Bits and pieces

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Charles
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Bits and pieces

Post by Charles » Thu Feb 18, 2016 8:16 pm

It's oil service time again but the additional list of bits and pieces that went with it have thrown up some interesting issues:

NSF indicator assembly - this fell out the other month and has been held in with duck tape. I've now discovered that there is a crafty little screw that is accessed down a slot beside the headlight unit to hold it in place

NSF electric window mechanism - the regulator motor decided to chew up the cable!

EML - developed a rough tickover when warm. Transpires the solenoid for the auxiliary air pump was stuck open, causing the exhaust gases to run too hot and burn out one of the lambda sensors

Additionally, we have discovered that the oil temp sensor has failed which on the B3S is separate to the oil level sensor and is mounted on the filter housing and not in the sump - as it is for a 330i

Just need to locate the leak on the aircon system and we should be back to normal tomorrow afternoon :D
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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Post by polynesian2 » Fri Feb 19, 2016 11:30 pm

How did you get on, Charles? Although it makes sense, I'd not heard of an Aux air pump fault like that. Some people remove the system and blank it off, but I think this throws a light on the dash unless coded out.

It's keeping on top of these issues that means you can always feel good when seeing your Alpina. What mileage are you up to now?

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Post by Charles » Sat Feb 20, 2016 12:51 am

Picked her up this afternoon and had a great run home until reaching the outskirts of Oxford when the EML came on again :evil:

The good news is that the rough tickover has gone, so I wonder whether it is just the second Lambda sensor giving up the ghost. By all accounts, both should have burned out given the hotter than normal exhaust gases caused by the faulty solenoid on the secondary air system, so I am hoping it is simply that.

Annoyingly we couldn't find the aircon leak but it's not the end of the world at the moment, particularly as I can open the front passenger window again!

As for mileage, it's just over 271000 miles :D
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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Post by Charles » Fri Feb 26, 2016 11:11 pm

Update on the EML - fault codes are saying the fuel trim on Bank 1 (cylinders 1-3) is running lean, so Phil's been investigating further.

Upstream air system has been checked thoroughly but not considered the source of the lean mix issue as it is limited to only one of the banks. A problem here would affect the trim on both banks, so this is not likely to be the source. We've also checked all the injectors and a couple of small pipes have been dealt with but the fault remains. Logically, therefore, the problem is likely to be downstream of the engine.

Closer inspection has revealed some hairline cracks on both exhaust manifolds down near where the three branches merge. At tickover, the Bank 1 manifold is blowing and it is probable that air is being drawn in and upsetting the gas mix when read by the Lambda sensor. Since I have been experiencing a rough tickover when warm but no issues when running under load, we are confident that this is the culprit. So these are coming off on Monday for some welding, which we hope will deal with the fault. Given that they are stainless, this should be an easy job.

More to report next week
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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Post by Charles » Wed Mar 02, 2016 9:42 pm

Further update:

Welding the cracks on both exhaust manifolds where the three branches merge has resolved the EML (lean mix) problem so tickover is now lovely and smooth. Two added bonuses are that the engine is noticeably quieter and the jiggling of the exhaust when unmounting and remounting the manifolds seems to have shifted the back box ever so slightly so that the rattle from the butterfly valve has disappeared :D I guess that there was a vibration at a certain frequency that lined up with the position of the back box, which is now no longer aligned - hence the disappearance of the rattle.

The aircon is more of an issue because, despite the presence of dye, we cannot find the source of the leak using UV light. A full charge of gas seems to leak away over about 4-6 weeks, so the source is very small - but surely there should be a good presence of dye? Anyway, the next stage is to locate someone with a gas sniffer to try and find where the leak is. I guess Google will be my friend on this one, unless anyone knows of a place in the Oxford area?
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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