I tried starting it again and the engine refused to run?

Hi,

If you get one from a salvage yard, make sure the part number is the same.

Let me know how things work out for you.

Take care,

Joe

I was able to remove the top circuit board after I looked online as to how to do it. Pictures are attached and one can see that there doesn't seem to be anything that one can point to and say that that is the culprit.

Hi,

I went through each pic and zoomed in. I see nothing either. Is this the original one or the one from the salvage yard? Also, does the one from the salvage yard have the exact same part number?

Joe

The one I am talking about is the one I purchased from Europe to replace my original broken (flooded) DME that came with the car from new. It's the one that 'has been' working until I did the test and found that spark plug not firing (with your help). I have just checked with the original and all the part numbers for the 'new' one matches the numbers with the original one that came with the car (apart from the VIN number).

Out of curiosity I opened up my original unit that got soaked back in 2017(?). It is very easy to see the damage. See pictures. I am wondering if I can just swap out the flash chip (the long one with a white label on it) from the old one and put it into the 'new(er)' one and see if that would work. Would it?

Hi,

Anything is possible. I wonder, however, if it was damaged in some way by the water issue.

Let me know.

Joe

It doesn't look like any water touched it. Mind you, there must have been a mini lake in that compartment as there is white stuff (water marks) on the inner walls of the casing, front and back, nearly to the top!! I might try it just for the hell of it! In the meantime I have found someone who will diagnose the 'newer' one for me for a low fee (CDN$60) and then fix it (CDN$180), if there is nothing else wrong with it (apart from the spark coil issue).

Hi Joe,

An update: I found someone in Toronto, who seems to work around the clock. He just gave me a call, at12:30am!!!, to let me know about the issues with both the original unit (that came with the car) and the second-hand unit I purchased that is giving me issues with 'cylinder 4' (I sent him both DME units in case he could use the EPROM chip from my original DME). My original unit is beyond repairable, as the bottom circuit board is totally fried, but the EPROM chip looks like it's fine. He will be putting that one into the second-hand unit.

The second-hand unit needs just 2 resistors replaced for new ones as these two were broken/not working. Everything else seems to be ok on it. He should have them ready by the morning and they will be sent back to me after I pay for them. I will let you know how much the cost is as many of your readers from Canada might like to use this chap as he seems very, very good.

The unit is being shipped back today to me. It cost CDN$180 including taxes (13%) and shipping! I've saved around CDN$100 by finding someone local to me as companies in the US charge around US$218 plus shipping.

Very quick turnaround and the guy provided me with pictures of the package that he is shipping back. It is being sent as a tracked package. I am very impressed with him so far. I will test cylinder #4 again when I get it back and let you know if everything works.

Well, today was an interesting day. I installed the returned DME and proceeded to test the wires at the plug and forgot that it was meant to be Green/Black. I tested Green/Brown!! Haha. I went through all the plugs thinking that everything was worse than before. So, I came back here and reread the thread as to which wires, I should be using for the plug test. Green/Black was what I should be testing so I went and did that, and all cylinders are pulsing!! I even have the original EPROM chip installed in the unit that was purchased to replace the original DME unit and that works too. So, I now have a working DME unit with an original chip in it and a spare chip that also works! Yay! Tomorrow I will be putting everything back and starting the car to see that everything is working properly. After that, if there is still blue smoke coming out the back, the head is the next thing to remove and check to see what has happened to the head and cylinders.

As to what was wrong with the secondhand unit from Europe, some MOSFETs were cracked (the items on the both sides of the bottom DME circuit board that are under some sort of enclosures) and two resistors were burnt (or the other way around) so those were replaced.

Hi,

That is good news. Let me know if it runs properly when it's back together. I'm interested in knowing.

Joe

Will do!

Today, I put everything back and started the engine. It fired up without any problems. It doesn't sound very good though and there is white smoke coming out of the tailpipe not blue. I have attached a video of the smoke, but I am not able to post the mp3 file of the audio for the engine. Could you change the settings to allow that? I have combined the video (which I made silent) with the audio. The first part is the visual tailpipe emission and is 11 seconds long. The audio starts after that (black screen) and lasts for 1m 33 seconds.

There is an issue with this forum software. The video was uploaded and then deleted and a new one uploaded but this time it shows three videos. The first one doesn't work properly and the other two do and are duplicates of each other.

Hi,

The smoke I'm seeing seems like steam burning off from inside the exhaust. Did it stop after a minute or so?

Next, it sounds like the PS fluid is low. LOL

The engine is making a lot of noise. Is the oil full and clean? It sounds like top-end noise. Did it sound the same the last time it was running?

Let me know.

Joe

Hi Joe,

The smoke was much worse when it was initially started. It seemed to lessen as time went on, but I didn't run it for that long as the noise was worrying.

Power steering fluid low? I have not checked that or the oil. I will do so in the morning. How would low power steering fluid make it noisy? It seems noisier than the last time it started. There is an audio I posted in the original thread (before it got deleted and then recovered) where I make a recording of the engine two days after I thought it had seized. I went and found that the audio is there on the first page of this thread as the first post with an attachment, but I have posted it again after finding it on my computer. It sounds much less noisy without the rattling that one can hear in the new audio above.

