause 02 codes.

Is there a test for the disa valve?

[geargrinder]

DusterBuster, your 2nd pic is not showing up for me so I don't know what that says...

Basically in the first pic you have all those codes as yellow which should mean "registered but not currently present".

Stuff like the MAF code or O2 codes will set if you ever run the engine once w/ those components disconnected (or sometimes even if the car just has a voltage-sag event i.e. low battery etc.), and then sit there until cleared.

So if they are in yellow... the drill for sure is - as you are doing - to clear and drive again and see what shows back up. If they are in red, when then those are immediately currently active and it is a 'hard error' all the time.

"Shadow codes" are old codes that were cleared but the DME 'remembers' them for a while until so much time goes by without it being thrown again. That's apparently to track codes that keep coming back and so there's some record of a code even if its been cleared. Eventually they should go away but you can't make them go away with the clear button. You can look at shadow codes to see what had been happening (helpful in a car-purchase situation where a guy might be clearing codes to reset the SES/CEL and make it look fine but really there's still a problem...) but otherwise don't focus too much on those, its the current and active codes that are important.

Yeah. WDS-planet.org is way way better than the TIS pages but requires some hoop jumps to get working.

Here's a recent post where I assplain what you need to do to use WDS...:
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...5#post30072125

Even once you get the browser working there can be a bit of a learning curve but its a tremendous resource for these cars. The color coding is in German abbreviations (RT = Rot = red, WS = Weisse = White, SW = Schwartz = black, etc. etc.) , you get used to them after a while (hey I now know almost all my German colors!). Because English is like greatly German derived a ton of them are the same you'd expect from English, or at least the German names are close enough (aka RS = Rose(Pink), BL = Blau(Blue) )

But WDS-Planet includes legend pages you can check on, I guess TIS doesn't...
http://www.bmw-planet.net/diagrams/r...ew/symbols.htm

There's some learning curve for WDS but the quick and dirty tips are:
- Use the main sections for the big diagrams and to get component identifiers, like "A6000 = DME". Then go down and explore the "Component" listings to find that component, where there will be more info - sometimes other wiring diagrams, but often also the pin-outs and often some text page with explanatory info, AND actual photo pictures of where stuff is inside the car. That is huge and many guys miss that whole bit, just focusing on the wiring schematics themselves.
- Realize when there's an "X" connector shown, that's often a splice and if it shows another line going off somewhere you might want to / need to chase that splice down (in Components) to see what else is connected there.
- Learn how to recognize signal names - look for signal names like "15" and "30" and "31" for various power, switched power, ground signals.
- A plug-connector will be shown as dotted lines across multiple wires, with numbers indicating the pins. You should be able to x-ref this to a pin-out page if there is one available.
- Sometimes a high level diagram, like for a DME, might not show all the details w/ pin numbers and wire colors. Usually that means that detail is available someplace else in a more detailed diagram. Sometimes there are what seem to be duplicate diagrams of the same stuff just slightly different. Hopefully / mostly they all match up.

On rare occasions there are errors. Not often, esp for the later model years, but sometimes. If you find something that's clearly not exactly right, look at other model variants, they might have gotten some variant thing wrong (i.e. maybe what's listed as the MS42 version of the diagram isn't exactly right but whats in the car matches whats listed for the ME7.2 diagram...)

I should probably make all the above into a separate thread...

[Dusterbd]

20180802_190109 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

the second picture that I somehow messed up.

and THANK YOU for the thorough explanation! that is immensely helpful. it should be its own thread and a sticky for guys likje me.

[osc911]

I doubt the new sensors jim put in are bmw. My bet is bosch from orielleys.

Im almost positive that theres a vacuum leak as well, however i didn't think it would cause 02 codes.

Is there a test for the disa valve?

Great explaination there by the other poster, all top info.

You can test the disa activation using inpa. If you remove the disa you can rotate the flap and there is a little hole on the side you cover with your finger which creates a vacuum and keeps the flap open, until you remove your finger. I don't think this is your problem. That orange o ring seal is likely to be weak and causing a vac leak.

