F30 B48 Turbo repair, Do I have to remove the Cat?

[zippy320]

You need to hurry up now!

Recently my gearbox feels jerky, I think it needs a service 74000km odo , qoute from the dealership for ZF 8 speed service was R12k, ouch

Thanks Justin! lol Getting there.... Slowly . Im just thankfull that I was able to make such progress in the first place . Hope the car works after this endevour lol Never in my life would I have thaught id be able to do such mechanical work to a car let alone on bascily one of Bmws Newish engine designs .

Funny enough , This cars gearbox, which is also the ZF 8 speed , is practically new , BMW replaced its gearbox completely while under motorplan . I think this box only has about 4000 km on it maybe more or less . After it was replaced , and the motorplan expired the turbo went Poof and the car was parked of for now going on 3 or 4 years .

The service is pricey , the oil is the biggest cost I think , and the filter which I believe is part of the sump . Im sure that's another 3k there .

So update!

I have installed the new valve cover , installed the solenoid actuators at the back ( worst part honestly ) reinstalled the Fuel pump , attached a few wires back in place . installed the sensors at the top with new O rings , I have installed the new seals onto the injectors wrapped them in tape and then pushed a copper pipe over them so that they can form into shape .

I made a mess up of one of the injectors , It can prob still be used but I decided to just order a new one and redo the process .
Once the injector seals are done , then I can work on attaching them to the rail and installing that into the car . That I think ill do tomorrow if the seals arrive in time .

 

[Greenjustin]

Thanks Justin! lol Getting there.... Slowly . Im just thankfull that I was able to make such progress in the first place . Hope the car works after this endevour lol Never in my life would I have thaught id be able to do such mechanical work to a car let alone on bascily one of Bmws Newish engine designs .

Funny enough , This cars gearbox, which is also the ZF 8 speed , is practically new , BMW replaced its gearbox completely while under motorplan . I think this box only has about 4000 km on it maybe more or less . After it was replaced , and the motorplan expired the turbo went Poof and the car was parked of for now going on 3 or 4 years .

The service is pricey , the oil is the biggest cost I think , and the filter which I believe is part of the sump . Im sure that's another 3k there .

So update!

I have installed the new valve cover , installed the solenoid actuators at the back ( worst part honestly ) reinstalled the Fuel pump , attached a few wires back in place . installed the sensors at the top with new O rings , I have installed the new seals onto the injectors wrapped them in tape and then pushed a copper pipe over them so that they can form into shape .

I made a mess up of one of the injectors , It can prob still be used but I decided to just order a new one and redo the process .
Once the injector seals are done , then I can work on attaching them to the rail and installing that into the car . That I think I’ll do tomorrow if the seals arrive in time .

You checked ,No oil on the pistons?

Why was your gearbox replaced?
Gearbox replacement cost a small car price from BMW.

 

[Greenjustin]

You checked ,No oil on the pistons?

Why was your gearbox replaced?
Gearbox replacement cost a small car price from BMW.

FEEDBACK on the cars jerkiness.

It was plugged into BMW diagnostics and no errors were found.

Reset Throttle Adaptation, hopefully this fixes it.No more surprises!
BMW maintenance is becoming a common occurrence.
BMW Turbo,Coolant Pipe, Upper/Lower Control Arms, fuel line clip, jerky acceleration ,

Never had this issues on my Golf 6,Polo GTI, Toyota Fortuner.

 

[zippy320]

You checked ,No oil on the pistons?

Why was your gearbox replaced?
Gearbox replacement cost a small car price from BMW.

I checked the pistons , they seemed dry so I guess no oil. I asked a few BMW techs at the dealership and they told me not to worry about it, if there is some oil it will burn away .

Yup total replacement cost, that's with all their steps they have to take , changing oil and filter , changing mechatronic unit , changing oil again then changing the transmission was about a little more then Half of what we paid for it when we purchased it new lol madness

So Update !

Work on the car is 98% complete! Reassembled everything , replaced the electronic water pump ( preventative ) filled it with water .

Now I need to buy a battery for it as its battery after sitting for 4 years is basically toast . I will get the battery tomorrow from BMW .

Can anyone tell me , Is there a startup procedure that I should follow after replacing the turbo, valve cover and water pump?

I know theres no oil in the lines , and most of the lines dont have water in them although I have filled both bottles to the top and used the vacume method of filling .

Im afraid of starting it up with no oil/water in the lines on its initial startup.

