E91 Straight Six Bearding
Discussion
E92_325 said:
Anyone dealt with a bad Camshaft position sensor on an N52?
On Friday, the car cranked for ages before starting. Thought it could be a bad battery but then I remembered the battery was changed only in March 2023. After scanning the car, code 2A9A appeared which relates to the camshaft position sensor. Symptoms of a bad camshaft sensor are long cranking and stalling during driving (didn’t have that issue).
Once started, the car drove fine. I drove it the following Saturday, Sunday and today, and the car started and drove perfect each time weirdly.
I want to say it was an anomaly, but in my experience that doesn’t exist with cars. I think this is the beginning of the sensor crapping itself. Will give it a more few days to see if it happens again before deciding on replacing it. It’s at the front of the engine so seems an easy enough job. Luckily it’s not the crankshaft position sensor which is under the intake manifold..
Yes I have!On Friday, the car cranked for ages before starting. Thought it could be a bad battery but then I remembered the battery was changed only in March 2023. After scanning the car, code 2A9A appeared which relates to the camshaft position sensor. Symptoms of a bad camshaft sensor are long cranking and stalling during driving (didn’t have that issue).
Once started, the car drove fine. I drove it the following Saturday, Sunday and today, and the car started and drove perfect each time weirdly.
I want to say it was an anomaly, but in my experience that doesn’t exist with cars. I think this is the beginning of the sensor crapping itself. Will give it a more few days to see if it happens again before deciding on replacing it. It’s at the front of the engine so seems an easy enough job. Luckily it’s not the crankshaft position sensor which is under the intake manifold..
From my post a while back, that basically summarises it.
zippyonline said:
So at the end of 2022, the car intermittently started to take a while to crank, and then would run a bit rough, and then be fine. I had the 2AA2 inlet camshaft fault code – and from experience of once forgetting to plug the inlet camshaft sensor wiring back in, the car cranks a while and does start in like a safer mode as it calculates from the exhaust camshaft sensor and the main crank sensor what it thinks the inlet camshaft sensor should do… I changed the sensor…still did it intermittently. I had vanos solenoid codes…swapped the solenoid and they didn’t follow – but then bought two new vanos solenoids anyway and fitted them… (I’d changed only one way back when I bought the car as it was an issue then…and figured they have been talked about as a semi-service item). Yeah, that didn’t fix it. After much buggering about, I traced the individual cables back to the ecu box, they were all good, I was then backprobing the connector/sensor and manually turning the car over by hand to verify the sensor for no good reason (I’m always buying oe sensor and stuff..bonus points if you have the BMW logo ground off!), and figured out it was a dodgy connection plug onto the sensor! So I bought a new plug, de-pinned the old one, crimped new connectors on, and voila, fault fixed!
No interesting photos for this one, but here’s one for the story.
TLDR - backprobed the connector and manually turned the car over by hand to see if I was getting a reading, it was intermittent there, but fine off the actual sensor. So de-pinned and fitted new connector - paid over the odds from BMW, but I was sortof in a rush before a bigger trip to get it done and knew it would be exactly the correct bits!No interesting photos for this one, but here’s one for the story.
I "think" the camshaft sensor are both the same for inlet and exhaust, so you could swap them over and see if the fault follows to rule the sensor in or out.
Did I read somewhere that the 330d/335d has potential issues with drowning of the ECU due to drain holes blocking?
If so, would that mean getting everything out of the ECU location in the following video and then checking the drains at the bottom??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnt-9t3Z8ZM
If so, would that mean getting everything out of the ECU location in the following video and then checking the drains at the bottom??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnt-9t3Z8ZM
If you take the lid off, you can soon see if it's been wet in there or not. Pulling all the cables out and stuff is a bit fiddly the first time you do it (I've been in there handful of times to check continuity of a few cables and diagnose my battery drain etc. it's always been dry for me to give you some hope!).
RSTurboPaul said:
Did I read somewhere that the 330d/335d has potential issues with drowning of the ECU due to drain holes blocking?
If so, would that mean getting everything out of the ECU location in the following video and then checking the drains at the bottom??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnt-9t3Z8ZM
It can happen but is a very rare issue. Not like the E60 drain under the brake servo.If so, would that mean getting everything out of the ECU location in the following video and then checking the drains at the bottom??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnt-9t3Z8ZM
RSTurboPaul said:
Did I read somewhere that the 330d/335d has potential issues with drowning of the ECU due to drain holes blocking?
If so, would that mean getting everything out of the ECU location in the following video and then checking the drains at the bottom??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnt-9t3Z8ZM
My mate bought a 55 teg 330i Touring and it broke down on the first drive home. Took 3 or 4 different mechanics to identify this was the issue. Replacement ECU fixed it.If so, would that mean getting everything out of the ECU location in the following video and then checking the drains at the bottom??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnt-9t3Z8ZM
RSTurboPaul said:
Did I read somewhere that the 330d/335d has potential issues with drowning of the ECU due to drain holes blocking?
