Sickly Broomstick

[black fingernail]

SWMBO's Broomstick conked out a bit yesterday. I thought I had cured the rough idle and stalling a while ago! I replaced the inlet hoses and the cam cover gasket, the pipes were perished and a little split, and the rubber gasket had mummified, also I discovered the little vacuum hose was rotten that leads to the fuel filter, all was well. But not now. It has similar symptoms.
I plugged it into my cheap & nasty handset, it came up with P0344, so, I have duly ordered a pair of cam position sensors. It appears these, when faulty, give similar symptoms to the vacuum leaks. I'm not just replacing one, the other will be the same age, and I can do without the earache.
While I still had it, (this poor car hardly ever stands still), I decided to change the fuel filter, not knowing how old it was, it was on the to-do list, and the filter was here waiting. This was straight forward, barring the unleaded shampoo, (definitely no nit's now!). But, the little vacuum pipe onto it was rotten and split, so this is also replaced, I managed to re-use the little brass restrictor, super gluing it into one section of pipe. All the jubilee clips are replaced, just because I had some. She's back out and about in it, she says it isn't as bad, (filter & pipe?) I'll keep you posted when the sensors arrive.

 

[jaguartvr]

With my cam sensor I found that I could reset it with the hand scanner, can go a thousand miles before you get the tell tale miss fire. At least if you can reset it you know almost certainly that it is a cam sensor.

 

[black fingernail]

All my scanner does is erase the fault codes, I did this, then it came on again with the same code.
We'll see what happens when I change them. It'll light up with something else knowing my luck!

 

[black fingernail]

The parts arrived midweek, I have had the chance to fit them this afternoon.
much smoother and no stalling at low revs, well, for the short road test I gave it anyway.
No codes, I'll no doubt get a rundown of how it runs when she comes home from work.
As an observation, why did BMW make the exhaust sensor a two minute job to change, yet fitted a long wire to the inlet sensor? again a two minute job plus fifteen minutes trying to get my bunch of bananas wedged under the manifold to undo/plug in the long wire. why not just have the two sensors the same, with a plug on it!
mini rant over!

 

[black fingernail]

Last night she was all beaming, running very well, no stalling or messing about.
This morning, got a call, the mill light is on, no difference in running though, I told her I would plug it in and see what 's what when she got back at lunchtime.
On her way back, the light went off, I plugged it in when she got back, no codes !
Is this just a glitch while the ecu ingested the new sensors? or is more fun & games on the cards?

 

[Synclare]

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[black fingernail]

Do you think she'll notice a strip of black tape?

 

[black fingernail]

The light was on when she stopped the car today, I duly plugged it in and got a code,.... P0171, air leak, maybe, intermittent, could it be an old code just to drive me nuts? Anyway, I've erased it and it has stayed away for now.
She insists that ,it drives really well, no extraordinary fuel consumption, I'll smoke test it at the weekend, if the light comes on again.

 

[black fingernail]

An update.
After fitting the cam sensors, smoke testing many times!
Still getting the bank 1 lean, then, bank 2 lean codes, I decided to fit a MAF sensor.
All good, now runs sweet as a nut, good fuel consumption, beautiful.

BUT...
The ABS light and EML and amber brake light comes on accompanied with abs pulsing the brake for no apparent reason!
The o/s front caliper decided to bind and get hot, so I freed this off, cleaned it up and lubricated it, All good I thought.
So they lit up again, but no pulsing.
Ignition off, then on, seems to re-set it, and I can't get any codes on my machine.
I'll clean up the sensors and 'wheels' tomorrow and see if that has any effect.

To add a bit more insult to injury, a headlight has steamed up, and a door mirror glass keeps going loose.

This car is more demanding than SWMBO!