 

[zippy320]

Got my new battery today from BMW , installed it in the car and registered it , so thats done .

I tried the automated cooling system bleeding procedure and i just could not get it to start so after multiple attempts I left that and went to the oil priming procedure that I had found and lo and behold , I did not have a socket to remove the spark plugs lol

I will now have to find a socket to remove the plugs .

So the procedure is now mandatory for all Bmws whos oil system has been interrupted , So the process for priming the oil system is , Remove fuel pump fuse , remove coils ( remove spark plug for easier rotation of engine and less strain on starter motor and this allows for more oil to flow through quicker) then you disconnect injector plugs , press the start button , let it run for 10 seconds , stop let it cool for 20s , and repeat the process two times .

This car is not without its quirks .

 

[zippy320]

Hi Guys !

Update ! Found out how to prime the system from BMW , who showed me a TIS instruction , So a quicker way to prime the oil system is to pull the last plug off the DME , this shuts off the injectors and fuel system . I followed the instructions and Did the priming today . Pressed the start button , car took some time to start up , I did remove alot of fuel from the lines .
Now that the fuel system has fuel in it , it starts up on the first turn .

But here is where im a little afraid.
I started it up for the 1st , 2nd 3rd 4th time and there was and still is TONS of smoke! from the tailpipes , I only ran the car for just less then a minute at each time though . There is so much white smoke . Its like soo much that people driving by stopped and ran over to press our intercome to tell us that theres a fire LOL .

I checked the inlet side of the turbo , no oil there . I will check the outlet side to see if theres oil there .

Friends have told me that it could just be the oil that went into the intake / and or exhaust system thats burning up . But so much?? It filles the garage and outside like fog .

When i turn the car off and it clears , I can still see like puffs coming out of the tailpipes .
Also Initially when starting for the first time , the car was very rough , on the next few startups , it seems to have smoothed out but it gets hickuppy here and there .

Not sure what I should do next .

I did a scan and the only code that comes up is : 1C3101 Oil pressure sensor , signal: Pressure too high before engine start .

Im not sure what this could be or if that could be the cause or any cause ?

 

[zippy320]

Update and completion of Project !!

I everyone , so never thought id say this but the cars complete and back on the road!

So after I left off , I decided , I don't want to try and blow off the smoke from the exhaust as everyone everywhere mentioned , I felt that I had cleaned the cat up clean enough for it to not smoke and this smoke was really odd and just too much . So I left it in the garage , called the AA and had it towed to BMW .

They inspected the car , also mentioned to me that I had done an excellent job of replacing the turbo and valve cover which made me really happy

So on startup the car had a rough idle , then a smooth idle then a rough idle , They did a leak down test and a compression test and both turned out perfect , they said the engine was very healthy .

So after some diagnostics , it turned out to be one of the injectors , as the 4th injector was staying wet. As my cars one of the 1st B48`s in a 3 series , it came with a very dangerous and troublesome injector whose part number ends in 03990 , this injector on the B48 and b58 is known to leak , and can affect cars up to 2017 . It leaks and if you drive it , it can cause the engine to lock up and in many cases apparently the piston cracks and rings get damaged . Im Very lucky not to have driven the car or attempted to clear the smoke by driving it , I replaced all 4 injectors with the new revision injectors , also replaced the fuel vent solenoid that sits ontop of the engine ( this was dead, wasn't ticking and gave the car a slight rough idle on startup)

After all of that , the car still had a bit of a rough idle but no more smoke! This turned out to be one of the o2 sensors , the 1st one from the top , I suspect that it was damaged by all the unburned fuel going through the system . The second one was fine but I will replace it at a later time as a preventative maintenance item .

Also requested for them to do a complete service on the car , all new filters , fluids and spark plugs . including a brake fluid flush ,cooling system flush and refill , Had them update the system to bring it back from 2015 to 2024 lol and had them do all the factory recalls/campaigns that were due on it , there was like 4 i think where they replaced some pipes and other items . Cars computer now has some neat little extra "my bmw" feature added which I found to be really cool for a car it its age .

Car was ready for pick up on Friday and I had my mom drive it home . Since then , if only driven the car once and it seems to go really well . Theres no smoke , the idle is nice and smooth , the engine also seems soo much quieter then I remember .
Haven't really driven it fast or hard , but up to 120 it seems to go really well .