The only way to test this properly is a smoke machine.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Np_duzsaZxI

A vac leak will generally cause a lean mix which will be detected by the O2s and the ECU will try and adjust out but won't be able to owing to the addition unmetered air.

The large rubber intake boot is another common area for a leak.

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[Dusterbd]

Well, i found one leak last night. Theres a line that appears to be for an evap solenoid at the front of the engine. Has a rubber hose that runs parallel to the engine up against the block. About a 3/8 hose.
This hose was spliced be someone in the past. Poorly. So it came apart.

I cant reach it, however. So the intake is coming off. Time to inspect EVERYTHING

[geargrinder]

Good deal. Yeah who knows what you'll find. Always good to give a new car the intake once over if you're getting mixture / trim type codes.
Control limit reached for sure could be vac leaks but its less-often just on one bank like you are seeing... soo.....

Those errors about the Bank 1 O2's are legit. You need to sort out if they are plugged in correctly, and then beyond that, if they are OK or not.

IF the banks are swapped you get mixture codes like that as the DME tries to keep pushing the trims on the 'bad side' and not seeing any result, eventually it maxes out the control and decides something is wrong w/ the O2 because its not changing....

If the front/rear are swapped (hard to do on these cars, the wires should be in the right place and length etc., and the plugs are different, but I've heard of determined knuckleheads pulling it off somehow!), then its less severe codes and symptoms.

Obviously once you confirm wiring position then you can move to swapping the actual O2's between Bank 1 / 2 to see if one is bad. As I said the F/R plugs are different so you can only swap across banks not front/rear... (which is why a front/rear swap requires some determined stupidity to pull the wires into really the wrong spots! But it still happens!)

Looking at WDS... I suspect its not exactly correct. Seems likely that all but the heater supply wire should be striped to indicate the position.
It'd be very not-BMW to not be structured and consistent in how the color codes work...
Below, non-italics is what the diagrams show, but italics are my guess as to what it really probably should be...

Pre-cat Bank 1 - Green, Black, Yellow, Brown
Pre-cat Bank 2 - Green, Black (w/ Red?), Yellow w/ Red, Brown w/ Red

Post-cat Bank 1 - Green, Black w/ Blue, Yellow w/ Blue, Brown w/ Blue
Post-cat Bank 2 - Green, Black (w/ White?), Yellow (w/ White?) , Brown w/ White

Also - with another scanner (PASoft won't do this... INPA would w/ a cable, but also a generic OBD reader should of course...) read the fuel trims. Are BOTH banks super high trims? Or only one? If only one, then its somewhat more likely its a sensor thing, if both are way out but only Bank 1 has gone far enough to trip the error, then sure look for the vac leaks harder.

[Dusterbd]

so, im back to getting my ass kicked by this car. I believe vacuum leaks are solved now, as i went ahead and replaced every o ring, gasket, hose, and vaccum line i could find. pulled the whole intake off, etc. really did a thourough job of it. 200 miles worth of test drive gave me the resulting codes, again pulled via the obd2 port with bmw scanner 1.4
check engine light is kicked on almost instantly when car is put in drive, but not while idling.

20180818_171357 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

it seems as though ive solved the misfires, both by feel and by codes. car does not seem as strong down low now, though.
im unable to see live data with any of the diagnostic tools at my disposal (torque and Bluetooth dongle or bmw scanner 1.4) though it may be due to ineptitude on the bmw software. don't know.

but looking at the codes, it seems that the only "hard errors" are oxygen sensor related, right? which would mean that that's the only "real" problem the DME is seeing?

do these cars prefer a certain brand or type of sensor, and jim was given the wrong stuff? or are the oxygen sensor codes indicative of something else?

[osc911]

For these sensors, always OEM

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[Dusterbd]

ok, who is that? bosh, NGK, denso......

[JimLev]

ok, who is that? bosh, NGK, denso......

Bosch O2 sensors. Don't buy the universal sensors or the ones with no connectors on them.
Sometimes you can find them on Amazon for maybe 1/2 price.

[Dusterbd]

Ok, bosch is what was used.