My brave pill: E92 BMW 335i with the infamous N54 engine
Discussion
bmwmike said:
You didn't have any metal in the oil filter iirc. Cam ledge wear causes little slivers to appear in the filter pleats though you have to look v closely to see them. Little skidmarks left by the scouring action.
Fingers crossed it's just a sensor or wiring loom fault.
That’s right; there was nothing obvious in the oil filter. Fingers crossed it's just a sensor or wiring loom fault.
Hopefully; the pragmatic approach to the issue is decent. I’m
At least taking to someone who understands cars and engines too.
Collected the car this afternoon. It felt pretty good to be fair; the gearbox is smoother after a service but needs to relearn to be a gearbox after having the adaptations reset.
I was chatting to the chap who worked in the car (ex-BMW Mastertech). He said the car drive really well when he took it for a test drive and that there was nothing in the live data that would indicate that the ledges were worn. It’s still odd that the error code from when it went into limp mode on Monday night was on the exhaust side having always been on the intake side to date.
I’m going to Holyhead on Wednesday, so that’s the test for it; will it survive a long journey without the yellow check engine light of doom making an appearance!
As I had the car back earlier than expected, I dived into the interior swap. No pictures of the early stuff, but I’ve managed to swap over the passenger side door card, remove reg passenger side quarter panel, rear bench and back rest. The back rest was an absolute sod to get out.
Everything has been cleaned yet again to remove the last remnants of other people’s filth. The mouldy crumbs in one of the door pockets were a highlight!
I can’t swap over the drivers rear quarter panel until the light conductor and trim arrives from Germany. In the mean time, I cracked on with the passenger side rear quarter panel.
Old one removed and the extra tweeter removed
Sound deadening removed so I can access things like the seat belt handover arms (I’m keel g the ones from my car because one is new).
Started swapping stuff over to the new rear quarter card; the hole I cut for the extra tweeter worked an absolute treat.
Logic 7 speaker swapped over and I’ve kept my old sound deadening whiff is a touch less smelly than the stuff that came with the new interior.
And all ready for installation tomorrow.
I don’t think the rest of the swap will take too much time tomorrow.
I was chatting to the chap who worked in the car (ex-BMW Mastertech). He said the car drive really well when he took it for a test drive and that there was nothing in the live data that would indicate that the ledges were worn. It’s still odd that the error code from when it went into limp mode on Monday night was on the exhaust side having always been on the intake side to date.
I’m going to Holyhead on Wednesday, so that’s the test for it; will it survive a long journey without the yellow check engine light of doom making an appearance!
As I had the car back earlier than expected, I dived into the interior swap. No pictures of the early stuff, but I’ve managed to swap over the passenger side door card, remove reg passenger side quarter panel, rear bench and back rest. The back rest was an absolute sod to get out.
Everything has been cleaned yet again to remove the last remnants of other people’s filth. The mouldy crumbs in one of the door pockets were a highlight!
I can’t swap over the drivers rear quarter panel until the light conductor and trim arrives from Germany. In the mean time, I cracked on with the passenger side rear quarter panel.
Old one removed and the extra tweeter removed
Sound deadening removed so I can access things like the seat belt handover arms (I’m keel g the ones from my car because one is new).
Started swapping stuff over to the new rear quarter card; the hole I cut for the extra tweeter worked an absolute treat.
Logic 7 speaker swapped over and I’ve kept my old sound deadening whiff is a touch less smelly than the stuff that came with the new interior.
And all ready for installation tomorrow.
I don’t think the rest of the swap will take too much time tomorrow.
Court_S said:
Collected the car this afternoon. It felt pretty good to be fair; the gearbox is smoother after a service but needs to relearn to be a gearbox after having the adaptations reset.
I was chatting to the chap who worked in the car (ex-BMW Mastertech). He said the car drive really well when he took it for a test drive and that there was nothing in the live data that would indicate that the ledges were worn. It’s still odd that the error code from when it went into limp mode on Monday night was on the exhaust side having always been on the intake side to date.
I’m going to Holyhead on Wednesday, so that’s the test for it; will it survive a long journey without the yellow check engine light of doom making an appearance!
As I had the car back earlier than expected, I dived into the interior swap.
I don’t think the rest of the swap will take too much time tomorrow.
