05 545i - engine malfunction, drive moderatly
 

I have a 2005 545i and iv had nothing but problems with this car. This has got to be the worst car I have ever owned! Anyway..., today I was driving and once I stopped at a light my check engine light started flashing. Before, the check engine light was on and the error was, increased emissions... Now the light is flashing and now I have an error saying, engine malfunction, drive moderatly... below are pics of the msg.
http://fiber-concepts.net/upload/up/...037258f6de.jpg
http://fiber-concepts.net/upload/up/...635bc42ac8.jpg

It seems like the car is stuck in limp mode now. I have almost complete power loss and if I want to take the car up to 10mph+ I literally have to floor the gas pedal for about 10 sec and the power will finally come back. The car is also idling rough and is misfiring...

So what iv done is park the car to let the engine cool down and I disconnected the battery to reset everything. I noticed that for about 3 sec the car is fine, I can push the rpm to 6k with no probs whatsoever. .. but after the 3 sec the light comes on and I can no longer rev the engine freely... I thought maybe one of the plugs or injector went out but like I said, I can rev freely with full power for about 3 sec... same thing with the fuel pumps, if those took a crap on me they wouldnt be working at all...

What do you guys think the prob is? And has anyone had the same problem? If so what did you do to fix this?

So..., you had an "increase emission" CEL and decided to ignore it and obviously did nothing about it.

Now the car is telling you "engine malfunction".... and so you hate this car?!

I too drive an 05 545 and yes we have our share of problems but, what vehicle nearly 10 years old don't? What'd you expect? Cars, like every machine on this planet require REGULAR maintenance, more so as they age. So when you see a CEL, don't just sit there and pray it'll go away, DO SOMETHING like getting the code read. Why don't you start there and report back.

I've kept up with maintenance on this car... Actually I think I have had almost every part that's bolted on the engine replaced. I just had all the cooling system replaced, now this problem came up. Once I fix one problem another pops up... maybe the previous owner didnt take car of her? Idk...

And the increased emissions light, that one comes and goes. Took it to the dealer and they couldnt do anything about it since it disappeared once I pulled into the dealer.

anyways..., if anyone else had this problem before post up your experience! I'll also try to get the codes pulled and see what we get.

I understand your frustration. The intermittent increased emission light may be indicating your thermostat is on it's way out. How many miles on your 5er? I had the same intermittent CEL increased emission warning until it stayed on constant. I had a P0128 code, replaced the thermostat and been good since. good luck

Right now I have about 128k on the clock. And I just changed the water pump but not the thermostat about 200 miles ago... would a thermostat really put this car in limp mode though?

Here is a stupid question.......Are you above a quarter of tank of gas? When i purchased my car i let it dip below a quarter and i got the same engine malfunction and the car was shaking. Yes, i almost ran out of gas. stupid move on my part.

I always keep my tank full. I actually ran my truck close to empty a few times and it killed my fuel pump. But i haven't let the 545i come close to being empty...

Another thing i was thinking... Maybe i blew out one of my exhaust manifold gaskets? I noticed the engine bay was hotter than usual when i pulled over.

Hopefully tonight i can see what codes the car is throwing.

Most likely a misfire on more than one cylinder. I had the samething happen to me when I replaced coils forget didnt connect the connector on two coils completely. when I started car up check engine light started to blink and I got the same message. Car sounded and ran like sh!t, read the codes and check my connections found the loose plug, problem solved. As e6t.lab.rat said get the codes read and take it from there no point in guessing could be a number of things. Ever changed plugs or coils at 128k ur due. More than likely misfires tho.

I think you are correct. I just checked the coils and #2 isn't firing! I'm gonna go ahead and pick up a new one and see what happens from there and of course scan the codes.

For ignition, the only thing I have replaced were the plugs... So im sure the coils are on their way out...

I hope this solves the problem because my benz is also down at the moment and the only other car i have to drive is a v10 gas guzzler! :cry:

Wasnt able to get the codes ran but I did find something else! Does anyone know what this is??

http://www.fiber-concepts.net/upload...e98646033c.jpg

The part circled is vibrating like crazy and is making a loud whinning noise...

