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Old 02-03-2021, 03:09 PM
oldskewel oldskewel is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bcredliner View Post
I made my own based on this video. Works great. Have used it many times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np_duzsaZxI
Bookmarked that one. 50sKid always has good stuff. I'll make one like that whenever I actually need a smoke machine. I have most of the parts laying around my garage already waiting for this moment , including that spare propane regulator I've been hanging onto for some reason.

I've been planning to make one for a while now, and thought when I got the P0171 and P0174 on my 3.0i that I'd finally be able to do it. Unfortunately , I easily found a clear 1" tear in the lower intake boot and was able to solve the problem by just replacing that (BTW, it was a genuine BMW boot put on by the PO's dealer about 25k miles prior to failure).

Even if you don't want to build your own, that video, starting around 12:30 shows him using it on his M54 engine, with some possibly good info on using any smoke tester on these E53s.

And here's a 50sKid video where he talks specifically about leak hunting for the P0171 and P0174 codes on a M54, which may hopefully at least partially apply to the V8s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3encrkBsss0


Some comments for @Meestahbig:
  • It sounds like your problem is intermittent. That might give you some clues on where to look for it, and also means it may be tougher to find, even with a smoke machine if the leak (if it is a leak) is somehow sealed up when you do the test.
  • The fact that you get both of those codes coming and going at the same time suggests that the problem is affecting both banks equally, so it would not be likely that it's the O2 sensors. Also if that means it is upstream enough to isolate where the leak is (am not so familiar with the V8s), it might help the search.
  • Don't assume that just because something is new that it is good. Although if you replaced something and there was no change at all before vs. after, that's probably safe to assume it was not the problem to begin with and the replacement has no problem either.
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Last edited by oldskewel; 02-03-2021 at 03:20 PM.
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