[old grey steve]

Now this will be a good'un for those with some interest in all things mechanical. Dan's come to see us from Warrington, so not exactly local, which to this day kind of amazes us as we are so far away for so many of you yet you travel to see us which we're kinda grateful for. But on to matters of state Dan's car.

Its in to us for the following:

Walnut Blasting
Gearbox Service
Investigation re misfire and sporadic poor running
Possible DTC issue
Oil Service, Brake Fluid Service & Vehicle Check(all due)
Routine Maintenence type work.

So first thing first drive the car(and give Dan a lift in theory to the train station but ended up being a lift to cafe for breakfast)then once the car was back straight in for a diagnostic(not that you can see much of it from these pics).




First of all DTC = hydro unit usual codes 5DF0 and 5DF1. We are now seeing more and more of these though the fault wasn't currently present it had come up a number of times therfore come winter it'll get worse and will therefore become a pain if not sorted. So more of that a little later

Re poor running Dan's runing a JB4 I understand on Map 5 and for all the hype car doesn't feel 100% yet diagnosis shows no engine issues, checked smooth running too pre walnut blasting and again on the surface no major tell tale stand out isues to report(more of this later too as I have a theory which again I put to Dan)

So put an emai lto Dan with estimated costs so far based on what we had so far gathered, plus the theory I had re possible reasons for the sporadic power issues Dan had expierienced).

So today opted to do the following Gearbox Service, Oil Service, Vehicle Check, Change Hydro Unit.

So on the ramp up in the air for the oil service and at the same time process the vehicle check.







what came bakc for a 92000 mile car for a 335i was a surprise, like 5mm on all tyres no wear signs on the inner edges whatsoever perfectly even tread no scrubbing on the front outers nothing. Brakes came back as an advisory due to outer and inner surface corrosion(quite normal)plenty of pad life so no need IMO to action anythng right now but an advisory re wear and the issues corrosion can play its hand stated. Front brake force arms have a bit of play(nothing too bad but advised for future that they'll need replacing(told Dan to look at M3 arms for the next swap)one big surprise is the cars underside though the picture below doesn't 100% illistrate it the cars dry(very rare for a 335i as they usually display oil leakage signs bt no this one appears to be dry)



So oil service all done(no drama's whatsoever) on to the gearbox service. What cam out was around 5.5 litres(there or thereabouts)



the sleeve was damp but not overally leaking(again damn unusal)



this was indeed 1 dry car! Dan's old sump, (oil on the surface is where it was layed face doen on the drainer it was as stated nigh on fully dry)




we let the fluid fully drain from the exposed gearbox pressure sensors and internals



then the new sump was placed on the box



and around 6.2 litres of fluid found its way in to the gearbox, box was run up to tempreture(2 man job one person in the car running through the gears-one person underneath filling fluid in at pre determined intervals while monitoring gearbox tempretures)once on the deck and we were happy the next job was this. Hydro

One old unit




and one repalcement unit(from a later car fully refurbished)





once fitted re coded to the vehicle(as its a complete exchange)brake bleed withnew fluid and therefore the now due brake fluid service was done(thus kiiling off one service requirement)though not a cheap way of doing it! the gearbox adaptaions were re set hydro was registered and the car was at around 5.30 this evening test driven and immediatly gearbox felt smoother so I'm told engine doesn't feel any different but thats for another day. Hydro has zero faults everything works as intended.

And that about wraps up todays activity. Next activity will be walnut blasting nad the sporadic running issue! More of later

[ArsE92]

Thanks for the update Steve. All sounds good so far!

Breakfast was great. Train journey back, not so great!

[old grey steve]

Todays work sorted out the pressure converters and the vac pipes(some were tired some and started to collapse, so they get repalced. We chose to do this at together with the walnut blasting as you save the customer some labour (in this case about a good hour) so I quoted Dan a figure for the converters pre knwoning where to go with the job, therefore on the invoice Dan was sent he will be pleasd to know the figures have altered slightly

So on to today while doing the converters and attending to pipes



we discovered some oil where you'd not like to see oil(sadly a common 335i issue)and one I've expierienced if you look at the picture above you see apart from where I circled some frayed (repalced)pipes you'll notice an area circled on and within the rocker cover area, wherre I've circled you'll see a slight golden shadow and that's oil. Plug well wise you can see some staining below



that's oil staining the picture you see above was after the oil in the plug-well had been sucked out. It would appear cylinder 2 & 3 were getting filled with oil cylinder 1 was stained as well therefore spark plugs are contaminated
I've tried to contact Dan re this the moment I got wind of it as the rocker cover must be replaced along with the spark plugs and this would no doubt contribute to poor running and possible misfires, again something I've expierienced, so will I hope speak to Dan tomorrow.

