New X3 E83 Owner, Many Many OBDII Fault Codes :( Please Help!!

[RickyG512]

Hi Guys,

Proud new X3 owner, just bought a 2007 BMW X3 E83 Facelift 2.0 20d SE 5dr 2 weeks ago. However its going very down hill.

Test drive was perfect. After purchase I noticed clunking/grinding noise from the rear and the parking sensors not working. From searching the clunk seems to be from 4 cheap tyres (although they're all the same brand/model/size 235/55/17) and half the sensors dont make the clicky sound at the front so these 2 issues should be easy to fix, new sensor and new tyres.

However 2 weeks later, engine management light came on, and I got 3 pages of error codes (see below), I dont even know where to start, dont know if these are major or minor things and how much it'll cost to repair?? on top of that, I just found out today the car is CAT C !!!!!!, however the car is in absolutely mint condition and drives perfectly, no rattles except above and drives nice smooth and straight, so really wanna keep the car.

Pleaseeeee Please advise.

[Horizon]

Cat C must be declared on the advert, but maybe only by a dealer, not sure if private seller are obliged to inform you. Your insurance company need to be informed , as some will decline cover or a claim.
As for error codes, I believe if you have faulty glow plugs it locks out the DPF regeneration, so that would explain the DPF faults. As for the PDC sensors, available from eBay at reasonable cost.
Cat c is most important problem that needs to be addressed. Did you buy from a dealer, if so you have some comeback. Most importantly possible insurance / or lack of cover is the most urgent of problems.

[RickyG512]

Thanks for the reply, I bought it privately from GumTree, so got a feeling it doesnt need to be declared? I got a feeling its also possible to remove the cat C if its been repaired properly and inspected by the authorities? However leave the insurance side of things to me, I just really want to clear the fault codes for now

[jagr]

If you are handy with a set of spanners you are looking at around £300-350 of parts.

£100 Genuine BMW Thermostats and coolant
£20 Swirl Flap blanks
£35 worth of diesel
£15 DPF fuel Additive
£150 Glow plugs (4 of them) and Controller
£10 Carb cleaner or similar
£5 Plusgas or similar

EGR thermostat is easy and a 5 minute job, Main thermostat is not hard just fiddly.

You need to remove the inlet manifold and give it a thorough clean and while at it remove and blank the swirl flaps.

With inlet manifold removed you can change the glow plug controller again fiddly. Glow plugs I have not had to do yet but was advised to soak the with something like plusgas and keep the socket straight as they can sheer.

Then you need to put some fuel and cleaner in, and go for a good drive down the motorway at a constant speed of 55-65mph for around 30 miles and hopefully it will regenerate the DPF.


What is the service history like? Regular Oil Changes? Fuel Filter receipt? Any bills for new turbo?

How many miles has it done?

[X5Sport]

Could be the swirl flaps have been done but the controller servo not decommissioned correctly?  It had to be left fully connected on our E46 or it threw an error.  I plugged it back in again and just left it in place on the car.

You do need to check whether these fault codes are 'present' or 'not present'.  It may be that they are historic but in the log.  Clearing the log down and seeing what builds up as being 'present' might make your life happier too.

Cat C only has to be declared by a Dealer selling to the public.  I would be trying to find what happened to get it flagged as a 'C' as it may be just be cosmetics and in repair cost grounds rather than anything serious.  If in doubt get it properly checked by a bodyshop.

[RickyG512]

[quote="jagr"]

[/quote][quote="X5Sport"]

[/quote]

Guys I really appreciate your replies, very informative, can't thank you enough=)

I've done some research and
1. EGR and Engine Thermostat I should be able to do.
2. Swirl Flaps Blanking should be do-able too
3. Glow plugs and controller should be do-able too, even though I still cant find on the web where the controller is located?

Not sure what to do with the £35 diesel??? was that just for the 30 mile drive?

but my question is I can see the above tasks fixing the faults on Page 1 and half of Page 2, but will resolve the remaining faults? such as:

3FF1 Air mas flow sensor?
4D03 Exhaust Back Pressure sensor signal?
4D00 Exhaust Back Pressure sensor signal?
4B35 Oil condition Sensor?
there was no service history, except the last service at a local. I will give it a full service myself now though.

