Hey, so I've been wanting a bimmer for a long time, and was finally able to purchase an Automatic 1999 323i E46 as of last month or so, it runs and drives, but poorly. I knew that when I bought this I was pretty much buying a project car, but that's fine, as I am young and wanting to learn a thing or two about mechanics/car maintenance anyhow, plus it was cheap..
Anyway, I was hoping that some of you more knowledgeable folks could shine some light and point me in a direction as to the cause of my cars problems. Please keep in mind I have little money and my knowledge of mechanics is miniscule. I've been searching things up for the past month and doing what work I'm capable of doing, and I plan on doing most of the work myself as I am quite handy if I got the tools and a video on how to do it. It's been tough trying to narrow down my problems through research as I keep seeing different answers for the same symptom, so I was hoping to describe the current issues/concerns and hopefully get some insight/feedback.. I've checked out the "Just bought your first E46" post, and it's a great thread and all, definitely things I plan on doing, but I'm hoping to prioritize my repairs/maintenance in order of what my car needs done the soonest and what I'm capable of doing on my own/cost. Anyway, here's the list and thanks for the help in advance! I appreciate it.
Oh and keep in mind, I did take the car to a family friend who specializes in BMW repair for a quick-over and a test drive for him to give me some basic feedback on the condition of the car, he thinks the car is sturdy other than the problems it currently has, and that it just appears to have been neglected in maintenance. Also, so far, I've changed the valve cover gasket and changed the oil.
1. Transmission, Limp Mode: The car goes into limp mode on second gear, not all the time, but sometimes the gear will kind of drag on and then thump into the next gear and it'll hit limp mode and stay in 3rd gear, making taking off a complete pain in the ass, and I'll get that 'gear' looking symbol next to the "D" on the little screen that displays which driving mode I am in and then the transmission light will go on sometimes, where as sometimes it'll just slide into the next gear semi-smoothly and work correctly, ALSO, if I take my foot off the gas as it's about to hit second gear and then re-press it (as if I were to take my foot off to hit the clutch in a manual) it'll keep the car from going in to limp mode. The mechanic I took it to thought it could've been the ABS sensors because those were the codes that were coming up and he's seen that be the cause of transmission issues, so I cleaned the ABS sensors which were filthy and had the codes reset, the codes didn't come back up but unfortunately the car still hits limp mode on second. Now he thinks it could be a "gear sensor" in the transmission, or possibly some kind of $50 chip (I don't believe the TCM but a shift control manager or something like that) which could be confusing the transmission as to which gear it is in. He thinks if it's not those two, then the tranny is probably going toast, then again he doesn't mess with transmissions too much. His code reader which I believe is a Solus is spitting out the code "52, Gear Monitoring 2" which I tried doing some research on but couldn't seem to find anything on it. Has anyone else experienced this and got it fixed without paying an arm and a leg? This is currently my main concern, but not really my main priority considering the mechanic that would do the work is busy and there are things I can do myself, but I'd still very much like to know the cause of this asap so I can either leave the car in the garage and not drive it knowing that it'd cause further damage to the tranny, or drive it knowing that the tranny is just confused and not doing any further damage, in worry of the first scenario, I've been doing very little driving of it, really only to break in the valve cover gasket and get the new oil flowing through the system.
2. Suspension: The car is all over the place, when I'm driving on a smooth straight road it seems fine for the most part, but the second I hit a bump in the road, the car goes side to side almost uncontrollably and seems very loose. Also, if I push down on one of the front ends of my car and let go, the front end just bounces up and down, which I don't think it's supposed to do haha. I forgot what the mechanic said could be causing this. I believe he said Struts or control arms(maybe both?) not too sure, I guess struts would make sense considering its the springiness of the front end that seems like it has way too much play and the control arms because it seems to lack in control when hitting an uneven surface such as train-tracks. Also, if I switch my car into reverse, it makes a loud thump and shakes the car just a bit, I believe the mechanic said that could be due to the rear control arm bearings? This is probably my top priority because it's something I can do myself for the most part, also if anyone knows what these problems specifically may be, could you also possibly point me to a cheap replacement part that also will still get the job done effectively? if that's even possible haha.
