B5 engine woes - again

[Grumpyjohn1957]

John is not a happy Easter bunny.
For the last 3 weeks I’ve been working in town, a 12-mile drive instead of the 45-miles of motorway and fast road I’ve been doing for 3 years. Using Eco the car stop/starts constantly for 6 of the 12 miles. Driving home on Thursday night three times the car momentarily stuttered under gentle acceleration, barely perceptible but enough for me to note the interruption to normally silky progression.
On Friday driving into work I thought I could smell petrol but dismissed it.
Saturday, petrol smells, ranging from faint to distinct. Travelling at around 50/60 with the roof tilted constant very faint whiff with one particularly strong one when sitting at lights.
Today, Sunday, I decided to take her for a long-mixed road ride to try and get a definitive. In fact, I went to C&M (got there one o clock without a ticket so didn’t stop). Sure enough, a subtle misfire putting the power on after a long over run descent and a couple of momentarily hesitant pickups coming out of bends accompanied by intermittent fuel odours at random intervals. Interestingly fuel economy was the best it’s been in a long time averaging 29 mpg round trip.
When I got home and had a good listen, the ticking (cha cha) noise the previous engine made has returned, its emanating from LHS of engine. I’ve tried to capture it on a recording from the FNS wheel arch but it’s not clearly audible on the recording, I’ll try again tomorrow from a cold start.
A Porsche article I read describes this exact same sound as a symptom of bore scoring, the writer likening it to a noisy lifter.

I’ll get an Ista read for my own edification then decide whether to await the cog of death or ring Sytner service. I might even get a cost for borescoping the damm thing and miss out the lengthy prescriptive fault diagnosis process that BMW insist upon. Unfortunately, I’m off on holiday at the end of the week so nothing will get organised till 4th April earliest.
The car only came out of manufacturer warranty on the 1st March, the end of warranty VHC and MOT done the week before showed nothing.
Can’t believe this, I so hope I’m wrong, engine no2 has only covered 9000 miles and I’m not doing anything to make them break.

Totally different car & engine but many parallels.
https://jzmporsche.com/news/gen-2-bore- ... oking-gun/

[Gee.Singh]

Hi
Please check
You might have a month to renew your warranty from the end date

[ScooBeeFive]

Unbelievable John - I can't believe it might be happening again.

I remember you asking about the extended warranty - did you take it out in the end? I would imagine the replacement engine will still be covered even if the rest of the car isn't?

If it were mine, I think I'd get it booked in at the dealer as soon as possible. I know they can be a pain to deal with sometimes but hopefully they will be on the ball due to the previous issue.

Fingers crossed for a decent outcome.....

[Grumpyjohn1957]

Tell you what Paul, I can’t believe it either.
The car cost me an absolute shed load of money to buy, I love 5 series estates for their practicality, it’s an absolute joy to drive and travel in but something is seriously flawed.
I treat it with respect, only occasionally letting it rip. Regardless, after 5 seconds of foot to floor I either run out of road or run out of speed limit, in no way do I abuse it. The engine has never seen the rev limiter, it gets cooled down before stopping, warmed up steadily and run on the best fuels.
The symptoms are exactly those experienced previously. Between me first noticing something wasn’t quite right and it actually banging out I’d covered 6000 miles. Between initial diagnostic work and borescoping I added another 2K. Pots 4 & 8 were found to be scored.
The average driver wouldn’t notice there’s something wrong, no warning lights, no smoke, no recognisable noise, no oil consumption or discolouration, no nothing. Simply an occasional subtle momentary hesitancy or judder. Eventually, I suppose, they’d question the petrol smells thinking they’d got a leak somewhere. They come and go at random too, varying between faint to eyewatering in no particular order!
It’s booked in for the 4th and will have travelled a minimal mileage before then. As I’ve caught it early this time the engine hopefully will be undamaged.
Everything that was on the old engine got transplanted onto the new, maybe an intermittent fault got transplanted too. Could be injectors, software, coil packs or absolutely anything. Its up to the techies to find out.
Whatever is going on, this just should not happen.
And yes, I did buy the extended BMW warranty; hope with that and goodwill I’m covered in the event of catastrophe.

[ScooBeeFive]

Everything that was on the old engine got transplanted onto the new, maybe an intermittent fault got transplanted too. Could be injectors, software, coil packs or absolutely anything. Its up to the techies to find out.

I was thinking the same. Whilst they replaced the damaged parts last time (i.e. the knackered block) they obviously didn't diagnose the actual cause. As such, when it's been built back up with some of the original parts, the same has happened again.

It must be hugely frustrating. As you say, it's not a cheap car and even if everything is rectified under warranty, you are still suffering a lot of inconvenience and worry.

At what point should they offer you a seriously good deal on a brand new one?!

[Jules Sunleu]

Sorry to hear that John, as you rightly thought all this was behind you from previously. Fingers crossed sorted quickly this time

[Grumpyjohn1957]

At what point should they offer you a seriously good deal on a brand new one?!

Erm, Tomorrow morning would be good!

[brett]

Hi John any update?

[Grumpyjohn1957]

Hi John any update?

Not yet, just back from holiday so she's been parked up for 10 days.
Booked into Sytner Nottingham tomorrow morning for diagnostics.
The symptoms have been raised with Alpina, they're suggesting a faulty injector/injectors.
Makes sense as its the exact same symptoms I experienced at the outset first time round.
All the ancillaries went back on the new engine and that probably included the underlying issue as well.
Flipping annoying, it's a superb machine when it works properly!

[brett]

Cheers good luck

[Grumpyjohn1957]

Cars been in all day and no faults found or registered.
Took a techy out for a long ride this afternoon when I went to collect and of course, it behaved itself whilst he was with me.
Few things came up in conversation about possible causes including an interesting discussion regarding the X drives sensitivity to tyre condition as an aside.
Bottom line was; keep a log of when it happens and the circumstances under which it manifests. Bring the car back in a month for another code read.
All logged as part of the vehicle’s history.
Till it throws up an actual fault code they can’t get any extended warranty work authorised. I don’t fancy incurring a mega bill for diagnostic / investigation work.
Praise for the service guys though, they took it very seriously and tried really hard to nail what is in fairness a random happening.

[440]

Hello John. I hope the issue comes back again during this month and codes are recorded on the system so they can quickly check the fault/s.

I would recommend Warranty Extension after the original warranty expires, you don't want to have an issue with the engine at your cost.