This car was parked for 6 months in my garage while I was out of the country. When I got back, I found evidence of mice living under the hood because of various nutshells.. Not sure if this matters.

15 Minutes after I started and drove the car, it said " Engine malfunction reduced power." After this point, it would only go a maximum of around 55 MPH. This steadily decreased over the next 2 days, and I could only go 50 MPH, then 40, 30...etc, until the car would only go a max of 10 MPH, and even less if it was slightly uphill. The last time the car was stated it barely had any power, and we had to push it while hitting the gas to get the car to move.

This is a video of the last time the car was able to start:
This is a video of the car not being able to start as it is today:
The closest BMW service center is over an hour away.

If anyone has any ideas on what I could try, please let me know, I would greatly appreciate it! I miss my baby!

 

Hey, sad too see your beamer not starting! I would assume the mice ate through some wiring from the ECU or somewhere that controls the engine spark plugs or fuel injector system (guessing this because you had rough idle before, and then there might be a chance a few mice ate through the rest of the wiring and causing it not to start now?). A good start would be to check all the wiring that is visible to your eyes and check where the mice were! If you cant find anything, and i was in your scenario i would tow the car to the dealer (as i am not so inclined in wiring). I wouldnt think the engine is seized from sitting as it did start, but i would suspect the fuel pump aswell, thats IF it could get seized from sitting in ethanol based gas.


***Everything i said above is just my opinion and has no background knowledge. Hope others with more knowledge could help you . Still here if you need some more advice**

Good luck !!

 

Download a copy of INPA and read out the codes or take it to an independent in your area that can do similar if you don't have a cable. This should point you in the general direction of the problem anyways. Good luck.

 

First check the intake duct, then wiring. The damage will commonly be near good places to nest. Unfortunately, if they ate through the air filter to make a nest you may have already ingested debris into the engine.

 

Rodent damge is a real possiblity. Honda even makes a tape that has some rodent repellent infused in the tape to wrap wiring harness to dissuade the pests. My daughter's friend just had some strange engine trouble on her RAV4 and it turned out to be a damaged wiring harness that rats are through.

 

Yes^^^, i forgot to mention if you haven't you have to read the codes to get any clue of the issue.

 

I got the codes read by a BMW mechanic who had a big display-like device to check the codes and here is what came up:

2862 - Variable valve gear
2865 - power limitation in limp mode
27a0 - far electronics box
2789 - detection rough road
cd8b - local can bns off
283f - variable valve gear, output stage enable line

And he cleared the codes and the only code to come up after was 2862