Another boost leak thread

[freakazoid]

Any place in Cape Town that will be able to do a boost leak/smoke test and/or do proper diagnostics?

I am losing boost erratically in addition to a P2096 - Post Catalyst Fuel Trim System Too Lean Bank 1 error. My car was in last week Friday and I was told that my cat is blocked hence the P2096 error, and the turbo needs replacing. Codes were cleared and I had boost again.

Tonight I drove over a very bumpy road and I lost boost again. When this happens my revs shot up from 600 rpm at idle to about 800 rpm, my brakes are hard and I get a rotten smell from exhaust.

I did some research on this and the symptoms point to a small leak in the vacuum system i.e. the car tries to compensate (revs go up) for the extra air being sucked in by mixing more fuel.

My non-mechanic brain is telling me that the "blocked" cat, if it is even blocked and not just burning the extra fuel, is a symptom of the problem and not the actual problem.

Before I look at replacing turbos I would like to make sure there are no vacuum leaks or faulty boost solenoids.

 

[" N1KHAR-ZN "]

If you have MHD android app and relevant K+DCAN and OTG cables, you will be able to read the bmw specific codes. Loss of boost in these cars will usually throw a "30FF" code on these cars and the car will go into limp mode. I can suggest that you do some simple visual inspections first. Look at the condition of the vacuum lines above and below the vacuum cannisters as well as the vacuum lines by the oil filter housing. These usually perish due to the heat in that area. Also you can remove the stock airbox and take a look at the chargepipe for any cracks.. Fortunately boost leaks on these cars are very well documented.
http://www.n54tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13114

I'm sure Rennzport in Cape Town will be able to help you out



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[Kish2604]

Send a pm to Twinz or Zaahier @ Rennzport, they in your locality and will hook you up with a good mech..

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[freakazoid]

[quote='"]
If you have MHD android app and relevant K+DCAN and OTG cables, you will be able to read the bmw specific codes. Loss of boost in these cars will usually throw a "30FF" code on these cars and the car will go into limp mode. I can suggest that you do some simple visual inspections first. Look at the condition of the vacuum lines above and below the vacuum cannisters as well as the vacuum lines by the oil filter housing. These usually perish due to the heat in that area. Also you can remove the stock airbox and take a look at the chargepipe for any cracks.. Fortunately boost leaks on these cars are very well documented.
http://www.n54tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13114

I'm sure Rennzport in Cape Town will be able to help you out



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[/quote]
The car went once into limp mode. In December on my way to Knysna about 200km outside Cape Town the car went into limp mode. I would say for about 150km there was heavy traffic with speeds of 80 - 100km/hr. I was constantly overtaking until I got an open stretch where I pushed the car a bit.

I have DashCommand and the codes it picks up are P2096 and P2271 O2 Sensor Biased/Stuck Rich Bank 1 Sensor 2. These were the same codes picked up by garage. They took the car out a couple of times and did not pick up any boost codes. I wanted them to replace all vacuum lines in any case but they said the lines were fine.

Car was fine since I got it back on Friday. Yesterday while driving I told my wife the problem is back. My window was open and I got the rotten smell, shifts were jerky, revs climb, brake pedal is hard and car is under powered.

I will try and get in contact with Rennzport. They used to be about 1km away from where I live but there is a tyre place there now.

 

[Gordvisr]

sound to me like an air leak, not on the turbo side but more on the manifold side ( inlet )

 

[freakazoid]

So I'm still struggling with this problem :-(. It's nearly two years that I have been living with this issue. Tried contacting Twinz, Renzport and even Sherwin of Xcede but no replies from them.

Car has been at 3 garages so far. Last one was Garage 808. Went in for brakes and some preventative maintenance, drive belt, pulleys and tensioners. Colin also could not find the issue in the three days the car was there. He has been the most thorough so far and car will be going back to him next month for radiator replacement and oil leak, and another round of fault finding.

Colin checked vacuum lines, charge pipe, coils, cat, o2 sensors and they all fine. Once errors are cleared the car performs nicely again for a couple of weeks and then the crap starts again.

It's been 3 weeks since the car was in and yesterday the issue came back again. When this happens, sitting in peak hour traffic is frustrating. Acceleration is lethargic. Car stays longer in gear and then just slams into the next gear - the car actually jerks when the gear changes.

