Mini ONE 1.4d: Bubbling from radiator bottle... is it the cylinder head?

 

So today we have a MINI ONE 1.4 diesel and guess what... it's overheating! Coolant is being lost somewhere and we find that it is bubbling out of the header-tank. My first guess in this situation is the head-gasket, but for a cheap fix (possibly, but better than going straight to ripping a friend's car apart) we tried a new radiator / header-tank cap, which was fitted yesterday and, although it has reduced the bubbling problem, there is still some coming out when the engine is warm, coolant lost and the temp. needle creeping up. 

This week the poor running has begun... occasional juddering, drop in revs and the odd misfire noise. Hmm... I have said to keep using it until the running becomes unmanageable (provided it's kept watered and is not overheating of course!) and am hoping for a weekend of better weather so I can have a proper look round it and, if need be, open it up. Watch this space.

EDIT: With not many tell tale signs of the head gasket being blown, someone has kindly suggested that the water pump is failing and not circulating coolant properly, so here's something else to look into. Yay!

UPDATE: F10 off road with DPF issues... E46 Touring joins the stable!

So, quite an eventful couple of months... first I rectified the hi-beam headlight issues on the F10, only for it to then fail the MOT on emissions due to a blocked DPF and new regulations. Work on my house meant that I had no time to sort it and needed a car, so ended up buying an E46 318i Touring for the princely sum of £400. It's got 102k miles, MOT until October and is purple... enough said.

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F10 DPF / Emissions woes...

New UK emissions rules [info here] for diesel cars are extremely choking [excuse the pun]. The law states that diesel cars made after 2008 must no longer adhere to a generic CO2 value, previously 3.0 m-1, but instead must produce emissions lower than the manufacturers plate value... in BMWs case this is 0.5 m-1. Therefore, to pass a UK MOT test on emissions the car must now produce 1/6th of what used to be considered acceptable! There is still a generic value to test to, only halved at 1.5 m-1 and easier to pass, but this only applies when there is no 'manufacturer plate-value' and sadly the F10 has one.
To make matters worse, any emission of black smoke from the exhaust pipe on a post-2008 vehicle fitted with a DPF is an instant fail!

My first emissions test produced just shy of 1.8 m-1. In past years this has been well within the acceptable limits, my Dad's 2004 Audi A4 diesel producing nearly 2.8 m-1 and passing for instance, but since April 2018 the limit is 0.5 and my 1.8 is well over. I ran a bottle of CataClean through and gave the car a good 20 mile run up and down the motorway, then returned to the test-station for another go. This time I rolled just under 1.5 m-1 of CO2, an improvement but still well above the permitted 0.5. Besides, it was pointed out to me that the car was emitting a puff or two of black smoke during the tests, so it didn't really matter and this only pointed to one thing... a blocked DPF.

After trying a re-gen through software, I realised that the DPF would need to come off the car to be cleaned out / replaced before this was going to happen. A new DPF from BMW is £1596 +VAT... so lets not even go there. Used or reconditioned DPFs.. hmm, I decided to give those a pass too, along with cheap spurious models that I've heard nothing but bad things about. No, instead I will have to clean out the heavily clogged one I have now, so watch this space as I will post results soon.

Yeah, a lot going on and you can see why I needed a cheap runaround!

BMW Tightening Torques [PDF]

Superb 136-page document from BMW showing the tightening torque for every different bolt / screw on your car. It covers generic torques for all BMWs, as well as model specific ones for petrol, diesel... even the V12.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1JGYWCqjPsqSTBWRGZYdFBLS3c

CONTENTS:

• General Instructions
• Engine
• Engine Electrical
• Fuel System
• Radiator
• Exhaust
• Clutch
• Transmissions and Drivetrain
• General Electrical
• Instruments
• Equipment Accessories

GENERAL TORQUES:

