1998 BMW 328 Check Engine Light

RYAN82586

MEMBER
1998 BMW 328

Engine Mechanical problem
1998 BMW 328 6 cyl Two Wheel Drive Manual 160k miles

My check engine light has recently come on. I tried erasing the stored code by pulling the positive on my battery for a few seconds. Check engine light remained on directly at start up. I was wondering if there is a way to get the codes from the Data Link Connector without having a Peake or OBD or other diagnostic tool. I have a suspision that this is possible, because unknown by many, I know a way of simply reseting the oil service and inspection service lights without having a tool at all. Just some common things I could find around the house.
There must be a way. I'm thinking that if you ground a certain terminal (or several) in the data link connector and then turn the ignition to position 2 that the check engine light will blink a series of codes with pauses, short blinks, and long blinks or something to that affect. What are your thoughts?
Thanks!

8 Replies

DOCHAGERTY

MECHANIC
9,601 POSTS

The faults can be retrieved with a relatively inexpensive generic scanning device. Unfortunately this is your only option as this version of Motronic does not support using that particular self diagnostic as do earlier versions.

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Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 AT 9:09 PM

RYAN82586

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I scanned the car with my OBDII tool and came up with codes P1423 and P1421. I looked up these codes, its reads "Secondary Air System bank 1" and "Secondary Air System bank 2".

I know what the Secondary Air Pump is, but where exactly is bank 1 and bank 2? Does this whole system need to be replaced or certain components repairs/replaced? How neccessary is it? Thanks

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Thursday, March 13th, 2008 AT 11:07 PM

DOCHAGERTY

MECHANIC
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The problem that you are up against is possibly due to the fact that the vacuum hose to the secondary air injection valve has a crack in it. Open the hood and look at the front right corner of the engine and find the valve that is connected to the air pump that is located in front of the shock tower, there is a small hose connected to the round silver colored device that is the secondary air injection valve. I inspect this hose and repair or replace the vacuum line going to the valve. Reset the faults and repost if this does not help fix this issue.

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Thursday, March 13th, 2008 AT 11:19 PM

RYAN82586

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You are talking about the black plastic hose that is about the diameter of a quarter, leading from the secondary air pump to the secondary injection valve, right? This valve is also known as the switch valve, correct? What about the small metal hose thats coming from the secondary injection valve; should I be checking this too?

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Friday, March 14th, 2008 AT 10:09 AM

RYAN82586

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I inspected both the large hose and the very small hose. Both of which dont appear to have any cracks, holes, or failures at all. However, the small hose does appear to be a little worn out, most likely from the excessive heat under the hood. Should this be replaced anyways?
It must be more then just the hoses. I dont think that both bank 1 and bank 2 would fault if just one of the hoses had a leak. It's starting to sound more like the Air Pump is simply failing.
Any ideas, on what to do next?