3. Oil Light: So I just changed my oil yesterday and yet my car is still showing the change oil light, it'll come on like 30 seconds after turning my car on and then shut off after being displayed for a minute or less. I figure this has something to do with some kind of sensor? I'm not sure. It doesn't seem too important, but it kind of worries me of a leak or something of that sort considering I just did the valve cover gasket.
4. Exhaust: Keep in mind, I have a bad downstream O2 sensor (which I plan on replacing soon) could the following issues be due to that? Anyway, so I turned my car on the other day and stepped out behind it, I noticed A LOT of exhaust coming out, I mean I guess I'm not sure exactly how much is supposed to come out in the first place, but it just seemed excessive, I went to smell it and it smelt a bit sweet I think, I'm not too sure. It didn't seem much like smoke but more like steam, it's hard to say though. It was also 28 degrees outside, and we had a very heavy and windy rain just a few days ago prior to starting my car up, so I figured maybe it was just a one time thing, but today it seemed a bit heavier too, it wasn't as heavy as the first time I noticed it but still pretty excessive, it also seemed like I was leaving the cars behind me in a small pool of exhaust when taking off from a stop sign. Also, the first time I noticed the excessive exhaust, my coolant light came on moments later, I checked it, it was empty, and I refilled it with anti-freze, the coolant light went off afterwards, but could that have tied in with the excessive 'billowing' exhaust? Like it just burned up all the coolant out the exhaust and that was the billowing exhaust that I experienced? and would explain the coolant being empty moments after that (but then again I'm not sure if the coolant was actually full or not in the first place) also upon refilling the coolant reservoir, I noticed a lot of white looking sludge inside of it (Which I noticed upon purchase and notified my mechanic but he brushed it off like it wasn't important, but a second opinion would be nice) It doesn't seem like there is oil in it, as the sludge does have what appears to be a very light tint of yellow, but it is majority white.
5. Flickering Lights/Electronics: So my rear brake/night time lights do this little flicker thing every couple of seconds or so, it's hardly noticeable, but it's there. Even the license plate lights flicker a little bit, also, the rear windshield "third eye" brake light doesn't work. I figured this is all due to the previous owners who put aftermarket lights on the car (including halo angel eyes in the front that have loose wires hanging out of them because they didn't realize they had to run a relay from the rear until after putting them in) and probably did all the wiring for the aftermarket rear lights themselves, I think the rear third eye may just have bad a bulb or something, they are LED and kinda look aftermarket too though, I'm not too sure. Also, the fuel gauge doesn't work, the electrical one seems to show how many miles I have left correctly (although it jumps around 1 or 2 miles I figured that was because of the gas moving around in the tank) but the gauge is stuck at full.
6. Water Leak: I realize this would probably be difficult to pinpoint through the web, but I figure I may as well bring it up in case it may tie in with something else, but I noticed the floor (carpet) in the car was wet a week or two back, there doesn't appear to be a specific location the water is coming from, but it's odd because the rear right passenger side floor is the wettest, the left rear is slightly wet, the front right is the third wettest, and I'm not sure about the drivers side considering I'm always getting in with wet-ish shoes. This doesn't really concern me too much other than the fact that there appears to be some mold on a few of the wet spots, but it'd still be nice to get an idea of the cause and if it may tie in with anything else. Also, I live in Oregon, so the heavy rain and high winds tend to put water in places I never thought would be possible, so I'm sure that may play a factor in it as well considering I had it stored outside until I noticed the leak.
