Whistling Noise M44

[Faheem]

The whining/whistling noise has gone completely but the car has cut out twice since the Newcastle trip.

I plugged my laptop in and using Inpa I saw this error code:

This didn't give me much to go on... So I cleared the code.

I then decided to remove and inspect the cam sensor as I know that these are known to fail and wanted to rule it out.

After removing the sensor I noticed this - a shame really as the sensor was replaced when I bought the car.

Not sure how this will have happened and I don't know yet if this was causing my issues but I've replaced the sensor with another from BMW. Test drove 50ish miles today and all seems good. Hope that's the end of the issue!

Scanned again after the test drive and no errors so far.

 

[t-tony]

Shame it has been damaged Faheem, but on the other hand it's nice to find something definite, a bit like Paul's head gasket.

Tony.

 

[Faheem]

I agree Tony, the sensors are expensive though, at around £115 Just don't know how it would have gotten damaged as its fixed in place and there isn't anywhere for it to move.

 

[t-tony]

It looks as though it was also damaged a little further along. Where abouts does it fit on a 1.9 mate? Have you been doing any other work in that area?

Tony.

 

[Faheem]

It sits in the timing case at the front of the engine, it plugs into a connector that is under the top half of the intake manifold.

That area wasn't touched until a few weeks ago when I did the valve cover gasket. Even then there wasn't any need for me to remove the cam sensor so it was just left plugged in.

I'm not fully confident whether that has fixed the issues yet - as havent driven it long enough - but a cam sensor with the internal wires exposed can't have been doing it any good.

 

[t-tony]

Hope that's fixed it for you mate.

Tony.

 

[Ianmc]

There should be a plastic protective sleeve covering the wire between the sensor and the plug. They are easily broken and often discarded.

 

[Mazza]

@Ianmc correct.
I found a picture of the one I removed as it too was broken, so I replaced it.
The sensor cable is fitted into the channel, and the plastic guide itself clips on to the corner of the engine block.

The middle one... if you need the part number I can dig it out from the invoice.

 

[Ianmc]

@Mazza If you could post up the part number for the guide that would great - can't identify it from realoem?

 

[Mazza]

Part number is 12141743197. And cost £4.19 from Sopers. So should be about the same from any BMW dealer.
Seen them on ebay, but more expensive !!

 

[Faheem]

Yes @Ianmc

Mine was broken where the plastic bends on the timing case when the garage did the cam sensor 3 years ago.

@Mazza I wasn't able to find that on RealOEM and when I called Sopers I was told it would come with the cam sensor, which of course it didn't

I was going to grab a second hand one from Andy but might as well grab it new as the old ones are very brittle.

Thanks

 

[Mazza]

@Faheem , I never found the number on RealOem either, but I found it was moulded into the actual part, really small but just about readable......

 

[colb]

AS the others have said the wire should run in a plastic guide, quite how yours got into that state is a bit strange. OEM shows the guide part as no 14.
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho..._1995_Z3_BMW_Z3_19&diagId=11_0156#12141743197

 

[Ianmc]

Sopers posted price, all up, is £5.03. Ebay prices seem double this.