gjm

Another oil change completed today - a little later than I'd planned, at around 4500 miles since the last one. Still means I'll do three changes to every one that the BMW computer says is needed. While under there I remembered to replace the oil level sender. It seems I swapped one light showing on the dash (the yellow oil can showed for 10 seconds or so to let me know the sender wasn't working) for another - everything appeared fine on the way home from work, but it looks as though a tail light has decided to give up while I was in the chip shop. The dash shows a red light, at least. Still, it'll be an easily resolved item. Not like headlight bulbs... Have you tried buying one standard headlight bulb lately? Blue this, cool that, multiple different temperatures of all sorts... But nothing 'normal'! SCA had none at all, and Repco had to go and 'look in the back'. (This was a Sunday - sources were limited.) And then it cost more than many of the fancy aftermarket bling ones. Looking forward to wearing out the tyres to be honest. Currently running on 215/45-17s which look nice, but I don't like them. They're at the width limit for a 7" rim and I feel they wander a bit, something I'd not noticed when running the 205/50s. It's just possible the extra width has marginally impacted fuel economy too, as we're not getting quite as far on a tank as we were. We'll pass a recorded 250,000 miles tomorrow. 402500km, or thereabouts.

Yup. I waited 30 seconds or so, too, as it has sometimes taken a short while to populate the bottom of the page. No worries. The result is what counts.

Damn. If it were the drivers door, I'd get the window regulator fixed at the same time...

I tried that site too, but only got he basics returned in the search I did. Oh well. Glad it got sorted.

I tried a couple of decode sources but don't get more info than the car being a RHD, 4-door, E46 320i, produced in April 2004. Basic stuff, and doesn't answer the 'big' question. As Paul suggests, I suspect the only answer is going to be to ask a BMW dealer

The hesitation at highway speeds seems to only happen when the engine is warmed through.

Thanks Chris. I have seen that, but (to be honest) not followed it through. Is the ISV is where the thread says it is, I have been looking in the wrong place. I also have no idea how to get to it! Up in the air would probably help but isn't readily possible. The weekend is coming. Perhaps I'll write off another day in pursuit of a car that runs properly.

I'm using a combination of 30 years experience working on cars and info gleaned from internet research. There is a .pdf of the VW Polo Haynes manual around, but it's not great. Pages are in the wrong order, and reproduction quality is OK rather than good. There's a manual referring to the older cars, but they didn't (I don't think) get the multi-point injection. It's a fairly basic engine which somehow seems to have been poorly implemented. The problems I'm having are less severe than some described on various forums, but many agree it is the throttle body (design) that causes problems. VW are no help - typical dealer response is to replace, replace, replace, rather than diagnose correctly and fix. Of course, the car is now 16 years old, but the issues we're having now are described as being fairly commonplace even 10 years ago. Take that with a pinch of salt - VW produced hundreds of thousands of these cars and variants or derivatives, and reports of a few dozen problems could be giving a false perspective.

Done a bit more investigating. The only really positive thing to be said though is that every little thing I do, seems to improve things just a little bit. Removed the throttle body. Price for the sealing washer/o-ring? $22. OEM part in Europe is the equivalent of $4... Shipping kills any advantage, of course. Carefully cleaned the bottom part of the throttle body, ensuring I didn't get cleaner on the plastic parts on the side of the throttle body. Replace. Warmed the engine, removed the plugs, checked compression. 1, 2, 4 are all 150-155; 3 is around 145-150. Not enough difference to cause a problem. I've managed to get things to the point where the engine does now tickover when warm, albeit at around 550-600rpm. Way down on what it should be, and not good enough to tickover when cold. Unfortunately, at the moment, chief suspect is an ISV (Idle stabilisation valve) issue. I think this is under the secure plastic cover on the side of the throttle body, and I can't find anything anywhere about checking or repairing it. Throttle body replacement is too expensive to be considered. 'Cured' the starting problem after experimentation. A tiny bit of throttle when starting means it again starts first time. (But apparently this will throw an error code - throttle while starting.) Stalling can be avoided by left foot braking while retaining that tiny bit of throttle, although this is typically no longer required. Adjusting the throttle cable isn't really an option as the adjustment available is too coarse and the engine will 'tickover' at 1200rpm+. Theoretically the ISV can be reset by turning the ignition key to position 3 (lights showing on dash) and leaving it there for between 15 seconds and 3 minutes, depending on the source of info. Tried that, of course, but it has made no difference. The occasional hesitation when driving (constant speed, etc) is still there. I think this is probably unrelated to the low tickover/poor starting issues. I'll check the fuel pump relay, and maybe investigate replacing the in-tank fuel pump. ($240+ here, equivalent of <<$100 in Europe so that part will be imported if I go ahead.) When running, it's great! Economy is good, engine is smooth and revs freely, gear changes are sweet. Oh - all four plugs get wet when starting, so there is fuel getting through. Start and run the engine for a few seconds and the plugs are black; pull the plugs after a reasonable run and they are an appropriate grey colour. Possibly just on the hot side of OK, but nothing to be concerned about. The starting thing is odd. The engine turns over fast enough, but just doesn't fire on all four cylinders - it sounds like it starts on 2, then a third cuts in, and then the 4th at which point everything is smooth and lovely. I've not replaced the leads... Maybe that would also help? I was going to try an alternative set but the only spares I have won't fit. I'll also check the voltage at the battery while turning the engine over.

