Tom

Hey Alan, Any luck finding the cause of your MAF sensor issues on your E46 N42B20 mate? I’m interested because I’m getting the same type of issues on my E46 N42B18 (2001 316ti Compact). It was my grandfather’s car, bought new in 2001. When I got it back, it was not in great shape. I changed all the fluids, spark plugs, SP wires, filters and it was running again. But I was getting DTC codes on the MAF sensor, secondary air intake, and VVT sensor. On the road, the car was driving ok, but quite often, the RPMs would drop while accelerating, especially when asking for torque in the low / mid range rpm. Eventually one summer day, I started the car (after having let it sit for a couple months ) it ran as usual for a few hundred meters and then no response in the accelerator pedal, just an erratic idle like a slow heartbeat. I could only get a tiny bit of engine rpm, maybe 1100 rpm that’s it. I got around it by unplugging the MAF sensor. I cleaned the engine the top end near the VVT connector where there was a bunch of oil, and put a new MAF sensor in. Problems were gone and the car was running perfect. I drove it about 30-40k and now I’m getting issues again. What it does is different now. When I start the engine, it goes in heating up phase and after a minute or two, it stalls unless I play with the gas pedal. It won’t hold its idle. This issue developed overnight when we recently had very low temperatures in Paris. I had just driven it a 1000 miles back and fourth to the west coast of France with no issues whatsoever. I’m thinking about changing the MAF again but is it normal that they go bad that quickly, or is it related to another air intake related issue? Vacuum leaks? BTW, I’m not getting those VVT codes anymore after the big cleanup, so that’s a relief. But what I did start getting for the past 4-5 months is a bad smell coming from the engine bay and eventually in the car if I blow the vents without the A/C on. I’m suspecting the FAP / exhaust filter located to the left of the engine, next to cylinders 1 and 2. Any leads or help on what do next would be very appreciated. Sorry for the long post. I just made an intro of myself and the car in the new members sections but I’ll post another pic of the E46 here. Cheers and good shifting Tom

Hello everyone, I’m Thomas and I live in Paris. Ooooh outrage.. Yeah sorry, I wish I lived in NZ but that’s what it is. I actually live on the west side of Paris in Boulogne-Billancourt, just next to the seine river and the Forest of St-Cloud. (You really can’t make that sh*t up) Long story short, my grand father was big on cars (used to work in those Peugeot and Renault car manufacturing plants) and his last two cars were Bmw’s. He was very proud of owning a BMW in the late 90’s and early 2000´s. Fast forward 20 years, when I came back from New York and settled back in Paris in 2021, I inherited the E46 316ti Compact which had at this time something like a 280k mileage. Today It just passed 300k and I would like to maintain it so it goes another 100k, 200k, maybe another 300k on the same N42 engine. I’ll share a few pictures of my loyal bimmer with you guys. I recently read a post by another user named Alan who had issues with his E46 N42B20 and I saved a full post response going through the details of the issues I had on my E46 N42B18. I’ll look on the forum and see if I can find it again. Cheers to all and good shifting Tom