"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
10/24/2016 at 10:34 • Filed to: None
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"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
10/24/2016 at 10:34 • Filed to: None | 0
| 15 |
I have a
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on my BMW 335xi. I also have this little box called an
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that’s supposed to jack in to the wiring for the rear oxygen sensor and fool the ECU into thinking there’s still a catalyst in the downpipe. But, it wasn’t working. Until now, that is!
Most oxygen sensor simulators are a simple gizmo that has a resistor, or a timer, that tweaks the rear O2 sensor signal a little bit to hopefully trick the ECU into thinking there’s still a catalyst in the car. But the ECU for the BMW N55 motor in my car is too finicky about the rear O2 sensor signal for those fixes to work. Instead, the CatSim is a programmed microcontroller that reads the rear O2 sensor signal and then processes it into a signal that much more closely resembles what it would look like with a cat.
The
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say to use the
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pictured above. I (incorrectly) assumed that these would be available locally, but they weren’t, and instead my mechanic got some other connectors that appeared to work on the same basic concept as the Posi-Tap ones.
When I picked up the car, it didn’t have any CEL codes, but the CEL (on a BMW it’s actually a “SERVICE ENGINE SOON” light) came on shortly afterwards. I tried various things in the install instructions like trying to complete a drive cycle, but I kept getting the same oxygen sensor-related codes.
I had been busy with work and planning my wedding, so didn’t really have time to mess around with inspecting the wiring or bringing the car back to my mechanic. The O2 sensor codes didn’t affect the drivability of the car, it’s just I had an annoying SES light on all the time when I had a little box that I bought specifically to avoid this problem.
Finally I checked under the hood to see if the little green light on the CatSim was coming on when turning on the car, and nope, nothing. I figured the only thing that was different from the instructions was the connectors, so I went ahead and ordered the real Posi-Taps. Then my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , so I brought the Posi-Taps to my mechanic to re-do the O2 sensor wiring along with the HPFP.
I picked up my car last Friday with the fresh HPFP and Posi-Tap-connected CatSim. The mechanic said he confirmed the little green light on the CatSim was turning on—this happens when you open the doors and the car primes the fuel pump—and since then, I’ve got no SES light.
So remember, if you have some wiring instructions that say to use Posi-Taps, make sure you get the real ones, and not some fakemeout Posi-Taps that don’t actually work.
jimz
> Textured Soy Protein
10/24/2016 at 10:40 |
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not surprising those cheap kits don’t work well, you need more than just a resistor. The PCM expects the downstream O2 sensor to switch very slowly or not at all if the cat is working. if the downstream O2 sensor signal looks too much like the upstream sensor’s signal, it’ll set catalyst efficiency codes.
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Textured Soy Protein
> jimz
10/24/2016 at 10:51 |
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I wasn’t getting the usual catalyst efficiency codes. I was getting P013E and P013A that are both related to the rear O2 sensor responding too slowly. I believe the CatSim uses both O2 sensor signals as inputs and then sends a signal to the ECU that looks close enough to how it should to avoid a cat efficiency code. This pic is tiny but this is from the Area74 site talking about the signal:
I figure the the O2 sensor wires had been cut and spliced but there wasn’t good contact and whatever the O2 sensor signals looked like, if they were even present, was causing the P013 codes.
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jimz
> Textured Soy Protein
10/24/2016 at 10:56 |
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the PCM is probably intelligent enough to check whether the upstream and downstream are doing the same thing prior to the catalyst lighting off.
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Textured Soy Protein
> jimz
10/24/2016 at 11:05 |
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Well anyway, point is, now that the little box is getting power, everything is behaving as it should. I wouldn’t expect it to properly fool the ECU when it wasn’t getting power.
DipodomysDeserti
> Textured Soy Protein
10/24/2016 at 11:24 |
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Did you actually read the ECU with the proper program to make sure there isn’t an error being stored? Lack of an SES light doesn’t mean the car isn’t storing errors. On my wife’s 335d it took 200 miles before the SES light would turn on.
