Unreliable German Car on a Silly Journey

[JumpingFrog]

2 hours ago, yorkshire_spam said:

Fascinating stuff @JumpingFrog, I don't know how you cope with the stress!

Ignorance was bliss, I do feel stressed now... Only BMW could design a chain system that disintegrates before 100k miles.

I also forgot to mention I had a rear brake caliper seize on this weekend, probably the winter got to it, again I can't really get decent parts so I just worked the piston back and forth with a G-clamp... It's behaving, for now, if it misbehaves again I think I'll just clamp the line, 4 working brakes are overated.

Edited April 10, 2024 by JumpingFrog

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Rather epic and remarkable you had any oil pressure at all.

And obviously I was wrong in thinking the oil pump is over the top as that probably saved things !

Hopefully now cleaned out it will be enough to get you back.

Fingers crossed for you

[Nick Jones]

I reckon it’s had a chain set already as surely you found most of the tensioner guide in the sump?

Your caliper massage technique has worked for me several times in the past…..

It’ll be fiiiine 

[JumpingFrog]

I decided I couldn't take the stress and took it to a garage this week, I was meant to already be in the UK... Will have some serious driving to do next week.

The garage (a reputable BMW specialist) promised they could get the chain, but they're having issues... Although they think now they finally have the right chain kit. They have confirmed that the chain guides they've removed are fubar and probably weren't long for this world.

[JumpingFrog]

I got the car back from the garage as promised, and they even managed to fix all the oil leaks (valve cover gasket, high pressure fuel pump gasket and front main seal), but I'm not that happy with how they did the chain. They appear to have reused the crank pulley stretch bolt, and now the exhaust cam reference position is even further off time than it already was with the old stretched chain, almost at the maximum (+9.75 deg, of +/-10 deg maximum compensation). But nevertheless test drive through the centre of Moscow was very successful:

So I set off, not wanting to waste time, I don't have much to report. Russia - Estonia border was very fast, under 4 hours, as expected Russian side checked everything, including flicking through books for hidden money, but Estonian side was completely hassle free. After that I just drove for 4 more days, 400+ miles everyday, car was more or less okay. Injector/emissions control system problem rears its ugly head in heavy traffic and the engine starts to misfire if running at low speeds for more than half an hour.

But at last made it to England, with all my stuff, and a mostly working old 3 series.

I have a lot of things to do now, like starting a new job, finding somewhere to live... Hopefully the BMW will behave itself until I can find time to fix everything on my list:

1. Fit emissions NOx sensor emulator.
2. Possibly change 1 or more injectors.
3.  Brake overhaul (front: pads, rear: calipers, hoses, pads, discs, hand brake shoes)
4. Replace oil pump drive chain and inspect big end shells for damage.
5. Reset timing, replace stretch bolts.

 

Edited April 26, 2024 by JumpingFrog

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Good to see you made it back successfully.

That is not an insignificant to-do list. Even before you get to the jobs on the car

Good luck on all fronts.

You left Russia via Estonia rather than Latvia which I would have thought would be nearer to Moscow?

[Nick Jones]

Well, I think congratulations are in order. Well done on many levels.

Good luck with the new job and home hunting!

 

[JumpingFrog]

22 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

You left Russia via Estonia rather than Latvia which I would have thought would be nearer to Moscow?

You're right, the border with Latvia definitely saves a few hundred kilometers, but I follow lots of groups on Russian social media, and general consensus is that any time saved driving will be easily offset by time spent queuing - which can reportedly stretch up to 3 days when things are tense politically.

Thanks for the well wishes, just hoping my wife's visa comes soon now.

Edited April 27, 2024 by JumpingFrog

[Nick Jones]

1 hour ago, JumpingFrog said:

just hoping my wife's visa comes soon now.

This!

[PaulAA]

9 hours ago, JumpingFrog said:

You're right, the border with Latvia definitely saves a few hundred kilometers, but I follow lots of groups on Russian social media, and general consensus is that any time saved driving will be easily offset by time spent queuing - which can reportedly stretch up to 3 days when things are tense politically.

Thanks for the well wishes, just hoping my wife's visa comes soon now.

Just catching up with your progress - I assume you passed close to my front door on day 2.

A couple of colleagues here have also discovered recently that the two remaining Latvian crossing points are prone to closure at very short notice, and the difficulty of the crossing is not helped by Russian-Latvian animosity.

