shutdown in the middle of a ride

[azman818]

what symptom is this?while in the middle of a smooth ride the engine shutdownall lights on the instrument cluster comes on, doors unlocked,no brakes, no power steeringpull over to the side, turn off key, and start again no problembut after 5-10 mins. problem may reappearsometimes engine does not shutdown but all lights come onfor like 20-30 secs. and then normal againcalling all e36 328 sifus.

 

[acs]

my friend got same prob last week...it was the alternator...kaput already....dunno bout you

 

[tyke]

omg....same thing happened to my e30 and another friends e30.....

mine was the ecu tht was faulty....his mebbe the same probs but thts just for e30...
dunno bout urs though...
best bet id to get it checked out at ur regular mech asap bro...

all the best and do let us knw the culprit...

rgds,
-brad-

 

[adliz]

cud it be your airflow sensor?

 

[three28]

azman ... check alternator , battery and grounding...

cheers

 

[AnGeLiCdEmOn108]

check your battery bro... most likely about time to replace...

 

[jarance]

check the crank shaft sensor. When it fail intermittenly, the symthom
is that the fuel pump and ignition will shut down due to the fail
safe feature incorporated in the UDM. That is why all the lights
come on. it can't be the alternator coz there will be a pilot ON
when the alternator is not charging.

Loose grounding wire at battery terminals is also a possibilty.

When the crank shaft sensor failed completely,
you will not be able to re-start the car.

 

[azman818]

this symptom started two weeks ago

but last few days it appeared at increased frequency

the foreman has checked everything and the car
also shutdown on him

yesterday it shutdown on me while driving
every 3-5 mins

i just stop and restart and drive on - everytime

then finally it will NOT restart anymore
turned the key and there is nothing - no crank,
no lights, nothing

haa.. so now we have the culprit

see part no.3 - the ignition switch

the car's ok now and i must thank all of you guys also
tyke, acs, three28, adliz, demon108 and jarance
thank god it's not like what it could be.

 

[jarance]

azam,

guess we are wrong.. ha..ha..

it was good to be able to pinpoint the exact problem.

BTW, how did you manage to trace the problem to the ignition
switch. This part of the car seldom give problem.

 

[acs]

u r 'safe' now

 

[funfer_fahrer]

I suggest you invest in the R5/FCX tool so that you will be given prior notice before any DME related items fails. Worth every sen...It's the only way you can "listen" to your car. Furthermore, the mechanics will have to think twice before they can con you.

 

[lecka]

same like my e30.. went to bmworks edy.. d mech sed that my ecu got burned.. i dunno how.. my roto oso pecah.. need to change oso.. aiihh...

 

[chubby]

Having the same problem....getting it sorted right now...will update u guys on this issue

h34r:

 

[tyke]

hey guys u notice tht off late there has been an increase in problems with our udms???
its kinda like a trend nowadays...

odd dont u think?

any1 can come up with an answer?its a lil bewildering tht so many udm'ers have almost the same symptom like dying off suddenly or the iddling is erratic...
i mean if its common among the older models like my e30 thn its ok but off late u got e36'er & e46'ers too???i mean the e36 and the e46 r relatively new cars compared to my e30!!!
thts a lil weird for me guys...

there has to b an explanation...

rgds,
-brad-

 

[DanPromote]

scary thought... somemore I drive it out of the country sometimes... hope anyone with similar problems will post their solution here.. maybe we have a common part that always fails after time.. this will have to be addressed as it may cause serious accidents.

 

[tyke]

ditto dan!!!

 

[funfer_fahrer]

The older the car the more disease it will acquire. This is the basic rule. In a modern beemer, more electronics items and sensors have been installed in order to make the complex machine operate at maximum efficiency. And there is a also mechanical items, which is some of them are controlled by the sensors (i.e engine) and some of them are not (i.e. window power lifters). We cannot predict the life span of most of the parts such as expansion tanks and harness wire but there should be some basic figure to give a rough idea. The life span for a set of harness wire for example is about 5 years. More than 5 years it can still be used but there is no guarantee. This is not stated anywhere in the maintenance booklet but included in some service manual and BMW AG service bulletin. The name of the game here is to take care the electronics part of the car and hopefully half of the war is won. Unfortunately, because of our high humidity environment the electronics sesnor tend to fail more frequently than other UDM users in say, temperate countries where the relative humidity is low. Sudden changes in temperature (exposed to heavy rain after a hot sunny day) can cause condensation to build up between the sensor and the main part. The sensor will eventually fail prematurely because of constant exposure to continous rapid change in temperature. The other controllable variable that is the mechanical part. We can know it is about to fail if it produces strange sound, or from mechanic advice and also from first hand information shared in this forum.

 

[azman818]

jarance, the foreman did not expect any problem from that switch part
also - like you said this part seldom give problem

when he was trying to track the problem we even thought it was
the key's chip or the antenna at the lock

but plugging into D51 gave no fault reading. so he's got no clue

in the meantime i had to drive slow and only for around shah alam
so everytime engine shutdown i would quickly and safely pull over
to the side and restart

the foreman's clue came when restart got nothing. when he arrived
at the stalled car, it was spot-on troubleshoot

mechanical contacts in the switch probably broken

these are the things where diagnostics give NO clue - mechanical parts

like funfer is saying we have to watch for signs - SYMPTOMS - like strange
sound - to know it's about to fail

but sometimes (just like this experience for me) we will have wait for
it to fail before we know what it is.