I will in near the future, replace the mechanical water pump and that last o2 sensor at the back but otherwise , iv done most of the preventative maintenance items that I can think of . All the cooling pipes are new , Oil pipes are new , all new seals all over the place .

Im just so relieved that this project is kind of complete All the Cuts and bruises and pain was well worth it Thanks Guys for ALLL the help and assistance and allowing me to post my progress on here




Friday driving home . Just had to snap a quick pic from the E46 .

 

[///M Individual]

That is amazing bud well done! Your perseverance is admirable as many would have given up along the way. Wish you many many happy kms with the car!

 

[AlexYannoulatos]

Well done sir!

 

[modocrat]

Well done Zippy! Car looks good on Argyle 😉

 

[AshG108]

Well done Zippy, tremendous effort and massive respect to you for carrying this out, and then still documenting it selflessly for everyone to benefit as well.

Kudos to you buddy! Wishing you many happy kms going forward!

 

[Solo Man]

Congratulations on your achievement! But i shudder to think what all this must have cost you apart from the time you spent working on it. What is the bottom line total material/parts cost?

 

[Mytfine]

Congrats man must be nice feeling after all these years to finally make use of the car. Check your tyres also , im sure they would have flat spots, cracking etc from standing in one spot for so long

 

[Sabretooth tiger]

Well-done bud.

 

[Gordvisr]

Well done

 

[zippy320]

Hi Guys! Wishing you all a happy new year!

Hope everyone is doing well this new years!

Sorry for the delay in responding , i just got so caught up with work and such I sort of lost track of time and iv been meaning to reply for quite some time to give an update on the car .

Thanks so much for all the well wishes! Could not have done it without this forum , really appreciate all the help , encouragement and assistance ! You people are amazing .

@Solo Man I haven't really costed the whole project properly I do have the basic numbers but there were extras towards the end that I haven't taken into account like the replacing of the O2 sensor and this fuel sort of stabilizer/electric pump item on top of the engine , So the cost of doing all the work , was around R45k to R50k +/- And that includes BMW working on the car after I had installed the turbo and did all the other work . I had replaced a lot of parts on it myself , and also had BMW replace alot of parts as well . There were also a whole host of campaign items on BMWs list that they replace without charge as well as software updates, tests and such that they performed , Im so happy with the outcome . Had no idea I could control this car from my phone ! and the car runs beautifully now , replacing all those extra pieces did cost more , in hindsight I probibly did not have to but it gave me a little bit more peace of mind .

I drove the car up to Jhb with family in September for a weekend and drove it back and it went so well . To date ( including the Dbn Jhb trip ) iv done around 6000kms with the car . ( Did alot of milage on that Jhb trip! )

The only issue ( although) im told its not an issue its very normal , Is that I find the exaust tone on startup , and idle to be a little bit to loud . Once i press the acc , the sound goes away , its just on idle that I hear it . ( this car does not have the valve in the exuast from factory) Its not very loud but I can hear it .
Im not sure if thats normal or something I need to look into . I havnt had another F30 320i B48 to compare it to , but im not used to this sort of exahust tone , Id always assumed that it would be as quiet as my E46.

Things I have noticed during this period , It has lessened down a lot during the past 2 months , The steering when I turned it , used to make kind of creeking noises , its lessend down alot now and does not do it as often . The noise seems to be coming from the linkages and such , I suppose bieng parked off had caused this and hopefully it will go away once things loosen up.

I have an annoying brake squeek noise that I cant seem to get rid of , The brake pads and disks are newish , they were replaced a week before it was parked off , Iv checked everything but still get this squeak noise when coasting at very low speeds ( like rolling into the garage etc)

@Mytfine Tyres seem to be ok , Funny enough , the car was on jack stands while in the garage covered up during that time so that may have helped prevent the flat spots , I am due for replacements though as the back seems a little low on thread but the front seem ok .

Im actually not sure now if this car is giving me better or worst fuel consumption then my E46 , It feels like its heavier but then sometimes not . But my econo guage is always lower then that of the E46 , if thats makes sense . I will be replacing the coils as a preventative maintainance item but otherwise theres not much for me to do to the car now except normal maintaince and finding a cure for that annoying brake/wheel sqeek.

All I need to do now is find a good paint less dent removal specialist to remove the dings and dents on the two passenger side doors . Iv taken it to two places and they want to replace the doors and paint or fix it and then repaint . I do not want to repaint . Id rather drive around with the dents then repaint lol I really like this Mineral white Metallic colour and dont want it to mismatch .

