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Thread: 05 330i ZHP High RPM Misfire Issue

  1. #1
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    05 330i ZHP High RPM Misfire Issue

    Hey all,
    I have been having an issue with my ZHP where under load, around 5k RPM, it will misfire, and go into limp home mode. So far I have seen misfires in cylinder 4, 5, and 6, either at different times, or at the same time. I recently had to take a road trip in this car, and cruising on the highway was not an issue, but accelerating for passing, or going up hills would cause another misfire and I would lose all power, sometimes not being able to make it up hills. After the misfire, it will idle rough, almost stalling, but when I turn it off and on again, it idles fine. I also recently had the intake smoke tested to look for vacuum leaks, and replaced the hoses that were leaking. I also just replaced the fuel filter which helped, but did not solve the problem completely. Since replacing the fuel filter, I haven't seen any lean codes, but these were coming up before, specifically bank 2 system too lean. After driving it around and trying WOT, I noticed that power is not what it used to be, and if I go over around 4-5k RPM, it will misfire, so far only in cylinder 6 after replacing the fuel filter.

    I did some research on what the causes could be, and most of the problems I found were parts that I have already replaced. Oxygen sensors are relatively new, same with spark plugs, and I haven't found any ignition issues. New intake boots, I plan on changing the ccv soon. I wanted to see if you guys had any ideas on what the problem could be. I attached the freeze frame data and code data from INPA, but its all in german, so let me know if you need it translated.

    I've read that clogged catalytic converters can also cause this problem, but since I live in california, I'm really trying to avoid paying $1000 per cat to replace them. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks!
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Attached Files Attached Files

  2. #2
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    If you suspect the cats - take the precat sensors out of the manifolds and go for a drive.

    you’ve not had any cat efficiency codes?

    those trims on that screenshot look crazy too.
    '95 325iS - auto to manual swap done!

  3. #3
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    Adding 23% fuel to bank 1, subtracting 25% from bank 2? Hmmmm. It would be good to see the long term fuel trims (multiplicative).
    Do these misfires happen under WideOpenThrottle? (This is important, because the O2 sensors don't decide mixture under WOT)
    You might want to replace the pre-cat O2 sensors; they are maintenance items at ~100k miles.

    I would recommend :
    Fuel pressure test, while the car is being driven, the gauge clipped under the windshield wiper.
    Either swap coils 4,5,6 with 1,2,3, or just buy a new set of coils. Also make sure that the coil ground wires are connected. Plugs should be NGK BKR6 EQUP.

    Backpressure test the exhaust, using a pressure/vacuum gauge hooked to a fitting screwed into the pre-cat O2 sensor ports. When revving to ~4000 rpm, backpressure should not exceed 2 psi.

    Send your injectors out to RC Injection for rebuilding, ultrasonic cleaning, blueprinting, and before-and-after testing. They're in California, cost is only $25 per injector, best bargain in the automotive world. They do one day turnaround, if, of course, they are even open during the Covid crisis.
    Last edited by bmwdirtracer; 04-02-2020 at 01:23 PM.

    Chris Powell
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    Master Auto Tech, owner of German Motors of Aberdeen
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  4. #4
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    Thanks for your replies. In the past I have gotten p0420 and p0430 codes. I haven’t seen them in a while, but when I first bought the car, those were the codes I had. However I have driven plenty of highway miles to see if this code came back but I haven’t seen them in the last year. Also, I have no idea why those fuel trims are so crazy, I’ve been chasing that issue for a while now. I’ve replaced the precat and postcat o2 sensors in the last 5k miles with Bosch oem ones. Another thing i should mention is that the o2 sensor voltages on the precat sensors read 1v-1.5v which causes me a huge headache. I’ve done my fair share of research on why this is happening, and I couldn’t find anything that would make this happen. The postcat o2 sensor voltages also fluctuate between 0.1v-0.9v which must mean that the cats are basically not doing anything. However, the precat o2 sensors seem to remain stable around 1v and the highest I’ve seen is 1.5v. This isn’t something I’ve seen on any car before. Also the bank 2 precat o2 sensor voltage seems to stay slightly higher than the bank 1 side. I don’t know if any of this helps, but I’ll read the long term fuel trims and see what they’re saying.

    It’ll misfire at pretty much any throttle position, not just WOT, but usually it’s under harder acceleration or more load.. I drove the car back from Portland to California, and going uphill on the highway in 5th caused a misfire when I applied more throttle to get up the hill. I’ve done this drive a number of times in this car, and I’ve never had an issue maintaining speed going up hills until now. During this time, the RPMs were around 2800 and it still caused a misfire. I checked fuel pressure, and it was reading 50 psi with some variance but seemed consistent with a functional fuel pump.

    I’ll see what I can do about the exhaust back pressure test and see if I’m getting excess pressure in the exhaust. I’m thinking that the most likely culprit is clogged and bad cats which is unfortunate because that’ll be the most expensive solution.

    I’ll also swap the coils although I have a hard time believing that the coils on cylinder 4, 5, and 6 all went at the same time, but if Ive learned anything about BMW, it’s that anything is possible. I’ll post the long term fuel trims when I get the chance.

    it also idles smoothly and I can drive around town without any issues when it’s warm. I drove it around the other day and when I was leaving my neighborhood, it misfired when it was still fairly cold. Once it warmed up though, the problem seemed to happen under more load or heavier acceleration. Hope this information helped!
    Last edited by weytakeninja; 04-05-2020 at 05:16 PM.

  5. #5
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    Here's the full fuel trim data from my drive earlier.IMG_6509.PNG

  6. #6
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    That engine coolant temperature is way low. It should be about 100*C. Did you get these data during a short drive?

