Advise on E39

I need some advise on my e39 525i touring. Yesterday I started the car and drove to work as usual and it was fine then in the traffic it felt like the car was surging slightly every time just after it changes gears and when I stop it idles smooth for a few seconds then it intermittently gives a slight shudder as if it wants to move forward.
My first thought is that the auto box is packing up which is a costly repair.

This morning I started the car just to test again I let the car idle a bit first and I noticed the idle was smooth but as the temp gauge moved over the blue line the idle started to sound a little rough and when I raise the revs up it starts missing. Now I am wondering if is not maybe a sensor that is failing and not my auto box. There is no warning lights on the dash and unfortunately I do not have a scanner to get error codes.



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RAArmstrong

///Member
Honestly dude, take it and have the codes read and then take it from there. Its going to be better than speculating
 

bobbychoo

Member
when last did you have the car serviced?
what is the current mileage?

this is internet guessing, but it could be a engine coil acting up.Have you tried wiggling all the cables in the engine bay to make sure nothing has come loose.
 
bobbychoo said:
when last did you have the car serviced?
what is the current mileage?

this is internet guessing, but it could be a engine coil acting up.Have you tried wiggling all the cables in the engine bay to make sure nothing has come loose.

service was done a month ago I have done 2000km since the service
it has 288k on the clock. I will check all the cables later. if it is a coil pack wont the engine light come on?
 

bobbychoo

Member
Hi not always, i had a similar issue on a e46 and it was a coil issue, no error lights on the dash, thats why i am suggesting it.

Ok so looking at the Km's and you did a service already.
- has the fuel filter been changed, particles in the fuel line?

have you seen this?

guy has a e39 with what sounds like your issue, his issue was resolved by changing a coil.
 

anton-sa

Active member
m54b25 or m54b30.. can give the symptom you describe when the
"camshaft position sensor... cps sensor" gives issues.

these are known to fail between 100 000km and 200 000km

if you have the codes read this will also show up
 
anton-sa said:
m54b25 or m54b30.. can give the symptom you describe when the
"camshaft position sensor... cps sensor" gives issues.

these are known to fail between 100 000km and 200 000km

if you have the codes read this will also show up

I have just had the codes read and it shows P0369 camshaft position sensor "b" circuit intermittent bank1.
 

husaindindar

///Member
anton-sa said:
m54b25 or m54b30.. can give the symptom you describe when the
"camshaft position sensor... cps sensor" gives issues.

these are known to fail between 100 000km and 200 000km

if you have the codes read this will also show up

I have just had the codes read and it shows P0369 camshaft position sensor "b" circuit intermittent bank1.

In that case, check your exhaust cam sensor and exhaust vanos
 
husaindindar said:
anton-sa said:
m54b25 or m54b30.. can give the symptom you describe when the
"camshaft position sensor... cps sensor" gives issues.

these are known to fail between 100 000km and 200 000km

if you have the codes read this will also show up

I have just had the codes read and it shows P0369 camshaft position sensor "b" circuit intermittent bank1.

In that case, check your exhaust cam sensor and exhaust vanos
I have replaced the cam position sensor and all was good until I put the car in drive and pulled off the engine started to miss again and shows fault code P1349 and P1343. If I switch the car off the miss goes away and revs smooth all the way to the red line. When I tried driving again the miss was back but now it showed fault code P1345.
Can anyone give some advise what my next move should be?

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Peter@AEW

BMWFanatics Advertiser
Official Advertiser
P1342,P1343,P1344,P1345,P1346,P1347,P1348,P1349

All of the above are misfire codes with the coils shorting to ground
Likely that you have suspect coils.

Change 1 and 2 and see what else comes up
 

anton-sa

Active member
stupid thing. but changing plugs is a bit of a pain in the ass on these cars and if you look close you may just find that the plugs are seriously old... can also be that someone attempted to change the plugs but didnt put the coils back properly.
 
The fault only seems to occur when the engine is under load (driving) it was first by cylinder 1&4 after reset it was by no2. I swapped coil pack 2 with 3 , 1with 6 and 4 with 5 to see if the faults will move.
After resetting there was no codes with car in park went for a test drive in manual mode started off fine under slow acceleration as soon as I try to accelerate more the misfire starts again and the car has no power.
Fault moves between either 1, 2 or 4
If I recycle the ignition misfire goes away and starts again as soon as its under load.
I don't believe there is a fault with the coil pack since I swapped them around and yet the fault did not move to 3, 5 or 6. Spark plugs have only done around 2000km.
Could a vacuum leak cause this error as the error is jumping between multiple cylinders and not just by one?


