E30 318i: Water in rear footwell - windscreen cowl leaking? Koi carp anyone??

After heavy rain I noticed the rear passenger foot well in the E30 is full of water. Can't see any signs of water ingress through the door seals or any stains in the headlining, but am told a common cause of this is the windscreen-cowl, so will be looking into this soon. For now, I have drilled a nice drain hole so at least it won't be filling up again.

E30 318i: Leaking clutch slave-cylinder... fluid low

Now the E30 is running well I took it out for a test run and noticed that all of a sudden the gears were grinding a little bit. Checked the fluid reservoir and the level had dropped to about 10mm, not good. Looked under the car and saw a spot of fluid on the drive right under the slave-cylinder. My guess, and no prizes for guessing right here, it was a leaking slave-cylinder and, hey presto... sure looks like one to me.

Replacement is ordered. I went for a cheap and cheerful one off eBay for just £16.50, though £25-40 seems to be the going rate. Be fitting this when I have chance. Looking forward to the bodywork, but mechanical jobs just keep popping up... that be old BMWs!

F10 530d: Water in Battery well / Bootwell / Trunkwell - where is it leaking?

I lifted the boot/trunk floor to jump-start a friends car and noticed that my battery well / spare-wheel well is full of dirty water.... oh dear. I’ve got a leak... but where? Boot seal? Bottom of the rear windscreen? There was a second aerial / antenna fitted in the roof that I removed, so figured it might be leaking through there and running down the C-pillar into the boot, but no water marks in the headlining or signs of ingress... Think I will have a proper look this weekend and try get to the bottom of it!

F10 530d: N57 EGR / Cooler related fault-code scan results

 Been getting the 'Drivetrain' malfunction message on my F10 530d iDrive and figured it likely to be EGR (exhaust-gas-recirculator) related, so plugged in a Snap-On Modis scanner and these are the codes I got, which are what I suspected to be honest. The EGR and EGR-cooler are known to pack in on the N57 series of engine, the latter of which can leak coolant into the inlet causing a bit of smoke on startup. 

28E200 - Exhaust Gas Temperature sensor before Cat, open circuit

255C00 - EGR Controller, Position Control, Valve open too far

190900 - EGR Mass Air Flow, measured plausibility calculated too high

240400 - EGR Control, control deviation air mass too low

272F09 - EGR, mechanically faulty close to open position

272E00 - EGR, mechanically faulty close to closed position

So, I have the classic two codes of the EGR failing close to open and closed position, which denotes a stuck EGR valve, which is quite common on all diesel engines, along with the EGR mass-air codes where values are higher and lower than they should be, which clearly ties in to the valve sticking in the open and closed position. Faults for the EGR control-module show that it is struggling to position the EGR correctly and this all points to one stuck EGR valve.

I also notice that I am getting a bit of smoke on startup sometimes which I have never noticed before. This also points to a faulty EGR-valve, or rather the cooler itself. The EGR-cooler is fed with coolant to reduce the operating temperature of the EGR-valve itself and these are known to have problems with leaking after time. They crack inside after prolonged use and start to leak coolant into the EGR and thereafter the air-intake, which causes a bit of white smoke on startup, which I have been experiencing the last few weeks and so it looks like this is the culprit and I will be replacing the EGR / cooler unit at some point I would imagine... watch this space.

E81 120d M-Sport: New springs and dampers!

Sean at work has a 1er with nearly 200k miles on the clock, through you would never tell as most of the parts have been replaced since he got it for a mere £700. Yes, you can get a zippy M-Sport 120d for this price, but unless you are willing to get your hands dirty I wouldn't recommend it. Of course, you probably are willing to do that or you wouldn't be here in the first place, so go sick there are bargains out there!

This time it's having new rear springs and dampers as one has leaked all of its fluid and is jammed in position. The opposite side was constantly hitting the bump-stop. She rides good now.

E60: Cracked lower timing-case - engine finished.

Yeah well that's torn it. Literally, torn it open. After all that effing about with the sump removal, finding the right piston and drilling off those snapped head bolts, I find a whopping great crack in the lower timing-case!

I wonder what caused this? Vibration from the swirl-flap doing its dance? High crankcase pressure from the dodgy piston? Who knows, but we can safely say that's where the oil leak was coming from!

