What would cause this? E60 530i

What would cause this? E60 530i

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Nath911t

Original Poster:

583 posts

196 months

Thursday 22nd June 2017
quotequote all
On an early E60 530i.

It started running like a bag of spanners. Plugged it into INPA where it showed misfires on 4 out of the 6 cylinders. Changed the plugs and coil packs with OEM and it ran fine for a few days clocking up about 50 miles or so.

Now it's running like it did before with the same error codes.

bmwmike

6,918 posts

107 months

Thursday 22nd June 2017
quotequote all
Which engine, m54 or n52 ?

If m54 I'd be looking for intake boot splits.

Nath911t

Original Poster:

583 posts

196 months

Thursday 22nd June 2017
quotequote all
Thank you. Will have a look at that as it is the m54 engine.

E-bmw

9,105 posts

151 months

Thursday 22nd June 2017
quotequote all
But why would that give specifically the same codes on the same cylinders?

I would be looking at the wiring harness for coils/injectors myself.

mysteron35

28 posts

215 months

Friday 23rd June 2017
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I had something similar to this on my e46 M3
I had misfires on two cylinders. I fitted new coil packs and all was good for a few weeks. The misfire then returned intermittently, strangely more likely to happen if I'd not driven the car for a few days.
It was finally traced to the wiring loom to the coils and fixed easily and cheaply.

Steve.

Allanv

3,540 posts

185 months

Friday 23rd June 2017
quotequote all
Nath911t said:
On an early E60 530i.

It started running like a bag of spanners. Plugged it into INPA where it showed misfires on 4 out of the 6 cylinders. Changed the plugs and coil packs with OEM and it ran fine for a few days clocking up about 50 miles or so.

Now it's running like it did before with the same error codes.
My 330i had a misfire cyl 4 & 6 so change all the plugs and coils, it was fine for 2 or 3 days then it came back although mine was the cold start misfire so in the end I changed all the injectors and it has been fine.

SebringMan

1,773 posts

185 months

Friday 23rd June 2017
quotequote all
What happens if you clear the codes? Does it run smooth again?

If it can be made to run good again I'd check to see if the injector duty can be read in INPA as part of the live data.

Otherwise I'd also be thinking wiring loom. Does it always run bad now? If so I'd be tempted to put in an HT lead in between the coil and the plug and see if they are firing; It will rule out if the wiring harness is gone with a spark tester also in the mix.

You can buy spark testers I believe to fit a coil-on-plug situation. Of course this depends on the cost of how much it is to replace parts here and there until the problem is fixed.

If it's still running bad after ruling out the spark it can only be the fuel system. Or possibly the VANOS but I doubt that.

bmwmike

6,918 posts

107 months

Friday 23rd June 2017
quotequote all
Split intake boot can cause misfires because of the unmetered air getting in.

Agree it could be a loom fault too.. but... split intake boot very common and worth checking .

BTW do we know what the actual codes are..

E-bmw

9,105 posts

151 months

Friday 23rd June 2017
quotequote all
I 100% agree with you about split boots causing bad running, had that on my e36 328 before, but not when it causes misfires just on 2 cylinders & always the same ones.

bmwmike

6,918 posts

107 months

Friday 23rd June 2017
quotequote all
I read it to be four cylinders showing misfire not just two.

Nath911t

Original Poster:

583 posts

196 months

Saturday 24th June 2017
quotequote all
Thank you all for your replies and suggestions and apologies for not replying sooner.
I'm going over to the car today armed with inpa and dis so hopefully one or the other will point to the issue.

Will a crack in the intake boot be evident? I'll spray it with wd40 or similar while it's running to see if it changes how it ticks over. Will also clear the codes to see if that changes anything as well but wiring fault would be my guess at the moment. Here's a screen shot of the codes -





I'll do an update a bit later on as there is nothing worse than someone posting a question for help and not giving an outcome. Once again, thanks all smile

bmwmike

6,918 posts

107 months

Saturday 24th June 2017
quotequote all
You ideally need to take the boot off to check for splits. The engine moves about and opens up the split which might not otherwise be open when engine static.

Saying that, the intake boot may well be different on e60 compared to the e46 and not susceptible to splitting. Not sure.

Be interesting to see outcome..


Nath911t

Original Poster:

583 posts

196 months

Sunday 25th June 2017
quotequote all
Duly noted and thanks.

Had a chance yesterday to look into things a bit more. When the car 1st starts up it is fine although there does sound like an air leak with the hissing noise somewhere on the inlet manifold side. Once it's warmed up it ran a bit lumpy and came out with these codes -



Code COMBI A3B3 also come up along with the EML pinging on. I cleared the codes down and they came back up and it didn't clear the EML and it started/ticked over no different. I sprayed some lube around the intake boot/manifold side but it was hard to say if it made much difference as most of the time in ran ok, albeit with a hissing noise with the occasional lumpiness - like it was running on 4/5 cyclinders.

Unplugged the MAF and it made no difference with starting/ticking over then unplugged the DISA and that made no difference. Although when the DISA was plugged/unplugged when the engine was turned off you could hear for a few seconds a gush of air coming from around that area.

I had a DISA changed on one of my old E46 330ci as that was rattling but this one isn't. I also put my foot down on the clutch a couple of times and the revs seemed to be a bit smoother but the clutch appears fine and operates ok with no noises/slipping, etc. Don't these manuals have a clutch delay valve so that could just be coincidence with the lumpy running.

Reading up about DISA's that could throw up the above error codes with similar symptoms but then so could an air leak.

I'm very reluctant to taking it an indy BMW as if it doesn't show up as code it can stump some of them and I don't really want to get other bits replaced on a trial and error basis as some of these sensors aren't cheap. Then the heavens opened up and it was game over for the day .....

bmwmike

6,918 posts

107 months

Sunday 25th June 2017
quotequote all
Be useful to see the descriptions for those codes. I did start looking and 279c is thermostat related isn't it? Got bored looking for the others as it's not the easiest on a mobile phone.. sorry

Random misfires and hissing sounds like a post MAF air leak to me though.

CCV etc looking OK? The pipework can become brittle and crack/snap. Especially the one low down that goes into the dip stick tube (IIRC)

Nath911t

Original Poster:

583 posts

196 months

Tuesday 27th June 2017
quotequote all
bmwmike said:
Be useful to see the descriptions for those codes. I did start looking and 279c is thermostat related isn't it? Got bored looking for the others as it's not the easiest on a mobile phone.. sorry

Random misfires and hissing sounds like a post MAF air leak to me though.

CCV etc looking OK? The pipework can become brittle and crack/snap. Especially the one low down that goes into the dip stick tube (IIRC)
Thanks and to be fair the codes are all over the place and can point to many things which could be replaced to have the same issue. Took the DISA off was faced with this -



Fingers crossed this is the cause! Managed to find the metal pin as well which could of U/S'd one of the bores just for giggles.

bmwmike

6,918 posts

107 months

Tuesday 27th June 2017
quotequote all
That won't be helping!!

Nath911t

Original Poster:

583 posts

196 months

Monday 3rd July 2017
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To conclude this thread, it was the DISA valve. New one fitted and back to purring like a kitten. No errors, no EML.

Just a shame that it doesn't throw up it's own error code but hey-ho.

bmwmike

6,918 posts

107 months

Monday 3rd July 2017
quotequote all
Interesting.. wonder why the misfires.