118d juddering/jerking randomly whilst driving
Discussion
Hi everyone. I am having an issue with my 1 series 118d. It’s from 2016.
The car seems to randomly judder or stutter when driving. It happens at different speeds or revs and gears and doesn’t appear to be consistent. I couldn’t recreate it. No lights on the dashboard and the dials don’t move when it happens but I di see the MPG dial go down on occasions. I mostly drive to and from work and it usually happens 2 or 3 times for around 1-3 seconds each time. Sometimes it feels like it’s doing it more harder others softly. Sometimes it doesn’t even do it at all. This has been ongoing since November. My father checked for fault codes and none were found. Car is not due a service until May. Passed last MOT in October but funnily enough never did this before that.
I used to drive mostly in Eco Pro mode and I was averaging 51 mpg or thereabouts before this started happening but it went down to 45/6 on average. However I did then regularly start driving in comfort mode and never use eco mode anymore. MPG has dropped by another 10 since then.
im not very knowledgeable when it comes to the mechanical bits and pieces and I’d just take it to a garage to be checked but out of the couple local ones I’ve called they said they are fully booked in for the next few weeks. I will be calling some others today to see if I can get someone to take a look at it next week but this has been bugging me for far too long. I’ve tried fuel cleaner as recommended by a couple of people I know but still happening. Fuel wise I just went with regular diesel from supermarkets or Costco diesel most of the time.
In the meantime I thought I’d ask on here for help and some ideas as to what the issue is. Thanks in advance.
The car seems to randomly judder or stutter when driving. It happens at different speeds or revs and gears and doesn’t appear to be consistent. I couldn’t recreate it. No lights on the dashboard and the dials don’t move when it happens but I di see the MPG dial go down on occasions. I mostly drive to and from work and it usually happens 2 or 3 times for around 1-3 seconds each time. Sometimes it feels like it’s doing it more harder others softly. Sometimes it doesn’t even do it at all. This has been ongoing since November. My father checked for fault codes and none were found. Car is not due a service until May. Passed last MOT in October but funnily enough never did this before that.
I used to drive mostly in Eco Pro mode and I was averaging 51 mpg or thereabouts before this started happening but it went down to 45/6 on average. However I did then regularly start driving in comfort mode and never use eco mode anymore. MPG has dropped by another 10 since then.
im not very knowledgeable when it comes to the mechanical bits and pieces and I’d just take it to a garage to be checked but out of the couple local ones I’ve called they said they are fully booked in for the next few weeks. I will be calling some others today to see if I can get someone to take a look at it next week but this has been bugging me for far too long. I’ve tried fuel cleaner as recommended by a couple of people I know but still happening. Fuel wise I just went with regular diesel from supermarkets or Costco diesel most of the time.
In the meantime I thought I’d ask on here for help and some ideas as to what the issue is. Thanks in advance.
If you took it to a garage are you confident you could recreate the issue for them?
If there are no errors being reported, unless you can recreate the issue, it's going to be difficult, even for a mechanic, to identify the issue.
Is it worth taking it on a longish run to blow any cobwebs out of the system? You say you drive to work, is it very far? Does the car get fully up to temperature?
I don't know what the symptoms of a clogged DPF are, but would think that would throw a warning light on if it was the case.
If there are no errors being reported, unless you can recreate the issue, it's going to be difficult, even for a mechanic, to identify the issue.
Is it worth taking it on a longish run to blow any cobwebs out of the system? You say you drive to work, is it very far? Does the car get fully up to temperature?
I don't know what the symptoms of a clogged DPF are, but would think that would throw a warning light on if it was the case.
Olivergt said:
If you took it to a garage are you confident you could recreate the issue for them?
If there are no errors being reported, unless you can recreate the issue, it's going to be difficult, even for a mechanic, to identify the issue.
Is it worth taking it on a longish run to blow any cobwebs out of the system? You say you drive to work, is it very far? Does the car get fully up to temperature?
I don't know what the symptoms of a clogged DPF are, but would think that would throw a warning light on if it was the case.
Nah couldn't recreate it not at all, the best way to show them would be to take it a drive really because of how random it is or at least appears to be.If there are no errors being reported, unless you can recreate the issue, it's going to be difficult, even for a mechanic, to identify the issue.
