Naniepoo,
You possess vatic reserves of patience and insight. Indeed the plug wells are probably filled up with oil and need to be checked.
From what I can see, this poster is too inexperienced and also cannot follow simple instructions. That's why I gave up and why others gave up on me 8 years ago about my regulator issue. All that I asked him to do can be done within 1 hour by someone doing it for the first time. I gave him very detailed instructions that someone without a multimeter can do. Then post results here and we interpret it - that's the way it has to work because we can't do the physical tests ourselves. Nothing is wasted effort because thorough testing helps us conclusively rule things out, and to perhaps identify a second issue that is at play as well which is quite possible in old cars. The op also gets practice in some general diagnostic techniques that will be very useful another day.
I must disagree though. A very bad guibo can cause idle and throttling up problems. Or it will seem that way. I agree that bad idle due to bad guibo is not common. However, considering that the way to check that out will take like 15 minutes with a phone, I would rule that out.
Ed great that you did all that research. My point earlier was that if you disconnect the bad sensor the engine's problems will more or less vanish. The ecu reverts to internal default values. Then you just replace that sensor. And of course for sensors you absolutely must buy oem or from someone like meyle with a very reliable track record. They hardly get spoilt, and and are too important to stinge on. Oem vs ebay for sensors how much are you saving its like $20-$40 not a big enough difference to consider. In fact in some cases like the maf I would personally rather buy good used original compared to new chinabay.
Thanks for that detailed response. Here's what I have so far:
Disconnected camshaft sensor, cranked fine, didn't start. Plugged the camshaft sensor back in, dc'd the crankshaft sensor, again, car cranked but wouldn't start. So where does this leave me? I have the car booked in with the workshop on Tuesday, until then, I'll struggle getting the crankshaft sensor reconnected as it's too far back under the manifold to reach with just the airbox out (don't have 36mm socket for the oil filter housing). I'll take the other vanity plastic off and check out the coil packs today.
Update: Took off coil packs, most of them are split at the ends and some of them, bits of the rubber boot have fell off and stayed in the chamber, while this is an issue, is it my CURRENT issue. This wouldn't cause sudden loss of power would it? No. But how much of a big deal is this. Other than that, no oil or anything.
Last edited by CaptainsLog; 02-02-2019 at 10:26 AM.
Coil boots unlikely to be the issue here as the spring inside the coil delivering the charge to the plug sits about halfway into the boot i.e. half or 1/3 of a boot sticks out after the spring. You can temporarily reinforce the bottom of the boots with electrical tape. But as Naniepoo says, they are real cheap you need to buy a new set even if it has nothing to do with this issue.
Sudden loss of power can be so many things. If only you did all the work suggested methodically, it would help us narrow down the possibilities. Anyway, tomorrow your workshop is going to take a look right ? ok.
The thing I'm noticing most is if I rev the car to above 2k the idle gets really rough and it almost stalls.
No one can help you if you do not do every single recommended test and present the findings here for interpretation. Piecemeal messages are going to be ignored because they reflect a lack of willpower and that is the antithesis of the BMW ideology.
All the tests involved will not take more than 2 hours and $10 even if you are inexperienced and doing any of it for the first time. If you are not willing to do that, then please come back after your workshop has fixed the issue and post your solution to close out your thread.
Update: Mechanic has take a look and so far has determined the misfire and rough idle and bad revs to be from loose spark plugs (no idea how that can happen, maybe not torqued properly when previous owner had them done lat April?). There's also a leaking valve cover gasket dripping onto the exhaust causing some smoking and burning issues (trust that to pop up at the same time. Coincidence?) not located the power issue yet as he needs OBD1 connector, coming tomorrow, will update.
Checking the plugs and coils would have been the next on the list of things to do after the initial round of checks because it is almost unheard of for plugs to be loose so nobody checks that first. Ask your mechanic to jack up the car and eyeball the guibo. It will take him 10 minutes in and out.
Oh cat has also collapsed into exhaust, so still could be that causing power loss I guess.
Yo Captain, pull out your spark plugs and take a nice picture of each one and post them here, tip/ ceramic body included. Yes your boots being damaged is a huge issue. Do you realise how many volts are passing through them? that voltage doesn't care about rubber insulation especially if its broken. I had the same issue for a while but was lazy to change them until i did.. Oil from valve cover is a huge issue also, our engines spark tubes remain fairly clean but the spark plug threads will tell you how much oil goes past them on the daily. The reason I said post pics of the ceramic body, is because in my case the ceramic spark plug body had micro fissures where you could see lightning bolt patterns scoring the ceramic, thats spark loss through the ceramic into the engine head.
Also be afraid your mechanic will over tighten your spark plugs if he says they were 'loose'... actually damaged and he just said loose, as they have this neat little feature called crush anti-vibration washers which don't allow that to ever happen even if they were hand tight... maybe find an old bmw technician -.-
After a quick valve cover gasket job and spark plugs, she runs mint. Its probably the cheapest option to go, and you should be doing it regardless for your milage...
Last edited by Fix.a.ZX; 02-15-2019 at 03:15 PM.
Also be afraid your mechanic will over tighten your spark plugs if he says they were 'loose'... actually damaged and he just said loose, as they have this neat little feature called crush anti-vibration washers which don't allow that to ever happen even if they were hand tight... maybe find an old bmw technician -.-
OP. you need to check what he said about that. Ask your mechanic exactly what he meant by loose. Listen to the explanation. Ask him directly if the threads are damaged. Listen to the answer without interruption. Then ask if crush anti vibration washers are needed. Listen to the answer without interruption. Then decide. fyi those washers are very cheap just a couple of bucks for a set and installation is requires zero expertise.
Our plugs, and every plug I've seen already have built in washers, you can see in this picture right in front of my thumb. Yeah that plug was also overtightened by PO that I'm holding and you can see the metal at the tip, I chased the plug hole with a special tap and it worked out fine..but yeah be careful of overtightened plugs.
Sent from my CAT S61
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