M4 8.8 - 2.9 Nm M4 10.9 - 4.1 Nm M4 12.9 - 4.9 Nm	M8x1 8.8 - 26 Nm M8x1 10.9 - 36 Nm M8x1 12.9 - 44 Nm	M14 8.8 - 130 Nm M14 10.9 - 180 Nm M14 12.9 - 220 Nm
M5 8.8 - 5.9 Nm M5 10.9 - 8.3 Nm M5 12.9 - 10.0 Nm	M10 8.8 - 47 Nm M10 10.9 - 66 Nm M10 12.9 - 79 Nm	M14x1.5 8.8 - 143 Nm M14x1.5 10.9 - 200 Nm M14x1.5 12.9 - 240 Nm
M6 8.8 - 9.9 Nm M6 10.9 - 14.0 Nm M6 12.9 - 16.5 Nm	M10x1 8.8 - 54 Nm M10x1 10.9 - 75 Nm M10x1 12.9 - 91 Nm	M16 8.8 - 200 Nm M16 10.9 - 280 Nm M16 12.9 - 340 Nm
M7 8.8 - 14.8 Nm M7 10.9 - 21.3 Nm M7 12.9 - 25.5 Nm	M12 8.8 - 82 Nm M12 10.9 - 115 Nm M12 12.9 - 140 Nm	M16x1.5 8.8 - 216 Nm M16x1.5 10.9 - 303 Nm M16x1.5 12.9 - 364 Nm
M8 8.8 - 24 Nm M8 10.9 - 34 Nm M8 12.9 - 40 Nm	M12x1.5 8.8 - 87 Nm M12x1.5 10.9 - 123 Nm M12x1.5 12.9 - 147 Nm	M18 8.8 - 280 Nm M18 10.9 - 390 Nm M18 12.9 - 470 Nm
		M18x1.5 8.8 - 313 Nm M18x1.5 10.9 - 440 Nm M18x1.5 12.9 - 527 Nm

Bought an F10 530d!!

Guess there's only so much one can do to the E60, so I splurged on a 12-plate F10. Loving it. Still got the E60 though for now...

Look at them kidney grilles.

Got the 17" 10-spokes, all with brand new run-flats. The ride is sublime, but may throw on the 18" 7-spokes from the E60, or may even go for 19' Ms... time will tell.

Love the super-bright rear lights and the tail-pipe. If that blasted DPF has one silver lining, it's them pipes.

E53 X5: 3.0D get on to DIS!

Had the keys to a nice 52-plate X5 belonging to an X-colleague, actually Ant brought it into work for us to diagnose and it is fly as heck with 22s from an X6.

It's been struggling to start, particularly when warm, so our first guess was a dodgy cam or crank sensor. An independent BMW garage had already said it was the starter-motor solenoid, but we couldn't see this being right as the starter is turning fine, the engine just doesn't fire for a while.

I plugged it into DIS and here is what came up:

120001 General malfunction at engine.
120002 No engine start possible.

A test-plan of 120001 showed up the two DDE error codes - 

09F6 Fuel rail-pressure monitoring, where the pressure was too low. This tends to come up when the engine isn't firing anyway and is unlikely the cause of it. There is a chance that rail-pressure is low enough to not start the engine, but no cutting out or lack of power issues are reported.

3505 Glow-plug system. This turned out to be related to the glow-plug circuit rather than the plugs themselves and was no present when tested, quite normal for a 99k M57.


A test-plan of 120002 did not mention the DDE issues and offered several explanations for the non-starting, these included -

Starter / Ignition Circuit - Fault not currently present. The starter is also turning fine.

Immobiliser fault in key - Not currently present and nothing found when DIS ran a test.

Gear-select Park switch - This only affects automatic boxes, which need to be started in P. It couldn't be this as the starter is turning and that would lurch the car forward anyway if it were in Drive. We ran a test anyway and it worked perfectly.


So we are none the wiser really. The only short-term suggestions are to try the spare key and see if that starts it quicker, though this is a long shot, and to hold the key in ignition position 2 for a while before trying to start the engine. If the latter works then it suggests a fuel-pump going dodgy, we will have to wait and see. I deleted the fault-codes so maybe Ant will being it back and get it on DIS again.

Other fault-codes that came up on DIS were:

EHC [Electronic Height Control] - 01 Ride-level sensor, left.
This is down to the whopping 22" wheels and tyres from a much newer X6 wreaking havoc with the complex suspension systems, so if your 5, 6, 7 or X Series has bigger wheels on then it will probably be throwing this up.

ZKE [Central body electronics] - 89 Central-locking drive, driver's door, open circuit.
This is an annoying one as it causes sudden loss of the driver's door controls, which come back t random. It also stops the door-lock activating from the button and makes the alarm go off when opened with the key. Hopefully it's a break in the wiring at the door-hinge and can be fixed easily, rather than something inside the dash.

SZM - 17 Undervoltage.
This refers to the Central switch center-module, which is working fine so who knows.

IHKA [Integrated automatic heating and air conditioning system] - 1E Auxiliary-water pump - Short circuit to positive.
This is  a pump on the cooling-system to aid the flow of hot water round the heater system. The BMW documentation describes its function as 'The ZWP enhances hot water flow (1 - outlet, 2 - inlet) and ensures the minimum flow rate, particularly when the engine is idling or off (residual heat function).'
The PDF of the BMW documentation covering the entire IHKA system is on BimmerFest here.