SOLVED - reduced power engine fault codes
 

Hi guys,

When I dropped my 35d for the Atlantic crossing end February it ran fine but as I restarted to drive it the 50 yards from the office to the loading area it threw the "Engine Failure, reduced power" message. At the time it was too late in the day to check why it did so but I suspect a vac hose that controls the turbo.

It landed last week and at present I have to retrieve the car from a port terminal 200 miles from home. I don't feel like doing a "road side" hunt for the cause. Nevertheless, I have loaded INPA on my new laptop and modded the DDE selection script for the M57. I'll do a quick check when I get in to the car to try retrieve the fault codes with INPA. If it is not a fuel pressure problem, would it be a problem to drive it home slowly? (I guess it limits speed to 50 mph?)

As a back-up I'm planning to bring a car trailer with my 2016 Tundra 5.7 towing. Anyone towed their E70 on a trailer? Just curious what I should be looking out for?

Sounds like an injector. I drove mine over 200 miles with 2 bad injectors. Usually I could avoid the code by not accelerating too hard. There is a ton of info on this failure.

Thanks, good point. I'd be a bit wary of driving it with a funky injector. Pretty much decided now to bring the trailer and load it. Once I get the car trailer out there, it is better to just complete the trip (I suspect it'll be dawn to dusk). Once it is in my driveway there will be ample time to diagnose and fix it.

You kinda have to bring the trailer- since you really dont know if it will be driveable when your arrive. I mean it could start and run perfectly fine, right? (Q do they hook it to a battery tender, etc, for the trip?)

I have the AAA plan w the max towing package. 200 miles.

GL!

The trailer is the way to go if you don't know what the problem is. I didn't really have a choice at the time, but it also didn't throw the code 100% of the time; before replacing the first injector that is. After the first injector was replaced, it would immediately go into limp mode until the second injector was replaced. Check for cracks on the plastic pieces above the engine. If they are cracked, pretty good indication #5 and/or #6 injectors are bad.

The bulkhead was already replaced and the car live indoor almost all of its life. So, less likely to be the injectors in this case.

The rules for containerized shipping say that the battery has to be disconnected. While the battery tends to survive the trip, when it arrived in port last June, the suspension had gone in to transport mode. So, yeah, the trailer is pretty much a necessity. Having said that, while I have towed before, this is sort of top of the weight range. The Tundra should be able to handle it but I would probably keep to the double Nickle in terms of speed....

Ready to roll
 

Picked up a car trailer today. Detouring a bit on the route and expect about 225 miles each way. Hopefully no more than 4 hours there and 5 for the road back. The truck can tow 10k and the trailer is rated 7.5k, so should be relatively straight forward.

However, I did load a tool box, a jack, jumper cables, spare gas and a couple of 4 gallon containers with water. Some other assorted stuff as well. I prefer to over prepare then to be stuck for something silly.

My son is keen on the trip. Will be good training for him to learn to drive with a load attached.

IT'S HOME!!
 

This trip was a bit easier than I expected. Got to the warehouse a bit after midday and they had it ready to go. They brought it out immediately and left it with the key on the dash so we did not have to be in direct contact with anyone. I am pleased with the services of West Coast Shipping who did the westbound Atlantic shipment.

Loaded and secured the E70 in 20 minutes and ran it home doing about 60mph. Could have done a bit more but didn't seem necessary. The Tundra was very stable towing this trailer and this was the easiest way getting it home. Love my X5s around town and for runs up to 100 miles. But, for anything longer or needing space/carrying capacity the Tundras are superb.

Once I got the E70 on the trailer I realized that it was a tight fit especially the rears.....! I guess for any non-modified vehicle it would have been fine. Admit I did not expect that :-) Also the car was a bit longer at the back than the trailer.

Tomorrow I will connect the computer and see what's up with the engine codes....

EDIT: Engine codes on the E70 (cause of the limp home/reduced power mode), there were nine and I thought a bit overwhelming to make sense of. So, deleted them all and restarted the engine. Only one code immediately reappeared, the turbo pressure. Now the sensor could be bad or the turbo vacuum control hose is toast, the latter seems more likely since the dealer in Portugal was quite intent on having me spend 900 Euros to replace three vacuum hoses. Also will need to check the vac pump is working. Tomorrow have to continue with some drywall work in the basement media room (part of my looooong punch list) but on Monday I plan a day for car work and will probably have a look at this problem.

Glad you got it back home.

Pretty tight fit....

Looks like you properly secured it with webbing that ‘captures’ the tire/wheel and holds that to the deck.....

Be interesting to see what it winds up being.

Washed and vacuumed it today, a year in a dusty place with no shopvac, ugh! We used it quite a lot including many trips to nearby beaches, the inside looked a bit grim. Still have to go through it with some leather cleaner.
My left rear alignment is off and the tire is looking thin on the inside, another item on the Todo list.
Tomorrow by chance I have a couple of guys coming to help with drywall and paint some crown molding, so the Diagnosis of the 35d will be on hold for another day :(

And a few weeks went by...
 

