Yellow Engine Malfunction light comes on when I punch it

[Fumus]

I just got my 2009 135i yesterday and I drove it over to my brothers house so he could have a look. When I started to try and put the car through it\'s paces the yellow \"engine malfunction\" light came on and the engine went into \"limp\" mode. :-(

After the initial shock and annoyance went away I started to investigate
more and I noticed that this \"engine malfunction\" light would go away when the car was shut off and turned back on but come back anytime I tried to really accelerate quickly.

I\'m taking it to the dealer tomorrow as it\'s still under full warranty. But I\'m just curious to hear what you guys think this could be. Possibly the HPFP needs to replaced and new mappings done?

[BrokenVert]

Need more details. Mileage? Service History? Im assuming that you got it CPO so it shouldve come with the necessary receipts.

[Fumus]

Originally Posted by BrokenVert

Need more details. Mileage? Service History? Im assuming that you got it CPO so it shouldve come with the necessary receipts.

Milage is 30k. I got it from a private seller in Buffalo and had just finished the long drive from Buff to Albany yesterday when the malfunction chime and yellow engine icon popped up.

I checked the carfax and spoke with the owner and I think the only recalls performed was to replace a seatbelt unit and the sunroof motor.

I called my local BMW dealer on Friday before I got the car and he said the car had recently been serviced and the records indicated to him the car had been very well maintained. I'm thinking though the previous owner didn't get the HPFP replaced.

[Dackelone]

You might want to look under the hood... maybe you (or the first owner) have a JB+ on the car. A stock 135i should not have these problems. I would hate to hear that your local dealer voided your warranty over some part a previous onwer put on the car. Look under the air box toward teh back of the engine.

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by Fumus

Ok I looked under the hood, I don't see anything that looks after market. Do you?

I would hate to have my warrenty voided too. haha.

I'm going to call the previous owner today but I don't think this is the case because the PO was a women in her late 30's early 40's. Didn't strike me as the after market performance tuning type could be wrong though. Who knows?

JB+

http://www.burgertuning.com/instructions/jbplus.pdf

JB3...

Dackel

[BrokenVert]

Did you hear a big pop before you lost power?

[BimmerE82]

Maybe there is to much dirt on the engine. Damn!

[Fumus]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

JB

http://www.burgertuning.com/instructions/jbplus.pdf

JB3...

Dackel

So do you see it, there? I didnt.

I heard no popping no.

[Fumus]

Ok not going to remove the air filter box. Highly doubt the PO did this...going to call her later.

[Nitroxide2]

It's either your HPFP or injectors. Just bring it to the dealership.

[Fumus]

Originally Posted by Nitroxide2

It's either your HPFP or injectors. Just bring it to the dealership.

Cool, I'm going to tomorrow. I plan on cleaning the engine, that thing is dirty. I doubt the PO ever popped the hood, let alone tried piggy backing a device. I mean she had good year all seasons on the car...lol.

[Lexington]

Sounds like a possible pollution control problem. Had a similar issue this past weekend. One of the hoses below the air filter box and come loose. Put it back in until it clicked into a gray collar type ring. End of problem.

[Honny]

The exact thing happened to me aswell. I've gone through one HPFP and looks like I'm on to my second one. However since the engine light came on i was able to drive home, no popping whatsoever like my first pump in fact the car felt the same

Here's a picture of my iDrive,



Anyway good luck with yours!

[scorcherjf]

You don't see your problem? Your charge pipe is not connected to the intercooler piping, that's most likely your cause. You don't hear a whistling sound when you get on the boost? Look at the bottom left of this picture and you'll see it... it's an easy fix if you want to try yourself or just bring it in. Either way, you're sucking dirty air though the intercooler so don't drive unless you must and stay below 3000.

Edit: BTW your engine bay is filthy lol... that previous owner must've had some off-road experiences! Also the charge pipe popping out of either the throttle body or intercooler piping is pretty common among cars running a tune... don't think I've heard of a case where it happened stock but who knows. Just check to make sure there's no JB3/JB4 still in your car.

Originally Posted by Fumus

Ok I looked under the hood, I don't see anything that looks after market. Do you?

I would hate to have my warrenty voided too. haha.

I'm going to call the previous owner today but I don't think this is the case because the PO was a women in her late 30's early 40's. Didn't strike me as the after market performance tuning type could be wrong though. Who knows?

[RoundelM3]

Yeah, you can even see where there's no dirt on the first 1" or so on the end of the pipe coming from the intercooler. Pretty easy to fix, but you'd have to question why it came loose in the first place.

[Fumus]

You guys were absolutely spot on, the dealer just called me and the car is ready and the problem was the disconnected tube. Can't believe I didn't see that...

I believe this might be from the last time the PO took the car in and had it serviced, maybe they just forgot to reconnect it?

In any case...thanks for your help. I'll be happy to posts some pics of a clean engine bay tonight

Anyone have any recommendations on the best cleaning products for the job?

[mike06612]

While yours was easy, just a data point should somebody be searching around later. For ours it was the two Solenoid valved needed replacing when we were getting that silly warning.

It would come on within 30 seconds of the car starting, and would go away if you restarted, and would stay away for a week or two.

[Fumus]

Mike that's crazy, how long did it take your service center to identify the problem?

btw, found some time morning and cleaned the engine. Not a thorough job but I must say it looks a lot better.

[mike06612]

We brought it in once for an oil change I think and mentioned it, but the advisor did not understand what we were saying and their scan didn't show anything. We did not think anything about it, it had only happened twice and probably several weeks apart, I actually thought it was bad gas because we were out of the area and buying stuff we had no clue about both times

When it went in for it's 50,000 whatever mileage check, we mentioned it had happened a few more times and did a better job describing it They looked at us like we had two heads, saying that was a new one for them.

Whoever it was assigned to figured it out right away, they called in a couple of hours later to get an authorization to fix it. The wording on the ticket

Customer states he gets a picture of the engine half in yellow and half in black, it will stay on for a driver cycle and then when restarting the car it will go away Happen a couple of times. Inspect and recommend

Perform brief test, faults 2a7a and 2a7x stored for vanos solenoids, intake and exhaust. Perform test plan result is to replace both intake and exhaust vanos solenoids Clear fault memory

It was a common enough thing that they had everything in stock, but not common enough supposedly that we should expect it on a regular basis.

[drewthakid123]

i have the same issue, however when i was accelerating to about 135 mph i heard a big pop, i immediately slowed down no light came on at the time, about two weeks later however i was going up to about 75 and the yellow engine light came on anybody have any ideas not trying to jump in the post but i am very concerned

[HIPSI]

Interesting. Earlier this week, some 15 miles into my 20 mile drive to work I accelerated mildly to pass a truck/trailer indoing so, I felt a loss of power, then a "check engine soon" light came on followed by the dreaded half yellow engine block with the limp mode warning on the nav screen. I pulled off the highway into a parking lot and the idle was rough. Turned the car off, then back on, idle was fine, light was gone and have driven some 100 miles since without incident... Guess I'll soon find out if was just some junk in an injector or similar or the sign or a bigger problem yet to be revealed.

[doublevanosrc]

That looks great what did you use to clean the engine??

Originally Posted by Fumus

btw, found some time morning and cleaned the engine. Not a thorough job but I must say it looks a lot better.