M3: Day 1 "Increased Emissions" w/ slight power loss

[NashvegasR]

Picked up my new (to me) M3 yesterday for a 500 mile drive home. 2009 e93, Silverstone II Metallic, DCT, 62K miles, got a great deal, car is just about perfect with a few cosmetic things I'll address (peeled steering wheel trim). More miles than I wanted but I digress -- the seller is a known entity so I feel great about the purchase.

Ran fantastically for about 400 miles of my trip. Stopped to fill up at a podunk station in Tuscaloosa AL, got 3 miles from gas station and "bong" - Increased emissions on idrive. And a service engine soon light w/ yellow engine outline. Whaa? Pulled over, checked gas cap (just in case) but all looks in order.

Back on highway - car running perfectly w/ the error for about 50 miles. Then slowly this happens:.

I first notice that in "7" (DCT) when giving it gas, it's a little down on power. Irrespective of M drive, DCT settings.

Granted I've had the car 5 hours but I am 100% certain that I'm not imagining the reduction in power. If I'm cruising at 75mph in 7, floor it (no gear change), about 50% of the time the car operates normally and accelerates. The other 50% of the time, floor it and the engine bogs a bit as it accelerates, engine sounds a little weaker too. Wait 10 seconds, normal power. Try it again, not sure which I'll get (full power or reduced). And sometimes it takes off par usual but then power slightly cuts back mid "pull" (wrong word but you know what I mean).

To recap: Car sometimes has full power. But about 50% of the time, the engine noise/note changes and the power's slightly down.

FWIW, only idrive error is "increased emissions", ie no "reduced power". I take those types of error messages w/ grain of salt.

Or could this literally be -- crappy low octane gas? I plan on going to fill up this AM to see if that helps. It was 2am and I am at resort in Georgia so didnt fill up last night.

I'll get codes read but I"m bummed that it's Sunday and my new M3 isn't on point -- could this be a simple plug / coil pack type of issue? I cannot "hear" any misfire.

PS - this car is freaking amazing. I couldn't sleep. Here's a pic of me picking it up. I give my 335i about 2 months until it's being sold !

[IMG][/IMG]

[redpriest]

"Stopped to fill up at a podunk station in Tuscaloosa AL" - I think that might be your issue right there.

I never trust anything but quality Top Tier fuel - http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html - for any of my cars, and in my case in particular, Chevron. I'll drive the extra miles just to find good gas, don't ever cheap out!

If you can find some Techron Concentrate Plus Fuel System Cleaner, try using that to clean up whatever gunk the podunk gas gave you. On another car forum I frequent, one of the SLK55 AMG drivers had issues with acceleration/hesitation that this cleaned up for him immediately.

That being said there might be something more seriously wrong with your car, but it sounds like cheap fuel issues.

[NashvegasR]

Thanks for the reply. I know... I know. I had tons of issues with a prior car with bad gas (a supercharged RR sport... it would consistenly throw a Chk Engine if 87 was put in... which my ex-wife loved to do). So I should have known better.

The m3 at less than 1/8 tank and there were not alot of options. It _was_ a BP station, just a crappy old BP station. In 'bama. Hate to judge gas based on what the place looks like but it wasn't pretty.

I'll get new gas this AM and post back.

[redpriest]

Can never be too careful - I've left gas stations that seemed ... off in maintenance. Good luck, your car looks great.

[Parkanzky]

I had that code recently and it tuned out to be an upstream O2 sensor. It was a very reasonable repair (as far as //M cars go).

[Hagasan41]

Originally Posted by redpriest

"Stopped to fill up at a podunk station in Tuscaloosa AL" - I think that might be your issue right there.

I never trust anything but quality Top Tier fuel - http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html - for any of my cars, and in my case in particular, Chevron. I'll drive the extra miles just to find good gas, don't ever cheap out!

If you can find some Techron Concentrate Plus Fuel System Cleaner, try using that to clean up whatever gunk the podunk gas gave you. On another car forum I frequent, one of the SLK55 AMG drivers had issues with acceleration/hesitation that this cleaned up for him immediately.

That being said there might be something more seriously wrong with your car, but it sounds like cheap fuel issues.

^ agree! Make sure it's the Techron not the Proguard. Or pick up a bottle of Redline. Both are top tier fuel system cleaners. Oh and congrats she's a beauty!

[quicktwinturbo]

Heyyy now... Tuscaloosa has plentyy of good gas station
Do you remember which one you went?

[rdoctor]

I'm in the same boat.... again. Do a search on "increased emissions" and you'll see all kinds of possible reasons for it...some very minor...some not so minor. I posted in a few of those threads that a new pre-cat O2 sensor and running high quality (Shell V-Power) 93 octane fuel solved my issue (and it did for about 3 months) but sigh...now my increased emissions alert is back. I was just about to go through the threads again to make a list of every thing others have mentioned so I can try to figure this out myself. My guess is it's a sensor that measures fuel pressure but I don't really know. Along those lines...It also occurred to me that like many other minor issues with these cars...a weak battery could be the blame. Why the battery? Well...when the battery starts to fail and there is less available current... certain things just stop working. My current hypothesis is that the pumps in the fuel tanks that pressurize the fuel to check for leaks (you can hear these above the left rear wheel well) may not be coming on properly because of the battery condition. No idea if this is right or not. If a new battery doesn't solve the problem I'll take it back to the dealer and let them figure it out since I'm still on CPO warranty for another year.