  7. #7
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    Yes it was a short drive just to test the coils. I swapped the coils and I wanted to see if the problem followed, but I still got misfires in cylinder 4 and 5, so coils are ruled out. I plan on taking a look at the spark plugs and seeing what condition they're in. I had new spark plugs put in the car about 12k miles ago when I first bought the car, so they shouldn't have failed already, but I'll take a look either way.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by shadowpuck View Post
    If you suspect the cats - take the precat sensors out of the manifolds and go for a drive.
    or, do a backpressure test....
    '95 325iS - auto to manual swap done!

  9. #9
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    I had an E46 M3 once that one bank was running super lean, and the other bank super rich. Turns out the previous owner had installed headers, and then taken them off before he sold the car. He installed the pre-cat o2 sensors in the wrong manifold. So the DME thought bank 1 was bank 2 and vice versa. I fixed the car by swapping the pins at the DME. It was easier than removing and swapping the sensors. And it proved me right at the time.

    Probably not your issue unless your manifolds or sensors have been taken off and messed with, but I saw that one bank was rich and one was lean. Made me think of that story and how I fixed that car.
    ASE and BMW Master Certified Technician

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by White94RX View Post
    I had an E46 M3 once that one bank was running super lean, and the other bank super rich. Turns out the previous owner had installed headers, and then taken them off before he sold the car. He installed the pre-cat o2 sensors in the wrong manifold. So the DME thought bank 1 was bank 2 and vice versa. I fixed the car by swapping the pins at the DME. It was easier than removing and swapping the sensors. And it proved me right at the time.

    Probably not your issue unless your manifolds or sensors have been taken off and messed with, but I saw that one bank was rich and one was lean. Made me think of that story and how I fixed that car.
    this kept popping up in my head too as i had this happen on a friend's car once....if i'm remembering correctly, we did not get a code for suspected incorrect bank or whatever that code is supposed to be when this happens.....
    '95 325iS - auto to manual swap done!

  11. #11
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    So new code guys, drove the car around after putting in new spark plugs for cylinder 4, 5 and 6. Felt good at low RPM and drove it around town, 35-40 mph and showed no signs of misfire. I also unplugged the halo lights for the headlights I had installed because maybe they were drawing current somehow. When I had a shop replace the vanos unit in the car, they told me that the wire was tapped into the "Power wire for the vanos system" which I found very hard to believe because it was plugged into the red wire with yellow stripes which according to the wiring diagram should be the accessory power. Either way, I unplugged this to see if there was any difference.

    After driving around for a second, I floored it in 2nd to see if it still misfired at high rpm. Felt good up until about 5k-6k where I heard a noise (kinda like a shuddering sound) and my dash lit up with warning lights. Service engine light, EML, traction and the orange brake light. Throttle did nothing, and revs bounced at around 1100 RPM +- 200 RPM, and the brake servo felt like it wasn't working. This hasn't happened before, so I pulled over shut the car off and restarted, I'm assuming it went into safe mode/limp mode. Started fine, and all the lights turned off again like it never happened. Drove it home, plugged it into INPA and read the codes.

    I got the same P0300, P0306, P0305, and P0304, but I also had a new code which was P16A7. Looked up what it was, and it says "control unit self test, hot film air mass meter (HFM) monitoring F_LZ:40" Looked up what causes the code, and it looks like a faulty MAF. I monitored the MAF readings, and they are normal at idle, and seem to be normal while driving. People with the same codes ended up having clogged cats, and after replacement, the problem went away. Unfortunately, its looking like clogged cats are the problem, but I wanted to know what you guys think. Let me know if you need more information. I forgot to grab the freeze frame data so I'll do that and upload when I get the chance. Probably a good idea to do a exhaust backpressure test to see if bank 2 cat is clogged.
    Last edited by weytakeninja; 04-08-2020 at 11:24 PM.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by shadowpuck View Post
    If you suspect the cats - take the precat sensors out of the manifolds and go for a drive.
    or do a back pressure test.
    Last edited by shadowpuck; 04-08-2020 at 11:27 PM.
    '95 325iS - auto to manual swap done!

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by shadowpuck View Post
    or do a back pressure test.
    gonna look into that tomorrow

  14. #14
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    So this past week I spent the time removing the intake, changing the ccv and a bunch of vacuum lines that looked old and deteriorated into my hands, and got everything back together. Started it up and all seemed good, then I realized I had forgotten to put the vacuum cap on the ccv before I put it on so I painstakingly wiggled it on to success. I drove it around the other day and it definitely felt like it was running better, however when I got on the throttle I noticed that the lower end power was not super responsive until around 2500-3000 rpm where it felt like it had good power. Then when I got up to around 5k in second, there was a misfire and a noticeable loss of power. I checked the codes and all that was there was a cylinder 6 misfire. No more lean codes. I haven’t been able to check the fuel trims yet, but I hooked up the fuel pressure gauge and was getting about 45 psi without the engine on, and 49 psi while running. After turning the car off, I was watching the fuel pressure to see if it maintained pressure, and slowly dropped to about 46 psi and stayed there for about 10 minutes. I’m thinking that the fuel pump is doing okay, and I cleaned out everything in the intake while it was off, found the vacuum equalizer was full of milky oil, so I cleaned it out and put it back in. Cleaned the fuel injectors, replaced the manifold gaskets and ccv as mentioned above. I’ve been waiting for my back pressure tester to arrive so that I can finally decide it the cats are clogged, but so far I’ve only gotten cylinder 6 misfire and nothing else. I’m wondering if there could be any other possibilities for a misfire in cylinder 6 and this lagging of power down low and a lack up power up high. I had the vanos replaced by a shop not too long ago so I don’t think this could have failed already. I remember I installed a non oem camshaft position sensor and I’m wondering if this could affect it. If you guys have any ideas I’m all ears.

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