How do you know you need your valves cleaned?

[daMau]

I asked my dealer about this during my last visit. My car is not displaying any symptoms, but I figured I would get their thoughts on the common issue before my warranty is up. As expected, the service rep admitted he has definitely seen N54 engines in for carbon buildup and he even mentioned a special tool that BMW now has for the cleaning (don't quote me on this; all hearsay). But, it's not something you can have done under warranty as any sort of a maintenance effort.

[KingOfJericho]

What you're saying is that they will not clean the valves unless the car is showing symptoms? I think that is normal.

[Guildenstern]

Originally Posted by bmw3racer

I think the 135i has direct injection, but not the 128i...

This site has a very high 135 Bias, after a while you just get used to it.

I'm curious as well to know more about Seafoaming the vac lines? The problem is due to crank gas being fed into the intake for emmisions as all modern cars do. So is there a way to test it short of just waiting to see if it shows signs of buildup? Can a bore scope get down there?

[bmw1racer]

Originally Posted by Guildenstern

This site has a very high 135 Bias, after a while you just get used to it.

I figured as much.

The 128i is the little brother that everyone seems to ignore/forget about.

[Simsims]

secretly dump crank gas into air.

Voila!

[RnmEvo9]

Gonna try and see if I can get mine cleaned under CPO warranty soon..

[KingOfJericho]

Originally Posted by RnmEvo9

Gonna try and see if I can get mine cleaned under CPO warranty soon..

Do you have any symptoms?

[ken1137]

Originally Posted by RnmEvo9

Gonna try and see if I can get mine cleaned under CPO warranty soon..

I might ask on my next visit too

[RnmEvo9]

Originally Posted by KingOfJericho

Do you have any symptoms?

No, but I do have pictures of how they look like right now and it's not pretty. I will probably make up some symptoms so they can at least acknowledge it.

[KingOfJericho]

The dealer refused to touch my car unless I showed them the symptoms on a test drive with the tech. They basically had to rule out about a dozen other things before arriving at the carbon issue. As I mentioned before, it took about 10 days from soup to nuts.

[PA135i]

Had mine done last June. But, the car was showing a warning light.

[Venom]

Originally Posted by dMau1986

I asked my dealer about this during my last visit. My car is not displaying any symptoms, but I figured I would get their thoughts on the common issue before my warranty is up. As expected, the service rep admitted he has definitely seen N54 engines in for carbon buildup and he even mentioned a special tool that BMW now has for the cleaning (don't quote me on this; all hearsay). But, it's not something you can have done under warranty as any sort of a maintenance effort.

I asked this as well. My service advisor told me that they can only get it under warranty if a warning light pops on. And that they haven't seen one instance to date...

[Venom]

Originally Posted by kja325ci

Had mine done last June. But, the car was showing a warning light.

Which and what was the warning light for?

[PA135i]

Car had a service engine warning light. I thought it was time for another HPFP but they said my intake ports had carbon build up. Service was 9/29/11 mileage was 43,592

Here is what they wrote:

CUSTOMER STATES: SERVICE ENGINE SOON LIGHT IS ON
PERFORMED VEHICLE TEST, CHARGED BATTERY
PERFORMED VEHICLE DIAG TEST PLAN FOR FC 30FF
PERFORMED TEST PLAN TO CHECK TURBO, VACUUM CONTROL UNITS
WT TO INSPECT TURBO CHARGERS FOR WEAR AND PROPER OPERATION
ALL OK. INSPECTED INTAKE PORTS FOUND EXCESSIVE CARBON BUILD UP
SUBMITTED PUMA CASE #458697070
REMOVED INTAKE, CLEANED CARBON FROM INTAKE VALVES
AND PORTS PER PUMA
CLEARED FAULTS TEST DROVE - GOOD.

My turbos were just replaced also 3/27/12
mileage was 49,967

[Venom]

That is both incredibly lucky(for being under warranty) and unlucky. First confirmed turbos replaced I've seen on here. Makes me wonder how much abuse the TD03s can take.

What mods do you have on the car?

[PA135i]

No mods then. bone stock. Last week I had the PPK1 and SSK installed.

[BBBluey]

Anyway to trick that fault code to occur? It seems it's one way to get a carbon clean by the dealer.

[RnmEvo9]

Originally Posted by BBBluey

Anyway to trick that fault code to occur? It seems it's one way to get a carbon clean by the dealer.

That fault code from the above is 30ff which can be triggered by a boost leak.

I'll report back with what they say to me after I show them my pictures.

[Yes2m3cs]

Our 2010 Mini Cooper S got the check engine light and then came the chugging. Dealer had it 10 days and finally they admitted it was carbon buildup. I mentioned the carbon deal day one and he told me he never heard of it (Yeah Right)

My wife had enough after that..no more mini

[Spitfire007]

No one has enough total mileage to help determine the long term effects of neglecting this, or a long term fix to avoid it.

If an oil catch can worked, we would hear about it conclusively doing something.

BMW just didnt engineer this all that well...

[JefryHorizon]

Originally Posted by RnmEvo9

That fault code from the above is 30ff which can be triggered by a boost leak.

I'll report back with what they say to me after I show them my pictures.

Then again aren't there a trillion ways to trigger that code?

[NewYearsBoy]

My car at start up would shake like a muscle car.. BMW said that was the engine not functioning properly because of carbon build up.