Increased Emissions - Solved!

[8k3]

^^ Yes it can. I saw the shop install parts of my MS test pipes and it didn't look that hard to get to the O2 sensors. A few panels had to be removed if I remember correctly

[SanFranFortyGiantsNiner]

Originally Posted by Eliminator

For those who may encounter this problem and search the board months from now, I'll post here the problem, the diagnosis and solution.

Problem: Increased Emissions light shows up during drive. Picture of yellow motor stays for 10 seconds then goes to a Service Engine Soon light - SES - and stays there permanently. The light may go away every 5 or 6 days for about 2 or 3 starts. Then it returns. Car runs fine. No other faults Ie. DSC, Park Assist, ABS, etc.

Diagnosis: Your car has a Secondary Air Pump and two valves that activate during the first 240 seconds to blow hot air through two valves, one on each bank, on to the catalytic converters. Simply to heat them up so they work. Cats don't work cold. Does NOT affect the driveability of the car that I can tell. The valves sometimes get stuck - open or closed. Open and the exhaust travels backwards in to the Secondary air pump condensing and filling the pump with water. This is where the customer usually hears slurping sounds, like a fat 11 yr old bold that just came from 7-11, during start-up.

Solution - BMW OBDII showed Bank 1 valve faulty. It was changed along with an o2 sensor from Bank 2 side of the engine. It was the o2 sensor before the primary cat on Bank 2.

My impressions -- After suffering from "Idle Valve" issue and never fixing that... it just went away 8 months ago and never came back, I am please the Faults were actually real. Car runs very good, I'd say better then before. Maybe the ECU has better readings to adjust air/fuel/timing with functional O2 sensors and valves stuck open can't help. Must be like an exhaust leak.

Hope this helps some folk during there search to fix "Increased Emissions" SES light since I found NONE during my search! G'day.

Did you do the repairs yourself or take it in for service? Im battling the same issue and the techs at the dealership cant seem to find out whats wrong. They change the plugs telling me I had a misfire, spent a fortune already on that and still have the SES INCREASED EMISSIONS.

On top of that theyve had the car for about a week and still no solution.

[Wristdoc]

Bought my 2013 M3 about three weeks ago with 8 miles on the odometer. At 112 miles the SES Increased Emissions light came on. Had multiple restarts with no change in the light but the car ran fine. Started it the next day and the light came on, but after washing it the light went off on the next restart.

I drove it about 20 minutes before it came back on. My dealer said it showed an error in 4 of the the cam position sensors (CPS). They changed those out and no problems since then with about 700 miles on the odometer.

It seems as if many different things can cause this code but I just thought I would share my experience...

Dave

[luiscarlos59]

Replaced the electronic valve actuator after getting multiple errors. And 2 days later i get the engine light on, dealer telling me now that the secondary air pump is causing this problem. M but i dont get any other errors on my display (navi) just om the dashboard the yellow light.
Doesn anyone know if there is a relationship of this air pump with the ellectronic valve actuators?

What happens if i leave it like that (for a while)?

[01'325rip]

Crap just got this error message. Figured it was bad gas or something.

Will be taking it in soon. Im scared. My car is running a little rough it seems like.

[Mahmood07]

I got the 'Increased Emissions' Message and SES light a couple minutes after driving off today. I had my AC on full blast and it was around 105 F outside. I have Turner test pipes and an ESS tune which removed the SES light a couple of years ago. Could this be that it needs to be retuned to remove the code or do you guys think it might be an O2 sensor?

[Ernst Henne]

OK... I had to register and jump in on this one. Two months ago, I had the SES light illuminate on my 2012 M3 with 6000 miles. Like others have stated, the car ran fine, but the light was on.

Fast forward to today... The dealer has had my car in twice, most recently, for three weeks. They cannot find the issue causing the SES... It's apparently a restricted flow of the secondary air on one cylinder bank. They've replaced damn near everything, but cannot find the issue. Their claiming an obstruction within the cylinder head such as a casting flaw or foreign object.

Finally, they wanted to replace the cylinder head (which I was not in favor of) but could not because none are available in the US or Germany. Soooo, now they are wanting to replace the ENTIRE ENGINE!

Unbelievable... There's a lot more to the story, but I'm out of time. I'm not in favor of this option. The first time I took the car in, they replaced the secondary air valve and left off some fasteners scratched the micro filter covers up with an air ratchet amongst other sloppy workmanship.

Alright... Time to meditate.

[01'325rip]

Just picked up my car from the increased emissions light. Turns out it was a bad fuel line sensor..

[Greeney]

My car is in for the Increased Emissions / SES light as well as a reduced power warning. They said there were some "loose" parts under the bonnet (not something they should be admitting saying they're the only ones who have ever been under the engine cover...).

Once they tightened everything down, they test drove the car and once again experienced the "Reduced Power return to dealer" warning. Seems like they're just as clueless as I am.

[Lerxst M4]

Mine just came on today. Just had it in last week to replace the throttle valve actuator on Bank 2.