I think that about sums it up, I'll update if I find anything out/get something fixed or if a new problem arises(Hopefully not). I realize this may be a lot to read and ask for in help, and sorry about that. Any help/insight/feedback would be very much appreciated, no matter how much insight you have to offer, and if you have any further questions, please do ask. Thank you!
Anyway, I was hoping that some of you more knowledgeable folks could shine some light and point me in a direction as to the cause of my cars problems. Please keep in mind I have little money and my knowledge of mechanics is miniscule. I've been searching things up for the past month and doing what work I'm capable of doing, and I plan on doing most of the work myself as I am quite handy if I got the tools and a video on how to do it. It's been tough trying to narrow down my problems through research as I keep seeing different answers for the same symptom, so I was hoping to describe the current issues/concerns and hopefully get some insight/feedback.. I've checked out the "Just bought your first E46" post, and it's a great thread and all, definitely things I plan on doing, but I'm hoping to prioritize my repairs/maintenance in order of what my car needs done the soonest and what I'm capable of doing on my own/cost. Anyway, here's the list and thanks for the help in advance! I appreciate it.
Oh and keep in mind, I did take the car to a family friend who specializes in BMW repair for a quick-over and a test drive for him to give me some basic feedback on the condition of the car, he thinks the car is sturdy other than the problems it currently has, and that it just appears to have been neglected in maintenance. Also, so far, I've changed the valve cover gasket and changed the oil.
1. Transmission, Limp Mode: The car goes into limp mode on second gear, not all the time, but sometimes the gear will kind of drag on and then thump into the next gear and it'll hit limp mode and stay in 3rd gear, making taking off a complete pain in the ass, and I'll get that 'gear' looking symbol next to the "D" on the little screen that displays which driving mode I am in and then the transmission light will go on sometimes, where as sometimes it'll just slide into the next gear semi-smoothly and work correctly, ALSO, if I take my foot off the gas as it's about to hit second gear and then re-press it (as if I were to take my foot off to hit the clutch in a manual) it'll keep the car from going in to limp mode. The mechanic I took it to thought it could've been the ABS sensors because those were the codes that were coming up and he's seen that be the cause of transmission issues, so I cleaned the ABS sensors which were filthy and had the codes reset, the codes didn't come back up but unfortunately the car still hits limp mode on second. Now he thinks it could be a "gear sensor" in the transmission, or possibly some kind of $50 chip (I don't believe the TCM but a shift control manager or something like that) which could be confusing the transmission as to which gear it is in. He thinks if it's not those two, then the tranny is probably going toast, then again he doesn't mess with transmissions too much. His code reader which I believe is a Solus is spitting out the code "52, Gear Monitoring 2" which I tried doing some research on but couldn't seem to find anything on it. Has anyone else experienced this and got it fixed without paying an arm and a leg? This is currently my main concern, but not really my main priority considering the mechanic that would do the work is busy and there are things I can do myself, but I'd still very much like to know the cause of this asap so I can either leave the car in the garage and not drive it knowing that it'd cause further damage to the tranny, or drive it knowing that the tranny is just confused and not doing any further damage, in worry of the first scenario, I've been doing very little driving of it, really only to break in the valve cover gasket and get the new oil flowing through the system.
2. Suspension: The car is all over the place, when I'm driving on a smooth straight road it seems fine for the most part, but the second I hit a bump in the road, the car goes side to side almost uncontrollably and seems very loose. Also, if I push down on one of the front ends of my car and let go, the front end just bounces up and down, which I don't think it's supposed to do haha. I forgot what the mechanic said could be causing this. I believe he said Struts or control arms(maybe both?) not too sure, I guess struts would make sense considering its the springiness of the front end that seems like it has way too much play and the control arms because it seems to lack in control when hitting an uneven surface such as train-tracks. Also, if I switch my car into reverse, it makes a loud thump and shakes the car just a bit, I believe the mechanic said that could be due to the rear control arm bearings? This is probably my top priority because it's something I can do myself for the most part, also if anyone knows what these problems specifically may be, could you also possibly point me to a cheap replacement part that also will still get the job done effectively? if that's even possible haha.
