jazzdude

Something weird happening just out of the blue, I mean the car is awsome, so much raw power, just about puts it on the ground instantly.

It happened once and i thought strange, but then a couple of days later it has happened again. its like turbo lag, there is nothing, no boost up to about 3500 - 4000 rpm then woosh it kicks in. Its like the car has no turbo. From the little that I know about this car there are two in line turbos, one for low revs and the big one behind it that takes over afterwards.

Is it possible that the waste gate is not working on the small turbo hence the no boost from low revs and then the surge at higher rpm when the big one kicks in. On both occasions, after a short rest, I started the car and it is fine again, but this has happened while I am driving, it is only when I go to pull away from the lights that I notice that there is no power, I mean NO power, it just about accelerates until it hits the upper revs then woosh.

I am going to have the I-drive software updated next week to enable the mp3's to work. Do you think this will cure the problem or is there a more sinister reason? Any experience or opinions appreciated.

Russ1974

I had exactly the same reason with our first E60, a 525d. It was like there was no turbo at all. Floor it, accelerate at like "0-60 in 1 minute" speed for about 2 or 3 seconds, then thrown back in to your seat with wheelspin, like something was "trapped" and then just exploded. It happened three times over the space of 3 months, took it to the dealer each time and they said there was nothing wrong with it, probably "bad fuel". Over the next 3 months it happened a further 3 or 4 times. Two of these nearly caused serious crashes (crossing a junction, pulling out in front of a truck with plenty of room, but then no power so the car just sat there at 5mph as the truck approached and started to honk... then WHOOSH and off the car shot!).

The worst thing was the lack of confidence in the car - you would see a gap that you know you should be able to make, but you couldn't take it incase the engine lost power, so you'd have to wait for HUGE gaps just incase. We traded the car in for the 530d that we have now purely because of that problem as I wasn't prepared for my wife and kids to be travelling around waiting for an accident to happen.

jazzdude

I suppose the fact that it has come and gone a couple of times, going back to normal as if nothing had happened implies either a software problem or bad fuel as you say. I have since found a few threads on here talking about similar problems but in those cases the y never got the power back, so hopefully a blown turbo is not the cause. If the turbo was on its way out could it act this way or would it just fail.

Th service here from the main dealers is not so good and I am sure taking the problem to them to sort out would be worse.

It would be useful to have some possibilities to take to them from experience here so that I can save a lot of two-ing and fro-ing, because unless it goes completely and they are fixing the broken part, the fact that it comes and goes means they might not even find it.

E60BEEMER

you seem to be quite calm about this little re-curring incident, Get down to the dealer mate

always best to let the pros take a look at it

Let us know how you get on?

jazzdude

denial mate...denial.


I suppose I am hoping that it is nothing too serious, but as I said, I have it booked in for a software upgrade next week so I am hopefully that sorts it out.

E60BEEMER

Lets hope so, the turbos are a major part of the engine

Good luck...

Russ1974

Don't let them get out of it with a software upgrade. Check the service bulletins - are there any mentions of software causing lack of power? I don't think so ... in which case, it won't magically help! The cars are all built out of the same components using the same software. If you have a problem that isn't affecting the majority of users, then something is wrong with _your_ car, not software that is in use by tens of thousands of other drivers.

We were fobbed off with "bad fuel" but we tried various garages (always decent non-supermaket brands), and stopped using our "usual" garage that we had always used up until the fault occured. Some 6 months later and probably 20 refills and the problem was still occuring, without ever using that same garage again. It was unfortunate we had to change the car because of the fault and I am lucky I was in a financial position to be able to do so, although I would have preferred not to.

The dealer said if it wasn't bad fuel it was just the "turbo lag" because it was a diesel. Of course the car never behaved badly when it went in so they didn't know exactly what we were experiencing.

If it were bad fuel you'd expect it to be bad a lot more frequently than once every few weeks. And no, it didn't used to do it just after we filled up each time It could be full tank, half tank, nearly empty, made no difference.

So ... I don't think it's your software. I don't think it's bad fuel. I don't think it really even sounds like a turbo, because even without one of the turbos the performance wouldn't be _awful_. The performance we had on the 525d was much worse than a "non turbo" car should be have - it was almost as though you were simply not stepping on the accelerator, and it was just accelerating at the same speed as when you take your foot off the brake on an auto!

jazzdude

I spoke to the dealer and it will be checked out next week. It might be useful to have some theories though. I will reject software and bad fuel, but I did come across a thread which mentioned it was a loose vacuum pipe to the small turbo.

Aeroresh

Could be a load of differnt things causing the issue, both mechanical or electrical

My guess since its intermittant is a faulty sensore somewhere down the line.

Let us know how you get on

Lucky

I had exactly the same problem on my 535d, months ago. If the OBD records a loss of power of the small turbo, the probable reason is a loss in the vacuum pipeline of the small turbo. On my car there was a small plastic, T shaped, pipe connector that was cracked; this was enough to give wrong indications to the sensors causing the power of loss in transient betwen 2000 and 3000 rpm.
Unfortunely, in my case, BMW was quite slow to react:it took two months before the problem was correctly identified and fixed. Hope you have better luck!