Cold climate crank case vent valve. Look up ccv replacement. You might need to change those as well. Common to fail.

Thats where I would start, report back and let us know what happens. Like I said I had the same exact thing happen to me. Freaked me out but was a simple fix. If you're going to change one at 128k I would change all. You can buy the one and see if you get any changes. But when you figure out that was the problem I would swap em all out. Ordered my from ECS $33 per Bosch.

So I took the car to the local auto zone and orillies and they weren't able to read anything at all... guess I'll have to wait till the weekend to take the car up to the dealership...

Another thing I noticed, if I keep the revs at 800+ rpm the car doesn't go into limp mode and runs ok. If I'm at a light and don't keep the revs up the car goes into limp mode and the only way I can drive it would be to turn off the car and keep the revs above 800ish... btw, I went ahead and replaced the coils and nothing... Also cleaned out both ccv valves just for the he'll of it.

So today I bought a scanner and pulled 12 codes...

P0021- 'A' Camshaft Position Timing Over-Advanced or System Performance Bank 2
P0021PD- ????
P0024- 'B' Camshaft Position Timing Over-Advanced or System Performance Bank 2
P0024PD- ????
P0430 - Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 2)
P0300 - Random/Multiple Cylinder Misfire Detected
P0302– misfire c#2
P0303– misfire c#3
P0305– misfire c#5
P0306– misfire c#6
P0307- misfire c#7
P0308– misfire c#8

I dunno if I should be looking at BOTH camshaft position sensors or just the cat on bank 2. Would a bad catalytic converter cause the engine to throw off timing??

Do you hear any rattling when you exhalerate underneath the car? That is a bad catalytic converter. My 530i went into limp mode on me this year but it was an oil leak, so I drove it home under 30mph, then had it towed to BMW for repair

Can't say that I noticed any rattling. .. The misfire popping is so loud so it might be kinda hard to hear any rattling. I'll pull the exhaust off and check the cats.

yesterday i bought a new o2 sensor and replaced the old one. Nothing got better... also, there is no rattling in the converter... I'm seriously stumped now and have no clue where to look now...

Could be a weak battery and/or a bad alternator combination. I read a while back here on this forum how someone replaced their battery and alternator and "fixed" a slew of problems you'd never think was related to a bad alternator/battery. Maybe you could have your charging system checked? Good luck

I actually hooked up some jumper cables onto the battery and that did nothing.

So this is what I got so far...,

-Cleaned both ccv
-Battery is good, also had another car connected with jumper cables
-Replaced bank 2 pre cat O2 sensor and that did nothing
-No rattling from bank 2 cat
-Replaced coils
-Engine will run reasonably without misfiring for about 10 seconds on start-up, then something happens(?), the rev's go up momentarily and it starts to misfire, it gets worse as it runs.
- If you start the engine with throttle and do not allow it to idle at all, it will not misfire badly until i let go of the throttle and it returns to idle, idles ok for about 10 seconds, then the above described happens
-No bad noises, just misfiring


I seriously thought maybe the o2 sensor was bad and that was causing camshaft position sensor to throw of timing making all cylinders misfire... But I guess its not that.

And I seriously doubt both camshaft position sensors on the drivers side went bad at the same time.

My 04 545 also has the increased emissions light on, i ran the codes which the only one it threw was P0491, thats the code for the secondary injection system which is a bitch to clean/replace because doing correctly typically requires taking the heads off. The confusing part on my end is that when one goes bad so does the other usually, and code P0491 is only for cylinder bank 1 code P0492 would indicate that bank 2's secondary systems are on their way out or gone. Most people get these codes together, I only have the one and today on my way to work i got the same problem with engine malfunction, no clue what kind of black magic and sorcery these Germans are working with here but its baffling how temper mental these cars are, still fun though...

My bmw is throwing the exact same codes as yours
 

I was hoping you could tell me what you did to fix your problems as mine is throwing the same codes and having the same issues other then the bad misfire. Mine seams to be running almost normal but is showing message after message. can yoh tell me what you did to fix it. If you did fix it? Thank you. I would greatly appreciate any help

If he ever gets back to you please let me know I am having the same problems. Thanks.