[snawaz]

Where shall I start?
I have a 2007 335d M-Sport which I bought from new. I had it remapped earlier this year and the car went from being a monster to a beast. I used to love it but fell out of love a few months ago. Don't ask me how but my son(age 20) tricked me into getting him insured on the car. To cut a long story short he drove the car like a maniac for 4 months before I realised he had duped me. By this time he had got through a full set of Bridgestone tyres and damaged the body work and who knows what engine/mechanical damage. I was so upset that he had swindled me that I even tried kicking him out of the house, but his mum would not let me. After a few weeks of driving the car I decided to get it back to its former glory. I had the body sprayed, including both bumpers , the whole near side and bonnet and driver side wing. Then I had the wheels refurbished and powder coated black. It was looking like a mean machine once again.
After a few weeks of driving the power suddenly went on the turbos. There was no boost in the car at all. It was worse than driving a 1 litre Nissan diesel. I took it to a local guy who said he could fix it but after 3 visits I was getting nowhere. I felt like I was never gonna get my car back to normal again. This car is all about the boost, no boost mean misery! After a few weeks of misery I was put in touch with Gary from German Marques in Sheffield. He has a guy called Andy who worked at BMW before and really knew his stuff. He changed the turbo outlet/inlet hosing and a few other things and the car was miraculously back to it majestic powerful self again. The grin on my face could not be wiped off for the next few weeks. Each time I drove it I thought how lucky I am(sentimental fool!).
Anyway, the worse was yet to come. Within a few weeks the DPF light came on. No biggie I thought. Left it for a few days and then contacted Gary. He told me to bring it in ASAP and he would would try to recharge it. He told me that a new DPF would set me back some £1200-£1400. So recharge it was. Initially the DPF warning light went off but for the whole of 10 miles. He then had it in again to try to chemically clean it. This worked and the light remained off and the power seemed to improve again. However, it was definitely not back to its normal self, the boost was lagging but it worked reasonably well. He said to drive it and see if it improved over the next few weeks. It never did really and then in the last few days it has suddenly started to lose boost again and misery has returned to haunt me again.
I searched on the forum for DPF failure and found some interesting articles as this appears to be a common problem on these diesel engines. All roads pointed to having the DPF removed and then the ECU programmed to ignore the DPF. I have contacted a few members on the forum and they have had similar issues to mine, some not as dramatic but others even more nightmarish!
I did my research and searched a few companies on the net who offered DPF removal and remapping and I decided to finally go with a company called ECUFLASH of Doncaster, who have lots of testimonials on their site swearing how good they were and how their car was now back to it's best and even better. I spoke to the owner Paul who sounded like a genuine guy and someone who was saying just the right things. Not a bulls......r, you know the kind of guys i'm on about! He said he would get diagnostics on in the morning and then take out the DPF filter and weld the box back up and then his expert remapper, Andy, would remap the ECU to turn the DPF off and he may also remap the engine for better performance(as this has already been done by DMS, they boosted the bhp to 343bhp, so it may not need it.)
If it all works out i'll have still only spent £585 including what Gary charged me for recharging the DPF and cleaning it. I want my beast back! Please pray for me!
Please let me know if you have any views!!!

[335dM]

How many kilometers do you have on it?

[snawaz]

Originally Posted by 335dM

How many kilometers do you have on it?

Hi, 92000 miles which equates to 148,000km.

[Quasimodem]

The DPF is entirely downstream of the powerplant, no?

Other than via backpressure, how would that affect engine boost?

[snawaz]

Originally Posted by Quasimodem

The DPF is entirely downstream of the powerplant, no?

Other than via backpressure, how would that affect engine boost?

As I understand it the backpressure is exactly what causes the problem. I think it sends a message to the ECU which in turn sends it into limp mode. I'm not sure if mine is in limp mode or not, it just has very poor boost.

Maybe someone more technically minded than me can answer your question!

[snawaz]

Update

Just back from the mechanics. They have removed the DPF and remapped the car. However, problem still remains. Very poor boost under 2000 revs. He thinks it may be something to do with the turbo. He is going to take a look this afternoon and get back to me. God knows when I will have my car back to normal!

[MrPig]

So what you're saying is, don't let our 20 year old (or future kids for that matter) drive our expensive toys?

Sorry to hear about your car, though.

[snawaz]

Originally Posted by MrPig

So what you're saying is, don't let our 20 year old (or future kids for that matter) drive our expensive toys?

Sorry to hear about your car, though.

I feel like killing him to be honest. I've had one cost after the other since I let him drive. I'm in a catch 22 now. I can't sell it without it working perfect and I can't buy another one because i've spent so much on it! Go figure!

[MrPig]

Originally Posted by snawaz

I feel like killing him to be honest. I've had one cost after the other since I let him drive. I'm in a catch 22 now. I can't sell it without it working perfect and I can't buy another one because i've spent so much on it! Go figure!

