Engine Problem?

[Andre]

I was bombing around tonight in my 2-day old ZHP, and suddenly the check-engine light came on. The engine lost power and started to shake if I tried to accelerate. After 5 minutes this ended and the light went out. The car didn't run quite right for a while after this - not as peppy. I suspected bad gas, or moisture in the gas so I filled up the tank. It gradually got better, and I think it's fine now.

Any ideas? Bad gas? Emission controls? It was very frightening for a 2-day old car. I thought my engine had a serious problem.

 

[Tweet227]

I had a similar problem on my '04 330 when it was 2 weeks old. The check engine light came on and the car started riding really rough/extreme vibration. For me it was a cylinder misfire, and i was only running on 5 out of the 6 cylinders. I was told the reason was probably just bad gas, and if it ever happened again just turn the car off and then back on and everything should reset itself. I haven't had any repeat problems since that day. Good Luck and congrats on the new car!

 

[codex57]

I'd take it to the dealer just to be sure. It's prolly just bad gas (not all dealers go out of their way to put name brand gas in for your free tankful), but best to be safe on a 2 day old car.

 

[Tweet227]

BMW's store a comptuerized log of problems/malfunctions they have had, so chances are if you brought your car into the dealership and they hooked you car up to their computer they would be able to get anerror code telling them what the problem was. That's how I found out what happened when my car "had the shakes".

 

[PuShAkOv]

Does the term "ZHP" reffers to Z4? I am confused. [???1]

 

[bmwrocks]

Does the term "ZHP" reffers to Z4? I am confused. [???1]

No, it is the order code for the 330i performance package. It stands for something german like "Zer Heineken Party".

PP owners like the abbreviation ZHP for some reason when referring to their cars......it's a 330i PP thing.

 

[MrElussive]

People say "ZHP" so there is no confusion between Performance Package and Premium Package.

 

[Bryan330i]

No, it is the order code for the 330i performance package. It stands for something german like "Zer Heineken Party".

PP owners like the abbreviation ZHP for some reason when referring to their cars......it's a 330i PP thing.

Yup, Zer Heineken Party Someone brought this up a while back, I guess the designation PP is premium and the ZHP is performance. I did not know this until I looked it up after the earlier ZHP post.

 

[Andre]

Update:

Went to the dealer and had them look. It was indeed a misfire which they said could be a bad plug, coil, or something else. Also could have been bad gas. They said since it happened once, they would reset the DME and I should monitor it.

It seems to be running fine now.

Thanks for the replies and comments.

 

[steve330xi]

This problem has come up on the board a couple of times. I posted here about the same problem with my '03 330xi back in July. Light came on, terrible engine vibration, the whole works. Turns out they saw a misfire in the computer and blamed it on bad gas. Been perfectly fine ever since. Every time I hear this it seems to be about a 330 that's still in the break-in period. I've concluded that the 330's are just too sensitive during the break-in. I'll be interested to hear if anyone has seen this after a couple thousand miles.

 

[Andre]

Very interesting.
Well, I'm glad to hear that the problem does not come back.
Thanks

 

[Andre]

'nother update:

It did exactly the same thing again this morning on the way to work. After only being on the road about two minutes, the car began to chug, and the engine light came on. It lasted about 2 minutes and then disappeared completely. The car has been running fine ever since.

I put in some gas-line anti-freeze just in case there are any traces of water in the tank.

I gotta say though...when this car is not chugging, man it is a great car. I can't wait until it is broken in so I can see what it can really do.

 

[Tweet227]

Steve: I haven't had any other engine problems since that one misfire and im 9K+.

 

[flashinthepan]

No, it is the order code for the 330i performance package. It stands for something german like "Zer Heineken Party".

PP owners like the abbreviation ZHP for some reason when referring to their cars......it's a 330i PP thing.

"Zer Heineken Party"



Excellent one !

 

[oneredshoe]

Light came on, terrible engine vibration, the whole works. Turns out they saw a misfire in the computer and blamed it on bad gas. Been perfectly fine ever since. Every time I hear this it seems to be about a 330 that's still in the break-in period. I'll be interested to hear if anyone has seen this after a couple thousand miles.

Hi Steve,

I've got a 330i ZHP with ~3300mi on it, and I just had the same scenario play out the other night. I was in a parking lot (~2-4mph) and about to come to a halt. The engine suddenly began vibrating violently and continued to do so for ~15-20sec after I had come to a complete stop. I was about to turn it off, when it then suddenly stabilized. It hasn't happened since (or before then for that matter). Interestingly, I read on roadfly.org that people have been told to shift from gasolines with additives (i.e. Chevron, Shell, etc.) to more 'purer' gas (e.g. Union 76) since the additives may actually exacerbate the problem. I've been using Chevron premium since I purchased the car - needless to say I'm going to test the theory by switching to U76. Of course, it wouldn't prove a thing if it never happened again, but then again I have no desire to use my car for an engineering project, HAHA!! Hope this info helps others out there.

-oneredshoe (on the gas pedal, that is ;-))

 

[donmbmw]

I have just over 3k miles on my 330i. I have been running Shell exclusively with none of the problems noted on this thread. I use the 93 octane except for two occassions when the station was out so I used the 89 both times with no problems or any difference in performance.