It's a big enough job as it is to replace that single damaged piston, but to swap the lower timing-case as well involves stripping the entire front of the car, getting all the pulleys off and fully removing the crankshaft. Hmm, a lot of work and a lot more cost, this definitely calls for a replacement engine... Watch this space!!

E36 316i Compact: New head-gasket.

Well, it's been a busy month again in Beemer Lab and I've just bought a new house which hasn't helped. Firstly, I finally removed the stuck head-bolts from the E60, got the head off and found where my oil leak is coming from... The lower timing case has a big crack in it! It's too big a job to replace that and do the new piston, so it looks like the 530d does need a new engine after all, what a shame after my £500+ spend.

As there is no E46 progress still, I decided a cheap runaround BMW was needed on a temporary basis so I shelled out a quick £200 on an X-reg E36 316i Compact, again in Titansilver. It has 4 months tax and 10 months MOT so seemed ideal as a stop gap. That was until I went to pick up a fridge and it majorly overheated. After I limped home I found oil in the water, water in the oil and a constant bubbling from the radiator. Blown head gasket then!

I had to use it for 2 weeks in this state, only doing the 2 mile trip to work and no further, but still it was getting to max temp as I pulled up on the drive. The gasket was only £18 off eBay and is FAI. The job only took about 4 hours (oh the joys of working with a single cam!) and it is back on the road and running quite cool so far, though I will need to put it through its paces to find out if it was just a dodgy gasket or if there is a real cooling problem that's caused it.

I will cover the poor E60 and it's future in more detail soon. Oh, and I've also bought a new secondary air-pump or the E46 so watch this space. 3 Beemers and counting...

£18 delivered. eBay FTW still.

By gosh, that looks like some hot oil.

The centre two head-bolts [1 and 2] were finger loose when removed!
This has obviously allowed oil and water to mingle. Blast marks round
the front cylinder show where combustion was stopping water entering the head.
This whole head-gasket swap took about 4 hours, so how
hastily the last one was thrown on is disturbing...

Lots of burnt oil and split gasket over the head, but it cleaned up well.

Think I will leave cleaning the cooling system for another day though. The head is caked with 'rad-weld' type stuff.

Amazingly, after all that overheating, the head is straight as anything! BMW alloy heads are forgiving to say the least.

10 minutes with a razor-blade and the block is good as new. PIston don't look half bad either.

New gasket on. The re-tightening sequence is 30nm, 90 degrees and
another 90 degrees. I wonder if the last guy to work on it only did
the 30nm and forgot about the torque angling?

E60: Oil Leak Verdict.

More bad news for the 5 Series I'm afraid. Got it up on the ramps at work with five mechanics and as many torches to finally see where the bulk of the oil is coming from. In this post [http://beemerlab.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/e60-bad-oil-leak-was-it-running-too.html?m=0] my attention was solidly on the turbo oil-feed and return pipes, but further investigation has revealed that no oil is dripping from them and if they are leaking then it is only a seep, which is eventually building up on the underneath of the pipes. The main oil leak it would seem is running down the front of the engine. Unable to see where though or trace where the oil is running from due to the belts and pulleys covering the front of the block so well, I tentatively assumed it was coming from the front main crank-seal - oh dear. It stands to reason that swirl-flap damage could have unbalanced the crank somewhat and caused the front main-seal to leak, but this theory is stopped by two factors - 1. If oil was leaking so badly from the front crank-seal, it would be hitting the pulley and have the trademark 'spray pattern' in a circle around the main-pulley, and 2. If swirl-flap damage had unbalanced the crank enough to let this much oil out, then the engine would be a bit more recalcitrant that is being!

Pressurised oil?

So where is the oil coming from? We blasted the entire front of engine with brake-cleaner and stood back to watch where the oil arrived from. Thankfully we watched it pool and run down from above the main-pulley. The other lads suggested the usual suspects - rocker-cover gasket or a loose oil-way at the front of the block, but there is no denying signs of fresh oil are present everywhere on the engine where there is a gasket or seal. This means the oil is being forced out of these joints somehow by pressure building up in the crankcase and would explain how oil that cannot be from the frontal leak has made its way onto things that are nowhere near it, i.e the turbo feed/return pipes. It also explains my other big problem - oil entering the air-inlet. The worst case scenario is the main turbo-seal dumping oil right inside it. This makes for both a lot of oil getting blown into the engine, but also gives a smoke-machine effect out the back, the latter of which I have no signs of as yet.

