Questions for the manual n54 owners

Del-Bosc

Active member
Hi Guys

I have a manual n54 135i. I noticed things not sure if I should be concerned or not

1) the gear lever vibrates when the car is in motion also under acceleration not heavy but enough for me to notice visibly

2) the car takes a long time to warm up good 15mintues

3) car shakes side to side after a hard drive and when I am cooling her down.

4) can hear the car boost I have no after market intake or dp

Last time I took the car in all was good about 3k km ago. Currently the car does not feel like it is lacking power.

Any thoughts ?
 
J

Josh-ZN

Guest
2) and 4) are normal. i can hear mine boosting nicely. was since i had it serviced. beforehand i needed DCI to get that noise.

dont get any vibrating though.
 

BeamerMan

Member
My gear lever does shake when at idle and also I can feel it move slightly when driving.. I will double check tomorrow again. I have a feeling number 3 has to do with a possible misfire, but hard to tell from your description.
 

Kish2604

Administrator
Staff member
Del-Bosc said:
Hi Guys

I have a manual n54 135i. I noticed things not sure if I should be concerned or not

1) the gear lever vibrates when the car is in motion also under acceleration not heavy but enough for me to notice visibly

2) the car takes a long time to warm up good 15mintues

3) car shakes side to side after a hard drive and when I am cooling her down.

4) can hear the car boost I have no after market intake or dp

Last time I took the car in all was good about 3k km ago. Currently the car does not feel like it is lacking power.

Any thoughts ?

As Josh said, 2 and 4 is normal..no 1 I can't comment on a 335 but my e90 330 also did something similar, 3 sounds a bit weird but my n54 after a hard drive is hardly quiet.. It's buzzing and hissing and crackling...

What sort of mileage you doing and what's the condition of the plugs...
 

Del-Bosc

Active member
Kish2604 said:
Del-Bosc said:
Hi Guys

I have a manual n54 135i. I noticed things not sure if I should be concerned or not

1) the gear lever vibrates when the car is in motion also under acceleration not heavy but enough for me to notice visibly

2) the car takes a long time to warm up good 15mintues

3) car shakes side to side after a hard drive and when I am cooling her down.

4) can hear the car boost I have no after market intake or dp

Last time I took the car in all was good about 3k km ago. Currently the car does not feel like it is lacking power.

Any thoughts ?

As Josh said, 2 and 4 is normal..no 1 I can't comment on a 335 but my e90 330 also did something similar, 3 sounds a bit weird but my n54 after a hard drive is hardly quiet.. It's buzzing and hissing and crackling...

What sort of mileage you doing and what's the condition of the plugs...

Thanks guys I am sitting at 71k currently. I think the plugs may need a change
What are the signs off injectors failing ?
 

ters

New member
Del-Bosc said:
What are the signs off injectors failing ?

Lack of power, hesitation when accelerating, hard starting and very crappy idle.
Vibrating gearlever does not seem right. :nonono: Have a look at your gearbox, engine and differential mountings.

Ters.
 

Crash_Nemesis

///Member
Bad vibrating gear lever is possibly flex disc or centre prop bearing. The car becomes really uncomfortable to drive. Can also be the start of a knocking sound you get during gear changes.

See below video -
[video=youtube]
 

Ando

New member
i can only relate to 2), none of the rest. Dont even hear boost driving normal or hard. I have 65k on clock.

Think it'll be wise to let BMW checkout those symptoms:=):
 

ernest maurice

New member
Am going with Ters. Have your mountings for engine n box checked as well as flexi coupling rubber, also have your ignition system checked, plugs may be faulty.
 

KyleB - 135i

New member
Hey Guys,

Wow, i'm a new member, and it seems to be you guys are quiet clued up on N54 Manuals, i have a little issue aswell,

Hoping for an answer since BMW can not fine the fault.

i drive a 2009 , 135i N54, dp's, cold air intake and chiplogic software,

the issues i'm having are as follows:

1.when you drive the car locally, in town etc, on slow rev, it almost sound like a miss, but clear up when i drive it harder, after a while on the highway, it will go into limp mode, not engine light dosnt come on, once i stop, and rev the car it sounds like a subaru, i restart the car and then it's 100% only to begin 5 mins later.