Mattbob
> Textured Soy Protein
10/24/2016 at 11:38 |
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Looks like this could be done with a simple low pass filter to me....
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Textured Soy Protein
> Mattbob
10/24/2016 at 11:45 |
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The ECUs for the N55 motor are extremely finicky about the rear O2 sensor signal. The older N54 twin turbo was less finicky and for that motor there are simpler doodads for modifying the rear O2 sensor signal that work fine, but this is the only fix that’s been verified to consistently work on the N55. The only reason mine wasn’t working to start with is it wasn’t getting power, which has now been fixed by using the proper connectors.
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Textured Soy Protein
> DipodomysDeserti
10/24/2016 at 11:55 |
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So far, no codes...
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DipodomysDeserti
> Textured Soy Protein
10/24/2016 at 13:03 |
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What program are you using? I was using a free program for my wife’s car and it wouldn’t read nearly as many codes as the Carly app.
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Textured Soy Protein
> DipodomysDeserti
10/24/2016 at 13:06 |
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That scan was with Torque Pro. I also have a real scanner but I was too lazy to take it out of its case and connect its cable. :o
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Textured Soy Protein
> DipodomysDeserti
10/24/2016 at 14:00 |
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Ok, I scanned it with my proper scanner and still no codes. My scanner has an emissions readiness check screen and all is clear. The EVAP readiness monitor just needs some more drive time before it shows as ready but the car would pass an emissions readiness check like this. Not that I need to worry about that since there’s no emissions testing where I live.
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DipodomysDeserti
> Textured Soy Protein
10/24/2016 at 14:00 |
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A real scanner as in one from BMW? Does Torque Pro let you program different functions and register batteries?
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DipodomysDeserti
> Textured Soy Protein
10/24/2016 at 14:07 |
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Yeah, if there’s no emissions check where you live, then you’re gtg. That would just really suck thinking you’re all clear only to fail an emission test.
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Textured Soy Protein
> DipodomysDeserti
10/24/2016 at 14:57 |
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A real scanner as in this .
I have both this scanner and the Torque Pro app that I use with a BAFX bluetooth OBD dongle . Torque Pro doesn’t do the coding that Carly does but I already had it before getting this car.
I’ve found some people have at least managed to do the Carly diagnostics with the BAFX dongle but not sure about the coding. Looking at the specs, the BAFX dongle supports all the same protocols as the Carly dongle plus a couple more so I figure it should work fine with the Carly app if I wanted to try it.
But I’m not in a rush to get Carly because my car has already been coded to my liking. There’s a guy near me who charged me $125 to update my nav maps to the latest version, flash the BMW PPK ECU tune, code a bunch of features, and register my new battery. I would’ve happily paid more than that just to get the PPK flash and nav maps.
I’m probably going to get the MHD ECU flasher app once it’s available for the N55, and in addition to tuning the ECU it has the BMW-specific diagnostics like Carly. I don’t believe it does coding like Carly but pretty much anything that I wanted coded is already done at this point.
As for emissions, even if I had to pass emissions, most states will pass you if you have 1 readiness monitor showing not ready, and the only one not showing ready yet for me is EVAP, because it takes a higher amount of miles of driving after the last time codes were cleared before it reverts to ready state. I’m sure given another week or so the EVAP readiness monitor will show as good.
jariten1781
> Textured Soy Protein
10/24/2016 at 19:12 |
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I love-love Posi-taps. So much easier than guillotines and no permanent damage. That said, they don’t perform any better or worse than standard vampire/T-taps if the latter is done correctly. My guess is the mechanic didn’t check continuity after the first splice and the T-tap hadn’t fully pierced the insulation. Even Posi-taps will occasionally not get a good pierce...it’s a good practice to check continuity after the tap before plugging anything in or applying power for just that reason.