Smoky CCV [Crankcase-Ventilator]?

I removed the rubber-hose that recirculates the CCV (crankcase-vent) back into the turbo while the engine was warm and running. Thick oily smoke was billowing out of the CCV, which I duly replaced [eBay £35], though it did not affect the problem and holding a hand in front of the smoking pipe for a minute leaves an oily residue. It would appear the oil is getting into the air-inlet by condensing down the CCV recirc pipe into the turbo impeller. This is definitely not normal CCV behaviour and finally gives a sure sign off abnormal crankcase pressure. Finally, with the car on ramps and the underbody-protection fully off it became clear that oil was dripping pretty bad from the back of the engine and pretty much everywhere else, even the sump.

Verdict:

I started another thread on BMW Land [http://www.bmwland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=163497] and the torrent of 'I told you so' replies came in and backed up my fears about piston 6. The rings are stuck inside the piston and not making good compression. The lack of power isn't really being picked up under normal driving, but the blow-by is so bad that it's allowing combustion pressure straight into the crankcase, hence burnt oil and exhaust smoke pouring out of the CCV. You wouldn't think a swirl-flap bouncing round could cause the rings to do this, but check the picture below. Well, you live and learn. This weekend I will be stripping the sump off the car and then, of course, the head is coming back off, which means more new bolts and another new gasket, coming to about £120. Sadly, even BMW cannot tell me exactly which piston my engine has from neither my reg. or VIN, so I will have to pop it out the top of the block and identify it before ordering one as they're over £200, but this means the car is off the road at least another week. I managed 268.5 miles between engine rebuilds... 

Photo courtesy of http://bmwspecialistreading.co.uk/

E60: Bad Oil Leak - was it running too well after rebuild?!

I've covered 125 miles on the new head / ground piston since putting the engine back together last weekend and the car has performed great. However, I was checking the oil and finding it hardly showing on the dipstick. On Wednesday night I poured in another half litre of oil and it began to show on the dipstick, about one third up. It was in the same place the following morning, so I poured in another half litre, got it up to near max on the dipstick and carried on using the car. Almost immediately I could smell fresh oil from the heater / air-con. There had been no dropped oil for the first few days [engine under-trays still off], but there sure was now. A small patch every time I pulled up and stopped the engine. Some investigation revealed no oil to be leaking while the engine is cold, but once up to temp. it is a constant drip from underneath the turbo area and a few drips from elsewhere, mainly from oil running along the sway-bar and cross-members. Oil is also ending up in the air-intake and being burned by the engine. This is not good!

This was after running the engine for 2 minutes on a fresh piece of newspaper!

Here is where the bulk of it is coming from - the turbo oil-feed pipe. It may also be from the oil-return pipe, located under the turbo. Hopefully this is too much oil or oil-pressure finding its way out through the loosest seals. If not, the turbo seals have gone and the blower is on its way out.

Oil is flying into the air-intake also, so the injector tips have become quite cruddy with oily residue. Nasty, though the nozzles remain quite clean and all 6 appear to be working OK.

This is the breakdown:

• Simply an overfill - oil-pressure is too high and leaking from multiple loose seals.
• Turbo oil-seal gone - oil is gushing from the middle of the turbo and getting into the inlet.
• Blocked CCV - the crankcase can't breathe is causing high oil-pressure and leaks.
• Complete turbo failure - bits of swirl-flap unbalanced the exhaust-wheel and wrecked the spindle, oil is now leaking from the centre-bearing and the blower is finished. 

There is a little bit of lateral play in the spindle, so that horrible last option could be the case, but at least a re-con turbo is only £325 on eBay, not too bad. Hopefully it's the first option and dropping some oil back out of this thing could cut the leak right back. Oil getting into my inlet is not good news for a diesel though and I could end up with my engine running on its own oil and unable to turn off, at which point I hope there is enough room in the traffic to stall the motor out!

