Christmas breakdown!

[antonmnster]

Second long drive in my new (to me) 07 BMW 335. Drove down to my family's place, 120 miles away. I noticed the other day a miss on cold start. Since I'm on my 5th 3-series, I took this to mean that my plugs were probably worn. I changed them, noting a lot of soot on #3.

Fast forward to Xmas morning. I go to start the car. Starter stops at maybe 1/2 of a revolution, then starts. Major miss. Not only that, but I start to get a HUGE smoke plume. Not sure what's going on, I drive about 3 miles. The car sucked down 2-3 gallons of fuel.

I park the car at my parents'. Fortunately they have a spare Subaru out at the airport. I drove that back to Minneapolis and bought an overpriced injector at the dealership this morning.

I drove back down, swapped the injector in, and tried for an hour to code it. Couldn't do it, but it runs fine.

I also dumped the oil, only 1000-mile old Castrol 0/40. It was BLACK. Fortunately Autozone still has good stuff on clearance. I had them scan the ECU and found a bunch of miss codes, but that's about it. They wouldn't clear them.

Anyway, had to vent. A somewhat annoying Christmas, but I won't complain because I know there are far worse problems in the world

 

[01rangerxl]

How many miles on the car/injector? At least it wasn't major, but I bet it was frustrating at the time.

Legally, parts retail stores (without a shop) can't clear a code. They can face big fines if they do and get caught because they aren't doing a repair.

 

[antonmnster]

Car has 118K. #1 and #2 were replaced in 2012. I thought I saw a receipt for #4, but can't find it. So the only originals are 5 and 6 and maybe 4.

Ahhh, direct injection!

I didn't know that stores couldn't clear codes. Not a big deal, once I translate my INPA our of the German.

 

[mpersell]

I bought a OBD2 box really cheap at a pawn shop when I was tracking down codes on my 99 E36. I clear my own, drive 50 miles and check again.

It might require an insert tool for some of the regularly scheduled maintenance codes, got one from Pelican Parts.

 

[Wolf359]

I use to recommend the ELM327 like the BAFX, only about $24 at Amazon and you use it with an android app like Torque which is $5, but I think I'm going to try an X431 easydiag, supposedly you can get more advanced software for $39 for one car line. They're on aliexpress for around $21-$25.

Also they won't clear the code for you, but you can borrow the code reader and clear the code yourself. They're just not allowed to do it. Usually they just want your license. I think they prefer it if you borrow it as they don't have to waste time going out to your car.

 

[bubbatime]

Sucks that a 7-8 year old car has needed 4 injectors already. Guess I get spoiled driving Honda products that need nothing more than oil changes, brakes, and air filters for 225k miles.

 

[HerrStig]

It's a "driving experience" all right.

 

[antonmnster]

I've had 5 3-seried since 1997, usually from 150 to 250,000 miles. But I've never been stranded.

Now I just need to code the new injector. It runs fine, but I'd rather do it right.