Great news! Fingers crossed eh. The interior bits ready to go in look great! Love the silver trim on the black/red - works a treat! I was chatting to the chap who worked in the car (ex-BMW Mastertech). He said the car drive really well when he took it for a test drive and that there was nothing in the live data that would indicate that the ledges were worn. It’s still odd that the error code from when it went into limp mode on Monday night was on the exhaust side having always been on the intake side to date.
I’m going to Holyhead on Wednesday, so that’s the test for it; will it survive a long journey without the yellow check engine light of doom making an appearance!
As I had the car back earlier than expected, I dived into the interior swap.
I don’t think the rest of the swap will take too much time tomorrow.
Wow, that will be an incredible outcome if it turns out that the cam ledges are fine. We all have our fingers crossed for you!
If that is the case, it just goes to further emphasise the inability of many (most) main dealers to actually diagnose faults. They read the codes, replace the sensors then decide that it must be an internal fault and will happily charge you a huge amount to strip the engine. No real investigative work performed to be quite frank.
There is a huge amount of sensor data available to read on these cars, and someone with the right expertise can perform an incredible amount of diagnosis without removing a single bolt.
The car is going to look fantastic with that interior and I'm sure you'll have it running perfectly soon.
If that is the case, it just goes to further emphasise the inability of many (most) main dealers to actually diagnose faults. They read the codes, replace the sensors then decide that it must be an internal fault and will happily charge you a huge amount to strip the engine. No real investigative work performed to be quite frank.
There is a huge amount of sensor data available to read on these cars, and someone with the right expertise can perform an incredible amount of diagnosis without removing a single bolt.
The car is going to look fantastic with that interior and I'm sure you'll have it running perfectly soon.
pmorg4 said:
Wow, that will be an incredible outcome if it turns out that the cam ledges are fine. We all have our fingers crossed for you!
If that is the case, it just goes to further emphasise the inability of many (most) main dealers to actually diagnose faults. They read the codes, replace the sensors then decide that it must be an internal fault and will happily charge you a huge amount to strip the engine. No real investigative work performed to be quite frank.
There is a huge amount of sensor data available to read on these cars, and someone with the right expertise can perform an incredible amount of diagnosis without removing a single bolt.
The car is going to look fantastic with that interior and I'm sure you'll have it running perfectly soon.
Yea, it’s very odd. They were pretty surprised that BMW had diagnosed it as ledges and were even more surprised when I said BMW were removing the manifold, old cooler and filter housing.If that is the case, it just goes to further emphasise the inability of many (most) main dealers to actually diagnose faults. They read the codes, replace the sensors then decide that it must be an internal fault and will happily charge you a huge amount to strip the engine. No real investigative work performed to be quite frank.
There is a huge amount of sensor data available to read on these cars, and someone with the right expertise can perform an incredible amount of diagnosis without removing a single bolt.
The car is going to look fantastic with that interior and I'm sure you'll have it running perfectly soon.
It was running pretty nicely yesterday (touch wood). Wednesday is the real litmus test.
They were really happy with how the car drove and the live data that it was bang on. The guy who worked on it took it for a good rest drove and said he was looking at the cam degree of correction(IIRC). Anything up to 5 degrees of correction is within spec. The intake was cock on with the exhaust showing 2.6 degrees.
I might have been a bit distracted this morning.
This is how I’d left the car last night.
First up I tackled the arm rest. The little ratchet bit that pops out is a little bugger to get back in. I very nearly lost it into the depths of the centre console but which some long bent nose pliers it was retrieved. The spring is under loads of tension and was quite tricky to get back in.
Next up was the passenger side rear quarter panel which took a bit of fiddling to get it aligned.
Then it was time for the s
ttest, most frustrating bit; getting the rear back rests in. Out of the car the slip together dead easily but once in the car, they’re absolute sods.
After lots of swearing I got them reconnected and popped in the rest of the seats.
The drivers side rear quarter panel will be swapped once the new trim and lighter conductor arrive from Germany. Luckily they weren’t that expensive at £33 for the pair although someone on eBay is selling the black trim for £76!!!
Next up was the front seats and drivers door card.
Really pleased with how they look. The interior is so much brighter now although I can’t decide if the silver trim is too much with the red. I’ll have to see how I feel about that.
