So I picked up an 86 325es about 2 weeks ago.
The first Sunday I spent my day replacing the timing belt, tensioner, thermostat, water pump, v-belts, air filter, and all the coolant hoses.
All that went well, although it took a bit longer than I expected. It wasn't difficult though.
On the next Monday I had an issue with coolant overflowing and a bit of overheating at idle. After looking into it, I discovered that I hadn't quite bled the system properly.
Wednesday I spent my evening by jacking up the front of the car, adding coolant to the reservoir, and trying to bleed the system. Heater was running during this time. Heater output is warm, but not as hot as I was expecting.
Thursday - Tried to run it through emissions. Got the car up to operating temp before taking it in. The car did not overheat, but was getting warm, so while I waited in line I had to shut it down when I was waiting.
I ran the test on it and it failed on NOx. I don't recall exact numbers but they were something similar to this:
HC - 1.3, Max allowable - 1.6
CO - 9.43, Max Allowable - 15.0
NOx - 6.4, Max Allowable - 2.5
I was somewhat expecting this so I took it to my parent's place to do work.
I figured I NEEDED to find out why my fans weren't kicking on, so I tried to bleed the system again to no avail. The fan did kick on when jumpered on both high and low settings, but not through the switches.
New fan switches were ordered as well as a coolant temp sensor for the ecu. Plugs were removed and showed a nice brown color, but were Bosch Platinum +4's, so I replaced them with standard NGK plugs. I then ran about half a can of Seafoam through the intake and dumped the rest into the gas tank.
When the sensor and switches arrived at the parts store I picked them up and installed them. When I removed the CTS, some, but not much, coolant came out of the hole. When I removed the upper fan switch (Low speed on this car - is this correct placement, or does it not matter?) NO coolant came out. When I replaced the lower fan switch, some, but barely any came out. Coolant was added, front end jacked up, heater on, and attempted to bleed the system, but was unsuccessful as far as I can tell.
I then ran it through emissions again and the numbers were as follows:
HC - .7, max allowable 1.60 grams per mile
CO - 11.07, max allowable 15.0 grams per mile
NOx - 3.38, max allowable 2.50 grams per mile
Next day I went back to the drawing board and jumpered the low speed fan switch so I could keep it running during the wait in line, tried to bleed the coolant of air again - which I don't think worked, richened up the mixture screw on the AFM about a half a turn.
I replaced the vacuum hose from the FPR to the intake manifold as it looked pretty bad. I then sprayed around every place I could think of looking for other vacuum leaks, but found none.
I attempted to test the O2 sensor as outlined in the Bentley manual, but I'm not sure I did it right because my results were as follows:
Volts would continuously drop and keep going into the negative. I could introduce a vacuum leak (open oil filler cap), the reading would drop faster, but come back up a bit before dropping again. The reading would increase in both cases if I revved the engine.
I then took the car down for testing again. I waited in line for about 30-45 minutes and didn't need to shut the car off at all while waiting. These were my results after 3 runs on the rollers (I guess the kid didn't know how to drive the car or something):
HC - .65, max allowable 1.60
CO - 13.39, max allowable 15.00
NOx - 3.07, max allowable 2.50
I ran a bottle of Guaranteed to Pass through it last week and filled up last night with 89. Took it over to get tested this morning as the place is only a few miles away. I did NOT preheat the cat or anything of that nature. Just started it and drove it over.
The idiot testing it was a good 8+ inches shorter than me and didn't move the seat. As a result he ran the car on the dyno not once, not twice, but 5 times before getting a good test result.
The result was
HC - .57
CO - 12.21
NOx - 2.9
I am so damn close to passing that it is irritating. Help me out guys.
I'm not really sure what to do now other than a cat and/or O2 sensor. Any ideas?
The first Sunday I spent my day replacing the timing belt, tensioner, thermostat, water pump, v-belts, air filter, and all the coolant hoses.
All that went well, although it took a bit longer than I expected. It wasn't difficult though.
On the next Monday I had an issue with coolant overflowing and a bit of overheating at idle. After looking into it, I discovered that I hadn't quite bled the system properly.
Wednesday I spent my evening by jacking up the front of the car, adding coolant to the reservoir, and trying to bleed the system. Heater was running during this time. Heater output is warm, but not as hot as I was expecting.
Thursday - Tried to run it through emissions. Got the car up to operating temp before taking it in. The car did not overheat, but was getting warm, so while I waited in line I had to shut it down when I was waiting.
I ran the test on it and it failed on NOx. I don't recall exact numbers but they were something similar to this:
HC - 1.3, Max allowable - 1.6
CO - 9.43, Max Allowable - 15.0
NOx - 6.4, Max Allowable - 2.5
I was somewhat expecting this so I took it to my parent's place to do work.
I figured I NEEDED to find out why my fans weren't kicking on, so I tried to bleed the system again to no avail. The fan did kick on when jumpered on both high and low settings, but not through the switches.
New fan switches were ordered as well as a coolant temp sensor for the ecu. Plugs were removed and showed a nice brown color, but were Bosch Platinum +4's, so I replaced them with standard NGK plugs. I then ran about half a can of Seafoam through the intake and dumped the rest into the gas tank.
When the sensor and switches arrived at the parts store I picked them up and installed them. When I removed the CTS, some, but not much, coolant came out of the hole. When I removed the upper fan switch (Low speed on this car - is this correct placement, or does it not matter?) NO coolant came out. When I replaced the lower fan switch, some, but barely any came out. Coolant was added, front end jacked up, heater on, and attempted to bleed the system, but was unsuccessful as far as I can tell.
I then ran it through emissions again and the numbers were as follows:
HC - .7, max allowable 1.60 grams per mile
CO - 11.07, max allowable 15.0 grams per mile
NOx - 3.38, max allowable 2.50 grams per mile
Next day I went back to the drawing board and jumpered the low speed fan switch so I could keep it running during the wait in line, tried to bleed the coolant of air again - which I don't think worked, richened up the mixture screw on the AFM about a half a turn.
I replaced the vacuum hose from the FPR to the intake manifold as it looked pretty bad. I then sprayed around every place I could think of looking for other vacuum leaks, but found none.
I attempted to test the O2 sensor as outlined in the Bentley manual, but I'm not sure I did it right because my results were as follows:
Volts would continuously drop and keep going into the negative. I could introduce a vacuum leak (open oil filler cap), the reading would drop faster, but come back up a bit before dropping again. The reading would increase in both cases if I revved the engine.
I then took the car down for testing again. I waited in line for about 30-45 minutes and didn't need to shut the car off at all while waiting. These were my results after 3 runs on the rollers (I guess the kid didn't know how to drive the car or something):
HC - .65, max allowable 1.60
CO - 13.39, max allowable 15.00
NOx - 3.07, max allowable 2.50
I ran a bottle of Guaranteed to Pass through it last week and filled up last night with 89. Took it over to get tested this morning as the place is only a few miles away. I did NOT preheat the cat or anything of that nature. Just started it and drove it over.
The idiot testing it was a good 8+ inches shorter than me and didn't move the seat. As a result he ran the car on the dyno not once, not twice, but 5 times before getting a good test result.
The result was
HC - .57
CO - 12.21
NOx - 2.9
I am so damn close to passing that it is irritating. Help me out guys.
I'm not really sure what to do now other than a cat and/or O2 sensor. Any ideas?
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