I mentioned in another thread that my wife was bored of her Civic and was looking to trade it in for something a bit less reliable
So we got a 2011 335d, in black, comfort package, 74k on the clock.

Engine:
Stock M57D30
282 hp
428 ft-lbs of twerk

Suspension:
Stock

Interior:
Stock

Exterior:
Stock

Wheels:
Stock

Not sure exactly what my wife's plans are for this one, but I'm curious to see what becomes of it. I'll keep a running log here for your enjoyment.

Now story time!
3 days after driving off the lot, the CEL comes on. I'm very impressed that it took 3 days! Could've sworn it would've been the cliche "drive off the lot, car breaks down" scenario. I grab my trusty OBDLink scan tool and get a P2201 NOx Sensor Circuit Range/Performance and a P20EE Manufacturer Defined DTCs. I had no clue what P20EE consists of because at the time I had a cheap DCAN cable which didn't work.

Off to Google for answers! "P20EE is a generic code, you need a BMW scan tool to see the real faults." Well shit...thanks Google. Let's just say I returned that cable and bought a BimmerGeeks cable. I'll need it for this car

We set an appointment for the dealer who was great! They took care of us, no problem! The damage? Something around $1200, covered by BMWNA because of extended emissions warranty for diesels. *High five*

A few days later, car goes into limp mode. I'm thinking WTF is it now. By this time I have ISTA+ and my cable installed. I hook it up to the car and read the stored DTCs. How many codes were pulled? All of the codes...


If you know anything about BMW diesels for North America, you know that they are hindered by a TERRIBLE emissions system which causes a ton of carbon buildup on the intake valves, manifold, etc. It's a much worse condition that the 335i because of the aggressiveness of the EGR systems in these cars. This issue we were prepared for as we did have the car inspected before purchase and had some costs taken off for the cleaning procedure to be done. We weren't expecting it to neuter the car this bad and this soon! We called around our local shops and even the dealership and everyone wanted either $1600+ or were not able to do it at all. Ouch. I then remembered that AArodriguez Corp (Popular VW and BMW diesel tuning company) was in Dallas, GA. (not too far from us). I gave them a call...lo and behold...they do CBU cleaning. I requested a quote for that, plus vacuum line replacement and swirl flap delete. The total came out to be $1208.11 and beat everyone's prices by at least $400. The icing on the cake is that they can perform the procedure in a day, while the others would take 4 or more days. Incredible. I hope it's not a too good to be true deal. We'll find out this upcoming Tuesday.

And here is a teaser pic of the Black D:


Eventually I'll have a free weekend to do/attempt paint correction and get some proper photos!