It's some clever sh*t, 'n no mistake!

I've tried changing it and it's better, but not good. Bob had a better result (assuming everyone can see that!) Damn. It would have been funny. Honest.

I'm not having any issues... But most driving is on SH1 at highway speeds. All the same, it's been good around town, too. Had it flushed by Marshalls in Hamilton, and frankly didn't notice any difference post-flush. That said, I saw what came out and it resembled dirty water... Definitely not good. I'm not sure I agree with Marshall's assertion that it ought to be done every 20000km though: that sounds more like job creation (for them) than anything else. It does need doing more often than the BMW recommendation - never - though. The trans in our car is a bit older, in distance terms at least. Every 50000km, perhaps? I think even the least optimistic manufacturers are suggesting every 80-100000km. It's not easy to do at home with no trans fluid dipstick tube to fill through. I may well go back to Marshalls, but will ask them to be more careful as there was a definite smell of trans fluid burning off the exhaust after they worked on it last time. Your process sounds a good one, but I would say that - it's similar to what I did when I changed the trans fluid on the Mercedes. Manufacturers are optimistic about these things. According to BMW, engine oil should be changed every ~12-13000 miles, or nearly 20000km. I'm changing engine oil every 4000 miles or so.

From the responses, I kinda guess there must be something wrong with my original post. Unfortunately... I can't see a problem! There's a strip of images. I've cleared cache and... No problem! Sorry folks. I really can't see an issue, but I assume there must be one!

That was kinda what I was thinking. One of the lovely things about the M10, other than it's reliability, is it's (relative) simplicity. That said, I don't know much about the M52. Is that the dual-VANOS motor?

I love the idea, and I certainly wouldn't treat the car with anything other than the greatest of respect. But it really is a worry that someone else would do something that would cause significant problems. If that happened to my car, the financial consequences would doubtless be the same. The difference here is that there is a defined timeframe to refund the money... My car, crashed, could sit for 12 months while I bitch and moan about it, but finding $15-20k in the space of a few days or weeks... I couldn't do it. I really do love the idea of racing. I know it costs at least twice what I imagine it might! And the best bet for me would be to have my own car, however uncompetitive it might be. Coincidentally, I've been looking at buying a motorbike. I was talking with some friends at HD about this a few weeks ago and they were asking what I'd spend. At the time I'd thought $3-4k (that's changed, downwards, since) but their suggestion was to buy a shitter Hyosung GT250R and go racing in the Cup. $4k might not pay for an entire years' racing, but it wouldn't be far off. (Assuming I didn't bin it at the first corner, in which case we're back to 12 month's bitchin' and moanin'... )

I couldn't commit to it. No. 5 kills it for me - I doubt I could find $20k if it became necessary.

Sorry Tom, but lighten up. You got an invite. Hundreds of other people did not. If you can't make it, too bad. Tell them. Let them give the position to someone who can.

The m10 is a good 'un. BMW bought older higher-mileage examples and then used them (as the M12) for Formula 1 - it was estimated to produce over 1400hp at one point, although as they couldn't accurately measure more than 1000hp, that's a moot point. It's solid, and if looked after will be reliable. And even if it does have problems, it's not difficult to fix.

Fuel-related problems do seem most likely. This isn't like a miss, where one cylinder drops out - it is more like everything briefly stops. It actually feels a little like a 2-stroke engine just before it 'nips up'. I'll have a look in the morning - take the coil out of the circuit, turn the engine over and pull the plugs. Seems to start OK when it's warmed up, though.

