BMW 323i rough idle, no power!!!

Originally Posted by avglushk

U r right. I'm not upset. Firestone actually did find something. They found that i dont have a leak

As for fuel filter i replaced that 10-15K ago. I'm thinking O2 sensor. But based on what i read here looks like bad O2 sensor causing car run rich not lean. Am I wrong?

Plugs are fine did them when i had 118K. Now I have almost 153K.

Now I have only one code: p1189

it is very odd to have only one code, well that does point something out.. i wish i had knew this.
p1189 is only one bank having an issue. (bank 1=1-3cylinders, bank 2 = 4-6 cylinders)
It sounds like its going to be one ignition coil, or one spark plug, or one o2 sensor (if thats the case) you dont have any misfires?

Originally Posted by bmwci323

it is very odd to have only one code, well that does point something out.. i wish i had knew this.
p1189 is only one bank having an issue. (bank 1=1-3cylinders, bank 2 = 4-6 cylinders)
It sounds like its going to be one ignition coil, or one spark plug, or one o2 sensor (if thats the case) you dont have any misfires?

read my previous post i edited.

I asked him if there is a way to test ignition coils on bank 2. He said if ignition coil is bad the CEL woudlnt shut off by itself. Dont know if he is right in this case. What i'm gonna do is just clear code and drive it. We'll see if it's gonna pop up again.

How r u doing with your car? did u find any answers?

Originally Posted by avglushk

read my previous post i edited.

I asked him if there is a way to test ignition coils on bank 2. He said if ignition coil is bad the CEL woudlnt shut off by itself. Dont know if he is right in this case. What i'm gonna do is just clear code and drive it. We'll see if it's gonna pop up again.

How r u doing with your car? did u find any answers?

Switch around the ignition coils a few times, move the front 3 to the 6,5,4 cylinders. and then check to see if your code changes to a p1188, (meaning bank 1) instead of a bank 2 code.

I would pull your plugs anyways, and check them.

do you have your own scanner?


as for my car, I ordered in a new CCV anyways, just incase, it is a common problem with my sypmtoms, and a cheap part. i did replace my oil dipstick to ccv hose and a second one with high temp heating hose,that i attached to the old fittings. ( they both had holes)

after that, fuel pressure test and smoke, i havent done because my cars not insured...

Originally Posted by bmwci323

Switch around the ignition coils a few times, move the front 3 to the 6,5,4 cylinders. and then check to see if your code changes to a p1188, (meaning bank 1) instead of a bank 2 code.

I would pull your plugs anyways, and check them.

do you have your own scanner?


as for my car, I ordered in a new CCV anyways, just incase, it is a common problem with my sypmtoms, and a cheap part. i did replace my oil dipstick to ccv hose and a second one with high temp heating hose,that i attached to the old fittings. ( they both had holes)

after that, fuel pressure test and smoke, i havent done because my cars not insured...

That's a good idea. I will do that later. First I wanna see if 1189 is gonna show up again. No, i dont have scanner. I use Autozone (everybody already knows me there, every time i show up there, they are like - ok, let me get the scanner and i'll be right with u )


I had 1188 and 1189 too. Replacing CCV and hoses killed 1188

Well, do CCV and hopefully it's gonna solve your problem. I hope u dont have to wait too long to get CCV from ECS jk

Originally Posted by avglushk

That's a good idea. I will do that later. First I wanna see if 1189 is gonna show up again. No, i dont have scanner. I use Autozone (everybody already knows me there, every time i show up there, they are like - ok, let me get the scanner and i'll be right with u )


I had 1188 and 1189 too. Replacing CCV and hoses killed 1188

Well, do CCV and hopefully it's gonna solve your problem. I hope u dont have to wait too long to get CCV from ECS jk

LOL, well I got another 5 days until it gets here

After changing some hoses that were cracked, I noticed when I fire it up with the maf unplugged it fires up perfect, with the maf plugged in, it fires up stronger then it ever has , but then just stalls.. lol so confused, ill take the next step after im done changing CCV

As far as i know if the car performs better with MAF unplugged that means that u either have bad maf or vacuum leak. Dude at firestone gave me a list of what can cause 1188 and 1189.
1. Leaking CCV
2. Dirty Fuel Injectors - (i actually bought today chevron techron fuel system cleaner, heard a lot of good stuff about this cleaner and it's gonna be first time i'm using it )
3. Weak MAF
4. Leaking Unmetered Air.