[JumpingFrog]

On 4/27/2024 at 10:21 PM, PaulAA said:

Just catching up with your progress - I assume you passed close to my front door on day 2.

A couple of colleagues here have also discovered recently that the two remaining Latvian crossing points are prone to closure at very short notice, and the difficulty of the crossing is not helped by Russian-Latvian animosity.

It's surprising, I always felt Russian-Estonian animosity was greater than Russian-Latvian, but certainly while the crossing with Finland is closed, Estonia is the best alternative. I would have thought your colleagues would prefer to enter via the crossing to Kaliningrad (possible by bus from Gdansk), flights from there to Moscow aren't expensive as they're subsidised by Russian government.

An update:
Still working on life things, but made progress on the car. Changed front pads and rear calipers, discs and pads. Didn't do the hand brake shoes as I bought the wrong ones, but they weren't in bad condition so just greased the contact points and adjusted them. Similarly, didn't change the brake hoses because it was clear undoing the fitting would just destroy the hard line.

These are the two calipers I took off, guess which one worked fine and which one was seizing? The one with the split boot is a newer repro.

The test drive after doing the brakes was strange, the rear brakes got worryingly hot (hot enough that I could smell them), although the bedding in procedure cured it. I think perhaps the zinc coating on the new discs was the culprit, although I had checked that they span freely before driving too.

Then installed the NOx sensor emulator, bit of a pain, underneath some kind of belly plate with 8 incredibly tight torx screws. Then of course you open a can of worms because the exhaust heat shield is in tatters from bimetallic corrosion. No photos of that, removing the old sensor probe required cutting the cable and whacking a big ring spanner with a lump hammer. Installed the emulator and its wideband probe, and then had to go into the computer and clear all of the engine parameters.

Engine felt a bit funny while "relearning", but I did jump straight into a long motorway drive, and thought I could feel it switching operating modes (homogeneous, homogeneous-lean, stratified). Overall, car reported fuel economy is up 5-10%, when I finished the journey, I immediately checked the ECU, sure enough I'm now getting stratified mode (lambda of 2.7), all NOx codes are gone and EML is now off. But there is a new code for maximum trim reached on injector 1, which I suspected needed changing anyway, but one code is much better than the 6 or so I had before. I will try swapping the injectors around next and hopefully the code follows.

Edited May 13, 2024 by JumpingFrog

[PaulAA]

On 5/13/2024 at 2:30 PM, JumpingFrog said:

It's surprising, I always felt Russian-Estonian animosity was greater than Russian-Latvian, but certainly while the crossing with Finland is closed, Estonia is the best alternative. I would have thought your colleagues would prefer to enter via the crossing to Kaliningrad (possible by bus from Gdansk), flights from there to Moscow aren't expensive as they're subsidised by Russian government.

They were both based in Riga, so the road crossing was intended to be less of a faff. But a Canadian chum here in Warsaw has family in Moscow and does the bus to Kaliningrad and flight. Does your Moscow experience extend back to the Hungry Duck..?

[JumpingFrog]

On 5/14/2024 at 6:29 PM, PaulAA said:

They were both based in Riga, so the road crossing was intended to be less of a faff. But a Canadian chum here in Warsaw has family in Moscow and does the bus to Kaliningrad and flight. Does your Moscow experience extend back to the Hungry Duck..?

Definitely way before my time. I think the "Expats" in Moscow are of a very different category now to what I heard about the 1990's. I was only there from 2020.

Car is still trying to beat me. Finally thought things were looking up, diagnosed which injectors were bad, and was getting ready to have an actually fully working engine.

Last night I randomly decided to check the codes after getting home from work, 30C1 - static oil pressure control is back:

Since all the freeze frames seem to be under load and with coldish oil, I decided to blame the used control valve I fitted and fit a new one. But I also decided to pull the filter and have a look, because if its not the valve it's probably the bearings. Saw this:

So this doesn't look good, it was sparkly under torch light. But why is it concentrated in a line, and not all the oil in the filter housing? Only thing I can think of is swarf from the threads on the lid. But the lid is made of plastic...

Also took the valve apart, to see if it offers any clues. Mesh filters were clean, although movement of the valve was notchy.


Interior surface definitely has signs of uneven wear:

Code has gone since doing the valve, but for how long. Could really do with a working car at this point...

[Nick Jones]

What you need….. is a nice reliable Herald……. Or a Toyonda

Modern German stuff is just horrific.

