Turning a dream into a reality

[papa_g]

decided to replace my fuel filter today. I had a suspicion it was the reason for my lean code, and the weird rattling sound that was coming from that area. Replaced the hoses and clamps while I was at it. The weird rattle sound is now gone, which I am really thankful for. The old filter did not even have that many miles on it, which is why I was hesitant to replace it in the first place. The gas that leaked out of it was pretty clean too. not perfect, but no where near some of those really bad instances you see on youtube.
Decided to do a smoke test as well, to see if maybe the vacuum leak is coming from the intake. Found a veerrryyyy small amount of smoke rising from the throttle body/ICV area. Could not really pinpoint exactly where since it was so little smoke. I know it is not the lower intake boot, since that is pretty new. throttle body gasket is new as well. My only hunch is maybe the lower intake is not seated properly, but I inspected it, and could not see a problem. Will look into it some more.

[ZHPizza]

Have you had the intake manifold off at all? That's the first place that we noticed smoke on Spenser's car, but it was leaking from the manifold gasket and sort of billowing out from underneath. I think there's some vacuum caps down there too that could be the culprit.

[san]

Could be ICV grommet as well.


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[papa_g]

Have you had the intake manifold off at all? That's the first place that we noticed smoke on Spenser's car, but it was leaking from the manifold gasket and sort of billowing out from underneath. I think there's some vacuum caps down there too that could be the culprit.

Yeah I removed, cleaned and reinstalled the intake manifold when I was doing the CCV system. put a new manifold gasket as well. I capped the vacuum ports already, but could always check to see they are still capped properly.

Could be ICV grommet as well.

maybe. It was my first time doing that involved of a project, and it's possible it did not reinstall everything properly. ICV grommet is new as well.

[ZHPizza]

Man...you may need to dig into this thing again if you can't pinpoint it with the smoke test. When we were chasing a leak on Spenser's car, we got the same result from the smoke test -- a little bit coming from the TB/ICV area. We pulled all of that off and reseated it, then still saw smoke. Turns out it was coming from the intake manifold to head seal. The gasket had gotten pinched during install months ago and the leak had slowly grown. Had to tear the whole thing down until we found it.

Is the lean code on one bank or both? That can help with troubleshooting.

[papa_g]

lead code in both banks. although, changing the fuel filter may have helped. I need to look at the fuel trim data to see if I am still running lean. Did you have to replace the gasket? I REALLY hope I don't have to tear everything apart again hahah.. oh man.

[ZHPizza]

lead code in both banks. although, changing the fuel filter may have helped. I need to look at the fuel trim data to see if I am still running lean. Did you have to replace the gasket? I REALLY hope I don't have to tear everything apart again hahah.. oh man.

Yup, sure did. BUT, being that you're lean on both banks, that means that your leak is upstream of the manifold or a fuel delivery issue as you suspect. If you saw smoke near the TB, then I would start there. Should be able to remove, inspect, and reinstall everything in an hour or so.

[papa_g]

Should be able to remove, inspect, and reinstall everything in an hour or so.

ok, that's interesting. So which bank was lean for Spenser? I forget, do I need to remove the DISA in order to get to the TB? I put a new o-ring on it, so I would prefer not to remove it.

[330i ZHP]

Man...you may need to dig into this thing again if you can't pinpoint it with the smoke test. When we were chasing a leak on Spenser's car, we got the same result from the smoke test -- a little bit coming from the TB/ICV area. We pulled all of that off and reseated it, then still saw smoke. Turns out it was coming from the intake manifold to head seal. The gasket had gotten pinched during install months ago and the leak had slowly grown. Had to tear the whole thing down until we found it.

Is the lean code on one bank or both? That can help with troubleshooting.

Painful tracing stuff like that

[papa_g]

Here is a quick snapshot of my FT at operating temp idle. It's about average for LTFT1. LTFT2 doesn't seem to change much, but LTFT1 will go as low as 2.8%, and as high as 5.2%. Must have gotten over 10% recently, because supposedly that's what it takes to trip the lean codes.