Also MAF reading should be 3.5-5.0 g/s at idle. my reading was 4.27g/s
And fuel pressure test reading was 55 (i believe it's normal)

Hope that helps. Dont remember if i asked u, did u take a look at your lower boot?

323? No power? Hmmm

Originally Posted by avglushk

As far as i know if the car performs better with MAF unplugged that means that u either have bad maf or vacuum leak. Dude at firestone gave me a list of what can cause 1188 and 1189.
1. Leaking CCV
2. Dirty Fuel Injectors - (i actually bought today chevron techron fuel system cleaner, heard a lot of good stuff about this cleaner and it's gonna be first time i'm using it )
3. Weak MAF
4. Leaking Unmetered Air.

Also MAF reading should be 3.5-5.0 g/s at idle. my reading was 4.27g/s
And fuel pressure test reading was 55 (i believe it's normal)

Hope that helps. Dont remember if i asked u, did u take a look at your lower boot?

55psi is perfect, where did u get the maf and fuel pressure test done at? how much

Originally Posted by bmwci323

55psi is perfect, where did u get the maf and fuel pressure test done at? how much

Firestone. They charged me $79.99 plus tax for everything. Smoke test, fuel pressure test, maf test, oxygen sensors test.

I dont know may be that 1189 that i had was just a glitch after i replaced CCV and hoses cuz everything looks very good. I have no leaks, maf is fine, fuel pressure is fine, O2 sensors are fine. Could be dirty fuel injectors. Hopefully techron will help me with that.

So anyway man, do CCV then when u get your car insured do smoke test and everything else i did and we'll go from there

Report back

Originally Posted by avglushk

Firestone. They charged me $79.99 plus tax for everything. Smoke test, fuel pressure test, maf test, oxygen sensors test.

I dont know may be that 1189 that i had was just a glitch after i replaced CCV and hoses cuz everything looks very good. I have no leaks, maf is fine, fuel pressure is fine, O2 sensors are fine. Could be dirty fuel injectors. Hopefully techron will help me with that.

So anyway man, do CCV then when u get your car insured do smoke test and everything else i did and we'll go from there

Report back

yup, we shall see. 79.99 is better then paying a german mechanic 139.99 for an hours diagnostics.. but then agian german mechanics know the car in and out (atleast id hope)

Originally Posted by bmwboy1989

i have a 2001 330ci, my car doesnt throw a check engine light...i have a serious loss of power..in fact it takes forever to accelerate. in park the car revs normal, sometimes it idles weird, but i cant accelerate at all. i feel like its driving like a grandma would, while im pressing the gas to the floor. doesnt make any since. i feel like it might be my catalytic convertor? maybe its bad? i recently found a leak in the throttle body hose, but i fixed that and its still driving horrible. today i was driving and i went to gas it and the RPMs took forever to get up, and my car wasnt accelerating at all! still no codes here! i dont know what it could possibly be! any help? anyone experienced this before?

Hey i have the same problems. Did you ever find out what was the problem? I have no codes or check engine light, but my car has a major power lost in acceleration.

