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Engine management light!!!!!

Discuss your latest mods or ideas, and anything to do with the BMW X5 (E53).
centurion
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Re: Engine management light!!!!!

Post by centurion » Thu Jan 08, 2015 9:03 pm

I'm tempted too ;)...


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LooneyLeon
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Re: Engine management light!!!!!

Post by LooneyLeon » Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:45 am

Spartan,

Just out of interest have you recently run the car very low on fuel?

I say this because ive owned and used a bmw 330ci everyday for the last 10 years and have put 110, 000, miles on it without issue until the other day when I switched over from LPG to normal petrol but the car was empty and I think through some rubbish and almost stalled the car. I switched it back to LPG and put a bit more petrol in. The next few days the car was not firing on all cylinders on start up from cold and I was getting the engine light, after 30 secs or so it would clear and work fine. This continued until I put in1/2 of vpower and also out in some petrol injector cleaner, weirdly it instantly fixed the problem.

Just a thought buddy.

[quote="Spartanx5"]
I am not sure what if anything is even going on, but on 2 occasions now from a cold start it's has felt like the car is not running on all cylinders for the first 30 seconds when u first start up, the other day it did this, then an orange light came on? that I always call the management light but unsure what it really is? Well this came on and then 5 minutes down the road it went off, I put it down to it being the first time I had driven it for a week and it was maybe clogged up because it was a very long but slow paced journey last time out, even with the light on for those 5 minutes everything was good, power, gear change etc. Then again today, from cold it's sounded a little off for 10 seconds the light came on but this time as I drove off it just flashed then disappeared within 20 seconds of coming on,  all has been fine since and it literally does everything it's suopossed to still. Little confused???
[/quote]
A Wolf in Wolf's Clothing
BMW E53 2003 X5 4.6is

centurion
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Re: Engine management light!!!!!

Post by centurion » Fri Jan 09, 2015 11:39 am

whether a coincidence or not... here is a bit of a feedback from my experience

- bought the vehicle (4.8is) which apparently was always ran on 95 octane fuel and no fuel additives used
- I used 97 octane every 3rd/4th tank
- in between that I use std 95 with redex additive to 'clean the fuel system'... not that I trust that much I was lead to believe that is the 'right thing' to do every now and then (as per recommendations on the bottle). E.g. my take was it won't cause any harm :)
- 95% of the time I only do short journeys in Lon of 2-5miles where engine temp does not even reach the optimum level... I know it is not great for any motor whether petrol or diesel but I do have occasional blast on M4/M40 for piece of mind and to get a grin on my face when I open up the throttle  :xmasgrin:.

so in 4 months of ownership I noticed...
- fuel additives certainly help a car to work better... smoother running.
- equally I noticed that 97+ octane is defo better... however I could not justify the cost as my vehicle is juicy in it's own right and that couple with abundance of power/torque so not really a need for it.

- and the last but not least... with combination of 97oct and/or additives I also noticed that I get the occasional blue smoke at full throttle?! a coincidence or not but it may well be that something had happened since I first started using them two... 'kx' suggested it maybe a Valvetronic, whatever it is the issue could have been triggered by those or at least i'm lead to believe that. While I appreciate that other factors would/could influence it... I still enjoy my vehicle and I think it is the great piece of eng... complex, large, heavy, thirsty with 'decent' maint. bills but worth every penny :) (I guess only Jag XJ would qualify in this category too).

a bit of a rumble but hope that helps...

centurion
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Re: Engine management light!!!!!

Post by centurion » Fri Jan 09, 2015 11:42 am

[quote="kkx5"]
Very expensive repair, good quality oil  (0w30) will improve cold start. It was BMW SIB  for it, can't find it now.
[/quote]

when you say expensive... what is the time/effort required to complete the job?

and how far it goes into [hopefully] three figures :) [incl. parts and labour]?

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iff26
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Re: Engine management light!!!!!

Post by iff26 » Sat Jan 10, 2015 11:23 am

I have same issue  but light is blinking about 20 sec, seems to not affect anything! Rybrook dealer couldnt figure it out or wasnt bothered too much! >:(
X5 4.4is  EX Carbon Black

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Spartanx5
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Re: Engine management light!!!!!

Post by Spartanx5 » Sun Jan 11, 2015 10:27 am

Mine will only do it on a cold cold morning, then if unjust sit there till it's warm, turn off and back on again the light goes off and she runs like a dream, it hasn't been to cold lately so I haven't had the issue, I have a warranty so I just need to get it in to that garage when I get time. I did all the plugs on the last service so maybe the coil packs are getting affected by the freeze?
4.4  silver on chrome 22s

centurion
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Re: Engine management light!!!!!

Post by centurion » Mon Jan 12, 2015 10:32 am

...brief Q re independent [e.g. non-BMW] warranty like WarrantDirect for instance...

if you had one in place and something complex like Valvetronic needs replacement would that be covered [parts and labour] by them...? or simply treated as wear and tear and not applicable in their '...covered' list of things?

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