I then did some more digging. Called Bowker BMW and asked about the tensioner recall, they said my car is not affect (sure it was as its the 2.0 N47 engine). Called local BMW, they said my car is affected and work carried out at Stevenage BMW, called Stevenage, they said 5 years ago the timing chain snapped and engine damaged, and turbo also blew up, so I'm assuming it would of had the engine rebuilt 5 years ago with a new turbo, and hopefully the new and imrpoved parts to stop the timing chain snapping

118,000 miles 2007 on a 57

will erase all codes and see which ones return, hopefully none of them

[X5Sport]

Chances are that it may have had a new engine.  BMW rarely repair, more likely to swap it out.  In which case an even better result.

The lower set of codes could just be bad sensors if they re-appear.

[jagr]

[quote="RickyG512"]
[quote="jagr"]

[/quote][quote="X5Sport"]

[/quote]

Guys I really appreciate your replies, very informative, can't thank you enough=)

I've done some research and
1. EGR and Engine Thermostat I should be able to do.
2. Swirl Flaps Blanking should be do-able too
3. Glow plugs and controller should be do-able too, even though I still cant find on the web where the controller is located?

Not sure what to do with the £35 diesel??? was that just for the 30 mile drive?

but my question is I can see the above tasks fixing the faults on Page 1 and half of Page 2, but will resolve the remaining faults? such as:

3FF1 Air mas flow sensor?
4D03 Exhaust Back Pressure sensor signal?
4D00 Exhaust Back Pressure sensor signal?
4B35 Oil condition Sensor?
there was no service history, except the last service at a local. I will give it a full service myself now though.

I then did some more digging. Called Bowker BMW and asked about the tensioner recall, they said my car is not affect (sure it was as its the 2.0 N47 engine). Called local BMW, they said my car is affected and work carried out at Stevenage BMW, called Stevenage, they said 5 years ago the timing chain snapped and engine damaged, and turbo also blew up, so I'm assuming it would of had the engine rebuilt 5 years ago with a new turbo, and hopefully the new and imrpoved parts to stop the timing chain snapping

118,000 miles 2007 on a 57

will erase all codes and see which ones return, hopefully none of them
[/quote]

Yes the £35 diesel is for the drive as you don't want to be running out while regening the DPF.

Hopefully the oil change will sort the 'Oil Condition Sensor'.

The exhaust back pressure fault could be because of the DPF not regenerating.


The glow plug controller is here:



Bolted to the engine block

[RickyG512]

Hi Guys,

So I reset the codes and went for a 5 minute drive around town to buy some milk, and only half of them came back

I still have the all the
1- Glow Plugs codes (cyl 1 and 2)
2- Particulate Filter codes
3- Swirl Valve codes

but I have lost the
1- Air Mass codes
2- Exhaust Back Pressure codes
3- Oil Sensor codes
4- and check engine light on dash, I guess note all of these codes cause a check engine light??

However a longer drive could cause the same codes to come up again I suppose?

BUT THERE IS A NEW PROBLEM!!!
now as I accelerate, (only got through gears 1-3 as town driving), there is a jittered loss of power, not major but it is stuttering, causing a head bopping affect as if i was listening to Rap music, was'nt there before and was'nt there on every acceleration, i tried it accelerate hard and it didn't really do it, i accelerated smooth and it didn't do really it again, it just seemed to do it when driving normally, however it was a very short drive.

Any ideas where this new problem came from? Will new glow plugs and controller and blanking swirl ports/major clean up plus new thermostats fix this problem?

[X5Sport]

A partially blocked DPF will cause airflow issues.  You do need to get that one sorted as new ones are £1,500 from BMW.

If you have access to the Carly App and dongle you can force a regen, and go on forcing them.  It will also tell you what the ash levels are.  Normal life expectancy on those is 90,000 miles but you can still get them sorted by taking them off the car and cleaned.  Short journeys will kill them though.