[mgoldade]

Ok, I own a 2011 328i x-Drive sedan. Overall, the car is fantastic! I have had to replace the right front wheel bearing, which is apparently an issue with these cars.
Now, I need to troubleshoot 2 other problems. I'm hoping others in this forum may be able to provide their experience & knowledge...

1) On gradual acceleration, when I reach about 1900rpm, the engine stutters. If it keep it at that rpm, it keeps doing it. Once I pass 2000rpm, it's gone. It's not noticeable on hard acceleration. The car is not showing any engine warning lights when it happens either.

2) When the car is parked and I put it into reverse, the tach needle starts bouncing between 1000rpm and 2000rpm with my foot off both the brake and gas. You can hear the engine increase and decrease. You can feel the car lurching in reverse. It doesn't do this in drive.

I've worked on all my domestic cars for years, but haven't done any work on my 328 except brakes. These two issues have me totally confused.

Is anyone else experiencing these issues, or has experienced them in the past? Does anyone know what the cause of these would be?

Any help and assistance is greatly appreciated!

Mark

[Greyfox]

How many miles are on the car?

[mgoldade]

Approx 83000km (which I believe is 50000mi). I have kept up with regular maintenance and take really good care of my car.

[Greyfox]

You are going to need to get a computer or diagnostics reader plugged into it and see what codes are being reported.

[mgoldade]

Ok, I have an OBDII reader. I'll plug it in and see if any codes are pulled. I didn't think codes would show unless you were getting a warning light?

[seepete753]

Originally Posted by mgoldade

Ok, I have an OBDII reader. I'll plug it in and see if any codes are pulled. I didn't think codes would show unless you were getting a warning light?

There are shadow codes that appear when you use a diagnostic tool but do not show up on the dash.

Example: I had to replace my Low pressure fuel sensor recently because I read my codes with my Cobb tune but had no indicator on my dash.

[patents]

Originally Posted by mgoldade

Ok, I have an OBDII reader. I'll plug it in and see if any codes are pulled. I didn't think codes would show unless you were getting a warning light?

An OBDII reader won't tell you much. There are FAR more detailed and specific diagnostic codes the car can store, but the codes are specific to BMW and you need a code reader than can read the BMW codes. OBDII codes are common across all makes and only cover generic, general things.

For example: You may have a BMW code that will tell you that the cooling fan on your in-dash navigation unit is not operating. OBDII will not tell you that.

And it's true that not all codes will illuminate a warning light.

[mgoldade]

Yeah, no codes using OBDII

[BlindWolf187]

There are also non-OBD standard codes that only show up with readers programmed to read BMWs. You will need a specialized BMW code scanner. There are other units with that capability too (I think the Cobb accesport can do it, the Carly app can supposedly do it).

[Greyfox]

or buy a bmw obd cable and go to the Coding board and get hooked up with the software.

[mgoldade]

Ok, so I guess I'll have no choice but to take it to the dealer...
Has anyone else experienced these issues with their E90 though? If you have, what was the issue? What was the problem?

[Greyfox]

Originally Posted by mgoldade

Ok, so I guess I'll have no choice but to take it to the dealer...
Has anyone else experienced these issues with their E90 though? If you have, what was the issue? What was the problem?

I had an issue very infrequently where if I was in heavy stop and go traffic and decelerated to around 30 mph and then went to accelerate I would get a studder. Knock on wood, I changed my transmission and transfer case fluids and haven't seen the issue since. But that was around 160k miles with the transmission being changed once before. Probably will change the transmission a third time before fall.

[mgoldade]

Appt booked for Tuesday to have it fixed. I'll let you know what the issue was after it's back home. And not a minute too soon as my a/c just died too...
Thank god for warranty!

[mgoldade]

So, it is still in the shop, but they have contacted me to let me know the engine "shudder" is actually the left front axle slipping. They are ordering a new axle. The A/C leak is still giving them issues (can't pinpoint the location of the leak).
I find it odd that the axle would only cause a slip at certain rpm, so I'll update in this later...

[Greyfox]

Originally Posted by mgoldade

So, it is still in the shop, but they have contacted me to let me know the engine "shudder" is actually the left front axle slipping. They are ordering a new axle. The A/C leak is still giving them issues (can't pinpoint the location of the leak).
I find it odd that the axle would only cause a slip at certain rpm, so I'll update in this later...

Axle slipping? As in slipping on the splines?

[mgoldade]

Yeah, The splines on the inner left front CV Axle are shredded apparently. It caused a reverberation (shaking) between 1600-1900rpm. New CV Axle in. Now they are trying to find the damn A/C leak... fml...

[Volasko]

Originally Posted by mgoldade

Yeah, The splines on the inner left front CV Axle are shredded apparently. It caused a reverberation (shaking) between 1600-1900rpm. New CV Axle in. Now they are trying to find the damn A/C leak... fml...

Was the bearing you replaced the same side as the destroyed axle spline? Sounds like whomever did the work destroyed your spline trying to reinstall!

[mgoldade]

No, the bearing was right front.

[mgoldade]

Ok, vehicle is back, and repaired. Here is the breakdown.
The vibration on accel between 1600-1900rpm turned out to be due to the L/F CV Axle. The splines on the axle that go into the transmission were worn down. This caused a reverberation at this rpm. All the computer sensors in the car then tried to compensate and it felt like a transmission or injector issue. Since the CV Axle was replaced, the vibration is gone and no matter how hard I try, I cannot duplicate it.

[mgoldade]

So, I had my car parked since it was last in the shop as I'm military and was away. I came back and still dealing with the same issue of the brutal vibration / stutter between 1600-2000rpm on acceleration. Only now it's doing it on decel.
So it was not the CV Axle. Furthermore, the garage told me it could be the software upgrade. They wanted me to flash all the modules (trans, fwm, etc). I decided against that until I did more research, as the software upgrade is not covered under warranty.

I'm chatting with an older civilian NavCan employee the other day, and he has an M4 and an X5. I ask him if he's ever experienced the same issue and he tells me he has. He describes it to a T. I ask him what the cause was and he tells me it's the nylon worm gear in the transfer case.
I call up the garage and ask them about it and they immediately acknowledge not thinking of that, and say that is most likely the issue. Bring it in...
So, here we go, let's find out if this solves the problem...

[frenchi]

transfer case actuator in your car doesn't have a nylon gear...only metal ones
I got a similar problem with my car and after replacing a lot of parts i think that front differential is the problem.Car is booked for both front bearings and both front axles but i am almost sure that will not resolve my problem. Do you have some drone humming noise on highway speed ? Did you try to remove the power supply socket to the transfer case and test drive ?

[Pierce330]

Originally Posted by mgoldade

Ok, vehicle is back, and repaired. Here is the breakdown.
The vibration on accel between 1600-1900rpm turned out to be due to the L/F CV Axle. The splines on the axle that go into the transmission were worn down. This caused a reverberation at this rpm. All the computer sensors in the car then tried to compensate and it felt like a transmission or injector issue. Since the CV Axle was replaced, the vibration is gone and no matter how hard I try, I cannot duplicate it.

Strange, I have only heard about this occurring on the E53 X5. Are you the original owner of the car? Also, are there any quality indy shops in North Bay? With your mileage, you would be looking at water pump and thermostat shortly.