BMW 530d E39 performance

beams

Hi,

I have an E39 530d auto (2001) with the sports spec but there's obviously something seriously wrong with its performance. On paper its supposed to get from 0-100km in 8secs (spec) but mine is nowhere near this. Yesterday I did a 0-100km run (downhill slightly) which came in around 12 secs. It's bloody depressing having corolla hatchbacks and golf tdi's blitzing you at the lights and on the motorway.

I've booked in for a dynojet on Saturday to get to the bottom of this. Has any other E39 530d owners out there had any similar experience on drastically decreased power? Has anybody REAL figures on tuning this model?

Thanks for the help.
D

SpannerMonkey

i have driven lots of Bmw's includeing the E39 530d and it is a damn quick car there is definately something wrong with yours , what year is yours and if you know what BHP , there are some common faults that you have to watch out for

SpannerMonkey

sorry didnt see that you had info in original post yours is prob the 184 bhp version with the M57 engine common problems are
1) problem with the wire mesh air mass sensor
2) Misfires of M57 caused by failed injectors.
3) Lack of power also caused by cracked inlet manifolds
4) swirl manifold cracked
5) very blocked air filter replace with a K&N panel Filter gets you more power, not induction kit just regular panel filter
6) blocked intercooler
7) not getting compression on all cylinders

Healyc

davy_b wrote: »

i have driven lots of Bmw's includeing the E39 530d and it is a damn quick car there is definately something wrong with yours , what year is yours and if you know what BHP , there are some common faults that you have to watch out for

+1

Something sounds wrong, i also have a 530d E39 and man its quick (had evos beforehand so not as if i never drove something fast )

Turbo could be shot, any loud whistling noise coming from engine or any lights on dash?

beams

Healyc wrote: »

+1

Something sounds wrong, i also have a 530d E39 and man its quick (had evos beforehand so not as if i never drove something fast )

Turbo could be shot, any loud whistling noise coming from engine or any lights on dash?

there's 110K miles on the clock and i had a new turbo put in at 106K with a complete service. The power before and after the new turbo is the same. The guy in the garage even commented on it "i thought these things were supposed to be quick".

Hopefully the dyno will confirm it on paper so i can get something done.

beams

davy_b wrote: »

sorry didnt see that you had info in original post yours is prob the 184 bhp version with the M57 engine common problems are
1) problem with the wire mesh air mass sensor
2) Misfires of M57 caused by failed injectors.
3) Lack of power also caused by cracked inlet manifolds
4) swirl manifold cracked
5) very blocked air filter replace with a K&N panel Filter gets you more power, not induction kit just regular panel filter
6) blocked intercooler
7) not getting compression on all cylinders

could it possibly be a gearbox issue? another frustrating thing is when trying to overtake. you flick over in the sports gearbox mode and floor the thing. the revs jump to over 4K (where there is no power) and sort of hangs there for what seems an eternity, then the gearbox jumps up a gear and the power surges on. Is there a sensor on these auto gearboxes that tells them when to change?

beams

I went to Couture Autos in Dunboyne yesterday for a run on the dyno which confirmed my suspicions. After several runs, the max outputs were;
HP 122.8 @ 6380 rpm
FtLb (torque) 185 @ 1400rpm

The first graph shows the torque significantly decreasing as the revs increase were as for a turbo diesel it should stay pretty constant while on turbo.

The second graph shows the turbo boost reading which is way lower than it should be. Considering its a brand new turbo, next stop, change the MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor and try again.

Has anybody else out there had MAF trouble???

Healyc

Unplug the MAF sensor and see if it drives any better. They are a known issue on the E39 diesels & petrols.

Here is where its located. No 1 on the link

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=DL82&mospid=47545&btnr=13_0652&hg=13&fg=20

beams

Grand, i'll give that a try first then.

Thanks.

Matt Simis

Healyc wrote: »

Unplug the MAF sensor and see if it drives any better. They are a known issue on the E39 diesels & petrols.

Unfortunately known in more than just BMWs, MAFs are notorious for this type of problem. It is possible to clean them for a temp fix with Alcohol, try that if the MAF disconnected test proves to be useful.

cyborg

beams wrote: »

I went to Couture Autos in Dunboyne yesterday for a run on the dyno which confirmed my suspicions. After several runs, the max outputs were;
HP 122.8 @ 6380 rpm
FtLb (torque) 185 @ 1400rpm

The first graph shows the torque significantly decreasing as the revs increase were as for a turbo diesel it should stay pretty constant while on turbo.

The second graph shows the turbo boost reading which is way lower than it should be. Considering its a brand new turbo, next stop, change the MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor and try again.

Has anybody else out there had MAF trouble???

Very strange looking graphs indeed. rev'd to 6380rpm? If that really happened you would still be picking up bits of the engine off the floor.
Get a new maf for sure,it's most likely the problem.

rebel.ranter

beams wrote: »

HP 122.8 @ 6380 rpm

:eek::eek::eek:66% power:eek::eek::eek:

Have you posted on any BMW specialist forums? Or get a diagnostics done on it, that will show the issue most likely. I would bet on the MAF or other electrical sensor. I recently replaced a camshaft sensor in my petrol e36 3 & the power was way down as a result of it being faulty. The sensor change brought it back to life.

Call into AC Car Sales in Dublin or other garage with diagnostics.

beams

cyborg wrote: »

Very strange looking graphs indeed. rev'd to 6380rpm? If that really happened you would still be picking up bits of the engine off the floor.
Get a new maf for sure,it's most likely the problem.