To be honest, if it were my kid I'd bill him for a portion of the repair bill (not all, but a couple hundred would do to teach him a lesson). Kid is 20, make him get a job :P

If getting a new car was an option, I'd just give him the ailin' D and force him to deal with it. You break it, you buy it as they say.

[snawaz]

Originally Posted by MrPig

To be honest, if it were my kid I'd bill him for a portion of the repair bill (not all, but a couple hundred would do to teach him a lesson). Kid is 20, make him get a job :P

If getting a new car was an option, I'd just give him the ailin' D and force him to deal with it. You break it, you buy it as they say.

You are right. I totally agree. Unfortunately we have now stopped talking, which I am sure is all a plan. He is supposedly living in his "mother's half" of the house and I have no right to say anything to him anymore. His mum is now shielding him. I risk losing my wife if I push it any further.

[MrPig]

Originally Posted by snawaz

You are right. I totally agree. Unfortunately we have now stopped talking, which I am sure is all a plan. He is supposedly living in his "mother's half" of the house and I have no right to say anything to him anymore. His mum is now shielding him. I risk losing my wife if I push it any further.

Women ..

The best you can hope is for him (and you) to learn from the experience. Best of luck to you sir.

[DesiRoc]

Glad I don't have kids... Yet. I've banged up the last two cars my parents let me drive, but they still live me. Lol. Good thing I have my own now

Sounds horrible. Hope it all works out for ya!

[snawaz]

Originally Posted by MrPig

Women ..

The best you can hope is for him (and you) to learn from the experience. Best of luck to you sir.

Thanks. I have learned a hard lesson. Believe me I am no pushover and I know a thing or two about dealing with people and I never normally get conned. You just don't expect your own flesh and blood to f...k you over like this. I don't feel like a fool because I think a lot of people would have fall for the lies he spun. Deceitful little shithouse!

[snawaz]

Got a phone call from tuning guy, Ricky, (from MB Services of Sheffield) at 4.30pm. I was nervous as hell to hear what the outcome was. To my absolute surprise he said he'd fixed it. He did confirm that the DPF needed changing as errors messages were present for this. He then thought it was the 1st turbo at fault as below 2000rpm there was no boost. They went on to open the engine cover to get to the turbos and checked all the pipes. Lo and behold one of the pipes was broken. He said the vacuum pipe going to the control ?(something) of the 1st turbo had split. They replaced it and took the car for a spin and sure enough it was working fine. As you can imagine I rushed down to the garage as quick as I could as I wanted to check it for myself. After thanking Ricky a million times I took the car for a tentative run and gradually tested it in various boost situation. In low and middle and high gears. I can confirm that WARP speed has returned. In fact it is faster than before. Eventhough I had a remap from DMS before, Andy, from Ecu-Flash had fiddled with the mapping some more today and altered the settings in a few areas that he felt could have been improved. Thank you Andy, it is noticeably faster than before. At one point during my testing run I honestly thought I was driving on air as there appeared to be little grip between the tyres and the road and the Traction Control light was disco style flashing.
Extra cost of dismantling the engine cover to get the turbos and changing the pipe was £96 inc VAT. So money spent on fixing this issue breaks down as follows:

Work carried out- Amount(work done by)

Regenerating DPF- £75(Gary at German Marques)
Chemical clean of DPF- £100(Gary at German Marques)
DPF fuel tank additive- £10(Myself- advised by Gary)
Removal of DPF and Remap- £400(Ecu-Flash & MB Services-Today)
Replacing Turbo Vacuum Hosing- £96 (MB Services- Today)

Total Cost- £681

I suppose I could have saved £185 on the first 3 items as above as these did not fix the problem. However, I think I did well in the end considering a new DPF costs £1400 for the part alone! Atleast with removing the DPF I know this is never gonna cause me a problem again. What a pain in the arse!

[Coolieman1220]

i'd like to remove my DPF and urea. that would be sweet, less weight less problems. more power

oh and black smoke

i'd love to see what these cars sound like without an exhaust, i want a dump truck like sound!

[cssnms]

WOW quite a story. Kids will be kids, all of us at one point or another probably flogged dad's car when we took it out, although with all due respect, your son seems to have done it with a blatent disregard.

In any event, glad it worked out, sounds like removing the dpf was the right/best thing to do. It is because of this system and the DEF that we have in our cars in the states, that I will be getting a 100k mi warranty. I've read more than a few reports of DPF's failing over in Europe. We have limited history/experience with the BMW diesel, so I am not optimistic the urea injection system will be any more reliable over the long haul.

Good luck with your born-again car.

hi Snawaz. i have the same problem! no boost in low revs, and there were no error codes at BMW diagnostics, so difficult to locate the problem, however, could you specify, which hose exactly needed to replace? I will need to do it on my own....