It was then time to reconnect the battery. Being a pessimistic sod I was expecting sone warning lights for airbags caused by a bad occupancy sensor but I was pleasantly surprised when it started first time with no warning lights of errors! All of the seat functions work, so happy days.
This is how I’d left the car last night.
First up I tackled the arm rest. The little ratchet bit that pops out is a little bugger to get back in. I very nearly lost it into the depths of the centre console but which some long bent nose pliers it was retrieved. The spring is under loads of tension and was quite tricky to get back in.
Next up was the passenger side rear quarter panel which took a bit of fiddling to get it aligned.
Then it was time for the s
ttest, most frustrating bit; getting the rear back rests in. Out of the car the slip together dead easily but once in the car, they’re absolute sods.After lots of swearing I got them reconnected and popped in the rest of the seats.
The drivers side rear quarter panel will be swapped once the new trim and lighter conductor arrive from Germany. Luckily they weren’t that expensive at £33 for the pair although someone on eBay is selling the black trim for £76!!!
Next up was the front seats and drivers door card.
Really pleased with how they look. The interior is so much brighter now although I can’t decide if the silver trim is too much with the red. I’ll have to see how I feel about that.
It was then time to reconnect the battery. Being a pessimistic sod I was expecting sone warning lights for airbags caused by a bad occupancy sensor but I was pleasantly surprised when it started first time with no warning lights of errors! All of the seat functions work, so happy days.
New interior looks great! I think it's fine with the silver, I didn't even really notice it until you mentioned it in your post. It would probably work really well with piano black or similar mind, not sure what other options there are aside from wood which probably wouldn't work with red.
roadie said:
That's a mega escape if it's sensor only!
I hope you can get the interior back in without creating any more rattles.
Yeah, it’s all very strange. I’ve been as careful as I can be with the trim and I’ve used new clips etc so I’m hoping it won’t be any worse than before on the rattle front. The rear cubby cover rattles which does my head in. I hope you can get the interior back in without creating any more rattles.
Sofa said:
Unbelievable if that’s the resolution to this whole saga! Fingers crossed though, that’d be a cracking result.
New interior looks great, totally transformed from how it was when you got it.
We’ll see what happens on Wednesday; it’ll either be fine or the yellow light of doom will reappear. New interior looks great, totally transformed from how it was when you got it.
I’m really pleased with the interior; it’s so much lighter than it was before.
pmorg4 said:
New interior looks great! I think it's fine with the silver, I didn't even really notice it until you mentioned it in your post. It would probably work really well with piano black or similar mind, not sure what other options there are aside from wood which probably wouldn't work with red.
Thanks. The wood which my car came with looks horrendous with the red leather. No way. Piano black would look good but I can’t cope with the finger prints and scratches so the silver will probably end up staying. Unless I wrap it in a dark brushed effect vinyl.
Tan_TCI said:
Hi, lovely and brave choice.
Just wanted to pick up on the point about rewiring the paddles so they are like the modern ones. Is this a straight forward job? is there any existing tutorials?
Thanks
Thanks.Just wanted to pick up on the point about rewiring the paddles so they are like the modern ones. Is this a straight forward job? is there any existing tutorials?
Thanks
It’s dead easy to rewire the paddles. It’s only really the left hand one that needs changing. With the paddles exposed, unplug it and swap the top and bottom wire over.
If you google it, you’ll find videos etc.
cerb4.5lee said:
You've got to be over the moon on all counts Sam I reckon. The interior looks fantastic, and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you with the engine too.
I really enjoy watching/reading about what you do with your cars for sure.
Great work.
Thanks Lee. Really pleased with the interior. Can’t wait to get the drivers, rear quarter panel changed over. We’ll see what happens with the engine.I really enjoy watching/reading about what you do with your cars for sure.
Great work.
Tom4398cc said:
If it turns out you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg on cam ledges, can you get a manual gearbox instead?????
I’ve not really thought about that to be honest. Plus the boss has told me not to waste the money saved on the repair with more car mod! I think we need to have words! 
The car was super grotty even after minimal use this week, so I couldn’t resist chucking a bucket of water over it.
DPD also dropped off a couple of goodies too….
I’m not going to charge into getting the intercooler fitted yet until I know where I am with the engine. The remap is also temporarily on hold.
DPD also dropped off a couple of goodies too….
I’m not going to charge into getting the intercooler fitted yet until I know where I am with the engine. The remap is also temporarily on hold.
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