The exhaust not also changes. Sounds more like an induction note than exhaust. Like in the old days when guys ran Weber carbs . I wonder if there is not perhaps a leak by the air filter housing?

I fear the only way to solve this is to start throwing parts at the problem until it goes away :blueCry:

 

[Woodies]

Give Anton at APS a try in stikland. Colin looks after my cars now, but Anton might be able to look at the problem from a different perspective. Almost sounds like your car is driving in limp mode when this happens? Is it stock std software?


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[freakazoid]

Give Anton at APS a try in stikland. Colin looks after my cars now, but Anton might be able to look at the problem from a different perspective. Almost sounds like your car is driving in limp mode when this happens? Is it stock std software?


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Car is standard, no software (that I know off).

Car went once into limp mode. That was in December. Driving from Cape Town just past Caledon it went into limp mode. I was hammering the car from the Hermanus pass onwards. In normal daily driving it starts to happen when the car heats up - about 20 - 30 minutes after a cold start.

Wonder if there is not a leak on the intake manifold itself. Still want to take the car to C-Teq for a carbon clean. I think the price includes new gaskets for the manifold. They might pick up something when removing the manifold.

 

[akash]

So the rotten egg type smell is common with blocked cats.

Perhaps this is creating too much back pressure.

I'm assuming this is a N54 motor, have you checked the vacuum canisters. Each canister has vacuum line at the top and the bottom of the canisters. The canisters are plastic and tend to crack.

Reading codes is not gonna be enough, you need someone to run a diagnostic with INPA perhaps, that will give you parameter readings

 

[FiRi@Rennzport]

So I'm still struggling with this problem :-(. It's nearly two years that I have been living with this issue. Tried contacting Twinz, Renzport and even Sherwin of Xcede but no replies from them.

Car has been at 3 garages so far. Last one was Garage 808. Went in for brakes and some preventative maintenance, drive belt, pulleys and tensioners. Colin also could not find the issue in the three days the car was there. He has been the most thorough so far and car will be going back to him next month for radiator replacement and oil leak, and another round of fault finding.

Colin checked vacuum lines, charge pipe, coils, cat, o2 sensors and they all fine. Once errors are cleared the car performs nicely again for a couple of weeks and then the crap starts again.

It's been 3 weeks since the car was in and yesterday the issue came back again. When this happens, sitting in peak hour traffic is frustrating. Acceleration is lethargic. Car stays longer in gear and then just slams into the next gear - the car actually jerks when the gear changes.

The exhaust not also changes. Sounds more like an induction note than exhaust. Like in the old days when guys ran Weber carbs . I wonder if there is not perhaps a leak by the air filter housing?

I fear the only way to solve this is to start throwing parts at the problem until it goes away :blueCry:

How'sit bud.

I'm sorry you didn't get a response, maybe the email landed up in the spam folder.

Please re-send to

[email protected]

We will pick up and let's see if we can assist. Apologies again.

 

[freakazoid]

So the rotten egg type smell is common with blocked cats.

Perhaps this is creating too much back pressure.

I'm assuming this is a N54 motor, have you checked the vacuum canisters. Each canister has vacuum line at the top and the bottom of the canisters. The canisters are plastic and tend to crack.

Reading codes is not gonna be enough, you need someone to run a diagnostic with INPA perhaps, that will give you parameter readings

Colin said he did a scope of the cat and it is fine.

I'm currently using DashCommand to log while I am driving. Did one this morning but car was performing extremely well. Going to do another log tonight when I sit in peak hour traffic

 

[freakazoid]

So I did some logging with DashCommand and noticed the following when the car is stationary.

When I am idling my long term fuel trims are as follows:
Bank 1: 14%
Bank 2: 5%

If I rev to 1500rpm
Bank 1: 10%
Bank 2: 2%

If I rec to 2500rpm
Bank 1: 0.8%
Bank 2: 0.8%

If I rev to 2500 and take my foot off the accelerator, Bank 1 goes as high as 22%, drops to 0% and then settles at 14%.

I logged 3 trips I did and will try and upload the images I took of some graphs.