2005 E83 3.0i (auto) MAF

[KT_MrsA]

Hiya
Newbie to the forum here!!
Am looking for a bit of advice please, my car has always seemed to hold down gears too long in automatic (I always say it feels like the sport auto setting on any other BMW I have ever driven) and now it has virtually stopped changing gear. The codes on the ECU are not giving any warning and I am not getting much helpful advice out of my local BM garage (apart from the service manager refusing to reset my gear mapping as it was a waste of time and money in his experience)
I have been adviced that it may be my MAF that needs changing, but as it is a 200 pound plus part I was hoping to hear from someone who may be able to throw some light on my situation.
The fuel consumption has always been horrendous, but again that has gotten a lot worse recently.
I have a lot of experience of doing the mechanics in older cars, but due to an expanding family and therefore more pressures on my time I haven't really got myself dirty under the hood of the X3 (yet )
Thanks in advance for any advice
Cheers
KT_MrsA

[dirtymonkey29]

Can't help with x3 sorry, I would suggest finding yourself a decent independent specialist. Let us know where your from and someone may be able to recommend somewhere.

Welcome to the forum too, get your newbie post up.

[KT_MrsA]

Hiya, I am in Aberdeen so not sure I have any local independents! I need to take my mother in law's X5 to a bloke in Livingston soon, but can't drive two cars at once! Are there any indy's local to Aberdeen?
Cheers
Will do newbie post this evening!

[surveysteve]

Howdie, fire me a pm with your info and I'll pass it onto my mate if you want.
He's a tech at John Clark BMW.

Failing that AW Autotech are pretty good. I've used them a good few times before with my previous BMW's.

[Rusty]

I was just about to start a thread on here with nigh on the same problems.

The X3 in question is a friend of mines. It is a Aug 2004 build but on an 05 plate and is the 3.0i with 6 speed auto.

She only picked it up about 10 days ago and when I asked her how she was finding it her immediate response was-
'not great really, it uses so much fuel and it doesn't seem to change gear soon enough' - sounds familiar doesn't it.

Luckily she bought it from BMW so has the full warranty, but they have just asked her to do the brim test for a couple of weeks so they can see actual fuel usage. After that they will have a look at if from there.....

What sort of economy (or lack of it) should she be expecting from it around town etc

Any help on this would be good, and of course I shall update with any findings as and when anything happens.






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[KT_MrsA]

Hiya, I went through the whole warranty thing with BMW and this issue, in the end the service manager called me to say that what I was getting was pretty much to be expected from the car / engine / gearbox combo. I get about 22 to 25 mpg if I coax it around and my husband seems to average about 12 to 14 mpg around town
I have found that having 2 drivers with very different driving styles has "confused" the car, so he no longer drives it and it seems a lot better now!
I didn't replace the MAF yet as I can't justify it for the mileage I do (very low!)
Thanks in advance for keeping us updated!
Cheers
KT_MrsA

[X5Sport]

It's pretty close to the figures we used to get from our E46 325i Auto. Large petrol engines combined with an auto box and a heavy vehicle are an expensive combination, or at least we're in 2005. Technology has improved them since though. Can you do the MAF yourselves? If it's a plug and play type swap, you should be able to source the unit away from BMW and save some money?

There's a copy of the BMW instructions here

We both found that in order to make the 325i 'go' we needed to use a lot of throttle and quite high revs. The 3-er was a heavy car and as a result economy suffered badly. Even driving it very gently rarely saw figures much above 25mpg. We chopped it in after a year and bought the 330Cd MSport version - which does 45mpg. No auto option was offered as it couldn't meet the emissions regs for Euro 3 at the time.

[KT_MrsA]

Thanks X5Sport, my 2001 E39 525i auto touring would easily do 30 to 35 mpg on a long run (25 around town although we barely used it for short runs), figures that I can't get anywhere close to on the X3. Despite them being about the same weight.
You are right the MAF is an easy change but even OEM they are touching 200 pounds.
A 330Cd MSport sounds like a lot of fun! My father has the 330d saloon and that is awesome to drive!

[KT_MrsA]

Just to keep you all updated, I spoke to a guy who tunes BMW. He explained that the gear box mapping has not been changed in the X3 petrol from the diesel version, so basically the gear box holds down gears until it achieves the torque it is looking for, which in a petrol engine is at much higher revs, and hence the shocking economy.. it makes sense as the car drives beautifully in tip but auto always feels like its in too low a gear. Unfortunately this is the one part of the ECU he hasn't managed to get into yet
At least I now have had my suspicions confirmed that the only way to get reasonably economy is to drive in tip, I guess it is still a lazy way to drive manual as it changes down for you!!
If anyone gets any further with this I would be grateful to hear your ideas/solutions.
MrsA

[X5Sport]

I wonder why they did that......

It's not even as if the 'sweet spot' for a petrol or diesel engine is in the same place...

Just a thought, but when my E53 had to have everything gearbox related replaced after it disintegrated the software reloading was done by a local Bosch Auto Specialist. Not sure if you have one local to you who might be able to help.

[KT_MrsA]

the cynic in me says "coz it was the cheap option!" I'm not sure!! as i mentioned before my E39 petrol with the tip engine was beautifully tuned, but the tuning guy I spoke to had a X3 3.0i on the ramp when I called so he must have looked at it.
Thanks for the idea for the Bosch auto specialist, will try that when back from holidays.
oh and ouch to a disintegrating E53 gearbox

[jason@bwchiptune]

That doesn't sound right at all
The gear box software will be different as the torque settings are different between a petrol and diesel

I'm a tuner and a ex BMW tech running my own company for 18 years

Look for a company that uses Autologic like our selfs and ask them to see if there are any gear box and engine up dates

As we have found the updates have fixed the holding on to gears and helped with better mpg after

As for the e46 325i and 330i we have been remapping these for years With great gains
here is a review of both cars

http://www.bimmerforums.co.uk/forum/f2/ ... e-t113327/

http://evotechnik.net/showthread.php?36 ... trol-remap

[KT_MrsA]

thanks Jason, I will have a chat with the guy I am seeing on Friday, see if he can sort this out! I wish I lived nearer London as I would just pop over to see you

[jason@bwchiptune]

[quote=""KT_MrsA""]thanks Jason, I will have a chat with the guy I am seeing on Friday, see if he can sort this out! I wish I lived nearer London as I would just pop over to see you [/quote]


Where are you as we have a good few Indys with Autologic in our remapping dealer network now

[KT_MrsA]

I am in Aberdeen, I had a quick look at the website for autologic yesterday and the most northerly appeared to be Tyne and Wear. I am heading to Newcastle in Spetember so will see if I can visit then, if you know of a Scotland based place I would be grateful to hear.