Hello guys! It was cold, but not that cold, morning, barely 30 degree. I warmed up my car for about 10 mins, since I love my car to warm up before moving, then after 100 feet from my apartment parking lot, it just turned off itself while I pressing acc pedal in "D" and "Service Engine Soon" light on. I know I can expect it to happen from 15 years / 200k miles car, but not from 2 years / 27k miles car! When I restarted the car, check engine light was gone, but I am still concerning about it ever happened even once, and I am heading to the dealer tomorrow. Hope they can look up OBD log and pinpoint the issue, but does anyone can tell me what possible cause was? Thanks in advance!
stalling.....tough to say..... what caused it....really tough to say....as far as your check engine light is concerned, any time the engine stalls that light and some other lights are gonna come on....its just like when you turn on your ignition and start your car, that light along with many others come on and go out after 5 seconds or so......and when you restarted it the check engine light went off because the dme(computer) didn't see any problems related to emissions so that light turned off like its supposed to......hopefully the dme recorded a sporadic fault(what you experienced w/ the stalling) and your dealer can get some idea of what happened, BUT i woudn't get too upset if they say the imfamous NPF (no problem found) or "could not duplicate customer concern"...............my best guess, crank sensor on the fritz or a cracked air intake boot or mass airflow sensor .....how does it start/crank on a cold start? longer crank time than normal or fires right up?
Quick answer is, the cold air. I live in Florida and everytime we have a cold snap my 2004 745i is touchy until it gets warmed up and has programmed the latest environmental data into the engine management system. I have had this happen on my 2004 X-5 4.8i and my 2004 545i so it appears to be fairly common from my experience. Each vehicle has gotten better with firmware updates but stalls on occassion if it is extremely cold outside, especially if it was warm out the last time it ran (such is usally the case here in Florida). Your dealer will check it out to make sure there are no stored faults, update your system if necessary and you will be on your way. I am also looking into what effect of the 10% ethanol they are mixing in our gas has on cold weather starts. I know it causes the fuel injectors in some vehicles to vapor lock after a hot soak and causes the engine to run rough. Knowing this there is sure to be some side effect with a cold soak, especially if there is water vapor in the fuel. You also mentioned the car "turned itself off"? Did all of the systems die as if you turned the car off and took the key out of the ignition or did the engine just stall? If the car did turn itself off, this would indicate a bad battery that should be covered under your warranty. Hope this helps! Glückliches Fahren! Will M. - Orlando, FL
Thanks for the comments! Yes, I am suspecting the cold air was issue, but interesting thing is that it wasn't the coldest day (actually, warmer compare to last few weeks). Meaning "the car turned off itself," I meant ignition was turned off. Since E90 has push button ignition, there was no "physical" move of ignition switch. Ignition just went off, check engine soon light on, and that's all. As far as I concern, there was no electrical malfunctioning, but possibly ignition management part since it's push buttom ignition? Anyway, I hope they can make sure what was issue. I don't mind if I just walk away with nothing, then it can back up my argument later if it happens again (You told me there was no issue, then it stopped again, what are you going to do, Mr. Dealer! ).
stalling issue..... as far as the stalling, the check engine light came on most likey due to the engine stalling, just like when your first turn on or start your car.....even though the engine stalled the ignition or ignition system is still turned on, the engine just stopped running, for what reason, still remains to be seen.......curious to hear your results....not sure if they(your car) have the fuel pump issues the 335's do or not.....how much gas was in it when it happened?
My e65 has the push button start as well. I had a battery with a bad cell, during cold snaps the electronics would do some really strange things including turning off the engine. My dealer overlooked this each time I took my car in, I had to request the battery check before they found what I had suspected. Glückliches Fahren! Will M. - Orlando, FL
I've had a problom like that in my MIni I got off work, and went to pull out of the parking lot, and what sounded like the throttle bodys flap thing getting injested into my car, it made some funny noises and well all the bells and whitles, lights warning horns, ect went off. After that my car wouldnt go, It would sputter and and move like a slug, I thouhgt my car was F'ed I parked it and went in to a store for about 15 min and came out and everything was fine, it still scared the crap out of me. Another thing that has happend is I drove what I thought was a small puddle, ended up being a mediem puddle and I guess I injested water and well this has happened a few times now, but the car seems to go into "safe mode" little accelertion and all lights come on, but same story, Turn it off let it sit and its all good. To this day Im scared of puddles... I've heard of people hydro locking engines in minis I really wish I knew what went on, but all that matters is that BMW/ Mini biulds a damn good motor.
There was more than a half tank of gas, about 3/5, then I drove another 150 miles on Friday and Saturday until it was lower than 1/5. As I said, I restarted/re-ignited my car right after (within 10 seconds) it turned off and it was working fine, and so far that was the first and only time it made such issue. I am not sure if it's battery, as I said it doesn't have any electrical issue right now. I even checked the voltage and it was @ 15v all the time while I was driving. But I will surely tell SA to check if there's any possibe electrical issue.
Expanding on the ethanol subject, my father has an e60 and lives in an area that doesn't have ethanol in the fuel and he doesn't have the stalling problem during cold weather. Who knows, yours being a one time event it could just be an anomaly. My SA told me at one point that there are so many sensors and computers in these cars that sometimes they have a mind of their own. Glückliches Fahren! Will M. - Orlando, FL
Cold Weather Starting Problems with Ethanol Blended Fuels After doing some research there appears to be a direct correlation between Cold Weather Starting problems and the use of Ethanol Blended fuels. One of the key issues is the fuel control system's ability to compensate for the higher oxygen content in ethanol blends. If a fuel control system is unable to adjust an air/fuel ratio properly because of an excess of oxygen, enleanment could result. Common problems when an engine is running very lean are loss of power and engine misfires, which also could cause emissions increases. In our case, the engine stalls when additional fuel is added to the air/fuel mixture, particularly if the outside temperature is also low. However, cold start-up problems may not be indicated with ethanol blends since all vehicles since 1996 incorporate adaptive learning technology for engine managment. Most of the time you may not realize that your car is running lean. It is interesting to note that since ethanol vaporizes at 56 degrees fahrenheit on the low end, ethanol blends are more likely to separate in colder weather. In theory, when kdkpsj stepped on the gas after allowing the car to idle, the mixture of cold air and oxygen enriched fuel caused the engine to lean out before the engine controller could adjust (this is assuming E10 was being used). I did note that a majority of countries in the EU use E5 in lieu of E10. Many governments and industry leaders acknowledge the cold start problems of ethanol blended fuels. Looks like I will have to live with the quirks of E10 until Florida repeals the mandate. References: Ethanol Producer Magazine United States Department of Energy Glückliches Fahren! Will M. - Orlando, FL
Well, I came back from the dealer last week. While they couldn't figure out what was exactly wrong, they suspect it was one-time malfunction in camshaft control unit. They resetted fault code, and should be fine. (And I am hoping fine)