With nothing done on the E70..... I cleared out the back of the garage to have the guys paint the ceiling and realized that I simply needed to use the building materials stacked everywhere to make more room for the cars. So, pulled out the drywall tools and a few buckets of compound and now a lot of drywall work is done in my garage and in the basement media room as well as a stairwell that was missing some work. Once I complete the ceiling paint in the front half of the garage, I can reorganize again and hopefully get the two X5s and the Tundra parked inside! :-)

But I digress, today I pulled the E70 inside and hooked up INPA. The two errors that appear immediately after clearing the EM are:
P0069 Manifold pressure and barometric pressure inconsistent with charge pressure sensor, and;
PP0237 Turbo charge pressure sensor circuit low. At the end of the error listing all the measured temps, etc., it suggests the sensor circuit is either short circuited to ground or interrupted. Oddly, it says the failure is not actual but is stored in memory, so this is intermittent I guess.

So, tomorrow I plan to have a look at the charge pressure sensor, I can swap it, as I still have the one I took off late 2018. I will also try to see where the vac lines are that seem to be getting old. (EDIT: This error seems to relate to the MAP sensor in the intake manifold. Can't swap it as I never changed it before. Thought about it at the time and didn't.... :( Ugh! )

In addition, while crossing France during January in a rather bad rain storm the car flashed up an EDC error which seems to be the RR (as opposed to my initial assessment of RF. INPA has a strange error where clicking RF connects to the RR and vice-versa, same for the left side). I am hoping it is simply a connection problem....

We have been watching some Tyler Hoovie videos and the wife is starting to mutter about BMW hoopties.... ;-)

Worked on the E70 for a few hours
 

Yesterday cleaned the MAP sensor but no help. Wasn't expecting that it would help since INPA indicates a circuit fault but it was also slightly plugged which makes me curious about the state of the intake manifold. Ordered a new (OEM) sensor online, I guess should be available for pickup on Monday or Tuesday.

Didn't see any obvious leaks in the vacuum hoses but they do look a bit sorry. I don't really get why BMW placed the taps for the small vac lines under the intake manifold. Then runs a bunch of long lines all the way across the engine to the pressure converters. Looks like this could be done much simpler.....probably designed by a committee! :-) Another reason to extract the manifold and potentially clean it up a bit.

Also investigated the VDC problem. From rummaging around with INPA it seems the RR VDC satellite is talking to the ECU but not taking any current to the valves. I will have a bit of time to take the unit off the car and check for continuity in the lines but I fear that it is an internal problem and may have to find a replacement.

Success!
 

This morning went to pick up some parts I had purchased online from a local BMW dealer, one of which was the new MAP sensor. (Manifold absolute pressure) Got home, plugged it in and cleared the codes. It started up like a charm and no more Engine Failure code! :-) Simplest fix yet on a BMW.....(for me at least). Popped in a new air filter and cleaned up the engine bay a bit.

This morning also ordered a set of replacement shocks for the rear AD units. In the next week or so I will install them and that should hopefully take care of the active suspension faults.

Also this morning put in an order for a set of intake manifold gaskets from FCP (they cost a fraction of the OEM ones:-). I plan to take the IM off to get proper access to the vac lines and maybe clean up the manifold whilst it is off. Depending on the condition of the swirl flaps I might get a delete kit and install it. I will also check what else lives under the IM that could be preventatively replaced.

I need to get a few more liters of engine oil as it is really time to change it. And then I hope to get a few miles out of the 35d before it goes up for sale later this summer.

Consider replacing ANYTHING rubber or plastic if you have the IM off. Not on my X, but prior cars have shown a propensity for creating 'had to diagnose issues' when a crack leads to a vacuum leak.

ARD - Good thought! Definitely doing that.

That space under the IM is hades, it is dark, dirty and occupied by a web of wires and hoses. I did not enjoy reaching in there when I exchanged my GPM while improvising in an underground garage in Portugal, even with gloves it was near impossible to keep things cleanish.

As to cleaning the intake manifold there seems no definitive method or medium to use. Options I found thus far:
Carb cleaner
Brake cleaner
Mineral spirit
Diesel soak, then purple degreaser.
Oven cleaner
High pressure blasting.
Bring to NAPA store.... (Costs seen are about $20-30, prob higher now)

Latter seems most attractive as the stuff that the M57 coughs out is black and nasty in most cases. I'd probably have to drive a ways out to find a reliable NAPA store as auto part stores near me are pitifully poorly staffed.....likely they'd lose it, break it or abscond with it....

Anyone who has tangled with this please let me know what worked?

Time to get ISTA D. Your troubleshooting will be so much more productive

Hate to admit it but I do have ista-d and occasionally use it. I remember initiating a new battery with it but I don’t remember exactly how I did that. It is not very intuitive and I just struggle to use it :(. Probably should spend some quality time with it.

I learned how to use NCSexpert to do the coding but that took a great deal of reading and watching videos until the basics sunk in. Next brake flush I need to figure out how to activate the abs. A good incentive to learn more about ista I guess.