I checked just now on my oil and brake fluid level (that also powers the power steering) and the engine oil was nearly touching the lower mark on the dipstick. So, I have topped it up and am now charging my battery as that went down to 7.4 volts in the last day or so (I spent a lot of time cranking the engine when doing the coil plug tests and the car has an immobilizer and I had forgotten to unhook the battery after the last batch of testing). When it is recharged, I will turn the engine on again and see what sort of noise it is making.

The brake fluid was still clear.

After adding oil to the engine and re-charging the battery I started it up this afternoon and the rattling was still very loud for a few seconds and then diminshed. It still has a top end rattle but no where near as bad as it was. There is very little smoke, if any, coming out of the tail pipe and has the normal car engine smell about it. The engine seems to have fixed itself!!

It may have been low enough on oil to cause the noise. But it would have needed to be very low. Is it running good again with just a little top-end noise?

Let me know.

Joe

I forgot to add the new audio that I took after topping up the engine oil and starting it again. I have attached it to this post. It's actually a video but it's very dark. I just did it for the sound in the evening. There is a point where I place the camera closer to the engine (which is when the volume increases slightly) so that one can hear more clearly the rattling of the valve train (47 second mark).

So, to answer your question, yes it seems to be running fine apart from a little more top-end noise than when I last had it running properly.

Note: I forgot to put an SD card into my camera when starting up the car for the first time after putting the oil in. So, I don't have a recording of how the noise went down after a few seconds, but it was very noticeable. The rattling was very bad and after 4-5 seconds went right down. I'll check the oil level again and top it up if needed in the morning and do another test.

That sounds a lot better. Let me know your findings in the morning.

Take care,

Joe

I checked the oil this morning and it was still as topped up as it was yesterday, and I couldn't put any more in. Sounds the same as yesterday. Just wondering what could be causing the slightly louder noise than the last time it was running properly (2 years ago). At least it is not spewing blue smoke like it was when I left it. Apart from the slightly elevated rattling it seems to be running fine!

As far as the noise, it could be a partially collapsed lifter, an adjustment issue, or just wear.

Let me know.

Joe

So, getting the valve cover off and looking inside is the next thing to do. How do I change the tensioner for the timing chain? I think that may need to be changed.

Hi,

That may be a difficult one for me to answer because the engine size is different than what is offered here.

I would be happy to provide that info (for the 325) but I have a favor to ask. Is it possible for you to start a new post? We try to keep the posts specific to one topic, so it is more helpful to others. Just ask for directions on the tensioner based on the 325.

Here is the link to start a new post:.

https://www.2carpros.com/questions/new

I truly hope you understand.

Let me know.

Joe

Yes, sure. No problem.

An interesting development today.

I went out for a short drive and for the first few minutes (less than a mile) blue smoke came out of the tailpipe but lessened the more I drove. Went to a shop and parked the car. On the way back home (about a mile, maybe a little more) there was no blue or white smoke - just the regular exhaust emissions and smells (no where near as bad as it was when this issue first appeared).

When I parked the car in the garage I left the erngine running and popped the hood to listen to the engine. Lo and behold, it was running as quietly as before this problem happened! See video attached which has sound.

So, do I go ahead and take the valve cover off and then the head, or do I leave it as is and just change the oil out?

Hi,

It does sound good. And this happened all by itself? LOL If it was mine, I would change the oil and keep driving it to confirm it doesn't come back. At this point, with it running this good, I'm not sure if you will find anything.

Let me know.

Joe

Hi Joe,

Yes, this happened all by itself! I will change the oil out and change the oil filter.

Sounds like a plan. If anything changes, let me know and we'll continue where we left off. LOL

You take care of yourself and feel free to come back anytime in the future.

Joe

Hi Joe,

Yesterday I changed the oil, which was an adventure as I did it myself, and the oil came out black. I used oil thinner designed for pre-oil changes. An oddity cropped up. When the oil came out and was decanted into 4L plastic jugs (the 4L distilled/spring water bottles that you can get at Walmart) it filled 2 and 1/3 bottles which works out to around 9.5-10 liters. The oil capacity in my Bentley manual states 6.5L!!! What's up with that?

Anyway, I put in new oil and drove to various errands putting about 20-30 miles on the engine. Everything now purrs just like it used to! I am absolutely amazed and stumped as I have the videos to prove how bad it was (though I have none with blue smoke billowing out the back).

Also, I am getting the fuel gauge meter, which tells you how many gallons (here it's in Liters/100km) per 100 miles one is getting, down to the 4-5 liters per 100km range, which is way more than it's rated at. This is thanks to getting the DME fixed.

The chassis of the car at the engine end (fenders, hood) no longer gets hot like it did just before the engine locked up. It's barely warm to the touch after finishing the day's errands.

Overall, an amazing fix!

Thanks for helping me through this. Your encouragement contributed to getting this car fixed.

Nice work, we are here to help, please use 2CarPros anytime.

One of the steps that we discussed to do was to change the valve cover gasket. I did this today and boy was it clean inside where the cam was. Here are three images to show you. The old gasket was pretty hard and stiff. I also changed the gasket material where the spark plugs go. The clean lines is probably due to me using Auto-RX, a fluid patented by an American and designed to clean the varnish off of the metal within the engine.

Hi,

Wow! Everything looks new. I never heard of the product that you mentioned. I am going to look for it.

Joe

Here is the website: https://auto-rx.com/
I purchased two bottles. When you read up on it, you'll see why. Brilliant product - but stick to their instructions!