3. Oil Light: So I just changed my oil yesterday and yet my car is still showing the change oil light, it'll come on like 30 seconds after turning my car on and then shut off after being displayed for a minute or less. I figure this has something to do with some kind of sensor? I'm not sure. It doesn't seem too important, but it kind of worries me of a leak or something of that sort considering I just did the valve cover gasket.
4. Exhaust: Keep in mind, I have a bad downstream O2 sensor (which I plan on replacing soon) could the following issues be due to that? Anyway, so I turned my car on the other day and stepped out behind it, I noticed A LOT of exhaust coming out, I mean I guess I'm not sure exactly how much is supposed to come out in the first place, but it just seemed excessive, I went to smell it and it smelt a bit sweet I think, I'm not too sure. It didn't seem much like smoke but more like steam, it's hard to say though. It was also 28 degrees outside, and we had a very heavy and windy rain just a few days ago prior to starting my car up, so I figured maybe it was just a one time thing, but today it seemed a bit heavier too, it wasn't as heavy as the first time I noticed it but still pretty excessive, it also seemed like I was leaving the cars behind me in a small pool of exhaust when taking off from a stop sign. Also, the first time I noticed the excessive exhaust, my coolant light came on moments later, I checked it, it was empty, and I refilled it with anti-freze, the coolant light went off afterwards, but could that have tied in with the excessive 'billowing' exhaust? Like it just burned up all the coolant out the exhaust and that was the billowing exhaust that I experienced? and would explain the coolant being empty moments after that (but then again I'm not sure if the coolant was actually full or not in the first place) also upon refilling the coolant reservoir, I noticed a lot of white looking sludge inside of it (Which I noticed upon purchase and notified my mechanic but he brushed it off like it wasn't important, but a second opinion would be nice) It doesn't seem like there is oil in it, as the sludge does have what appears to be a very light tint of yellow, but it is majority white.
5. Flickering Lights/Electronics: So my rear brake/night time lights do this little flicker thing every couple of seconds or so, it's hardly noticeable, but it's there. Even the license plate lights flicker a little bit, also, the rear windshield "third eye" brake light doesn't work. I figured this is all due to the previous owners who put aftermarket lights on the car (including halo angel eyes in the front that have loose wires hanging out of them because they didn't realize they had to run a relay from the rear until after putting them in) and probably did all the wiring for the aftermarket rear lights themselves, I think the rear third eye may just have bad a bulb or something, they are LED and kinda look aftermarket too though, I'm not too sure. Also, the fuel gauge doesn't work, the electrical one seems to show how many miles I have left correctly (although it jumps around 1 or 2 miles I figured that was because of the gas moving around in the tank) but the gauge is stuck at full.
6. Water Leak: I realize this would probably be difficult to pinpoint through the web, but I figure I may as well bring it up in case it may tie in with something else, but I noticed the floor (carpet) in the car was wet a week or two back, there doesn't appear to be a specific location the water is coming from, but it's odd because the rear right passenger side floor is the wettest, the left rear is slightly wet, the front right is the third wettest, and I'm not sure about the drivers side considering I'm always getting in with wet-ish shoes. This doesn't really concern me too much other than the fact that there appears to be some mold on a few of the wet spots, but it'd still be nice to get an idea of the cause and if it may tie in with anything else. Also, I live in Oregon, so the heavy rain and high winds tend to put water in places I never thought would be possible, so I'm sure that may play a factor in it as well considering I had it stored outside until I noticed the leak.
I think that about sums it up, I'll update if I find anything out/get something fixed or if a new problem arises(Hopefully not). I realize this may be a lot to read and ask for in help, and sorry about that. Any help/insight/feedback would be very much appreciated, no matter how much insight you have to offer, and if you have any further questions, please do ask. Thank you!
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