If so, would that mean getting everything out of the ECU location in the following video and then checking the drains at the bottom??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnt-9t3Z8ZM
I too had it on my 2005 E90 330i with N52. Car had some rough running a few miles before it conked out and would not restart. My ECU was bricked - don't send it to ECU testing as they could not repair mine. I found an automotive electronic guy in London (can give you details if you want) who cloned my ECU to another MSV70 unit. All he needs is your old ECU and the CAS module sent to him by post, and he then send you back the cloned unit. The garage made some modifications to the drain plugs and I have not had the problem again in the last 6.5 years of ownership. If so, would that mean getting everything out of the ECU location in the following video and then checking the drains at the bottom??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnt-9t3Z8ZM
AmirGSXR said:
My rear brakes squeak when I first pull away after releasing the handbrake. I have read that this is because the brake shoes and their mechanisms gets dry with lots of crud in them. Before I tackle this job, does anyone have any tips on what I should be doing to fix this issue?
It's a fairly simple mechanical system in there, when you pull the disc off it will be fairly obvious how it works. There's brake shoes, a couple of springs, a couple of pins to stop the shoes flopping out of place, an adjuster at the top and the cable pull mechanism at the bottom. Moving bits should move, and friction bits should be sorta clean. Not a lot to it really.Only real "tip" I guess would be obviously make sure the handbrake is off, but make sure the wheel is free to turn when you come to take the disc off, that makes life easier so the shoes don't stop you getting the disc off.
ATM said:
N53
Looks like an SE with sports seats
And it looks like they aren't original, as it seems to have the extended storage options around the car, apart from the nets that come on the back of the seats as part of that!Looks like an SE with sports seats
(It seems many year with a BMW turns you into a BMW nerd doesn't it!)
Also a shame that the N53 engine version comes with EPAS..
RSTurboPaul said:
Thanks for the replies re: the ECU drowning, gents!
You had a look?
An E82 M135i for sale.
Plot twist - It’s actually a 125i
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/2025030899...
Plot twist - It’s actually a 125i
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/2025030899...
zippyonline said:
E92_325 said:
Anyone dealt with a bad Camshaft position sensor on an N52?
On Friday, the car cranked for ages before starting. Thought it could be a bad battery but then I remembered the battery was changed only in March 2023. After scanning the car, code 2A9A appeared which relates to the camshaft position sensor. Symptoms of a bad camshaft sensor are long cranking and stalling during driving (didn’t have that issue).
Once started, the car drove fine. I drove it the following Saturday, Sunday and today, and the car started and drove perfect each time weirdly.
I want to say it was an anomaly, but in my experience that doesn’t exist with cars. I think this is the beginning of the sensor crapping itself. Will give it a more few days to see if it happens again before deciding on replacing it. It’s at the front of the engine so seems an easy enough job. Luckily it’s not the crankshaft position sensor which is under the intake manifold..
Yes I have!On Friday, the car cranked for ages before starting. Thought it could be a bad battery but then I remembered the battery was changed only in March 2023. After scanning the car, code 2A9A appeared which relates to the camshaft position sensor. Symptoms of a bad camshaft sensor are long cranking and stalling during driving (didn’t have that issue).
Once started, the car drove fine. I drove it the following Saturday, Sunday and today, and the car started and drove perfect each time weirdly.
I want to say it was an anomaly, but in my experience that doesn’t exist with cars. I think this is the beginning of the sensor crapping itself. Will give it a more few days to see if it happens again before deciding on replacing it. It’s at the front of the engine so seems an easy enough job. Luckily it’s not the crankshaft position sensor which is under the intake manifold..
From my post a while back, that basically summarises it.
zippyonline said:
So at the end of 2022, the car intermittently started to take a while to crank, and then would run a bit rough, and then be fine. I had the 2AA2 inlet camshaft fault code – and from experience of once forgetting to plug the inlet camshaft sensor wiring back in, the car cranks a while and does start in like a safer mode as it calculates from the exhaust camshaft sensor and the main crank sensor what it thinks the inlet camshaft sensor should do… I changed the sensor…still did it intermittently. I had vanos solenoid codes…swapped the solenoid and they didn’t follow – but then bought two new vanos solenoids anyway and fitted them… (I’d changed only one way back when I bought the car as it was an issue then…and figured they have been talked about as a semi-service item). Yeah, that didn’t fix it. After much buggering about, I traced the individual cables back to the ecu box, they were all good, I was then backprobing the connector/sensor and manually turning the car over by hand to verify the sensor for no good reason (I’m always buying oe sensor and stuff..bonus points if you have the BMW logo ground off!), and figured out it was a dodgy connection plug onto the sensor! So I bought a new plug, de-pinned the old one, crimped new connectors on, and voila, fault fixed!
No interesting photos for this one, but here’s one for the story.
TLDR - backprobed the connector and manually turned the car over by hand to see if I was getting a reading, it was intermittent there, but fine off the actual sensor. So de-pinned and fitted new connector - paid over the odds from BMW, but I was sortof in a rush before a bigger trip to get it done and knew it would be exactly the correct bits!No interesting photos for this one, but here’s one for the story.
I "think" the camshaft sensor are both the same for inlet and exhaust, so you could swap them over and see if the fault follows to rule the sensor in or out.
RSTurboPaul said:
zippyonline said:
...
Not yet - it's on the list of things to do!RSTurboPaul said:
Thanks for the replies re: the ECU drowning, gents!
You had a look?Mr Tidy said:
I topped up the oil in my 330i on Wednesday, and remembering this thread I cleaned all the rubbish out of the scuttle drains!
Any particular tips there? I normally clean the "strainer bung" thingies on the edges of the engine compartment, good design as they're made to be lifted off an washed.But are there any hidden ones I might be missing?
Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff