Rough idling and now dead...

M

mishanja

Member
Location
Sugar Land, TX
Car
2013 BMW X5
I should start by saying that I had to replace my battery couple days ago, got a brand new one. So, today after the gym, I was going home. Went to start the car, it started, but idled very very rough: felt like engine was shaking. Turned it off, let it seat for couple minutes, tried again, same thing. Repeated procedure 4 times, same result. Searched forums here, went to check battery connections, removed negative connection, put it back, all seems in order. Tried to start the car, can't do it. It cranks, but does not start. All the light come on in key "ON" position, but can't start. What is going on?
 
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Is the check engine light on? Rough idle can often be a coil pack issue and one or more cylinders aren't actually firing.
 
I think when I had my battery issues, I used OBD and one of the messages said that cylinder 5 misfired (or something similar) it happened once and not again, I didn't think of it much as I figured it has to do with the fact I didn't drive car for couple weeks

---------- Post added at 07:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:19 PM ----------

OK, the story continues... so my wife came and picked me up and took home. I decided to grab my OBD reader and go check out if I have SES light or if it throws any other codes. So I came back to Infiniti (all in all, about half an hour later) and hooked it up to OBD. at that moment i got two codes p1610 and p1614, which from what I read, has something to do with the inteligent key not matching what car expects. Now, could that cause the car not to start??? At any rate, I erased all the codes, and.... FX started right away, no issues.... Obviously, there is an issue somewhere, I doubt it its a key... I will go get some battery post shims, as negative cable seems a little loose on there, and I guess I'll keep my OBD with me all the time now just in case.... stay tuned....
 
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When you said it would not start, were you able to turn the ignition at all or it stays locked like when you tried to start the car without your ikey with you?
 
Ok when you put the car in the key to the on position do the radiator fan con on and stay on. If it does that either one of your coil has a short so are you are having a shorts some were. But check your coils to make sure one of them is not damaged/bad

Sent from my SGH-T889
 
Coils easy just change it. Being an 03 & all it sounds just about right. In regards to the key code. Have you checked the remotes batteries? It could also be a bad key. You could try another one if you have a second one
 
I swapped coil #5 and #2 yesterday, so far the code hasn't come back, and car starts and runs fine.

---------- Post added at 07:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:42 AM ----------
Themechanic said:
Coils easy just change it. Being an 03 & all it sounds just about right. In regards to the key code. Have you checked the remotes batteries? It could also be a bad key. You could try another one if you have a second one
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I wish, I was never given the second key when I purchased the car. I think that was because I tried to start the cat 5/6 times when it was misfiring
 
Try replacing the key battery. I had a similar problem when the key battery was going dead. It would intermittently recognize it and caused some starting issue. But it didn't cause rough starts, it was either it would crank or it wouldn't.

However, I did have another issue with my positive battery terminal. It was loose and so sometimes halfway through cranking the car, it would just go dead, all power would cut. Then it would come back, but it would take forever to crank since the cylinders were flooding. The more I'd crank, the worse it would get. I'd have to wait a few minutes, then when it would fire up, it would idle like an old diesel truck for a minute because of all the excess gas. So I'm thinking you may just have 2 separate issues. You may have a bad coil pack and then you immediately shut the car off then restarted it multiple times in a short time frame. That floods the engine and until fuel pressure drops, the car will crank but won't start.

And coincidentally, you have a bad key battery and by starting your car multiple times in a few minutes, that was causing the battery to drain. The battery is cheap, so I'd just replace it. And I think your coil pack will fail sooner rather than later.
 
Well, I drove the car for over a week (couple times on short trips to Austin, TX, 150 miles) and "cylinder misfire" message never came up again... However, i did have car idle rough couple times when I was sitting at the light and every once in a while I would get a strange loss of power, for maybe a second, while cruising on the highway.

---------- Post added at 03:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:59 PM ----------

So today, while driving wife to work, the power just cut off completely while waiting at a light. When I tried to restart the car, it would crank but not start. I sat there for about 3 minutes and tried to start the it again. This time it started, I drove maybe 1000 feet and it cut off again, this time when I was driving. I was able to restart it after 3 minutes or so, but it idled horribly. I pulled it into mall parking and let it seat for 45 minutes

---------- Post added at 03:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:06 PM ----------

I pulled the code, it was p0340, cam shaft sensor on bank 1. Long story short I was able to drive car home and put it in the garage. Got spare car and went to autozone, bought sensor and an hour later (its just one screw, but a very tight place) new sensor is in. About to go for a ride, hopefully my problems are getting to the end
 
How hard was it to replace the cam shaft sensor, mine are giving me codes as well, I think it is a big reason why my car sometimes likes to crank over and over until it fires.
 
Looking forward to hearing the outcome. Hopefully that fixed your issue. Will be good to know that such a seemingly big issue can be fixed by something so simple.
 
meme405 said:
How hard was it to replace the cam shaft sensor, mine are giving me codes as well, I think it is a big reason why my car sometimes likes to crank over and over until it fires.
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On Bank 1 (the one I did), i had to remove vacum line on top of plenum. Only other bolt to remove is the one holding sensor in place (10mm wrench, socket won't fit) It took me an hour, because it a really tight space, and I have big hands, so not much room to work :rotfl: Also, the plug is weird, I never seen one like that, I'll add a picture which I found online. So overall, not hard at all, just takes patience.
On Bank 2, you will need to remove intake and throttle body, as well as some housing.
What makes it somewhat hard, the wiring to the sensor is very short, so can't really pull it out on top of the engine for easy of change. I actually saw someone on 350z forum who snapped the wires, so had to get new plug and solder it in :bulgy-eyes:

---------- Post added at 11:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 AM ----------
StuLax18 said:
Looking forward to hearing the outcome. Hopefully that fixed your issue. Will be good to know that such a seemingly big issue can be fixed by something so simple.
Click to expand...

So far so good, drove yesterday and today to work, none of the symptoms persist (knock on wood). So for right now, I would assume my problem is solved.

---------- Post added at 11:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:51 AM ----------

Here is the picture I was referring to (hard to unplug given space restrictions).... or my hands.... :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

2011-01-04_124217_crank_sensor_connector_2.jpg
 
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Would something like this help? I've been thinking about getting a set for awhile. Ratcheting wrenches.

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I don't have that set, but i read or saw on DIY where guy said he could not fit one of these. There is no much room between bolt and side, so I thing its to thick on the round side to fit. I used very basic 10mm wrench

---------- Post added at 12:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:57 AM ----------

Space issue is in the first picture (when connector is plugged into sensor) - there is not much room between bolt and side of connector
 
Easy, I had to replace mine twice on bank 2 recently. The first replacement failed because I didn't pay attention to what cause the issue with the original one. Anywho, it turned out to be a leak in the seal that caused corrosion to build up inside the connector itself. I got a piggy tail and splice it in and replaced bank 1 and the crankshaft while I was at it. If you hit up Pepboys website I believe they have a 20% if you spend over $75. I went with BWD sensors.

Getting the connector off was the hardest part.
 
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Cool thanks guys, I saw a DIY on G35 driver on swapping them out, gonna have to make a day of this and change mine, I've got a bunch of other stuff I would like to do when I get in there as well.
 
Yeah those nissan cam/crank sensor connectors can get sticky sometimes, you just gotta be patient & play with it. I find a 1/4 inch stubby ratchet with a semideep 10mm socket works awesome on that tight spot.
 
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