It’s finally almost time to get the 335D straightened out once and for all. I made good progress getting the emissions crap worked around over the past couple years after it suffered an untimely intake clogging thanks to BMW’s ludicrously self-defeating pollution-control design coupled with Michelle’s short drive to work. Then it became “my” car, the preparatory work began and the extended warranty ran out. The crankcase now vents through a catch can that drains to the environment. The dime-sized spots of environment it sits parked over will just have to suffer:
The EGR system needed removed with significant re-work to compensate for it’s absence, including some custom mods addressing the EGR cooler, EGR Valve, valve position step motor and a CAN tool installed on the OBD-II port to reset the accompanying faults in the car’s computer every time it gets re-started. The EGR manifold ports were blocked and the cooler was replaced with a filter. The valve motor was a bit tricky and critical to the desired outcome. It’s lack of input triggers a limp mode on the system, so it needed to be retained in order to fool the computer:
The black tube in the 3rd pic above replaces the EGR valve, itself. Now it’s just a 3″ steel tube connecting the intercooler to the intake manifold with the primary water meth nozzle (1st stage of the 2-stage W/M injection system) included for good measure. At this point now, the car would be expected to run normally without EGR and CCV depositing too much junk in the intake and water-meth providing ongoing cleaning. But alas, it still has the catalyst reduction (Urea/DEF) system and diesel particulate filter (DPF) hobbling it.
Eliminating those calls for pretty much total exhaust system replacement and DDE (computer) coding to support a lack of numerous sensor inputs associated with that nonsense. The primary SCR tank (there’s 2, for chrissakes!) and metering valve have already been replaced once under warranty and the DPF is certainly running on borrowed time. Those are multi-thousand dollar repairs which are guaranteed to re-occur if you drive it long enough. Thanks a bunch for that, EPA and BMW.
I’ll be driving out east to see see some guys at one of the few places in the country currently doing BMW DDE hacking. The choice came down to these guys, mostly due to their location. I’m also looking forward to spending some time with my best bud from growing up back in PA. I imagine a detour back through PA for Thanksgiving with the eastern family is in the cards, as well. 😉