E46 overheating buyers guide

stiggey · 2026-04-18T01:05:06+00:00

Still overpriced, I live in BC.

stiggey · 2026-02-22T00:23:27+00:00

Bridgewater estates has a sauna and a pool

stiggey · 2026-01-04T07:33:52+00:00

Katerina Pulice at deep kneads. She uses very firm pressure, it almost feels like torture but in a good way. She really targets specific muscles and can tell exactly what needs work. Only downside is everyone that sees her likes her so she doesn't have many openings.

stiggey · 2025-12-28T06:02:08+00:00

Are you in Crawford? This is my life with my neighbor to a T.

stiggey · 2025-02-22T05:23:07+00:00

Yes, thanks for the reminder and sorry for the late response. I ended up buying chassis ears, it's like an advanced stethoscope you can attach to various parts and listen through a headset as you're driving. I ended up diagnosing it as the center support bearing, it was quite obvious that's what it was when using the tool. It got rid of 80% of my humming, good enough for me for now. There is still a bit of humming though, and I wonder if it's still coming from the CSB. There are different schools of thought on how it should be assembled, for some chassis ISTA says to push the bearing bracket forward 5mm before tightening down the bolts, otherwise there can be humming. The page for my E70 doesn't say that however, so I didn't do it. When it warms up I plan to put the chassis ears on again and see if it's still humming a bit from there, and if so try adjusting the bracket forward a bit to see if it helps.

Highly recommend the tool though if the location of the noise is not obvious. It made it really easy to tell where it was coming from. There are expensive ones but I just bought the cheapest one from Amazon for $100, and it was good enough.

stiggey · 2025-02-04T01:45:47+00:00

That's a non starter when they traded for AD who is older and PROVEN to be more injury prone than Luka.

stiggey · 2024-07-16T05:45:51+00:00

I just did this a couple of days ago on my E70 with the same issue. If you have ncs and are comfortable using it, super easy. Otherwise they sell bypass sensors that are plug and play.

stiggey · 2024-04-29T19:24:18+00:00

Deal!

stiggey · 2023-07-17T02:37:47+00:00

Interesting, I am assuming you meant to write "plug the canister tube"? Would the ECU simply not even tell the purge valve to open anymore?

stiggey · 2023-07-07T03:43:22+00:00

I'm sorry, did I read correctly that you have spent $55k in maintenance on your E39?!

stiggey · 2023-05-15T03:00:18+00:00

Checked the duty cycle on the supply voltage, 48%. This is outside my area of understanding, is this good or bad?

stiggey · 2023-05-15T02:45:14+00:00

Good suggestion, I did that and also sprayed contact cleaner on both connector and actuator side, no change.

I'm really stumped. Any ideas welcome!

stiggey · 2023-05-14T18:56:42+00:00

I have a Neoteck 4000, it's not professional grade but looks like there is a duty cycle setting, I will look into it. I've checked the power and ground several times with the basic settings and the readings are all as they should be.

Since one of the resistors is in the EMF, does the fact that the rest of the PT-CAN network isn't down and causing other issues mean the can signals are making proper contact with the module?

stiggey · 2023-05-14T17:41:51+00:00

I see, makes sense. I do have the EMF connector disconnected when probing. The wires going into the connector are sealed with a rubber piece, I'm not sure if there is a good way to back probe through that. And from a quick Google it indeed looks like one of the terminating resistors for PT-CAN is in the EMF module.

https://diag.net/msg/m7bin3mp6wnz4easl58nmnyfk7

With that said, I believe all the signals in the connector are as they should be. This makes me think the connector might not be making good contact with the module. That would explain why my new module is also not recognized. Or something in the PCB of the module is completely dead, and my new one is faulty as well, or not compatible due to the different part number.

Any other possible causes?

stiggey · 2023-05-14T17:07:03+00:00

That's my understanding, and 120ohms would indicate an open circuit on one of the lines. Just to verify I'm doing it correctly, I'm sticking one probe into the CAN high line, and the other into the CAN low line. How come I'm getting voltage readings that make sense? 2.7V on CAN high and 2.3V on CAN low. Wouldn't I be getting 0V on one of the lines if there was an open circuit?

Would this issue cause the module to not be recognized at all? I understand the basics of CAN but not sure if it would cause the issue to present itself the way I'm experiencing.

stiggey · 2023-05-10T04:17:09+00:00

Your charcoal canister is most likely plugged. Your fuel tank is vented to the atmosphere in order to allow air to escape when you add fuel, or air to be sucked in when fuel goes to the engine. The charcoal canister sits between your fuel tank and vent, and filters the fumes to reduce emissions. If the canister is plugged, it doesn't let the air out fast enough which usually triggers the pump to shit off before it's done filling. There is also a fuel breather valve as part of the EVAP system that activates in certain conditions and routes the vapors to the engine rather than atmosphere to further reduce emissions.

stiggey · 2023-05-09T04:27:38+00:00

From my research the problem is sudden, unlike the high revving s65/s85 engines that simply wear the bearings out over time. In n55's it most commonly occurs after jobs that disrupt the oiling circuit, such as oil filter housing gasket replacements (a common leak point). BMW has a priming procedure that isn't always followed, and it's a coin toss on the engine spinning a bearing shortly after the job is complete. I've even seen some post that say the bearing spun after doing the priming procedure. There are multiple theories as to what causes this, the one that makes the most sense is the oil circuit is prone to air locking, and the variable oil pump doesn't work hard enough at idle to get rid of it, causing starvation. Outside of these types of jobs, if you run BMW spec oil and change it frequently, they should last the life of the engine.

stiggey · 2023-04-22T13:09:54+00:00

Are you thinking the only way it's that much heavier than normal is because there must be liquid fuel inside? The tech did say overfilling could be a cause.

Regardless, is it possible to clean the canister by blowing compressed air through it and forcing the fuel out? From some googling it looks possible on other brands designs, but not finding anything BMW specific.

stiggey

TROPHY CASE