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The fault only seems to occur when the engine is under load (driving) it was first by cylinder 1&4 after reset it was by no2. I swapped coil pack 2 with 3 , 1with 6 and 4 with 5 to see if the faults will move.
After resetting there was no codes with car in park went for a test drive in manual mode started off fine under slow acceleration as soon as I try to accelerate more the misfire starts again and the car has no power.
Fault moves between either 1, 2 or 4
If I recycle the ignition misfire goes away and starts again as soon as its under load.
I don't believe there is a fault with the coil pack since I swapped them around and yet the fault did not move to 3, 5 or 6. Spark plugs have only done around 2000km.
Could a vacuum leak cause this error as the error is jumping between multiple cylinders and not just by one?


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To update I took the car to a mechanic in Bothasig to check codes on his laptop. There was no fault codes since I reset them.
I noticed that when I drove from table view the car was misfiring quite badly at first but improved the more I drove, to a point that it felt normal by the time I got to Bothasig.
After the mechanic checked everything we tried to go for a test drive then the misfire was back again, he suggested that it is due to fuel starvation causing the misfire especially at lower revs and smoother at high revs.
I have replaced the fuel filter as he suggested yet it is still misfiring.
I will take the car to have the fuel pressure tested to see if my pump is faulty or not.
I need to get this sorted as this is my daily driver, if anyone can assist with advise on how to sort this out I will be extremely grateful.

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anton-sa

Active member
The fault only seems to occur when the engine is under load (driving) it was first by cylinder 1&4 after reset it was by no2. I swapped coil pack 2 with 3 , 1with 6 and 4 with 5 to see if the faults will move.
After resetting there was no codes with car in park went for a test drive in manual mode started off fine under slow acceleration as soon as I try to accelerate more the misfire starts again and the car has no power.
Fault moves between either 1, 2 or 4
If I recycle the ignition misfire goes away and starts again as soon as its under load.
I don't believe there is a fault with the coil pack since I swapped them around and yet the fault did not move to 3, 5 or 6. Spark plugs have only done around 2000km.
Could a vacuum leak cause this error as the error is jumping between multiple cylinders and not just by one?


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To update I took the car to a mechanic in Bothasig to check codes on his laptop. There was no fault codes since I reset them.
I noticed that when I drove from table view the car was misfiring quite badly at first but improved the more I drove, to a point that it felt normal by the time I got to Bothasig.
After the mechanic checked everything we tried to go for a test drive then the misfire was back again, he suggested that it is due to fuel starvation causing the misfire especially at lower revs and smoother at high revs.
I have replaced the fuel filter as he suggested yet it is still misfiring.
I will take the car to have the fuel pressure tested to see if my pump is faulty or not.
I need to get this sorted as this is my daily driver, if anyone can assist with advise on how to sort this out I will be extremely grateful.

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some bmw's have 2 fuel pumps. one is in-tank,, called a lift-pump.. if the in-tank pump fails the symptoms can be like you describe, however, you can check, fill the tank with fuel. if the symptom improves or goes away... then you are in the right area of diagnosis...
 
anton-sa said:
The fault only seems to occur when the engine is under load (driving) it was first by cylinder 1&4 after reset it was by no2. I swapped coil pack 2 with 3 , 1with 6 and 4 with 5 to see if the faults will move.
After resetting there was no codes with car in park went for a test drive in manual mode started off fine under slow acceleration as soon as I try to accelerate more the misfire starts again and the car has no power.
Fault moves between either 1, 2 or 4
If I recycle the ignition misfire goes away and starts again as soon as its under load.
I don't believe there is a fault with the coil pack since I swapped them around and yet the fault did not move to 3, 5 or 6. Spark plugs have only done around 2000km.
Could a vacuum leak cause this error as the error is jumping between multiple cylinders and not just by one?


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To update I took the car to a mechanic in Bothasig to check codes on his laptop. There was no fault codes since I reset them.
I noticed that when I drove from table view the car was misfiring quite badly at first but improved the more I drove, to a point that it felt normal by the time I got to Bothasig.
After the mechanic checked everything we tried to go for a test drive then the misfire was back again, he suggested that it is due to fuel starvation causing the misfire especially at lower revs and smoother at high revs.
I have replaced the fuel filter as he suggested yet it is still misfiring.
I will take the car to have the fuel pressure tested to see if my pump is faulty or not.
I need to get this sorted as this is my daily driver, if anyone can assist with advise on how to sort this out I will be extremely grateful.

Sent from my SWITCH using Tapatalk

some bmw's have 2 fuel pumps. one is in-tank,, called a lift-pump.. if the in-tank pump fails the symptoms can be like you describe, however, you can check, fill the tank with fuel. if the symptom improves or goes away... then you are in the right area of diagnosis...

i will check if mine has 2 pumps. I have replaced all the sparkplugs last night and the car is running smooth again no misfire even under load although I see at low revs it has a slight hesitation up to around 2000rpm then it accelerates normal. I must still do a fuel pressure test
 
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