Unless I'm reading the graph wrong. The dyno machine was plugged into the cars onboard computer... maybe there was a conversion error... either way I see your point given the 6000rpm limit

beams

rebel.ranter wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek:66% power:eek::eek::eek:

Have you posted on any BMW specialist forums? Or get a diagnostics done on it, that will show the issue most likely. I would bet on the MAF or other electrical sensor. I recently replaced a camshaft sensor in my petrol e36 3 & the power was way down as a result of it being faulty. The sensor change brought it back to life.

Call into AC Car Sales in Dublin or other garage with diagnostics.

The guy also had the BMW diagnostic machine which he used. The only thing I couldn't explain on the logs was "6 Data connection to drive and running-gear control modules (CAN bus)". I've done some searching on the BM foums for this but came up blank. Can anyone translate this into plain english?

Chergar

Does the car ever exhibit any other symptoms such as rough idle or anything like that? It does sound like an MAF problem, however it should run fine when you start it up cold. like if you start it up in the morning, does it have any umph in it?

beams

it does have a bit more poke when it's cold but its not that noticeable.

Apart from the lack of power and odd gear changes when you try to give it some, there are no other symptoms. It's starts first time everytime, no idle problems, no warning lights, nothing. I'm going to try removing the MAF sensor on Wednesday and see how it runs.

Healyc

beams wrote: »

I'm going to try removing the MAF sensor on Wednesday and see how it runs.

Now just unplug the electrical sensor:D

beams

As a thread wrap-up!

I brought the car back to the guys I bought it off and who replaced the turbo 5K miles ago on Wednesday (Cameron Cars - I hope its ok to give these guys a plug - V. Helpful and Cheap). They hooked up the diagnostic computer and we went for a spin. The actual MAF reading was 525 and the specified reading was 990 when you floored the accelerator... problem confirmed.

The guys ordered a new sensor, popped it in this morning and holy sh*t... it's ridiculous... I never knew these things were so quick .

Anyway... I'm know a very happy BM owner. Thanks for the feedback lads.

Gumbo

beams wrote: »

As a thread wrap-up!

I brought the car back to the guys I bought it off and who replaced the turbo 5K miles ago on Wednesday (Cameron Cars - I hope its ok to give these guys a plug - V. Helpful and Cheap). They hooked up the diagnostic computer and we went for a spin. The actual MAF reading was 525 and the specified reading was 990 when you floored the accelerator... problem confirmed.

The guys ordered a new sensor, popped it in this morning and holy sh*t... it's ridiculous... I never knew these things were so quick .

Anyway... I'm know a very happy BM owner. Thanks for the feedback lads.

good stuff, fair play to camerons too.
now go get it remapped and get even more power!!

beams

kceire wrote: »

good stuff, fair play to camerons too.
now go get it remapped and get even more power!!

already on to chippedire for a quote

unkel

Thanks for getting back to us with the update!

imola94

beams wrote: »

already on to chippedire for a quote

:cool:any local BM dealer will have the programme numbers which are required when replacing the MAF on that car. If you think you have power now wait until you get that done

beam99

I had a problem with one of them around 6 years ago mine had 2 fuel pumps both mounted under the car around the tank one pump had stopped working, and as far as i can remem it was a diesel one as well.

Andrewf20

beams wrote: »

it does have a bit more poke when it's cold but its not that noticeable.

Ok, so this could be a classic symptom of your cat converter failing. My E36 started dying over a few weeks getting worse as the mileage ramped. It had about 100k / 10 years on the clock with she died. When the cat was cold, the loss in power wasnt as noticeable. Any rattling noises from the cat at all? Perhaps extras soot on the exhaust at the back?

Theres bits and pieces about this all over google.

Yep the 530d is a quick car, theres little in it compared to my 323i.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ut0pKfh5FA

ianfra

I've had a 2003 (193 bhp) 530d SE auto for over 3 years. It had 77k on when I got it at 30 months old from British Car Auctions (still had 6 month BMW warranty - so I knew I wouldn't have a problem).

It's now got 103k on but I mainly do short 5 - 7 mile runs, so only get about 30 mpg. Once a year I go on a 700 mile trip up north - mainly motorway but about 250 miles of B roads and get 45 - 47 on the whole trip.

I've found that switching it to manual - as opposed to leaving it in auto, gives about 2 mpg more. I agree with one correspondent that the sports mode seems to hang on to the gears a little too long and the best acceleration seems to be just floor it in auto. I actually wanted a manual, as they are about 5 mpg more economical but must admit I love the car anyway.

The original starter of this link was complaining about his poor 0 - 60 time. He was quoting 8.0 secs as the target but his auto is 8.4 - mind you his 12 secs was pretty bad - hope he's got it fixed now.

Other than 4 new tyres, in 3 and a half years, all I've spent is 2 services totalling £450 plus another £10 to get the screen washers cleared and am not expecting another service until around April 2010, so can't complain.

The only thing I wish it had, is a drop down rear seat, so I could get more than one set of golf clubs and trolleys in. My wif'e Mondeo has a far better boot, even without dropping the seats.

ashleydwsmith

hi,

i have a 99 530d, and i am experiencing a lack of power between 60 and 70 miles an hour, with quite a loud whistling noise coming from the turbo. also fuel consumption is mad at the moment.

Could it be the MAF sensor or is it more likely to be the turbo? if i remove the MAF sensor will it affect any running of the car?

Can anyone help?

Sorry to post on a reply but could not start a new thread.

cheers

Anan1

ashleydwsmith wrote: »

hi,

i have a 99 530d, and i am experiencing a lack of power between 60 and 70 miles an hour, with quite a loud whistling noise coming from the turbo. also fuel consumption is mad at the moment.

Could it be the MAF sensor or is it more likely to be the turbo? if i remove the MAF sensor will it affect any running of the car?

Can anyone help?

Sorry to post on a reply but could not start a new thread.

cheers

Hiya, the 'new thread' button is at the top left of the screen, hit that and you're away. Welcome to Motors:)