Gilbertd wrote:
Is that with a poorly V8 or have you got the BMW diesel motor in yet?
Still with the poorly V8. Haven't had the time to continue the M57 investigation yet - but it is still on the agenda.
Nearly needed it again this morning mind you - BMW was considering not starting with no glow plug controller and near zero temps.
I drove mine into work today after not being in it for a week or two. I had been driving it every day for months on and off over the last year or so, but I finally got my actual 'daily' sorted (again).
I love driving it around town... but christ is it slow when it comes to DCs or the motorway :)
I've been back in my BMW for a week or so as its been sat there costing me money... at the right time too!
BMW's heated seats are like having a small fire under your arse, unlike the P38s 'kind of warm by the time you get to your destination' attempt. Wonder if the L322 (sorry, X5..) also gained decent seat heaters from BMW.
A less likely but possible cause is erroneous coolant temp reading - check it is reasonable. If its showing something like 140+c, it will be adjusting the fuelling way off and won't start.
Somewhat anecdotal but it was the cause of my random no-start issue a few years back. The wiring on the sensor plug had been twisted, the insulation cracking caused intermittent shorting. Just something to check under the live data :)
We had put to replace the Hankook MF31 on the red one unfortunately not long back :( Though since replacement along with one of the prototype RF filters (okay so it was quite a while ago now) - it has been fine when left since. Still rocking the prototype filter too.
I think multiple discharges through lack of use and RF interference just took its toll.
Mine has been down to 3v prior to obtaining a 3rd gen receiver a couple of years back now, and bounced back just fine. Actually discharged a couple of times through other reasons (fridge...whoops) and it has recovered.
Wouldn't bother with anything else - either the MF31 or perhaps the dual use variety. For the price too... I mean, you can't really beat it.
Check the coolant temp is reporting to the engine ECU properly too. If the value is way off, it will mess up fuelling.
Yep, you can just go in and change the setting. It would likely run lean(er) if you don't I would think.
The gearbox controller has a map too, but in the case of the gems setup you have to change the controller. I went from a 4.6 to a 4.0 when I had my GEMS and didn't initially change the gearbox controller. When I did it made no noticeable difference so that may not be a big concern.
It is unlikely to be the fusebox under the bonnet as the headlights are fed from the BECM's outputs (which is, yes, fed from three maxi fuses in the engine bay fusebox).
So the headlights come on as you turn on the ignition, and go off again when the keys are removed? Does the dash and tell tale light up too?
Mirrors not adjusting is odd as the motors are driven by the door oustations, as are the front windows. So for one function to work and the other not is strange.
It may be requiring some TLC from Marty potentially.
Compressor fridges are the way to go :) Waeco/Dometic are basically the defacto name to go for here. ARB are popular in the states I think.
I have a Waeco CDF-45 and have on a couple of occasions accidentally turned cans of pepsi etc into slushies...
At this point, we're out of data to look at really.
Ideally I need an E39 or E46 diesel auto to capture some data from. Trying to power up the GS20 ECU on the bench didn't produce much useful information, and without an engine or gearbox connected up, both don't want to say much more.
So now its a case of working out when the engine can go in, and going from there.
Got some CAN bus hardware on the way though to look at building the interface, so when that turns up there should be some further updates.
Morat wrote:
During one of the bad winters, I was caught without a 4x4 and had to commute on reasonably hilly country roads (50% gritted) in my E30. Luckily I'd seen this coming and got some Michelin Alpin tyres. They were amazing! Ok, you had to really concentrate but it was completely possible to get a loaded little E30 up 15% hills and more importantly - to brake coming back down!
Would I rather have a 4x4? yes of course :) but it was fun....
Currently on my E60 530D I have Falkens all round... fitted err January I think.
They are the biggest load of shite I have ever put on a car. Utterly, utterly shite. And dangerous. Do not waste money on them if you have anymore more than 20 ponies at the wheels...
Dry? Okay - you can get the rear wheels spinning if you want to with ease.
Mildly moist? You'll need the traction control turned off if you want to pull out and not risk the TC going nope NOPE NOOOOPE half way out of the junction...
And then to top it off, I went round a roundabout in the wet - no issues as I had done many times. Went to speed up having left the roundabout... and all four tyres may as well have been bald. Launched car over a kerb and ended up on the verge. Ruined the side wall of one of the rears, another chunk of the (already ruined by PO) alloy missing, hopefully haven't cracked the wheel.
But it pulled away on the grass and back onto the road just bloody fine. Car has been dumped on my drive for nearly two months now while I get around to putting some Michelins on it and throwing away the 6 month old Falkens.
I hate Falkens about as much as I hate the rest of the car. I say it would 'sit firmly on the drive when it snows' but frankly they have so little grip you could probably push it off the drive... best thing for it.
