[Jimbo789]

I have a 2011 325i N53. I have it 6 months now and haven’t had any problems with it until now.

First thing I noticed not right was when I pressed button to start and it cranked but didn’t start. I pressed button again after couple seconds to stop it and it started as normal on second attempt. The same thing happened a couple more times the same day after car had been left resting for a few hours. The car was driving normally once it started.

The next morning it started on first attempt and after driving around a mile it lost all power and just stopped. Currently it will start usually after one or two attempts but has no power.

I towed it to main BMW dealer and got diagnostics done. They reckoned that the problem was the DME and that getting it replaced at a cost of €2,000 should fix it. If it didn’t they might need to replace the injectors.

I got the printout of the codes and towed the car home. There are 20 codes on the list and there is mileage next to each code. Most of them are related to CAS or DSC and have mileage of around 10k miles ago. The ones below are the only ones where the mileage corresponds to when I started having problems.

2AEC DME: Nitrogen oxide sensor, self-diagnosis
2E30 DME: Fuel injector, cylinder 1, activation
2E31 DME: Fuel injector, cylinder 2, activation
2E32 DME: Fuel injector, cylinder 3, activation
30BA DME: Injectors 1, 2, 3 or DME internal fault
30BB DME: Injectors 4, 5, 6 or DME internal fault

The 2AEC code correspond with the mileage when the car first start to fail to start on first attempt.
All the other codes correspond with the mileage when the car started to loss of power.

The car has always run smoothly and never had any misfires. I looked at the service history and at the end of warranty service all the injectors were replaced and so was an NOx sensor. The car has only driven around 30k miles since then.

Since it appears the Nitrogen oxide sensor error occurred first could this have caused the other error codes? If so could it be issue with catalytic converter?

I was searching for info about 30BA and 30BB, it seemed like the most common reason for these codes was faulty mosfets on the DME. But this only seemed to be an issue for MSD80 DME. Would I be correct in assuming that I have a MSD81 DME and is it possible to repair a MSD81 DME? Could it be just a wiring problem or something as simple as a blown fuse?

If the problem is the DME and I get it fixed or replaced, is it likely that I’ll need to replace injectors too or could the 2E30, 2E31 and 2E32 errors be coming from damaged coils?

[Jimbo789]

Anybody got an ideas on this?

[ctuna]

We don't have the N53 in the US. (No direct injection for the N52
here)
If it suffers from the same problem as the N54 it could be
the HPFP or Carbon build up.
Walnut blast cleaning for Carbon build up on the intake
valves.
I haven't seen DME's fail in any car I have ever had but the
DME on the Direct injected BMW's have Mosfet transistors
used to fire the coils on the DME . This sometimes come up here but not
very often.

If would have the DME checked somewhere before I would let anybody
put in a new one.

Best to get a Bimmergeek.net Cable
and there downloads to work on these cars.

diagnostic manual ista/inpa
https://bimmerprofs.com/diagnostics-inpa-part-1/
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...xo19teM9vkTF-C
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...7x8H3pN8h1fMuF
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-P-actually-do

Also always be sure you have a strong battery before assuming the
codes are real fails.
Above 12.4 at least.

[Jimbo789]

The battery was replaced only 6 months ago.

The DME with the mosfets in the video is a MSD80. From what I have read I think anything after 2008 would have a MSD81. I haven’t seen anywhere about mosfets being fixed in this version.

[Jimbo789]

Problem here was water damage to DME. It was cleaned and dried out and car seems to be driving fine again.

[Jimbo789]

The car worked fine for a few for 3 months but same problems started again. When opened up the DME, I could see some corrosion on it. It was cleaned up but that didn’t fix it this time.

Is there anywhere that repairs MSD81 DMEs?

[Jimbo789]

.