mot woes

Brian4

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Z3 3.0i Auto
to be honest, it has always had this odd stumble, i did try and swap the rear springs by myself today, it was a no go, its very difficult to get compressors in there, then when they are the right size to fit they dont have quite enough travel to compress it enough to get them out, the other option is to compress then strap, remove tool and compress some more, the problem here will be how to de-compress them, dont facy getting killed by a stupid spring.

i managed to find 2 brand new springs for £40, in there original box, purchased but never fitted by the seller.
Sorry no help with the INPA codes. Rear springs need both rear wheels off the ground to get the swing arms fully down or you are fighting against the rear roll bar.if only one side is jacked up the roll bar is trying to lift the wheel in the air level with the wheel on the floor
 

littlefeller

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The M44 Massive
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Oct 18, 2015
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evesham
Sorry no help with the INPA codes. Rear springs need both rear wheels off the ground to get the swing arms fully down or you are fighting against the rear roll bar.if only one side is jacked up the roll bar is trying to lift the wheel in the air level with the wheel on the floor
Thanks Brian, will give it a go.
 

t-tony

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Thanks Brian, will give it a go.
You still need to remove the lower shocker bolts though. Jack under the Diff, stands on the jacking points under the sills and then you can use your jack to raise the rear arms to re fit the shocker bolts.

Tony.
 

littlefeller

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The M44 Massive
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evesham
ok, this is now a little odd, for the past 2 weeks it has been parked at work, starts fine every morning when i run it for a while, brought it home yesterday to give the new cat a good run, this morning its back to its old tricks of a very rough start, (i will point out that there was a frost last night and it was still on the car when i started it, there has been no frost while it was at work) in fact it did stall this morning (first time it has done this) after about 10 seconds or so its fine again, now my drive has an incline so the car is facing down hill, while on the flat at work it has been ok, could this incline have anything to do with this issue? this rough start is the plague of the M44 and no matter how much you google it there seems to be a whole array of fixes, so not all rough starting M44 are suffering the same problem.
i will point out it really pen and inks of unburned fuel while doing this.

im still convinced the valves stick open, i say this because while turning over i know when its going to be a rough start as it sounds different, a bit like less resistance on the starter motor as though a couple of valves are open.
 
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Tracy Dee

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The M44 Massive
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Do you use V power or BP ultimate super fuels i have heard from lots of mechanics supermarket fuels play havoc in some cars.
Might be worth running a fuel additive cleaner in the tank.
 

littlefeller

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evesham
fuel additives can ruin a cat, im wondering if this sticky valves could actually be the reason for the misfire. no i use ordinary supermarket fuel.
while it is having this starting fit, it it not running on all cylinders, it starts and runs on about 2 then 3 then 4, while running the smoothness feature on my inps yesterday cylinder 2 and 3 were higher than 1 and 4, about twice as high though this does sometime swap around but overall the two middle cylinders are not running the same as the outer two.
 
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Ianmc

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British Zeds
The M44 Massive
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Oct 12, 2014
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New Forest
Model of Z
Z3 (M44)
I only use Shell V power (99 Octane) and Tesco 99 octane in all my cars.:)
 

Brian4

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Z3 3.0i Auto
fuel additives can ruin a cat, im wondering if this sticky valves could actually be the reason for the misfire. no i use ordinary supermarket fuel.
while it is having this starting fit, it it not running on all cylinders, it starts and runs on about 2 then 3 then 4, while running the smoothness feature on my inps yesterday cylinder 2 and 3 were higher than 1 and 4, about twice as high though this does sometime swap around but overall the two middle cylinders are not running the same as the outer two.
I seem to remember @Faheem had a similar lumpy tick over and the consensus then was sticking hydraulic valve lifters. I think he was in the process of curing it by changing the oil and using a flushing oil.
If the valves don't fully open then not enough air is allowed in for the injected fuel and not all the exhaust gas gets out. Just thinking out loud.
 
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Nodzed

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Nodzed

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to be honest, it has always had this odd stumble, i did try and swap the rear springs by myself today, it was a no go, its very difficult to get compressors in there, then when they are the right size to fit they dont have quite enough travel to compress it enough to get them out, the other option is to compress then strap, remove tool and compress some more, the problem here will be how to de-compress them, dont facy getting killed by a stupid spring.

i managed to find 2 brand new springs for £40, in there original box, purchased but never fitted by the seller.
once the lower shock bolt is out If you can get someone to push the swing arm down (stand on the rear handbrake drum) the spring will pull out (from the bottom not the top). Me and Gary did his last weekend, easy with two, proper bugger on your own. using a flat bar to pri the bottom out will help. new ones same approach put the top in first then the bottom once the arm is pushed down.
If you want a hand I will come up straight from work this evening.
 

littlefeller

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The M44 Massive
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evesham
Hi Brian, they stick open i think, or they dont seat completely is more like it, if i swap the oil it does improve the dodgy starting as it has always done the trick in the past, another trick is to leave it in 3rd and drive it to around 6000rpm then throttle off still without changing gears, do this a few times and it does go away (southerboy suggested this as it came from a BMW tech) but it doesn't solve the lumpy idle, though that said i took the car back to its safe parking spot today (i went the long way around - 46miles) plugged inpa in and still no codes, it has been code free since i cleared the adaptations and swapped the lambda back to the original, maybe the plug socket for the lambda is abit dodgy and i have now sorted the lambda by moving both the sensor and the plug. i also checked the heating circuit on the new lambda that i removed, resistance is where it should be. car now booked in to a local indy sat morning for another mot, its not going back to the previous place, while removing the front wheel this morning to replace the pad wear sensor (one of the fail issues was errr brake fluid warning lamp on, no it isnt it is the wear sensor light) i had a look at the brake hoses (it also failed on corroded hoses) the brake hoses are fine, a little dirty with surface rust but not what i would call a failure, i have seen a lot worse. i purchased the hoses any way before hand but they can wait till i replace the discs. now i have kinda bribed the local indy with the bait that if it will pass assuming the broken spring wasn't broken then he can fit the new springs.
 