I keep being told the problems we are having aren't related to the throttle body. I've changed the vacuum pipes, the coil, the plugs (why are spark plugs so expensive here? $30 each from Repco or SCA, or £1.48 - say $3 - in the UK!), air filter, and the dizzy cap. The rotor arm is a Bosch and hasn't been replaced because the one I received had a too small bore to fit, but the Bosch one looks pretty good. The changes I've made all seemed to make a small difference, but haven't really resolved anything. So, I've checked the leads. The leads to the spark plugs are all ~5.7kΩ; the coil lead is about 2.2kΩ. Without a detailed manual I can't verify if these are correct. (These figures are a simple measurement taken with a multimeter on a 20kΩ range and the leads off the car.) Most troubling is that the car has become harder to start in the mornings. It turns over fast enough, but then fires on 1, perhaps 2 cylinders. Sometimes I can coax it into bringing the other cylinders to life, sometimes it stalls. Before starting the engine I can hear the fuel pump running, but it doesn't seem to matter whether I let the pump run 'til it cuts out (3 seconds or so) before starting, or just go for it. Once warmed through the engine will normally now idle albeit at lower revs (about 600rpm) than is correct. Occasionally, it will stall, as it did entering the roundabout at Taupiri, in traffic, yesterday morning. Fortunately a slick out of gear, ignition off, ignition on process saw the engine fire and run immediately, but it's hardly ideal especially when navigating a roundabout with a sudden loss of power steering. Good job it's not a heavy car. Also, the hesitation is becoming more prevalent. Cruising at 90-100km/h the engine seems to purr very nicely, except that every once in a while it feels as though it cuts out for a split second. I can't tell - don't know how to tell - if this is due to a fuel or electrical issue. Hence replacement of the coil and my checking the leads. The only thing I can see that I'm not happy about is the emulsion in the crankcase breather pipe that connects to the air filter box. There's no other signs of any sort of problem - no drop in coolant, no discolouration of the oil, no emulsion on inside of the rocker cover or underside of the oil filler cap. It doesn't appear to be using silly amounts of fuel: economy is around 14km per litre, or 7 litres per 100km. That's most of 40mpg in English, which is quite acceptable. I've not checked the timing but will do so. Kinda need to get a timing light first. So, despite assertions to the contrary, I'm probably back to pulling the throttle body off the car; it has been removed before at some point, as evidenced by mismatched bolts used to secure it. 3 Allen socket head bolts, and one crosshead. There should be a ring gasket on the base which should be replaced, so I'll source one of those first. If that doesn't improve things, there could be a very cheap, sort-of-running, Polo on the market. If anyone has any suggestions for what to try in order to fix it, please say!

Bear in mind there are several 4-pot 190Es, from those that really are gutless, to those that showed BMW the way home in DTM.

This is a bit boring. In the best possible way! Tomorrow we'll pass 400,000km. And other than that milestone, there's nothing to say. Apart from, maybe, possibly, we're considering selling...

I've had more old Mercs than most classic garage forecourts. W124 - stick with 17s instead of 18s... 18s really do look the part, but they ruin the ride quality. Do the suspension mods as described (and uprate the anti-roll bars) and the car won't handle any worse on 17s. W201 - fit the front ARB from a 6-cylinder W124 TE. You'll have to cut a few inches off each end, but instant improvement. Rear ARB is more difficult but you can find good copies of the W201 Evo 2 bar on t'internet. Same for the suspension - Konis, Bilstein, Eibach or Yellowspeed (coilovers) are good. Brake discs from a R129 SL, calipers from a US-market 400E, and 16" wheels from a '90-'00 CLK320. The rims are less than 13lbs each,, making an excellent improvement. (They're also good on a W124.) The W126 is from the same era. Bigger, (even) more comfortable, and with the option of several V8s can really move. They handle far better than you'd expect, too. Best Merc I've owned... Dunno. Rarest... Easier. An AMG W124 E36 estate. (Although various other Brabus, Carlsson and AMG models push it very close.) This was when it was running on AMG 18s, a set of 4 taken from the fronts of two W210 E55s. PITA to be honest - had to roll the front arches slightly to stop rubbing.

Nice kit and a nice car. I don't think they really go all that well together, though. It looks like the kit should fit a different car - it doesn't flow properly.