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Help Please. Car is in limp mode.

5K views 18 replies 12 participants last post by  Jefftc14 
#1 ·
SORRY FOR THE DUAL POST BUT I NEED HELP, DEALER IS ON THE CLOCK AT $110 per hour as we speak.

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I've had my ESS Supercharger on my car for 6 years, everything worked well. Then all of a sudden I get a check engine light. The OBD codes show that it is the ICV (Idle Control Valve). Easy enough to replace, so I did, problem goes away for a couple of weeks. Now I am getting DSC light, brake light, SES, and EML lights.

I took it to the dealer and they check all of the wheel speed sensors and said they were fine. The codes they were getting were ICV faults and the DSC unable to reduce torque. Thankfully, the dealer didn't replace the $1400 DSC controller and say "Bummer, that didn't fix it" Unfortunately, they don't know what to do and are starting to say "You are screwed, it must be the supercharger"

I am getting all of the light only in the morning when the car is cold, at about two minutes after start, and passing thru 30 MPH. I get the lights almost like clockwork and it throws the car into limp mode.

Can anybody offer some ideas on what might be the issue?? The dealer is charging me $110 per hour to start diagnosing wiring and looking for anything they can think of. THANKS
 
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#3 ·
Thanks for the reply. The techs were hooking harnesses and computers up to the car and then going to take it out for a drive again. I told them about the smoke check and they are going to to do it also. They also mentioned that my Dynojet Air/Fuel Ratio gauge was showing a somewhat lean indication under acceleration. I never saw that but that does sound like an air leak somewhere?? Boost is steady.

I'll report back. THANKS AGAIN for the replies. :str8pimpi
 
#5 ·
check your hood sensors!
 
#6 ·
Hood sensors???? I don't get it.....

UPDATE: The tech has been working on the car all afternoon, the code that kept coming back was the ICV throwing errors and the DSC controller reporting unable to control torque. The tech tested the three wire harness to the ICV and said that one of the wires had a bad resistance reading to the ECU/DME Anyway, he jumpered that wire and drove the car three different times without any codes. He is going to drive it one more time in the morning and then declare it fixed. It'll probably cost me 6+ hours of diagnostics time which is about a third of what a new DSC controller would cost. I guess I'm happy it will only be $600 - 800 bucks???????

Lesson learned - I should now be on the lookout for wire corrosion when I have random malfunctions.

:str8pimpi
 
#7 ·
sounds good! im glad the stealership found the problem..x-ing fingers.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Well it looks like the ICV wire was the culprit. According to the BMW tech report, the DME was reporting fault D3 and the DSC reporting fault 5E19 (DME can not reduce torque.)

The way the tech explained the issue, At low RPM, the DSC will use the ICV to restrict airflow to the engine if a reduction in torque is required due to wheel spin. At higher RPM's, both the ICV and ETK? (throttle body) are used to restrict power. In my case it appears that at low speed the DSC signaled the ICV to reduce torque but the bad ICV wire caused the ICV to malfunction.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone out there with ICV probs one day. And, by the way, my idle smoothed out (which makes sense since a malfunctioning ICV will change the airflow at random around idle and cause idle problems) :str8pimpi
 
#11 ·
You got that right.... I was sweating for a while when I thought they were going to say "Too bad, you modified the car, we won't touch it" but, the tech decided to have a shot at it and turned out to be very intelligent.

The problem I have in my area is the dealership service department is 5 stars but the sales department is at the other extreme, and I am not too crazy about the styling of the BMW since about 2005, perhaps a Merc AMG will be my next car. :str8pimpi
 
#13 ·
UPDATE: The tech has been working on the car all afternoon, the code that kept coming back was the ICV throwing errors and the DSC controller reporting unable to control torque. The tech tested the three wire harness to the ICV and said that one of the wires had a bad resistance reading to the ECU/DME Anyway, he jumpered that wire and drove the car three different times without any codes. He is going to drive it one more time in the morning and then declare it fixed. It'll probably cost me 6+ hours of diagnostics time which is about a third of what a new DSC controller would cost. I guess I'm happy it will only be $600 - 800 bucks???????

Lesson learned - I should now be on the lookout for wire corrosion when I have random malfunctions.
Hi may i know where this wire harness is located and possibly the part number? Thanks!
 
#14 ·
I had this issue happen,.....I was getting p1603 and p1500 codes which led me to the O2 rich codes....my ICV was getting stuck in the open position...I need to take it off and clean it...
 
#17 ·
STILL have not cleaed it, it seems ok, just been a little lazy lately...need to do the valve cover as well...will do it this weekend.
 
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