littlefeller

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British Zeds
The M44 Massive
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evesham
once the lower shock bolt is out If you can get someone to push the swing arm down (stand on the rear handbrake drum) the spring will pull out (from the bottom not the top). Me and Gary did his last weekend, easy with two, proper b***** on your own. using a flat bar to pri the bottom out will help. new ones same approach put the top in first then the bottom once the arm is pushed down.
If you want a hand I will come up straight from work this evening.
thanks for the offer, but im going to use the spring fitting as bait for the mot chap=)) assuming he is corruptible. if it doesn't work then it might be a good idea:thumbsup:
 

Faheem

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As @Brian4 has said I did have a bit of a lumpy tick over, not sure if it is similar to what you have, the car sounded something like this:
View: https://youtu.be/aqo8_hI8zXE
- only on cold starts.

However, once warm it drove spot on with no issues what so ever.

Compression test on a warm engine gave some very good results, I believe it was 175PSI across all 4 cylinders, however a compression test done on a cold engine gave me numbers that were all over the place. Mainly cylinder 2 where the compression was next to nothing.

Thanks to @t-tony I was told to use some engine flush then change the oil and add in a valve lifter treatment.

I used Mobils 0w-40 and Wynns valve lifter treatment as well as their engine flush.

Car starts absolutely fine 95% of the time now, however, there is still the odd day where I get a bit of a rough idle on cold start. Once every couple of weeks... Significant improvement on what it was like before.

I'll be performing one more engine oil flush and if the symptoms remain or get worse then I'll think about a new cylinder head.
 
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littlefeller

Zorg Guru (IV)
British Zeds
The M44 Massive
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Oct 18, 2015
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evesham
As @Brian4 has said I did have a bit of a lumpy tick over, not sure if it is similar to what you have, the car sounded something like this:
View: https://youtu.be/aqo8_hI8zXE
- only on cold starts.

However, once warm it drove spot on with no issues what so ever.

Compression test on a warm engine gave some very good results, I believe it was 175PSI across all 4 cylinders, however a compression test done on a cold engine gave me numbers that were all over the place. Mainly cylinder 2 where the compression was next to nothing.

Thanks to @t-tony I was told to use some engine flush then change the oil and add in a valve lifter treatment.

I used Mobils 0w-40 and Wynns valve lifter treatment as well as their engine flush.

Car starts absolutely fine 95% of the time now, however, there is still the odd day where I get a bit of a rough idle on cold start. Once every couple of weeks... Significant improvement on what it was like before.

I'll be performing one more engine oil flush and if the symptoms remain or get worse then I'll think about a new cylinder head.
yep thats it.
i dont think a new head is necessary, after looking through problems and fixes from BMW, it lists this issue, if cylinder 2 and 3 are over 300 on the smoothness test there are two fixes, one was something to do with the dme and if that doesn't work the head needs to come off and the valve seats need re=cutting. low compression seems to go hand in hand with my original thoughts of an open or rather unsealed valve or two. i go the idea of this one day while starting the car, a cat ran out from under a bush and under the front of my car while i had just turned the key, the engine had gone about 1/4 of a turn at this point, i switched the key off (didnt want the cat to get hurt). the cat then wandered off out of the other side so i went back to starting my zed, but all i got was this strange sound like the starter motor had somehow detached itself from the start ring gear. it did this for around 5-6 seconds, then slowly got a plop as one cylinder started working then 2 then 3 and finally 4, this puzzled me for a couple of days and i came to the conclusion that somehow the valves had opened but not closed, probably held open by hydraulic pressure that did not release because i had removed the key part way through a start.
 

Faheem

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1.9 M44
The smoothness test?

I'm intrigued to see what the actual fix for this is, surely rather than opening up the head and faffing about with the valve seats it would be cheaper to get a replacement engine and stick it in there?

Do let me know how you get on with this and if you do ever find a proper fix for it :) Out of curiosity, how many miles does your zed have on it?
 

littlefeller

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The M44 Massive
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evesham
113000. its not just an m44 issue, i ran the smoothness test on an m43 and it was even worse. to br honest im not even sure what it is measuring. but mine has always been like it ever since i brought the car. im going to try and find the answer to this without stripping the motor down, a strip down seems abit drastic. at some point this year i will swap my coil pack for individual coils and see what difference it makes (if any), there must be a reason BMW swapped over to using them.
 

littlefeller

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The M44 Massive
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evesham
well left it running outside work this morning, another test done still no errors ummm, so were the misfire codes related to the lambda? maybe had a dodgy connection at the plug or the fact the lambda may now be sitting in a different orientation as its in another exhaust, or the only other thing i did was clear the adaptations, though i did this with the new lambda and it still had the codes. at first i was thinking the lambda was throwing a code because of the mis-fire but now im wondering if it was the other way around.
 

littlefeller

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The M44 Massive
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ooooh look what i found, an explanation to the smoothness test and an answer to what my lambda reading should be. so my misfire codes are a product of this smoothness thing. now need to figure why.
Capture1.JPG
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