If you still have the original battery in our 09 it's time to change it anyway.

In any case...my car has never driven any differently while showing the "increased emissions" light so it's probably something minor but it is really annoying.

[Helmsman]

Hi guys,

after reading loads of threads about the petrol quality, as it seems mainly in the US, I can't help myself getting puzzled; Could this In fact be a reason for the car to behave strange/outside spec's..?

Over here in Europe I must say I never heard about the juice being an issue, in any car (other than consumed too quickly...), and you guys even pump it up yourself - should be premium quality!!

Anyone who actually have some proper proof that the gas doesn't hold quality?

Cheers

[Parkanzky]

I believe it's probably superstition.

I think that most gasoline in a region comes from one refinery and the only difference is with minute additive packages that individual distributors might use for branding.

The exception to this might be with turnover. Gasoline does degrade over time (a long time), so if a discount station sells very little high-octane fuel then the fuel in their tanks could be considerably older than a station down the road that sells a lot of high-test.

[Helmsman]

Come to think of it I did have a petrol issues ones which is kind of funny looking back but far from it at the time.
Just bought a 550i E60 (used but in brilliant shape). Topped up at the station, took about 100 meters and the engine started to complain and then died. Obviously got crazy nervous, however turned out the station had by accident swapped between 98oct and diesel. BMW cleaned the system, the station (obviously) took the bill and everything was fine.

The tank was fairly full, again only topped up, and yet the system immediately recognized something wasn't right. The engine itself probably never noticed what happened. That was pretty impressive.

Except a few similar occasions when swapping between gas and diesel, I've never heard about this kind of issues.

Cheers

[coloradoe92m3]

First off top tier is detergent related, nothing to do with quality of fuel from a combustion aspect. Look IP up for yourself .

Frankly I think its more likely the place you bought it from cleared the cel to sell the car and after you drove then stopped then started again, one or two drive cycles occurred to then re trigger the cel and the underlying problem is showing.
.I assume they don't give warranty right? I see this a lot where they clear closes to unload car otherwise if they had to pay a few thousand for a repair they would never make money.

Really only safe way to buy an m is new or CPO

[NashvegasR]

UPDATE: Filled it up with Chevron premium and a bottle of the good Techron and I'll be damned -- SES light and "increased emissions" idrive went away. Power back. All is well.

The guy I bought from is 100% awesome so not worried about him clearing the code or doing anything similar.

I'm sure I'll be a regular poster here so I will keep everyone updated.

The car is an amazing machine. Not sure what I was doing w an n54 for all those years. Ha.

[quicktwinturbo]

Originally Posted by NashvegasR

UPDATE: Filled it up with Chevron premium and a bottle of the good Techron and I'll be damned -- SES light and "increased emissions" idrive went away. Power back. All is well.

The guy I bought from is 100% awesome so not worried about him clearing the code or doing anything similar.

I'm sure I'll be a regular poster here so I will keep everyone updated.

The car is an amazing machine. Not sure what I was doing w an n54 for all those years. Ha.

Enjoy it

[Parkanzky]

That's great news! Have fun with the new toy!

[NashvegasR]

Originally Posted by quicktwinturbo

Heyyy now... Tuscaloosa has plentyy of good gas station
Do you remember which one you went?

Quicktwinturbo: btw I'm originally from Birmingham AL and a huge Bama fan so I have alot of love for Tuscaloosa here. The gas station was a BP about 15 miles WEST of Tuscaloosa on 20. It was a pretty beat up looking gas station. Not exactly a flagship location.

[quicktwinturbo]

Originally Posted by NashvegasR

Quicktwinturbo: btw I'm originally from Birmingham AL and a huge Bama fan so I have alot of love for Tuscaloosa here. The gas station was a BP about 15 miles WEST of Tuscaloosa on 20. It was a pretty beat up looking gas station. Not exactly a flagship location.

Roll Tide! I moved to Tuscaloosa last year for school.. It's not tooo bad. Next time if you are in town let me know~!

[redpriest]

Glad you got it sorted out OP.

[viperssd]

I just recently started getting this error showing up on my vehicle, in fact the third time in the past couple of months in different states running on different gas.
The vehicle in question is a 2012 E92 M3 with 22k miles
1st service stop - O2 sensor replaced
2nd service stop - Intake check valve replaced
3rd service stop - O2 sensors both replaced, Intake check valve replaced, air pump replaced
It is currently still in the third shop but after some conversations with BMW engineers, if the cold starts over the next couple of days surface the issue again, they want to drop the engine to pull and check the headers....
Has anyone seen it go this far?

[Amirsm3]

[TexasSpartan]

I had the Increased Emmissions with Yellow Service Engine Soon light a few weeks ago. Then Fuel Pum Malfunction came on the night before I took it in for service. They replaced the Low Pressure Fuel Sensor and so far all is well. Unfortunately, it's a variety of issues that could cause these lights to come on.