BMW have tested the following
plugs, coilpacks, injectors, in sheer fact that it irritated me so much, that there finally option was to tell me, to flash my car back to standard, i agreed to, so it was bye bye software, the car was better to drive, and doesnt occur that offen but the issue is still there.

my car is doing 126000km

Please HELP

 
J

Josh-ZN

Guest
the tune will accentuate any pre-existing problems on your car. my advice is to take it back to BMW and show them that the problem still exists. if the car is out of MP (which i assume it is), i would take it to an independent BMW specialist and get them to check it out.

once the problem is sorted, i would follow Kish's advice and get a JB4 :thumb:
 
My dad use to have a manual 335i, i also recall a slight vibration from gearknob even when car was brand new.

Also, i find without that diverter valve thing, the car is irritating when trying to shift a bit faster than normal.
 

Ma$e

New member
KyleB - 135i said:
Hey Guys,

Wow, i'm a new member, and it seems to be you guys are quiet clued up on N54 Manuals, i have a little issue aswell,

Hoping for an answer since BMW can not fine the fault.

i drive a 2009 , 135i N54, dp's, cold air intake and chiplogic software,

the issues i'm having are as follows:

1.when you drive the car locally, in town etc, on slow rev, it almost sound like a miss, but clear up when i drive it harder, after a while on the highway, it will go into limp mode, not engine light dosnt come on, once i stop, and rev the car it sounds like a subaru, i restart the car and then it's 100% only to begin 5 mins later.

BMW have tested the following
plugs, coilpacks, injectors, in sheer fact that it irritated me so much, that there finally option was to tell me, to flash my car back to standard, i agreed to, so it was bye bye software, the car was better to drive, and doesnt occur that offen but the issue is still there.

my car is doing 126000km

Please HELP


Hi Buddy

I had the same issue with my 135-N54, running the same mods. Umhlanga Bmw diagnosed mine a faulty boost sensor & once replaced has never been an issue. Hope yours gets sorted...
 

George Smooth

///Member
Del-Bosc said:
Hi Guys

I have a manual n54 135i. I noticed things not sure if I should be concerned or not

1) the gear lever vibrates when the car is in motion also under acceleration not heavy but enough for me to notice visibly

2) the car takes a long time to warm up good 15mintues

3) car shakes side to side after a hard drive and when I am cooling her down.

4) can hear the car boost I have no after market intake or dp

Last time I took the car in all was good about 3k km ago. Currently the car does not feel like it is lacking power.

Any thoughts ?

2. Normal
4. Not sure if you have software or not. If you hearing the car boost up with a stock map its a sign of a leak. The car can still reach its boost point on stock software even with severe leaks but you will hear the turbos spin as the turbine wheel spins faster to overcome the leak. Only in extreme circumstances of leaks will you get fault codes when boost is not met (ie a big leak which will affect performance too). If you have a logging device you can log waistgate DC which is the position of the waist gate and compare this to what a stock car normally run.
This also applies for guys running software. High waist gate DC's are a sign of leaks.
 
J

Josh-ZN

Guest
oh no. i can hear my car turbos spooling all the time. power still seems to be the same. you think its a leak?
 

George Smooth

///Member
Josh-ZN said:
oh no. i can hear my car turbos spooling all the time. power still seems to be the same. you think its a leak?

Your car has down pipes so it will always make the spool up sound especially from idle. My wife hates it. I told her I can put the catted dps back in and she will loose power - she never complained again :roflol:

With modded cars its good to compare waistegate DC's. Variences at the same boost can identify leaks.
 
J

Josh-ZN

Guest
George Smooth said:
Josh-ZN said:
oh no. i can hear my car turbos spooling all the time. power still seems to be the same. you think its a leak?

Your car has down pipes so it will always make the spool up sound especially from idle. My wife hates it. I told her I can put the catted dps back in and she will loose power - she never complained again :roflol:

With modded cars its good to compare waistegate DC's. Variences at the same boost can identify leaks.

no my car just has Jb4. no dp. but i can hear the turbo on stock map and with no JB4. louder with map 5. this was after a major fix on the cylinder head. i used to only get this sound with DCI. was silent before the fix.

best i get it checked. i am worried now :mmm:
 
Top