Sadly , while iv been using the f30 , my E46 decided to act up with a host of issues (left my mom stranded the other day ) beeped , showed battery and switched off on the M13 , Had it towed home , only for it to start up as normal while on the flatbed with a dead speedometer ! , so this year ill be spending more time on that car and at around 330 000 kms , It needs a little more attention, I really need to do alot of preventative maintainance on it , and figour out whats going on with it , I plan on replacing alot of items to get it back up to spec . This will be a really interesting project for me as i absolutly love that car .

Will keep everyone updated on the progress of that car on a new thread , and the F30 on this thread .

 

[Greenjustin]

Hi Guys! Wishing you all a happy new year!

Hope everyone is doing well this new years!

Sorry for the delay in responding , i just got so caught up with work and such I sort of lost track of time and iv been meaning to reply for quite some time to give an update on the car .

Thanks so much for all the well wishes! Could not have done it without this forum , really appreciate all the help , encouragement and assistance ! You people are amazing .

@Solo Man I haven't really costed the whole project properly I do have the basic numbers but there were extras towards the end that I haven't taken into account like the replacing of the O2 sensor and this fuel sort of stabilizer/electric pump item on top of the engine , So the cost of doing all the work , was around R45k to R50k +/- And that includes BMW working on the car after I had installed the turbo and did all the other work . I had replaced a lot of parts on it myself , and also had BMW replace alot of parts as well . There were also a whole host of campaign items on BMWs list that they replace without charge as well as software updates, tests and such that they performed , Im so happy with the outcome . Had no idea I could control this car from my phone ! and the car runs beautifully now , replacing all those extra pieces did cost more , in hindsight I probibly did not have to but it gave me a little bit more peace of mind .

I drove the car up to Jhb with family in September for a weekend and drove it back and it went so well . To date ( including the Dbn Jhb trip ) iv done around 6000kms with the car . ( Did alot of milage on that Jhb trip! )

The only issue ( although) im told its not an issue its very normal , Is that I find the exaust tone on startup , and idle to be a little bit to loud . Once i press the acc , the sound goes away , its just on idle that I hear it . ( this car does not have the valve in the exuast from factory) Its not very loud but I can hear it .
Im not sure if thats normal or something I need to look into . I havnt had another F30 320i B48 to compare it to , but im not used to this sort of exahust tone , Id always assumed that it would be as quiet as my E46.

Things I have noticed during this period , It has lessened down a lot during the past 2 months , The steering when I turned it , used to make kind of creeking noises , its lessend down alot now and does not do it as often . The noise seems to be coming from the linkages and such , I suppose bieng parked off had caused this and hopefully it will go away once things loosen up.

I have an annoying brake squeek noise that I cant seem to get rid of , The brake pads and disks are newish , they were replaced a week before it was parked off , Iv checked everything but still get this squeak noise when coasting at very low speeds ( like rolling into the garage etc)

@Mytfine Tyres seem to be ok , Funny enough , the car was on jack stands while in the garage covered up during that time so that may have helped prevent the flat spots , I am due for replacements though as the back seems a little low on thread but the front seem ok .

Im actually not sure now if this car is giving me better or worst fuel consumption then my E46 , It feels like its heavier but then sometimes not . But my econo guage is always lower then that of the E46 , if thats makes sense . I will be replacing the coils as a preventative maintainance item but otherwise theres not much for me to do to the car now except normal maintaince and finding a cure for that annoying brake/wheel sqeek.

All I need to do now is find a good paint less dent removal specialist to remove the dings and dents on the two passenger side doors . Iv taken it to two places and they want to replace the doors and paint or fix it and then repaint . I do not want to repaint . Id rather drive around with the dents then repaint lol I really like this Mineral white Metallic colour and dont want it to mismatch .

Sadly , while iv been using the f30 , my E46 decided to act up with a host of issues (left my mom stranded the other day ) beeped , showed battery and switched off on the M13 , Had it towed home , only for it to start up as normal while on the flatbed with a dead speedometer ! , so this year ill be spending more time on that car and at around 330 000 kms , It needs a little more attention, I really need to do alot of preventative maintainance on it , and figour out whats going on with it , I plan on replacing alot of items to get it back up to spec . This will be a really interesting project for me as i absolutly love that car .

Will keep everyone updated on the progress of that car on a new thread , and the F30 on this thread .

