XSeries-forum

Hi,

Around 70k miles my E53 3.01 started smoking at start up every now and then. And then once when driving I had a smoke coming out the exhaust while driving.
My Indy diagnosed CCV, so I got him to replace the ccv and hoses and all was well..... Now 30k miles later and after this recent cold snap...the car has started smoking again at start up occasionally.
The idle is intermittently rough and I am getting engine fail safe a lot with error code 1500.
Do you think CCV needs replacing again?

Google says p1500 is idle control valve stuck open. It also hints this can cause smoke as the fuel mixture is likely to be incorrect.

Of course you should never be too careful when it comes to the ccv as a faulty one can cause engine damage. But if google is right have the idle valve checked first.

Are you using a generic code reader?  Apparently some error codes are car/engine specific as may have different meanings.

Hi,
Update.
Yesterday I replaced ICV and did plugs and oil change.
I replaced Valve Cover Gasket as well....
Number 5 & 6 plugs had quite a bit of oil on them and ignition boots were dirty..
When removing cover gasket lots of yellow grunge in join with breather pipe to ccv.
Car still giving 1500 code and got rough idle. Car also smoking on start up still.... And once when driving.
Gut feeling is the CCV needs doing again based on past experience...
Shall I give this a go....heard it is a pig of a DIY...
What do you think?

>Hi All,
Update, I changed the CCV at the weekend and it was a pig of a job, removed the intake boots and throtte body and prurge valve and harness box and then alot of blind work aligning and afixing the hoses to the new CCV... The old CCV and hoses were gunked up wth yellow snot sop glad I did the job especially with this recent snow dump as these units dont like the snow and the snot then frezzes and causes all sort of problems, .........

but alas it has not stopped the intermittent idle stumble or the P1500 code and engine fail safe.
I checked all the intake boots when I had them off and all looked fine.
The P1500 seems to come on when I am crusing between 40-60mph doing around 1700-2000RPM.
It just doesnt make any sense.
If I drive hard it never appears to come on.
I am going to check the connectors to the MAF, DISA and ICV and see if I can see anything untoward on these connectors that could be throwing strange readings to cause this, I will give the contacts a clean as well

Any Ideas anyone.

The CCV on the M54 3.0i prone to causing hydrolocking. Many in USA have fitted revised "cold climate" upgraded pressure regulating valve for extreme cold temps. Sorry I missed this before...........I am sure my info would have been more use prior to your hard work & efforts.

Please check but I think you need  part number 11617533400

I have searched releoem on 2002 car and no cold climate parts listed for E53 of that era but there are for E39.

You will need to trawl net & forums using terms such as "bmw"  "hydrolock" "M54" "climate" "valve" etc

Be advised some report issues fitting cold climate pipes with thick lagging so best to try cold climate pressure regulating valve 1st and go from there.

In reality I am sure you wont want to do this again in a hurry.

I use thin Mobil 1 on M54 engined Z3 2.2i as well as on E53 M62 4.4i.........this is quite thin - no idea if that helps or not.

Obvious tip but try to do some long runs occasionaly & if car used mainly for short trips.

Hi All,

Wanted to post an update for everyone, I still have the intermittent idle drop (hiccup) but I have resolved the Engine fail safe and 1500 code I think (fingers Crossed). It has been a week now and has not returned. I changed the elbow boot that connects the Throttle body and the ICV together and although the previous part had no visible tears itdid have signs of surface cracking so I decided to change anyway as only £13 to replace. I fitted this last Saturday and fingers crossed the 1500 and engine fail safe have not popped up since.

Thought this might be of use to someone else in the future.

in regards to the idle drop I just dont know what is causing this?

Hi Everyone,

Wanted to update further on this and hope this is of use to anyone else who experiences the same issue.

The idle hiccup has beenSOLVED and FIXED

I took the car to a very reputable  Indy who are all ex BMW techinicans and they had the car for two days and could not resolve the issue or provide a actual diagnosis. They suggested after speaking to BMW themselves that it COULD be the engine harness and quoted me £700+ for parts and labour but did caveat it might not be that.....

They also charged me £120 for the investgation work....

Well I was not prepared to pay £700 on a Might be....

So I had lived with the issue until.......

I unplugged the MAF and the car stumbled as it unplugged and whilst unplugged the car's idle was steady and stable.....

I purchased a used siemens MAF from Ebay for £20 and fitted this and the idle is as smooth as a baby's bum as they say.

So lesson learnt is if you have a eractic Idle that hiccups and drops to a near stall every now and then have a look at you MAF...

That's not the first time this has come up.  It sounds like your Indy is also reliant on finding faults by the computer rather than 1st principles.  If the MAF didn't show a fault then the technicians (and I use that word cautiously) don't know how to diagnose the fault and start clutching at expensive - for you - straws.

Glad it's sorted.

Richard