3V0M-WP
BMW Car Club Member
I have FINALLY got the flat spot resolved. Had it since Feb last year till now. Here is an interesting story at how it eventually got solved….
Since the accident in Oct 2010 the car stood for 11 months, while we were fighting the insurance, then in Sept 2011 it finally went to a Panelbeater to get repaired. The car was at the Panelbeater till Fri, 10 Feb 2012.
The following week Wed, 15 Feb, the car was booked in at Zeemax for a “60000km” service. During these few days between receiving the car from the panelbeater and going to Zeemax, I drove the car as if it was brand new. I drove it below 4000rpm because it basically stood for 16 months.
When I dropped it off at Zeemax I asked them to decat the exhaust. They had the car for 3 days, instead of 1. When I collected it they told me to take it for a drive for about 50km’s to see if any fault lights come on and if it does I must come back to them to disable the sensors for the Cats….. The fault lights did happen within doing 20km’s, so I took it back the same afternoon for them to correct it.
I decided to never return to Zeemax because of the bad experience I had during those 3 days.
For about a 1000km’s after I got the car back from Zeemax I still drove it below 4000rpm. During this time I didn’t take note of the flat spot.
Once I started driving her harder I started noticing the flat spot. I thought it either got caused by standing for too long and the fuel line clogging up, or from doing the decat.
In early March, we installed the BMS piggyback. Only gained about 2kW and made the flat spot worse. Tried it for about a month then switched it off.
On 3 April I got Promotec to do a software map. Gained no power and also made the flat spot worse. Had it for about 3 weeks then went back to OEM software.
I took it to BMW, end of April, for a diagnostics report on any fault codes etc. They only detected the Cats missing error. They said I must put the Cats back in which I said “Why should I if other BMW guys overseas etc can do a decat without any problems?”.
In June, I decided to try Anton at APS. He is very clued up. He had the car for a week. He did an oil and filter change, and sent it to one of his connections (I found out last week that it was Garage 808) to do the software diagnostics and do an update to latest OEM version. They also removed the BMS piggy. They tested with different sensors as well to see if one of them were faulty that the diagnostics didn’t detect with errors.
In Oct I decided to try ART. They had a few diagnostics machines. They showed me the results of the one diagnostics and the fault that they detected to be the cause of the flat spot was the accelerator pedal (not the way I drive) because it was dropping voltage while the flat spot occurred.
I bought the pedal from BMW (cost R1500) and it wasn’t the cause of the flat spot. They wouldn’t accept a return because the part had been used.
At this point (Oct) I gave up going to different places for solutions on the flat spot and having no success, it cost me just over R8500 in total at this point for doing all of the above since, and incl, the service at Zeemax. Decided to wait until the next service was due.
In Nov, I had the exhaust middle box removed, for the fun of it and for the sound :lol:
Nothing else was done until the service last week Monday. I decided to try Colin at Garage 808, after being recommended by a few Fanatics and reading good things about them on the forum.
The car was just due for an oil service, and I asked them to do a diagnostics for the flat spot. They thought it could be the solenoids because it was a common problem with the 130i/330i’s with the grey engine covers (the pre-facelift models). They cleaned the solenoids etc and took the car for a test drive. The flat spot was still there and they were puzzled at what else was causing the flat spot. They contacted Donfords for ideas and they were also puzzled.
On Friday, Garage 808 emailed me the following:
“After some investigation I can confirm that Zeemax only removed the cats, but did no software changes at the time. From experience we know that the newer BM’s need the software alterations to be done after cats are removed, otherwise it picks up all sorts of performance issues, one of which is flat spots.
I also spoke to the guy who does this software change for us and he confirmed that not having done the software change when the cats were removed, could definitely be the cause of the problem. He also said there would be a noticeable increase in fuel consumption. But with the car having stood for so long, I don’t know if you picked up on something like that?
However, it could also be the flaps in the intake that are not operating correctly.
So ultimately it would be a process of elimination whichever way you might choose to go. I just thought I’d give you all the information I have at this stage.”
