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Seafoam for Rough Idle or hesitation
Added November 28th, 2009

After talking with some friends about carbon deposits and dirty injectors I came across a well known product called Seafoam, http://www.seafoamsales.com/ stuffs been around for years and is by many accounts the best automotive cleaner around.

So I gave it a shot, the results were phenomenal! I was experiencing a really rough idle/vibration and a little hesitation. I checked everything from plugs, coils, vanos, and even the engine mounts; all in good shape. I?m not saying this will work for everyone, but a lot of people that have used this method and product have experienced excellent results. It turned out that I had some dirty fuel injectors and probably a lot of carbon deposits throughout the engine (have 35K currently on the odometer) that was causing the above symptoms. Anyhow here?s what I did:

1. First go buy yourself a can Seafoam motor treatment, and one can of Seafoam Deep Creep (aerosol can), about $5 each. Also you?ll need a new hose clamp for the booster vacuum hose. It?s about a one half to three fourths diameter, eye ball it.

2. Making sure your engine is at operating temperature (don?t do this on a cold engine) locate the brake booster vacuum line (check the picture). You?ll have to pry off the ?one-shot-deal? clamp from the hose. (You?ll be replacing it when you?re done with the new one you purchased).

3. Now the hard part, you have to remove the booster hose. It?s a pain because there is more than likely still a vacuum on it, what I did was carefully took a small flat head screwdriver and pried up underneath it and released the vacuum, then proceeded to wiggle it loose. This fitting has barbs on it so you can?t just yank at it or it?ll just get tighter, take your time it?ll come off. Also take off the weather stripping so that you can work with the hose.

4. Now once it?s off, get a funnel and wedge it in the hose. Have a buddy turn your car on, you will now notice a huge air draw (sucking noise) on the line, this is what you want. Then slowly begin to pour a little in at a time until you have used about one third to half a can of Seafoam. Caution: don?t just pour the whole can down at once, there?s this thing called hydro-locking which trust me you don?t want to think about. So just a little at a time, and you?ll be fine. Your buddy will have to keep the RPMs up (around 1.5K) so the car won?t die right off the bat. Remember half a can. After you?ve done this shut her down and wait about 5-10 minutes.

5. You?re done with this part, plug the vacuum hose back on and tighten it down with new clamp you bought. Tip put the clamp on hose before you put the hose back on the fitting, I know obvious?.

6. Turn on your car, and let it idle for a few seconds, then let it rip, open it up to about 4.5k -5k RPM, now your really going to see what kind of crap is in your motor, smokes like a mother. This is all of the carbon and crap in your engine intake manifold, valves, lifters etc? It?ll stop after 15 minutes or so. Obviously do this in a well ventilated area!!!!

7. Now with the Deep Creep, pull out the hose assembly (marked DC on my figure) and while the engine is running again, spray the deep creep down in the hole, this is going to get your throttle body and idle position sensor cleaned up, use about a half a can. I recommend doing some, then go and drive around the block, then doing the other half.

8. Finally with the other half of your Seafoam (not the deep creep, the liquid) pour it into your gas tank, this will get your fuel injectors cleaned up nicely. Do this on a half a tank of gas, for a higher concentration.

9. You?re done, and you?ve done a cheep but highly effective tune up on a multitude of areas. Now just go and drive her a little harder than usual to get her nice and clean. You?re probably going to notice a huge difference.
7953c41a208d5cdb606b1fee12e3e5ef Seafoam for Rough Idle or hesitation
Hopefully this helps some people out, it worked great for me!!!! Jason

Disclaimer: As usual your car your choice, don?t blame me!



heres the link to the page Seafoam e60 link

turboawd

i wouldnt do this on our cars.
if you pour that stuff into the brake booster hose, its just going to flow into the vacuum pump and then into the crankcase and dilute your oil.

aresh

so is that the case with every car, does it dilute the oil on every car its performed on, or just ours?

Dominiyrk09

It safe to use in the oil aswell. I have been doing this to all kind of cars now, Done quite a few e39's and it has yet to cause a problem.

Howitzer

lol I'd never do this.

ktlocklear

That's pretty sad that a 550 with 35k miles has such problems.....weird too. Mine has 66k miles on it and idles/ runs perfectly.

With only 35k miles on the car, why not take it to the dealer and let them sort out the issues?

On the flip side...I have used Sea Foam several times over the years.....on my Nissans, not my Bimmer....but I've always had good luck with it.

bmwcanuck11

My 530i has 134 000 Km on it (roughly 83 k)
and it runs PERFECTLY and smooth

turboawd

On many cars the brake booster hose goes to the intake manifold where there is vacuum. On the BMW v8 engines, and possibly 6 cylinder engines, there is a mechanical vacuum pump that is used for the brake booster.
Also, the v8 engines don't have an idle control valve like typical engines. Instead the actual engine valve lift is used to adjust the idle. It's kinda complex from what a BMW tech told me.

SBrown712

This reminds me of the good old days when we used to pour a can of STP gas treatment down the carburetor to clean out the fuel system. It looked like a smoke machine while doing it.

cleung

I was afraid of doing this to my car so I used my wifes Nissan murano as a guinea pig. It definitely did not hurt the murano and now I'm thinking about trying it on the e60...

Also I would suggest doing an oil change fairly shortly after performing this procedure, as the seafoam does dilute the oil and send a bunch of the crap into the oil so the oil should come out much darker then usual.