So this afternoon after dealing with the pressure converters and the vac pipes I asked for the walnut blasting to be sorted(as the rocker cover gasket if authorised)would tie up some time tomorrow so what did we discover manifold off?

Well this








All 6 valves coked up with very thick deposits on all 6 ports and post work








Nice clean valves again. If you look at these 2 pictures standing by the near side wing and simply taking a photo look how dark the ports are here(circled)



and post the work again standing in the same place but slightly further back how different they look post work(again circled)with another 2 ports to do and adaptor in place to start cylinder 5



We finished this after closing time but wanted it done to wrap this side of things up.

Rocker gaskets a bit of a bummer and adds to the expense sadly but it seems to be a very common issue with these cars as does TBH everything else Dan and myself have had to face.

[essex_lad]

Nice work Steve, I still have my mystery gearbox issue I need looking at but I think it may be more electrics Based. Is it something you could do?

[old grey steve]

Originally Posted by essex_lad

Nice work Steve, I still have my mystery gearbox issue I need looking at but I think it may be more electrics Based. Is it something you could do?

Like everything nowadays need to have the car in front of us but if its internal gearbox wise there's little we can do but anything else isn't normally an issue

[ArsE92]

So excited. Never before have I looked forward to a 200 mile journey so much

[old grey steve]

Originally Posted by ArsE92

So excited. Never before have I looked forward to a 200 mile journey so much

Wait til you get the billthen the excitement might dwindle a tad

[singh21]

Originally Posted by old grey steve

Wait til you get the billthen the excitement might dwindle a tad

You cut him Steve - you cut him deep lol

[old grey steve]

Originally Posted by singh21

You cut him Steve - you cut him deep lol

Considering what's going on it isn't that bad, but trust me its being done right

[ArsE92]

It's OK. My two year old doesn't understand Christmas yet thankfully

[essex_lad]

Originally Posted by ArsE92

It's OK. My two year old doesn't understand Christmas yet thankfully

Lol

[essex_lad]

Originally Posted by old grey steve

Like everything nowadays need to have the car in front of us but if its internal gearbox wise there's little we can do but anything else isn't normally an issue

Well I have warranty so if it comes down to needing a new box if that's the issue then fair enough.

[old grey steve]

We finsihed Dan's car late yesterday evening and buttoned it all up this morning, but needeless to say the final thing we had to do was a commonish issue which was a leaking rocker cover gasket. Photo wise not much to really say as you cannot exactly stand over there for hours on end waiting for a bit of rubber to pop out, but needless to say once off the gasket had had its day.

The issue Dan was having may have been partially caused by oil loss



I've circled some of the the obvious visible stuff seen when covers etc. were removed below



some of this may be down to small amounts of spilage when say topping up which I've circled below and this does happen as oil can spill of course



but the rocker cover when examined was tired, around cylinder 2 & 3 allowing oil to seep through and as stated further up the page contaminate the plug wells.

Replacing rhe rocker covers on these cars is fairly time comsuming



with a fair amount of stuff to move but when as we have done a few its not too bad to do.

With the new gasket installed everything was buttoned up and the car was test driven with JB4 off to start with then returned for a diagnostic check to ensure everything was OK and no faults were present then the car was re driven with JB4 installed to see how it drove with a map on.

Then at 5.30 Dan arrived after a longish train journey to enjoy his drive home, Given some adivse re how to allow the gearbox to settle in Dan set off for I hope an interesting journey home with clean valves and a revitilised gearbox in toe.

Cheers Dan for entrusting your car to us and making the effort to come down to see us from the NW

[mob17]

Nice read, as always.

[AirAndre335i]

Great Read! I went through it all!!!

I am sure i'll see you soon Steve!