new bmw driver old car concerns

[nic46]

Hi all,

So im new to forums in general and new to BMW, ive been driving VW all along. Ive just taken ownership of a 2001 E46 330i and I have some questions/ concerns about the car. I thought id first ask around here before going the route of paying thousands at a dealer for a simple issues. So just a bit of history on the car, its been standing for almost 3 years, the owner then thought the car was f@cked, I got the car going and all that was wrong was the battery was flat and no petrol in the car. Because he thought the car was broken etc i got it for next to nothing. Anyway the car was last serviced in 2013 and only did 5000km since then. what is currently happening is 1 the main key locks and unlocks the car with no issues but it doesn’t start the car, ignition goes on but that it. in this week alone it probably only started the car 3 times, so I have been using the service key.. what could that be? secondly in the morning the car has a rough idle.. sounds almost like a golfy with a lekka big cam and the car shakes and the revs fluctuate somewhat, as soon as I drive say a km all is fine again. from what I read it could be ICV, plugs or coil packs… but I don’t know, im going to be servicing the car again soon due to it standing for so long, but would like an idea of what could be wrong. also yesterday I done a plug in and it brought up quite a few misfire on the cylinders errors, that we cleared but still the same thing this morning. thanks guys hope someone can give good solid advice.

 

[momo1]

Replace all oils , fluids, plugs , filters, get it scanned for any errors.
Don’t fix anything if not broken.
Im almost sure you will enjoy it far more than any VW you’ve owned.

 

[Donovan2412]

Also before you start replacing parts give everything a good clean, MAF and ICV especially.

 

[nic46]

Hi thanks for the reply. and so far im definitely enjoying it. im going to try and do a service the weekend that’s if my time allows it. I saw on another forum the guys said to clean that out, I just need to find it, my vw were so plain and simple… this cars engine bay has just way to many things, but it will be a nice challenge

 

[AdiS]

Hi thanks for the reply. and so far im definitely enjoying it. im going to try and do a service the weekend that’s if my time allows it. I saw on another forum the guys said to clean that out, I just need to find it, my vw were so plain and simple… this cars engine bay has just way to many things, but it will be a nice challenge

The Internet has DIYs for almost any job on the e46. Google is your friend.

 

[nic46]

i started yesterday yes looking at stuff. just trying to figure out who is giving actual proper advice and whats not. last thing i want is to make something worse.

 

[AdiS]

i started yesterday yes looking at stuff. just trying to figure out who is giving actual proper advice and whats not. last thing i want is to make something worse.

Work through things methodically. Rough Idle/misfire can be caused by many things. Here would be my process:

1) Full service - oil, oil filter, air filter, spark plugs, fuel filter.
2) Clean MAF, Clean Idle Control Valve, and in the process inspect the rubber intake boots to tears that would cause a vacuum leak (this can cause mis fire). The second intake boot is very commonly torn in one particular area and can only be seen when you remove it.
3) Run Diagnostics to see which cylinders are misfiring. If a misfire is happening on a specific cylinder, you can swap the coil packs with another cylinder that isnt misfiring and then if the mis fire follows the coil pack, then you know taht the coil pack is the problem.

 

[nic46]

misfire came from all cylinders, but ja will see after i service the weekend what it does. is there any remedy to the key issue, that 1 is abit confusing to me

 

[AdiS]

misfire came from all cylinders, but ja will see after i service the weekend what it does. is there any remedy to the key issue, that 1 is abit confusing to me

Consider getting a compression test done maybe.

 

[nic46]

cool will keep that in mind also

 

[Pho3niX90]

Misfire on all cylinders can be from the disa. Open it up and inspect and clean.

Key working periodically could be the key that's a bit faulty. I would try reprogramming it. There are guids on the net to reprogram the key with nothing extra needed. Lastly I would make a turn at gert to do a diagnostics so that you know what's going on and advise on the key issue.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

[nic46]

thanks phoenix.. im going to need to sit and google these things, have no idea where the ICV or MAF sits, definetly dont know what the DISA is, im sure it wont be that bad, lol

 

[AdiS]

thanks phoenix.. im going to need to sit and google these things, have no idea where the ICV or MAF sits, definetly dont know what the DISA is, im sure it wont be that bad, lol

ICV cleaning.

[video=youtube]

DISA

[video=youtube]

You can also just unplug your MAF and see if that has an impact on teh misfiring. If you unplug teh MAF and teh misfiring goes away, then you know that it is the cause of the problem.

 

[MSB135]

Welcome to the forum.

Full service and compression test is the place to start

 

[nic46]

morning all, didnt get time to service the car, will hopefully do that over the next 2 days. i unplugged the Maf sat morning and it idled fine, as soon as i plugged it in it idled rough again till i drove around the block. so theres a company in epping that sells thar CRC mass airflow cleaner that i want to try seeing that its highly recommended,

 

[AdiS]

... CRC mass airflow cleaner that i want to try seeing that its highly recommended,

This might help, but at the end of teh day if teh MAF is faulty, it will need replacement.