My plan of action is thus:

• Drain 2 litres of oil back out. [I can always put more back in.]
• Watch for blue-smoke developing. [None as yet, but a bit of white smoke on startup.]
• Get someone at work to check play in the turbo-spindle. [They say it's passable and a leaky turbo would give bad smoke, a broken one would be noticeable.]
• Replace CCV [crankcase-ventilator]. [eBay £37.50 delivered.]
• Replace oil-filter. [Euro Car Parts £5.99.]
• Replace copper-washers on turbo oil-feed pipe.
• Replace turbo... gulp.

E46: Inlet full of oil! Re-con time.

Removed the inlet-manifold to check the CCV [crankcase-ventilator], crankshaft-sensor and main wiring-loom / connections. It didn't look too bad underneath, though there are some signs of a stuck CCV valve. I put the manifold down next to the car while I was working and after 5 minutes I noticed a large pool of dirty oil had run out of the throttle-body, so I placed that end in a bowl, jammed the butterfly open and leant the manifold on its end. Another 1/4 pint of oil ran out of it and today I removed the throttle-body entirely and managed to get about half as much again. More is coming, so I've blasted carb-cleaner back through the inlet-ports and left it to run down.

So either the piston-rings are completely shot and are leaking that much oil back up into the inlet, in which case the engine wouldn't run... or it's one heck of a stuck CCV. In this case, it would appear the crankcase-vent valve has stuck closed, which is allowing pressure to build up and pump oil back through the clean side of the CCV-system, dumping it right into the top of the throttle-body! Rather than creating a vacuum in the air-inlet that keeps the car at a decent idle, the CCV is pumping combustion pressure instead and covering all the sensors with hot oil. Not good. This is the most poorly engine I've ever seen.

While the throttle-body is off I may as well give it a good clean, along with all the sensors that had filled up to the wiring-connector with the pressurised oil. Even if this doesn't completely clear the rough running faults, it has certainly given the engine a new lease of like and it never does any harm to flush everything out and eliminate any further problems in the inlet.

The curse continues! 318ti blown head gasket! [E36K]

I don't believe this! Nathan has been using his E36 Compact for work this week while the wheels are off the 330 Clubsport. Yep, the same E36 I was about to borrow so I can get to work with the broken E46 and E60. It's been running like a dream while it's for sale, then this morning he gets 2 miles and the head gasket blows, then he runs round and dries home like a red arrows display, so it looks water related... why? its not like he was ragging it in eco mode. Drat!

It has a minor running fault as it is, where the engine cut out when the auto-box is put in 'D', probably the torque-converter. This I could have lived with, even the 'sport-o-matic' box, but more open-engine is out of the question I'm sure anyone would agree!

3 dead Beemers in 3 weeks! What is going on.

E46: Vacuum-pump severe failure...

With a new servo and master-cylinder, but still no brake assistance, I decided the vacuum-pump must be leaking air. I whipped it off, only 3 bolts and no need to remove rocker-cover etc., and opened it up. This is what I found...

This chamber should be full of air, not oil. The pump bolts on to the back end of one camshaft, which turns a spinning-boss. A plastic-bar slides up and down in the spinning-boss and creates a constant vacuum into the servo to help 'suck' the brake-pedal down when you brake. My plastic bar is missing. Where is it? Well, it's smashed into pieces lying in the oil.

After a clean up it was a decent pump-body and would work fine with a new O-ring and plastic-bar. They sell O-ring kits for the N42 vac-pump separately, but plastic-bars they do not, so I bought the pump from the same donor car as the servo + M/C. All pieces seem to have sheared off with a clean break, the bar was literally blown apart, except for one of the round end-caps (the tiny piece in the middle of the pile in the photo). That had been spread into thin strips as it broke off, so it looks like that end contacted the side of the case, spread into fronds and jammed the plastic-bar, which promptly blew up. How though? Did the timing slip unbalance the camshaft enough to wreck the pump? Or did the plastic-bar break apart and jam the pump, causing the camshaft to stop briefly and the timing to slip in the first place? Hmm...

Another side effect of the vac-pump failing was a terrific oil leak. The O-ring seal had gone completely and the spinning-boss was acting like a mini oil-pump, sending a constant stream down the back of the head onto the hot exhaust [bottom of the pic]. The pressure also made the vacuum-hose connector, normally only filled with air, to leak at the jubilee clip and pour oil onto the gearbox-housing [middle of pic]. After removing the pump a huge third pool of oil arrived. This was what had run out of the vacuum-hose to the brake-servo after disconnecting.