2mAns Daily Driver Thread - who knows what it is today...

[2mAn]

Yea the DAPO claims that all 4 were Bosch units, but no paperwork to back it up. Hopeful this will get me over the hurdle

[mjweimer]

O2 sensors are also somewhat vulnerable to impact damage, so of all the car parts out there to suffer invisible shipping damage they'd be high on the list.

+1 or it could be a cheap knock-off part, etc.

[roguetoaster]

O2 sensors are also somewhat vulnerable to impact damage, so of all the car parts out there to suffer invisible shipping damage they'd be high on the list.

[2mAn]

I’ve driven over 1200 miles since the day1 surprise. At this point I’m leaning more towards a faulty o2, as I feel like most new parts are basically hit & miss.

[dadsbmw]

My immediate thought is it's related to the battery situation you had a couple pages back. How many miles have you drive since then?

Happened to me when I went to smog my 2003 Z4, which was also a M54B30 with manual trans. ECU got reset and it passed smog minus some of the sensors "not ready". They gave me the car back and said go drive 150 miles and come back for the retest and your certificate. Ended up taking closer to 250 miles for it finally to be "ready", but then immediately passed. IMO, jsut drive it some more.

Also, there wasnt any amount of special driving I had to do, as you're seeming to reference. I basically did it all in two 125 mile freeway trips and a small amount of city driving.

[2mAn]

Duuuuuuuude. Register in a no smog county.

Once the cars in my name ;)

Still holding on to some hope that I can get this done without the exception, but also preparing my plan of attack for this last step. First was to again confirm where the problem seems to lie. I couldnt sleep last night (pre-daddy prep?) so I decided to leave at 3am to go for another Drive Cycle, but with the OBD Fusion app fired up. Here are the screenshots of the drive in the 20-30mph phase, the 40-60 phase and the after while sitting at idle. Also added one while driving home at a quicker pace. All shows the same issue with that one o2 sensor reading

























That single o2 sensor seems to be the troublemaker. As much as I hate to believe it, the new o2 could be a bust. Im going to swap the post-cat o2's and see if the troublemaker moves to the other bank. If it does, I will have the shop replace that one o2, do another official drive cycle on their Dyno followed by a smog. Either way, Im done after that. Hopefully we are actually able to solve the problem, but if not Ive dumped enough money and failed the two smogs that I need to before I can get the exception.

[dadsbmw]

Mini Update: I reached out to the BAR because theres a program that Im trying to take advantage of. Basically with the failed smog and the subsequent work done, I can get a one-time pass on the smog. I still have to take it in and get another failed smog but once thats done I can take all my paperwork to the Referee and I will get the pass. Good news because I can finally register the car in my name, get my tags and kick the can down "2 years" which technically is only 1.5 years away at this point... so thats good at least

Duuuuuuuude. Register in a no smog county.

[roguetoaster]

So, in 6mo you'll sell it to someone not in CA.

[mike.bmw]

That sounds like a good solution. Now you can enjoy it for 1.5 years before deciding to sell or keep it.

[2mAn]

Mini Update: I reached out to the BAR because theres a program that Im trying to take advantage of. Basically with the failed smog and the subsequent work done, I can get a one-time pass on the smog. I still have to take it in and get another failed smog but once thats done I can take all my paperwork to the Referee and I will get the pass. Good news because I can finally register the car in my name, get my tags and kick the can down "2 years" which technically is only 1.5 years away at this point... so thats good at least

[2mAn]

Last night I did another Drive Cycle and no changes.... pretty fed up with this thing. It shouldn’t be this hard. Everything looks correct but can’t get over this final hurdle.


Crawled under the car to see if anything looked funny with the o2 sensors and they look brand new, just like the top. Nothing strange happening down here either.







Not sure I have any patience left for this...

[Staszek]

Assuming this car hangs around, I plan to buy a BlueBus and plug it in, but Id also like to eliminate any funny business, and this looks like funny business...

Glad you got help, I spent many years on E46fanatics, while they had a lot of wheel and angel eye threads they also have a ton of informative stuff and some really knowledgeable members.

As for that pic, thats an Aux adapter, I believe that one takes the place of the CD Changer. You dont need it, I remember you saying you had the upgraded CD43 so you can add OEM Aux connection.

https://www.blitzsafe.com/catalog/2002-2005-conv-2006.html

[2mAn]

Met up with a Moderator/ Expert from E46 Fanatics today. Copied his comment on my other thread here...

OP spent some time at my house today and I put it through the paces.

It’s an M54B30 with all the M52TUB25 peripheral parts bolted on.

It runs super smooth with near 0% fuel trims.

Pre-cat O2 sensors are new and switching healthy.

Post-cat O2 sensor voltages start at 0.42V at start up, then plunge down to 0.06V and stay there. So I think that is where the problem lays.




The MS42 DME had been flashed to 328i software back in June, then curiously flashed to 323i software in July.

We weren’t sure if it had a tune or not, so I programmed the DME back to factory 328i software as per this link.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=AM53-USA-02-2000-E46-BMW-328i&diagId=12_0897[/URL]




Something is up with the cats (could they be hollowed out?) or the post-cat O2 sensors to just bottom out with their voltages, even at fully 98C running temp. I usually see 0.75-0.78 volts when fully heated. I double checked the values with both INPA and OBD Fusion. Interestingly, BMW Scanner 1.4 doesn’t display live data for MS42.




Everything about the engine seemed just fine, except the post-cat O2 voltages, so at least I eliminated a lot of possible issues. Time to get it up in the air and inspect sensors and cats.

I owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to this man, Scott. His willingness to spend time helping a stranger is what this world needs, so its great to know a person who does that.




Since leaving his place I did about ~50+ miles (probably more, Im a little exhausted from the long day, drove over 200 miles total!) but Im... happy? ... to report that no SES/CEL has illuminated and the car is driving as good as it has been. Im going to relax for the rest of the day, but tomorrow I am getting under the car and will be inspecting those post-cat o2's , I will knock the cats and if there is any kind of hollow noise, I will pull the exhaust apart and try to see whats going on up there. I'll send the DAPO a text and ask him about the cats also, who knows maybe I will get a response lol...




Im just happy we have eliminated many questions and I have some focus on potential issues.




Also, while I was in the hatch looking for a flathead I noticed a bundle of wires that was previously plugged into the CD Changer, and saw some funny, non-OEM looking stuff and uncovered this ... thing... anyone know what the heck it is?









Assuming this car hangs around, I plan to buy a BlueBus and plug it in, but Id also like to eliminate any funny business, and this looks like funny business...

[Northern]

I like the idea of drive by wire for smoothing transients and traction control, but it's a shame that OEMs have to take what should be a good thing and make it absolute garbage.

[FrankKnox]

(I'm learning) I believe the thinking behind this is that my car runs a MS42 which is Drive by Cable still and they would need to convert it to MS43 (Drive By Wire) to use the ECU. I think this actually is better because the BAR apparently recognize the VIN on the ECU, at least that's the problem with my MR2. I prefer drive by cable anyways. I plan to drive out to meet a knowledgeable E46 enthusiast later this week and he will see what's going on with the tune, and hopefully can correct it... and if he cant, well... who had their money on 3 months?

Good luck in this difficult task, let's hope that he still cope.