Might be you oil separator very similar symptoms to my car and also could be your crank positioning sensor my car would cut off even after the change it was smooth i aksed a tech while i worked at the bmw dealer he said the cyclone separator wich they call it always goes out on e46 but mainly in cold conditions

I had the same one code P1189, I just replaced my O2 sensor, drove it around and I was able to pass smog.

pop the hood and get a glass of water about half full. Take the water with a napkin so it doesnt slide and set it on the drivers side of the engine. Remove the cover to expose the coils and and spark plugs. start your engine and note the movement of the water. if all is working you should have no significant movement of water in the glass. Now,,,one at a time remove the coil wire from one cylinder at a time and watch the water. if the movement of the water gets worse then the coil and spark plug are working properly. do this to all cylinders till you get one that doesn't change the movement of the water. when that happens, shut off the engine and remove a good coil and place it into the cylinder that made no change to the water movement. turn engine back on and repeat the wire removal precess with the two cylinders that you swapped coils in. if the known good coil works in the original dead cylinder spot it's not the plug or an internal issue. When you take the wire off the suspected dead coil and you get no change in movement of water then you have a bad coil. Simply replace the bad coils or coils and reset error codes. Hope that helps.

Damn!!!! 323i's! Looks like we all got thu same issues, my scarlet is 1999 and runs like rubbish, all sounding thu same :-( makes me sad, going thro all thu ropes to no joy :-( xxx

can the air leaks lead to transmission fault

when you guys talk about the lower intake boot, are you talking about the flexible elow behind the mass air flow sensor? I have changed it along with both cam position sensors, new plugs, replaced one coil,(cracked, but seemed to be working),? i am still gettin both upstream O2 sensor codes? Vacuum hoses dont seem to be leaking, but plan on checking CCV next. Engine ran fine after above changes, but has developed the same symptoms again? Loss of power and lhp mode pulling a big hill? Engine runs better with MAF unplugged???? DUH!!! Help??? I need 4 cars running...down to 1...lol

Yes that is the lower intake boot, You may need a New MAF Sensor and New coil boots and a New O2 sensor, The CCV on mine was cracked even though I put on new hoses I couldn't see the crack, I would recommend buying a new CCV. I had to put the top hose on then feed it up to replace it, It just takes all day to do it (4 to 5 hours). you have to remove the circular metal flap valve also ( I just let it hang and dangle out of the way) and I had to break out the old CCV, I broke it in two but I could still see the crack after I pulled it out, I saw it on youtube to see how to do it. go to www.ecstuning.com or www.partsgeek.com. I feel so much better after 4 tries (every week a new code) but then I started with 13 codes then down to none after doing the work, Oh yeah, you should erase the codes then drive the car for 70 miles so the car computer can reset. good luck..

Originally Posted by froilanr

there is...http://mr2.com/TEXT/O2_Sensor.html

Seriously cool posting man. I wish I had that a couple of weeks ago before I paid some scumbag garage £250 (Stirling) to replace the one behind the cat bank 2. Anyway, just scanned mine and get three 0.42V and one 0.43V readings. The car has cooled down a bit since I got home 2 hours ago. What do you think? They sound ok? Or do I need to scan them as soon as I stop the car? Would I expect the readings to be higher then? The reason I scanned them was because I had a misfire when starting off from cold yesterday. I immediately restarted the engine and it went away. Checked and cleared codes yesterday when I got home. Misfire codes on three cylinders. Today no running problems but checked the codes anyway. Thing is I got an insufficient heat O2 sensor behind cat bank 2 error code which is actually the one that was replaced and it was an OEM part. I checked.

T

Originally Posted by 323ifever

Hey, I need some help if I can get some. I have a 99' BMW 323i.

And, here is the problem: When I turn it on in the morning or whenever it's off more than 2 hours, doesn't have to be in the morning; it will shake and theres a popping/cracking noise under the hood somewhere. Can't figure it out.

It think it's a misfire, because it accelerates on its own a little bit when in Park.

However, here's another thing: When I'm at a stop light, or slow traffic, it will begun to rough idle and it won't perform as expected. When I release the brake, and press on the gas, there is no power. The pedal is all the way down, and it only goes to 20 MPH. Which is weird. Now, this happens every other day..

Sometimes, it runs smooth, and sometimes this happens: which what I said above.

I replaced the O2 sensors, but I don't know what I can do to fix it...Please Help!!!

Ok so its vanos for sure. Could be more to it then just the vanos but i think the results will.satisfy you especially for 55$ bucks.