Is it worth taking it on a longish run to blow any cobwebs out of the system? You say you drive to work, is it very far? Does the car get fully up to temperature?
I don't know what the symptoms of a clogged DPF are, but would think that would throw a warning light on if it was the case.
Work is 30 minute drive each way mostly on motorway but it's happened on the motorway and off it on 30 roads. My partner lives around an hour away so I've been to and from there a little bit also and it still happens so not sure a longish run would help?
Yeah I'm led to believe a warning light would come on in that case. Someone at work mentioned something about handbreak shoes and it catching thus causing the 'stutter' but I'm not convinced, as clueless about these things as I am surely I'd notice?
Sounds like it gets a reasonable run out often enough, so unlikely to be dpf related. Do you know if it does a regen?
The only thing that I can suggest is to wait till the tank is nearly empty then fill with premium diesel and some injector cleaner. This won't do any harm but might help.
The only other thing that you can try is to turn the aircon off, it could be related to the aircon compressor cutting in/out, if you still get the issue with it off, then at least you have ruled out one more thing.
The only thing that I can suggest is to wait till the tank is nearly empty then fill with premium diesel and some injector cleaner. This won't do any harm but might help.
The only other thing that you can try is to turn the aircon off, it could be related to the aircon compressor cutting in/out, if you still get the issue with it off, then at least you have ruled out one more thing.
Olivergt said:
Sounds like it gets a reasonable run out often enough, so unlikely to be dpf related. Do you know if it does a regen?
The only thing that I can suggest is to wait till the tank is nearly empty then fill with premium diesel and some injector cleaner. This won't do any harm but might help.
The only other thing that you can try is to turn the aircon off, it could be related to the aircon compressor cutting in/out, if you still get the issue with it off, then at least you have ruled out one more thing.
No idea mate to be honest.The only thing that I can suggest is to wait till the tank is nearly empty then fill with premium diesel and some injector cleaner. This won't do any harm but might help.
The only other thing that you can try is to turn the aircon off, it could be related to the aircon compressor cutting in/out, if you still get the issue with it off, then at least you have ruled out one more thing.
I've literally just got in and done that exact thing. Will try the aircon thing next time out. Cheers.
BFleming said:
Jerkiness on these engines is usually EGR valve related; find someone with ISTA, or pay your BMW specialist to do it, as ISTA can run tests to determine how the EGR behaves.
I have ISTA on a laptop actually, my friend used it before, just need the ENET-OBD cable which I can probably get off Amazon.Is that something a newbie like myself could easily check with that?
StrawberryBurst said:
BFleming said:
Jerkiness on these engines is usually EGR valve related; find someone with ISTA, or pay your BMW specialist to do it, as ISTA can run tests to determine how the EGR behaves.
I have ISTA on a laptop actually, my friend used it before, just need the ENET-OBD cable which I can probably get off Amazon.Is that something a newbie like myself could easily check with that?
The ABS relucter rings/sensor's are well known to cause the power cutting/jerkiness you speak of. It can tend to do it when going round corners? Try manually turning the traction control off and see if that causes it. When this fault occurs its common for no warning lights to come on. Its about £160 inc parts to sort. From experience its usually one of the rear corners.
dhibbert said:
The ABS relucter rings/sensor's are well known to cause the power cutting/jerkiness you speak of. It can tend to do it when going round corners? Try manually turning the traction control off and see if that causes it. When this fault occurs its common for no warning lights to come on. Its about £160 inc parts to sort. From experience its usually one of the rear corners.
I think it has done in the past so you could be onto something but it usually happens on straights to be honest..As an aside got ISTA loaded up in the car today and there were a number of fault codes in the DDE section (digital diesel) and a couple of them were to do with the EGR valve being open/wide? I never got a chance to get a screenshot of the codes but it was recommended I cleared them and next time I'm out in the car when I come back I can then re-scan and if any of them appear then I know what the issue is.
BFleming said:
Is the jerkiness still there? If not, drive the car until the next episode of rough running, then read the codes again.
Going to do that yeah but leaving it a couple of days. Definitely still jerkiness.Booked in for a service and diagnostics on Friday regardless so hopefully get to the bottom of it by the weekend.
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