I forwarded the email to Rolf (Promotec) on Friday night. Saturday morning I went to Rolf to tweak the OEM software to disable the O2 sensors, he also disabled the Lambda diagnostics and the DTC Error Handling.
He noticed that the ECU hardware was changed since they worked on it in April. The “old” ECU was a Siemens MSV70 and the current one is a Siemens MSD80. Both ECU’s are suitable for the N52B30 engines.
The old ECU revision numbers for hardware and software were 07594483 and 07594536. The current ECU has 07609656 and 07612334. These numbers are hardcoded.
Either SMG, ART or APS had it swopped.
Saturday afternoon I went for a drive to Contermans Kloof to test the flat spot. It was a huge improvement, it wasn’t occurring every time I accelerated, like it did in the past.
On Sunday I decided to do a longer drive to see if the car needed to get used to the “tweak and settle”. I drove to Paarl and back. On the way there it had the flat spot 4 times and on the way back not 1.
The car is driving normal now, like it did before the accident. The next thing to do to the car is Performance software.
Some advice for those of you that wanna decat……. Make sure to disable the O2 sensors to avoid the flat spot or any other fault errors and a heavy fuel consumption (was getting avg 16l/100).
Gonna monitor the consumption now, with the decat and middle box removed.
Now I can finally attend and take part in the Drags. The spare wheels with semi slicks, for the track, have been in my garage since the accident, waiting to be used again. I will only use them as the back wheels.
Wont be doing the normal track days anymore
………………………………………………...............................................................................
The flat spot happened EVERYTIME I accelerated “hard”, when overtaking or when the car in front moves over and I’ve got an open lane. It happened anywhere in the rev range up to 6000rpm, and would have a flat spot for 900rpm.
If I accelerated “gently” the flat spot wouldn’t occur.
………………………..
I had to change my “driving style”, this past 15 months or so, to accept the flat spot while accelerating and to not hesitate when overtaking or pulling off at a robot etc.
Now I can drive normally, that the flat spot has been resolved.
Since the accident in Oct 2010 the car stood for 11 months, while we were fighting the insurance, then in Sept 2011 it finally went to a Panelbeater to get repaired. The car was at the Panelbeater till Fri, 10 Feb 2012.
The following week Wed, 15 Feb, the car was booked in at Zeemax for a “60000km” service. During these few days between receiving the car from the panelbeater and going to Zeemax, I drove the car as if it was brand new. I drove it below 4000rpm because it basically stood for 16 months.
When I dropped it off at Zeemax I asked them to decat the exhaust. They had the car for 3 days, instead of 1. When I collected it they told me to take it for a drive for about 50km’s to see if any fault lights come on and if it does I must come back to them to disable the sensors for the Cats….. The fault lights did happen within doing 20km’s, so I took it back the same afternoon for them to correct it.
I decided to never return to Zeemax because of the bad experience I had during those 3 days.
For about a 1000km’s after I got the car back from Zeemax I still drove it below 4000rpm. During this time I didn’t take note of the flat spot.
Once I started driving her harder I started noticing the flat spot. I thought it either got caused by standing for too long and the fuel line clogging up, or from doing the decat.
In early March, we installed the BMS piggyback. Only gained about 2kW and made the flat spot worse. Tried it for about a month then switched it off.
On 3 April I got Promotec to do a software map. Gained no power and also made the flat spot worse. Had it for about 3 weeks then went back to OEM software.
I took it to BMW, end of April, for a diagnostics report on any fault codes etc. They only detected the Cats missing error. They said I must put the Cats back in which I said “Why should I if other BMW guys overseas etc can do a decat without any problems?”.
In June, I decided to try Anton at APS. He is very clued up. He had the car for a week. He did an oil and filter change, and sent it to one of his connections (I found out last week that it was Garage 808) to do the software diagnostics and do an update to latest OEM version. They also removed the BMS piggy. They tested with different sensors as well to see if one of them were faulty that the diagnostics didn’t detect with errors.