Bringing it in on Friday and I'll post up what was fixed.

[mazspeed]

Mine came on today as I was pulling into my driveway. The car has 60,786 miles and I had a fuel range of 15 mls left when the lights came on.

[THEM3KING]

Anyone have a link to where i can find an O2 sensor? Just curious as to how much it is. I got this light a couple of months ago when i got my exhaust. After the first 2 weeks of having my exhaust I got the light and i think its just cuz im running a full rpi gtm exhaust which is catless. Also since i didnt fix it, am i damaging anything? So idk if its because im catless or its an o2 sensor thats out or something else. Anyone have any ideas what it could be?

[MMM3PWR]

Originally Posted by gr8000

Mechanical / engine parts is 2 years.

So we get less than half the warranty coverage and more than double the price as compared to the US.

But we get the nice sun, which makes it up...

That's cuz us Greeks drive like maniacs....I was on the highway driving towards Varkiza one summer at 12am and a sl65 passed me going about 180 one night... Sounded nasty!

[kyleblix]

Mine went into BMW today with this. After having the car of 8 hrs all they could tell me was that my fuel pressure was high...waiting for the next report.

[jlee403]

so just curious but did any of you have the problem fixed under the warranty, or did you have to pay out of pocket? Just got this yesterday and it just about broke my heart ):

[mdosu]

Originally Posted by jlee403

so just curious but did any of you have the problem fixed under the warranty, or did you have to pay out of pocket? Just got this yesterday and it just about broke my heart ):

Depending on your state, it may be covered under the state's emissions warranty and requires BMW to fix it, even if your car is out of the bumper to bumper warranty. Emissions are covered up to 7/70k.
Read: http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=900020

[pathosflux]

I've had a similar, but perhaps unrelated issue. My car is modified, afe intake/pulley and borla catless x-pipe with a BPM tune. I was greeted once with a "increased emissions" warning, so using my scanner I pulled the codes.

27AA - P0068
27AB - P0068

Both appeared at the same time, and then went away on their own (I didn't clear them). They reappeared a month later, without clearing them disappeared on their own. Both times it occurred about 5 minutes into driving the car (engine was not fully warmed up), and while I was at 0 percent throttle position, also both days were -5c.

The reason why I say it's similar is because this is the only form post with anything about 27aa, however p0068 tells me this is a throttle/map correlation issue. Perhaps my MAP sensor is reading slightly off, and at the low throttle positions (and cold denser air) there's enough of a derivation to exceed the maximum derivation.

These are (the e90/92 m3) speed density based cars, so the map sensor readings are quite important, mitigated by the fact that it does do closed loop fueling corrections thorough the entire load range. Just posting this here as a reference for anyone else who might get this error, and/or if anyone has any ideas. I think I may just swap out the map sensor and see what happens.

[MikeD]

Does the o2 sensor issue cause your car to go into limp mode as well?

My car threw emissions code and went into limp mode this weekend. Sometimes it was limp mode, other times it was just increase emissions with no limp mode.

I'm out of warranty and am relying on the California 7-year emissions control warranty to get this covered, BUT the o2 sensor issue is NOT covered by the dealer.

My problem is my codes disappeared after driving all weekend with a SES and I want to gauge whether it's likely an O2 sensor issue (not covered) or another emissions part issues (covered) before going in to the dealer. If it's not covered, they'll charge me $175 just to pull codes...

All the standard OBD tools can only pull surface (existing) codes.

[BPMSport]

Originally Posted by MikeD

Does the o2 sensor issue cause your car to go into limp mode as well?

My car threw emissions code and went into limp mode this weekend. Sometimes it was limp mode, other times it was just increase emissions with no limp mode.

I'm out of warranty and am relying on the California 7-year emissions control warranty to get this covered, BUT the o2 sensor issue is NOT covered by the dealer.

My problem is my codes disappeared after driving all weekend with a SES and I want to gauge whether it's likely an O2 sensor issue (not covered) or another emissions part issues (covered) before going in to the dealer. If it's not covered, they'll charge me $175 just to pull codes...

All the standard OBD tools can only pull surface (existing) codes.

Most o2 sensor faults will not cause limp mode. Limp mode is only caused by a more serious issue.

[MikeD]

Originally Posted by Mike Benvo

Most o2 sensor faults will not cause limp mode. Limp mode is only caused by a more serious issue.

Mike,
Thanks for this thought!

So my issue is, the car went into limp mode with increased emissions, DSC malfunction, hill assist malfunction message.

Then sometimes, when I start the car up, it'll just be a simple increased emissions message with no limp mode. At times, with this simple message, when I drive for a minute or two, it goes into limp mode. Other times, it stays with the emissions message with no limp mode.

Then, today, car started up and drove with no SES at all.

[happos2]

The codes should still be stored.....Need those before anyone will be able to offer you advice on anything.

[MikeD]

okay, got the two stored codes:

2B16 - Throttle Valve Actuator bank 2?

11095 - 2B57 - ?????

anyone know what this is? The tool doesn't know...