BMW 320d SE (07 plate) - Car cutting out

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Sun 13 Jan 2013 20:06
BMW 320d SE (07 plate) - Car cutting out - Mister_B

Hi,

Picked up a 320d SE 2007 (07) yesterday, anyway today it's started causing me problems, obviously I've phoned up the garage, they've given me a car whilst they get it in the garage on Monday.
I'm just wanting to get an idea (hopefully) of what it *could be...

Started this morning, it was cold 1.5C and the car started fine, but after this for about 3 seconds it sounded like it was struggling, this was whilst I was idle on the drive.
Then, I filled up with diesel (and I've checked it was DEFO diesel), and whilst waiting with the engine on after I'd filled up it just cut out, then I set off and the car just cut out whilst driving, the electrics (ie indicators) still worked, but all power was lost. I pulled up to the side, then started it up again, and drove to a car park, no warning lights throughout all this.
Started the car again, accelerated fast in first and into second gear and it cut out again, displaying the triangle with an explanation mark and a round arrow warning light (something to do with DSC or DTC?)
Left it 5 minutes, then drove the 20 miles to the garage, and it seemed fine again?
Also worth pointing out my wife said it smelt of a kind of burning, maybe oil burning smell when she got in the car on the way to the garage.
Now it might have done this yesterday once whilst driving or I might have selected the wrong gear, I thought nothing of it yesterday just dismissing a wrong gear, but on whats happened today I'm not sure!

Gutting that it's happened so quick, but better now whilst under some kind of dealer warranty I guess, worth noting I believe a new turbo was fitted at 86k, the car is now on 90k.

Any suggestions ?

Thanks.

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Mon 14 Jan 2013 15:46
BMW 320d SE (07 plate) - Car cutting out - Mister_B
Just heard back that it's a faulty crank shaft sensor, does this sound right?

Could the burning smell have anything to go with this?

Thanks
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Mon 14 Jan 2013 16:46
BMW 320d SE (07 plate) - Car cutting out - Collos25

A faulty crankshaft sensor and camshaft sensors are common faults on BMW having just replaced the camshaft sensor on mine I now find the crakshaft sensor is faulty €20 for the part and around 2 hours to fit the cam shaft sensor is almost identical but takes about 5 minutes to fit.The symptoms are normally engine cuts out for a few seconds and the ignition light comes on gets worse over time until the car will not go one of the side effects is that it loads the ECU with a load of misinformation and is known to put the airbag light on.You could drive all week and the fault will not arise then the next week every day so its hard in this instance to blame the garage.The sensor is situated on the righthand side of the engine below the starter motor and is a pig to get at normally achieved by removing lots of parts including the inlet manifold.

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Mon 14 Jan 2013 18:32
BMW 320d SE (07 plate) - Car cutting out - madf

German engineering at its best.. learning from Renault how to save £0.25 on component quality..

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Mon 14 Jan 2013 19:37
BMW 320d SE (07 plate) - Car cutting out - Collos25

WE have five BMWs in our family and I totally agree with you its always something that goes wrong thats made down to price forget the quality ,I rate BMW build quality along that of Lada even though they are wonderful to drive.

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Mon 14 Jan 2013 19:45
BMW 320d SE (07 plate) - Car cutting out - Peter.N.

I have been running the much maligned PSA Hdi engines, I have a Peugeot with 211,000 miles on it and its not missed a beat since I owned it. - probably not so nice to drive though.

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Mon 14 Jan 2013 20:04
BMW 320d SE (07 plate) - Car cutting out - Collos25

I had two Peugeot 407 1.6 Hdi estates that I used when working in Germany I did more than 200k in one 185k in the other bought a new clutch for one and filled the eoly tank on the other thats all and these were supposed to be a bad engine.I have had a number of Cits from 2cvs, 1220, three XMs, three CV5s not a minutes bother.

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Mon 14 Jan 2013 20:05
BMW 320d SE (07 plate) - Car cutting out - Mister_B
Thanks for all the info, someone told me that faulty crank shaft sensors usually only cause dying engines when idle, not when driving? Is this right?

Also, I doubt this would cause the faint burning smell I was getting would it?
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Mon 14 Jan 2013 20:34
BMW 320d SE (07 plate) - Car cutting out - Collos25

No they normally go as I described driving normally then the ignition light comes on engine then stops for a varied time from 1 sec to 5 secs and goes ok again, when the sensor goes completely it stops the engine for good. The smell would not come from the sensor. Its the camshaft sensor that stops the car running at idle and stops it starting when it has gone completely.

Edited by Collos25 on 14/01/2013 at 20:37

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