Lighting shouldn't really be an issue for the alternator alone - I think the smallest was a 120amp unit, biggest being the 150amp on the Thor engined models.
I've modified my BECM so when I flash the head lights, the fog lights also come flash. They come on if full beam is selected too.
On top of that I have an electric fan that draws about 30amps running on low speed, and the electric condenser fans are now configured to run at high speed when the AC compressor is engaged - otherwise low speed all the time the AC is 'on'.
And at some point I'll be fitting my nudge bar with another pair of halogen spots.
But a fridge of any kind... if you want to leave it running with the vehicle not running itself - is best done from an auxiliary battery for sure. I used to leaev my compressor Waeco fridge running from the main battery and it would be okay for a day, maybe two at a push, when the battery was new. Engine would still start.
Now I don't need to worry about it and it'll probably go for longer on a battery being used just for that. If it does run flat, the worst that happens is the fridge stops working. A peltier or TEC type fridge will run for far less time on either setup though as they draw a constant 4-5amps instead of stopping/starting like a compressor fridge.
I think I have the general grabber ATs and have had them on for nearly three years now - rotated front to back once and still loads of tread. And no complaints about them really whatsoever.
Good in snow yes, but they're the only things I have experience of (in terms of ATs at least in snow, other car is a RWD BMW and sits firmly on the drive when it snows...) and could have fun with them if wanted :P
Marty will be along shortly with some details on his install I'm sure - he went with the TMax setup and has spent about 3 years trying to persuade me to do the same...
And admittedly I relented not long ago and put in a similar but more basic setup. With the tMax you can manually as well as automatically link the batteries - great if you need to give yourself a bit of a jump start (though why? The battery should not be going flat unless left a pretty long time unless you have a problem that needs fixing).
My setup is a standard voltage sensitive relay setup to charge my second battery, which is then used exclusively for powering other things like my fridge etc. I think I have a thread on here about it.
If MF2 or F40 have blown, the engine won't crank either, as they power the starter solenoid via a relay in the fusebox.
Ha - that's okay :) I'm mostly posting to have recorded somewhere what stage I'm up to, and if anyone else is interested along the way then that's great too.
Last night we did connect the M57 ECU up to the GS8.87.1 autobox ECU in my P38 with the fuses etc from the Thor engine ECU pulled out.
Mixed bag of results - immediately get a CAN bus fault of P1843 'CAN Level monitoring'. This is due to a software version check which is obviously wrong. So that will need to be convinced that all is hunky dory.
Throttle position and coolant however appeared on the nanocom, although the coolant value needs double checking. I had a resistance box connected to the ECU to emulate the actual sensor, and had a reading of about 21c on the nanocom. When I took the ECU back inside, the BMW diagnostics reckoned it was 44... I may have adjusted the resistance selection but I'm relatively sure I didn't.
Video of the throttle pedal doing its thing:
Bit blurry as it was dark but you get the idea. Promising.
Emailed Ashcroft about the adapter plate and that shouldn't take long to get once I order.
A bit more CAN investigation first though, and checking clearances of other bits and pieces.
Brake lamp switch failing sounds likely as it presumably also controls the shift solenoid?
We found my brake lamp switch had been pitted over time to the point one of the switches used for the ABS was not making contact properly, but the other was. So I had intermittent erroneous brake lamp faults pretty much always accompanied by ABS faults.
Still... I'd be doing away with the solenoid too! Easy to knock into gear? I mean, my cat can open doors... I'd like to see him shift from park!
It is supposedly a more modern design that should be more effective - but either way, it is working as well as it did before its predecessor suffered stone damage.
And we have the first bit of CAN data that is going to be an issue.
Road speed isn't spat back out by the engine ECU in the right place for the auto ECU. Which kind of makes sense - if the ABS ECU spits it onto the CAN bus, there is no need for the engine ECU to repeat it in a different place... the auto box ECU in the E39 just looked for it from somewhere else.
So the P38 is going to be looking at it from the engine ECU and what it is actually going to find is, oddly, cruise control data. If I were to hypothesise, Bosch took their standard (for the time) CAN layout and tweaked it to output the road speed from the analogue ABS input in place of the cruise data, as that is handled by an entirely separate system in a P38.
Which means we'll have to intercept all the CAN data between the ECUs and chop and change things on the fly.
The problem now is without a CAN data capture from an M57 automatic E39 or E46 (which I think both use GS20 gearbox ECUs), I don't have much more I can look into...
About the only thing I can try is plugging the M57 ECU into the P38's gearbox ECU over CAN and just seeing what errors or faults come up when turned on. Hopefully just road speed... which we know about.
The last one I bought was from here and this new design:
Bolt holes lined up perfectly!