[PaulAA]

14 hours ago, JumpingFrog said:

Definitely way before my time. I think the "Expats" in Moscow are of a very different category now to what I heard about the 1990's. I was only there from 2020.

This is what went before you:
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/archive/hedonistic-hungry-duck-closes-doors

The bloke in the article who ran it is now here and we've been trying to set up a calmer version (no dancing girls, no guns, better food). I understand that the Chechens are still after him...

[JumpingFrog]

In for a penny, in for a pound as they say, decided the only way to find out if 3000 miles with a blocked oil pickup did damage is to do the big end shells.

First you suitably support the engine with the cheapest beam you can find:


Then you drop the sub frame and remove 20 hard to reach sump bolts:

Then you spend an hour chiseling at one of the very shallow torx bolts that holds the oil pickup on after its centre strips out...

This reveals the balance shaft and oil pump assembly, more torx and e-torx later and you finally get access to the crank:

So far only pulled one shell before I ran out of daylight and energy, to me condition seems so-so, maybe a little worn for only 92k:

Cut the filter apart too, maybe total five small metallic pieces, but nothing that scary given what its been through (and oil hasn't been changed since new chain).

Other jobs to do now include the thermostat, since it seems to have given up the ghost and engine coolant temp never gets over 70c which can't be good for economy. Plus some hoses are a bit ropey from when the valve cover gasket was leaking... I did the new injector, nothing much to report on that, it idles smooth now when hot but still hunts a bit for a smooth idle when cold.

[JumpingFrog]

Well, considering I drove 3000 miles, with an oil pickup mostly blocked with plastic, the bearings are remarkably good. Even wear on every cylinder, crank like the day it left the factory... Replaced all with expensive Mahle shells (I believe made in England, basically Vandervell?), all came out at 0.05mm with plastigauge which is spot on (factory tolerance from 0.025 to 0.075).

Doing this with the engine in is still not fun though, getting up to the 20NM + 120 degrees torque takes some doing and I'm finding the etorx big end bolts very susceptible to "cam out" when working upside down.

[Nick Jones]

Those all look fair enough. Are you able to get at the mains in situ? Though problems seem unlikely given the BE condition.

BMW do have a bit of a rep for bearing problems these days, especially on 6-pot M-cars. I don’t really understand why - bearing tech is well understood and stable. I guess boundaries of clearances/tolerances and oil viscosity are being run too fine.

PS. You are being more patient with it than I would be!

[JumpingFrog]

18 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

Those all look fair enough. Are you able to get at the mains in situ? Though problems seem unlikely given the BE condition.

I'm not confident enough to say for certain it's impossible to do the mains in situ, but it has a crankshaft cradle so it would at best be extremely difficult. From everything I've seen online, even when multiple big ends have spun due to low oil pressure, the mains will still be in good condition and I'm worried about upsetting it. Other than timing chain guide induced starvation, the run of the mill BMW engines don't really have issues with the bottom ends...

On the subject of oil, had the fancy oil pump apart, mostly just to check for debris and out of curiosity:


Alloy housing has minimal wear and no debris sitting inside, although there are some deep scratches on some of the vanes, I'm sure it'll be fine:

[RedRooster]

I just admire your ténacité, well done. 

RR

[Nick Jones]

4 hours ago, RedRooster said:

I just admire your ténacité, well done. 

RR

This! 

Are new oil pumps horribly expensive? That vane looks quite worn to me….. though I guess the variable displacement means it’s possible to compensate.

[JumpingFrog]

On 6/14/2024 at 10:01 PM, Nick Jones said:

Are new oil pumps horribly expensive? That vane looks quite worn to me….. though I guess the variable displacement means it’s possible to compensate.

It's one piece with the balance shaft assembly so costs almost £1000... Or there's a pump without balance shafts for £500, it can be modified to fit the balance shafts by cutting some brackets off or just remove the balance shafts. I can't find much online about measuring wear in these types of oil pump, but if I end up with it apart again I will think again about a new oil pump.

I've redone the timing now, fairly clean inside the valve cover and even wear on all the lobes:

I changed the oil pump drive chain too, old (left) vs new (right), spot where the BMW markings and part number have been ground off the third party supplied kit:

[Nick Jones]

Well done. I hope it rewards you with tens of thousands of miles of trouble free motoring. You’ve earned them!

[Sprint95m]

+1 to what Nick has said

 

Ian

[Hamish]

Wot he said