330Ci cutting out?!

[alistair1234]

E46 330Ci, car is on 92k, serviced 5k ago.

In the last month it's cut out twice while driving on the motorway, last week was when cruise control was on in a 50 average zone, cruise popped off then loss of power when trying to accelerate in lower gears, put it in to neutral and it stalked, restarted and it was fine.

2 other occasions were after long drives and stopping then getting back in to car, massively down on power, but then works after restarting.

Car has always used lots of oil, using a bit of coolant at the moment as well. I'm doing 2.5-3k miles a month now.

One thing I've noticed recently is a strong fumes/oil/burning smell withing the first few miles of driving, normally when I've stopped at lights after a few miles.

Car is going in to garage next week, any ideas in advance?

[CB 987]

Unfortunately I can't help with the cutting out. The burning oil smell sounds like it could be a leaking rocker cover gasket, oil leaks and burns off on the exhaust manifold heat shields. The oil filter housing gasket is also a known weak spot for oil leaks.

[Prizam]

Crank censor gone wrong because of an oil leek.

[sjj84]

As above, cutting out sounds like a crank shaft sensor to me. Might not be related to an oil leak, quite a common failure.