Need help to diagnose

[W1NING]

Hey guys,

Hoping the brains trust on here can help me out with this one.

So over the weekend I tackled the 125i cooling system job of replacing the radiator as the plastic side tank had cracked on the passenger side and the lower plastic coolant/heater return line had also developed a leak so the car had been losing coolant rapidly.

I replaced both the radiator and the line successfully and refilled with new coolant and went about the bleeding procedure at this point I was becoming slightly rushed by the other half and did not concentrate. I did the procedure with the nose of the car raised, lights off, radio off, heater at max temp and fan at max temp and held down the accelerator for about 10 seconds. This was the first issue in that I only realised afterwards that I overlooked the fact the fan was supposed to be on the lowest speed. What issues can arise from bleeding with the fan at max speed?

I could hear the water pump doing its thing and after about 10-12 mins I stopped, checked the coolant level and only needed to top up a little bit. There were no leaks but I needed to run the car now and the battery was drained so no starting.

Finally managed to get it started after my brother came over with jumper leads. Now the motor only turned over after about 6 or so long cranks (about 4-7 seconds per crank). Has any damage been done at this point?

After it turned over the car struggled to keep its revs for about 10 seconds but it steadily settled. I let it idle and warm up for about 7 minutes and then I took it for a short low-speed trip around my neighbourhood (less than a 2 minutes) as I needed to do an oil change as well, the car felt very sluggish and at this point the yellow check engine light had appeared on the dash.

I jacked the car back up and drained the oil and did the oil change. Started her back up, let it idle for a bit and took her for a short trip around the neighbourhood again to let the oil circulate. At this point the car felt better, was more responsive than before and I had hoped that the engine light would be gone but it was still there and so I parked it, shut it off and let it sit and still no leaks so that was a positive.

Following day I went to check on it, started it up, turned the heater on and I got a moderate burning smell coming through the vents, engine light is still there and noticed that the rev dial was fluttering just above 1000rpm for about 10-15 seconds and eventually settled below 1k. During the oil change a little bit of oil did get on the engine cover and dripped down the side of the motor but I did clean this up so not sure if the smell could be the burning of oil coming through from the engine running at operating temp.

I did do a diagnostics check and came up with these error codes: 00A559, 00A72F and 002E83.

I am a little worried as to if and what damage I may have done throughout this process and what answers you guys may have. Would greatly appreciate any insights but seems as if I'm going to have to be replacing more bits.

[reisf]

Mate im not sure what damage you have done (if any) but i have ran your fault codes for you. I think your engine issues have to do with the water pump... on the 135i's the water pump will fail at some point. I don't think the 125i has the same water pump, but the fault codes suggest that its not working properly.

[W1NING]

Thanks for the reply. I had a feeling it may be the water pump on its way out but couldn't be sure and looks like something with the air compressor too?

[froop]

If the water pump went through the bleeding process then it wouldn't make any difference if you had the fan on max or minimum, as long as it started.

In regards to bleeding itself, you basically run it until you don't notice any bubbles in the system anymore. As Reis said, it looks like you have water pump issues but what I would do is just clear all of the codes and see if they come back. A lot of the time these things can be intermittent and maybe something to do with when you were doing the service and/or bleeding.

I'd also recommended doing the bleed process again just to check there are no bubbles coming out of the bleed valve (I assume you loosened the bleed valve on the coolant expansion tank). Also do it on a battery charger of some kind this time so you don't drain the battery.

[W1NING]

I did clear the codes and they came back (did this twice). I haven't tried bleeding it again but I will give that a shot and see what happens.

The car is off the road but I did also notice that revs rise and flutter when the brakes are apllied. Not sure what the go is with that. Any thoughts?

[juld0zer]

Fully charge the battery and keep the charger on, remove the expansion tank cap and then run the bleed procedure again by holding down the accelerator pedal with ignition on, engine off and heater on max. I don't recall the blower speed being of any significance.

Now (carefully) watch the stream of coolant - wear goggles or just keep your distance as it can splatter. It should start off as a gentle stream then increase in pressure as the pump increases speed. It will cycle up and down a few times. Does yours only dribble out or does it piss out with a decent amount of pressure?

I managed to do about 4 bleeds and start the engine on my sketchy 6yr old battery so unless your car hasn't been driven for a while prior to the repair you might want to get the battery tested also.

