HELP 2002 E46 320i Sportspack Power Loss

[Maveric12]

Howsit guys....
Ths problem is now realy startig to bg the crap outa me.
Last week wednesday (27th Feb) on my way to do some fishng with he kids...sitting in bumper to bumer traffic the car ust decides no man im tired and jerks when I tried accelerate there was no power car just died. Tried starting and car swings normal it starts but just dies again. Had the car towed and at the mechie pluged in diagnostics and error codes displayed was Vanos related...something about it being jammed, anyways they said they wil service the Vanos unit which they did. So drove around with the car fine till Sunday (1 Jan) when she did the exact same thing in slight bumper to bumper raffic in Strand..she died and did ecacty the same as before the Vanos unit was serviced. But this time the computer only pics air mass or something to that effect and they baffled as to why. Oh and the strangest part is on both occassions After having the car towed the car would start and drive like nothing happened. Any advice hep will be appreciated...I had to cut my holidays ( we were enroute to our holiday destination in George but had to have the car towed back)

 

[Karthik]

:thumbdo: Sorry about what happened sounds terrible , someone should help you on the forum soon

 

[Sankekur]

Well I would think something along the lines of the mass air flow sensor or the cam/crank position sensor.

How does the car accelerate if you give full throttle? If it accelerates jerky under full throttle (almost like it is hesitating) and accelerates fine under moderate throttle openings, then it is probably the mass air flow sensor.

 

[Maveric12]

Well I would think something along the lines of the mass air flow sensor or the cam/crank position sensor.

How does the car accelerate if you give full throttle? If it accelerates jerky under full throttle (almost like it is hesitating) and accelerates fine under moderate throttle openings, then it is probably the mass air flow sensor.

Hi...both times this happened there is absolutely no power...car starts but just dies almost imediately...but after being towed and lowered from the rollback truck she starts and drive normal....Im starting to think probably Fuel pump or fuel pump relay...

 

[Syl]

Fuel filter perhaps?
I had a similar situation where after sitting in traffic, the car would die on me. Started again with some trouble, and as soon as I pulled away she would just die again.
So I replaced the fuel filter that evening (noticed it was still the original filter and the car had more than 200k on the clock!!) and havent had that issue again.

I think that perhaps because the fuel filter was worn out and clogged up, that the fuel pump had to work harder and therefor started to overheat causing it not to work properly...

 

[Yuvan]

Sounds like, fuel pump, fuel filter, fuel lines, fuel relay sort of issue to me!!

 

[Maveric12]

Thnks that confirms my suspicions, will follow up on that.

 

[Maveric12]

Some feedback...it would seem that the prolem was caused by some breather valve somewhere by the intake....valve replaced. Its been 5 days and some hectic camps bay traffic and so far car behaving. Now my question what exactl does the breather valve do...I did ask the machies but all I got was if it gets blocked it can cause car to behave the way it did. Can anyone here shed some more light on this pretty please.

 

[e46monk3y]

Mav. Glad you got it sorted bud !

Dunno but it might be the purge valve or fuel tank breather valve?
Try google or www.e46fanatics.com.

Might find some info there :=):

 

[Andreasmzk]

I had the same issue with my E46 320i '05. I was stuck in CW's underground parking. A quick call to SMG solved the problem. He told me to give the fuel pump (big black box below right passanger door) a few strikes with my fist. If you come across the same issue and need to get somewhere, I recommend trying the same. SMG says fuel pump will set me back about 7k, which, I'm told, is mental. I had a falling-out with Zeemax, so does anyone know any other reputable BMW places in CPT?

 

[GPGrobler]

Some feedback...it would seem that the prolem was caused by some breather valve somewhere by the intake....valve replaced. Its been 5 days and some hectic camps bay traffic and so far car behaving. Now my question what exactl does the breather valve do...I did ask the machies but all I got was if it gets blocked it can cause car to behave the way it did. Can anyone here shed some more light on this pretty please.

Can you please help, my car does more or less the same, do you have a picture or a sample of the valve?