jeg

Hi Folks,
I'm having problems with my E60 smoking under even moderate load so thought I'd try disconnecting the EGR valve (pulled the vacuum tube and plugged with a small screw) and whilst this resolved the smoking issue (no noticable smoke even under quite heavy load)it has resulted in the car often losing most of its power. After a few minutes (or turning the car off and on again) power returns again for another while.

The power loss has happened several times and a few of these have been at the same junction and roundabout (but then again I have a relatively straight commute to work)but only when the EGR vacuum hose is disconnected. When connected I've never noticed any power loss.

A local independant BMW specialist has checked the EGR valve and advises it is clean and OK but this does not make sense to me, when I reconect the EGR the smoke problem reoccurs and the performance issue disappears!


Any iseas why I would be losing power when the EGR is disconnected?

Thanks

5FOUR5

It sounds like the dme is compensating for the lack of vacuum, and inert gases in the combustion chamber, and has retardind the timing. This is just a preliminary guess. We could be of more help if you could kindly list your year, model, petrol / diesel, turbo / non-turbo

jeg

The car is a 2004 e60, 530d se, no mods. 120k miles.
I'm not very technical so don't know the turbo model etc. I'll ask the BMW specialist and post more details later today.
Thanks

koo

Check the MAF and also replace your air filiter and crankcase breather.

jeg

Thanks for the advice.

MAF and EGR faults now showing up (EGR is currently connected as normal) in diagnostics.

New air filter has been installed and the breather valve has already been 'upgraded' to more modern plastic one so hopefully thats is OK. Might be worth asking the garage to check it.

Definitely going to replace the MAF.

I'll post results as soon as MAF is replaced, hopefully in next few days.

Fingers crossed!

jeg

So the MAF has been replaced and EGR is now as clean as a whistle, but the problems persist, i.e. large quantities of smoke blowing at lowish revs (1800-2500RPM) especially when the car is under a little load (e.g. moving off from stopped on a hill etc...).

My problem may not be that straightforward and might actually be a couple of seperate issues. -

However, one step at a time. The turbo was replaced last year, as were the injectors so the next step is apparently to clean all the engine valves as there is some conflicting data re airflow in and out of the engine... its suspected the valves might be clogged and not working correcly.

jeg

I've just got the car back from the aftermarket specialist. He used some sort of substance to de-coke the valves and so far the smoking is much less than previously.

I think the cars performance is slightly down on what it should be but I'm hoping that a tankful or two of diesel with cleaning additives might clean the system a little more.

It'll be interesting to see if the performance degrades if I disconnect the EGR again.

He also replaced a few glow plugs and cleaned some oil out of the intercooler that was apparently adding a bit of blue smoke to the cars startup.

jeg

So far so good, I think performance is slowly returning as the 1st tank of diesel (with Redex cleaner) has gone through the engine. I'm going to have the codes checked in a week or two to see if any errors return!

jeg

Although the cars isnt smoking performance is still not what it should be, after checking the car for codes I'm still getting:

4501 Exhaust Recirculation Regulation
3f01 Manifold pressure sensor
4242 Glow plus cyl 4
4252 Glow plus cyl 5
4262 Glow plus cyl 4
4960 Supply Voltage 3
3F35 boost air hose monitoring in Leerlauf
3ff0 air mass sensor
3ff1 air mass sensor
46c2 ?
3f30 rail pressure sensor
46a0 internal ECU 1
4560 plausibility rail-pressurevolume regulated
4570 plausibility rail-pressurevolume regulated
4610 plausibility rail-pressurevolume regulated

Looks like there are a few problems remaining......

Anyone any idea what 46c2 refers to or if theres any of these I should be overly worried about?

jeg

So, got performance issue sorted, car had had a replacement air inlet manifold as the original wS badly coked up. This replacement still had swirl flaps in!

So a couple of friends (who help design diesel engines for a global company) and myself decided to forget about the aftermarket guy and try and resolve ourselves.

First if all was the inlet manifold, I got my original manifold back and started cleaning with a gallon of petrol, brushes, degreasant, basically anything to break down the crud. 8 hours and one utterly destroyed set of old clothes the job was done. A new manifold would have cost £400 +VAT from a UK dealer so worth the effort.

Next was the MAF, removed and cleaned with some electrical contact cleaner, loads if dirt removed.

Then onto the EGR, removed and cleaned, I'm leaving the vacumn tube disconnected but wanted the crud out of the egr to maximise airflow anyway, thought about a straight through unit but will leave that to later.

Replaced the air filter.

Reinstalled my newly cleaned original inlet manifold (without flaps) and made sure the electrical sensors fitted properly.

Plugged MAF and egr back in.

Fired up the engine and took for a test run

Wow! Mojo back!!! I now have to think again wether the road conditions can handle the power to be unleashed


Well worth the effort.