The burning smell could be just the spilt oil burning off the cats/manifolds. If it's really baked on them they will stink for a while but you can sand off the baked oil to speed up the process. Alternatively set the air to recirc and see if the odour subsides

[chunho01]

Originally Posted by juld0zer

The burning smell could be just the spilt oil burning off the cats/manifolds. If it's really baked on them they will stink for a while but you can sand off the baked oil to speed up the process. Alternatively set the air to recirc and see if the odour subsides

I've got this exact same issue just lately too. I can see some oil residue around the side of the engine. Is this caused by a leaking valve cover gasket?

I noticed the smell through the vent (when recirculate is set to draw fresh air from outside) when:

1. In the morning during cold start
2. Rev the engine hard above 4000rpm
3. Rev the engine when car is on incline (going up or down a hill for example)

[titium]

Originally Posted by chunho01

I've got this exact same issue just lately too. I can see some oil residue around the side of the engine. Is this caused by a leaking valve cover gasket?

I noticed the smell through the vent (when recirculate is set to draw fresh air from outside) when:

1. In the morning during cold start
2. Rev the engine hard above 4000rpm
3. Rev the engine when car is on incline (going up or down a hill for example)

oil filter housing gasket more then likely. valve cover tends to seep out it's not normally under pressure where as the ofhg will leak more the higher the oil pressure. higher rpm/load =higher oil pressure.

ofcouse this doesn't mean you couldn't have a leak in both.

[chunho01]

Originally Posted by titium

oil filter housing gasket more then likely. valve cover tends to seep out it's not normally under pressure where as the ofhg will leak more the higher the oil pressure. higher rpm/load =higher oil pressure.

ofcouse this doesn't mean you couldn't have a leak in both.

titium Reckon it's both then? I noticed oil residue on left of engine (driver side) and also oil pool on oil filter housing.

I took some photo, if you could share your opinion on this matter. Photo looks pretty bad, considering I started smelling burnt oil few weeks ago. Also, one week after my waterpump and thermostat was swapped at an Indy specialist.

*OP, hope it's not too off-topic.

[titium]

@chunho01 it kinda looks like it. the oil on the ofhg could be from a leaking oil filter oring seal hard to tell.

clean it up and install a new oil filter with new oring see if it comes back.

valve cover looks like it's leaking from the photo but could be from the ofhg as its almost the highest point on the motor so oil goes everywhere when it leaks.

[vtl]

Originally Posted by chunho01

titium Reckon it's both then? I noticed oil residue on left of engine (driver side) and also oil pool on oil filter housing.

I took some photo, if you could share your opinion on this matter. Photo looks pretty bad, considering I started smelling burnt oil few weeks ago. Also, one week after my waterpump and thermostat was swapped at an Indy specialist.

*OP, hope it's not too off-topic.

Looks like its leaking from both places.

The pooling of oil in the gap for the oil filter housing is where it would accumulate on my car before I fixed up the gasket between the oil filter housing and the oil cooler thermostat housing. It'll be pretty easy to diagnose. If theres oil seeping from the oil filter cap then its probably that, otherwise it'll be the oil thermostat housing. May as well change the oil filter housing + oil thermostat housing gaskets at the same time.

The oil generally can't travel from the oil filter housing all the way to the right hand side of the engine, usually it'll cover the front and underside of the engine instead.

[chunho01]

Great responses vtl titium ! It's nearly two months since I first noticed the burnt oil smell through the vents, and the oil level shown on the computer is still at max.

Reckon I'd be safe to go for a steam clean and keep monitoring for another month or two?

(Since it started a week after I had the waterpump and thermostat swapped. Maybe some oil leaked during handling and pooled at some cavity, slowly burning off)

[titium]

Originally Posted by chunho01

Great responses vtl titium ! It's nearly two months since I first noticed the burnt oil smell through the vents, and the oil level shown on the computer is still at max.

Reckon I'd be safe to go for a steam clean and keep monitoring for another month or two?

(Since it started a week after I had the waterpump and thermostat swapped. Maybe some oil leaked during handling and pooled at some cavity, slowly burning off)

ofhg leak can progress really quickly - mine got to the point where there was smoke out the bonnet after going wide open throttle after like 3-4 weeks since i first noticed it.

valve cover if you leave it it causes other issues, the spark plug wells fill with oil causing misfires easy to fix but just annoying.