Nice work on the 320i! My BMW App has notified me my starter battery needs replacing.

 

[modocrat]

Hi Guys! Wishing you all a happy new year!

Hope everyone is doing well this new years!

Sorry for the delay in responding , i just got so caught up with work and such I sort of lost track of time and iv been meaning to reply for quite some time to give an update on the car .

Thanks so much for all the well wishes! Could not have done it without this forum , really appreciate all the help , encouragement and assistance ! You people are amazing .

@Solo Man I haven't really costed the whole project properly I do have the basic numbers but there were extras towards the end that I haven't taken into account like the replacing of the O2 sensor and this fuel sort of stabilizer/electric pump item on top of the engine , So the cost of doing all the work , was around R45k to R50k +/- And that includes BMW working on the car after I had installed the turbo and did all the other work . I had replaced a lot of parts on it myself , and also had BMW replace alot of parts as well . There were also a whole host of campaign items on BMWs list that they replace without charge as well as software updates, tests and such that they performed , Im so happy with the outcome . Had no idea I could control this car from my phone ! and the car runs beautifully now , replacing all those extra pieces did cost more , in hindsight I probibly did not have to but it gave me a little bit more peace of mind .

I drove the car up to Jhb with family in September for a weekend and drove it back and it went so well . To date ( including the Dbn Jhb trip ) iv done around 6000kms with the car . ( Did alot of milage on that Jhb trip! )

The only issue ( although) im told its not an issue its very normal , Is that I find the exaust tone on startup , and idle to be a little bit to loud . Once i press the acc , the sound goes away , its just on idle that I hear it . ( this car does not have the valve in the exuast from factory) Its not very loud but I can hear it .
Im not sure if thats normal or something I need to look into . I havnt had another F30 320i B48 to compare it to , but im not used to this sort of exahust tone , Id always assumed that it would be as quiet as my E46.

Things I have noticed during this period , It has lessened down a lot during the past 2 months , The steering when I turned it , used to make kind of creeking noises , its lessend down alot now and does not do it as often . The noise seems to be coming from the linkages and such , I suppose bieng parked off had caused this and hopefully it will go away once things loosen up.

I have an annoying brake squeek noise that I cant seem to get rid of , The brake pads and disks are newish , they were replaced a week before it was parked off , Iv checked everything but still get this squeak noise when coasting at very low speeds ( like rolling into the garage etc)

@Mytfine Tyres seem to be ok , Funny enough , the car was on jack stands while in the garage covered up during that time so that may have helped prevent the flat spots , I am due for replacements though as the back seems a little low on thread but the front seem ok .

Im actually not sure now if this car is giving me better or worst fuel consumption then my E46 , It feels like its heavier but then sometimes not . But my econo guage is always lower then that of the E46 , if thats makes sense . I will be replacing the coils as a preventative maintainance item but otherwise theres not much for me to do to the car now except normal maintaince and finding a cure for that annoying brake/wheel sqeek.

All I need to do now is find a good paint less dent removal specialist to remove the dings and dents on the two passenger side doors . Iv taken it to two places and they want to replace the doors and paint or fix it and then repaint . I do not want to repaint . Id rather drive around with the dents then repaint lol I really like this Mineral white Metallic colour and dont want it to mismatch .

Sadly , while iv been using the f30 , my E46 decided to act up with a host of issues (left my mom stranded the other day ) beeped , showed battery and switched off on the M13 , Had it towed home , only for it to start up as normal while on the flatbed with a dead speedometer ! , so this year ill be spending more time on that car and at around 330 000 kms , It needs a little more attention, I really need to do alot of preventative maintainance on it , and figour out whats going on with it , I plan on replacing alot of items to get it back up to spec . This will be a really interesting project for me as i absolutly love that car .

Will keep everyone updated on the progress of that car on a new thread , and the F30 on this thread .

Tom is a master at PDR.

The Hailsmith | Durban

The Hailsmith, Durban. 1,462 likes · 39 talking about this. We specialize in PAINTLESS DENT REMOVAL and repair FENDER BENDERS & BUMPER BASHINGS.

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[Sabretooth tiger]

How loud is it? My car was loud on cold start up before I fitted the downpipe. Some people used to think I did something to the exhaust. I loved it but wanted a more.

Here is a clip of a cold start after the downpipe was fitted. Normal driving is quiet, but on WOT it's louder.