In Oct I decided to try ART. They had a few diagnostics machines. They showed me the results of the one diagnostics and the fault that they detected to be the cause of the flat spot was the accelerator pedal (not the way I drive) because it was dropping voltage while the flat spot occurred.
I bought the pedal from BMW (cost R1500) and it wasn’t the cause of the flat spot. They wouldn’t accept a return because the part had been used.
At this point (Oct) I gave up going to different places for solutions on the flat spot and having no success, it cost me just over R8500 in total at this point for doing all of the above since, and incl, the service at Zeemax. Decided to wait until the next service was due.
In Nov, I had the exhaust middle box removed, for the fun of it and for the sound :lol:
Nothing else was done until the service last week Monday. I decided to try Colin at Garage 808, after being recommended by a few Fanatics and reading good things about them on the forum.
The car was just due for an oil service, and I asked them to do a diagnostics for the flat spot. They thought it could be the solenoids because it was a common problem with the 130i/330i’s with the grey engine covers (the pre-facelift models). They cleaned the solenoids etc and took the car for a test drive. The flat spot was still there and they were puzzled at what else was causing the flat spot. They contacted Donfords for ideas and they were also puzzled.
On Friday, Garage 808 emailed me the following:
“After some investigation I can confirm that Zeemax only removed the cats, but did no software changes at the time. From experience we know that the newer BM’s need the software alterations to be done after cats are removed, otherwise it picks up all sorts of performance issues, one of which is flat spots.
I also spoke to the guy who does this software change for us and he confirmed that not having done the software change when the cats were removed, could definitely be the cause of the problem. He also said there would be a noticeable increase in fuel consumption. But with the car having stood for so long, I don’t know if you picked up on something like that?
However, it could also be the flaps in the intake that are not operating correctly.
So ultimately it would be a process of elimination whichever way you might choose to go. I just thought I’d give you all the information I have at this stage.”
I forwarded the email to Rolf (Promotec) on Friday night. Saturday morning I went to Rolf to tweak the OEM software to disable the O2 sensors, he also disabled the Lambda diagnostics and the DTC Error Handling.
He noticed that the ECU hardware was changed since they worked on it in April. The “old” ECU was a Siemens MSV70 and the current one is a Siemens MSD80. Both ECU’s are suitable for the N52B30 engines.
The old ECU revision numbers for hardware and software were 07594483 and 07594536. The current ECU has 07609656 and 07612334. These numbers are hardcoded.
Either SMG, ART or APS had it swopped.
Saturday afternoon I went for a drive to Contermans Kloof to test the flat spot. It was a huge improvement, it wasn’t occurring every time I accelerated, like it did in the past.
On Sunday I decided to do a longer drive to see if the car needed to get used to the “tweak and settle”. I drove to Paarl and back. On the way there it had the flat spot 4 times and on the way back not 1.
The car is driving normal now, like it did before the accident. The next thing to do to the car is Performance software.
Some advice for those of you that wanna decat……. Make sure to disable the O2 sensors to avoid the flat spot or any other fault errors and a heavy fuel consumption (was getting avg 16l/100).
Gonna monitor the consumption now, with the decat and middle box removed.
Now I can finally attend and take part in the Drags. The spare wheels with semi slicks, for the track, have been in my garage since the accident, waiting to be used again. I will only use them as the back wheels.
Wont be doing the normal track days anymore
………………………………………………...............................................................................
The flat spot happened EVERYTIME I accelerated “hard”, when overtaking or when the car in front moves over and I’ve got an open lane. It happened anywhere in the rev range up to 6000rpm, and would have a flat spot for 900rpm.
If I accelerated “gently” the flat spot wouldn’t occur.
………………………..
I had to change my “driving style”, this past 15 months or so, to accept the flat spot while accelerating and to not hesitate when overtaking or pulling off at a robot etc.
Now I can drive normally, that the flat spot has been resolved.
raise::thumbs:
