CEL appears in my BMW E90 - tips/ help wanted :)

haz

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So the Check Engine Light appeared on a long drive yesterday in my 2005 325i automatic.

Engine runs as normal, nothing unusual / weird sounds or anything. Did some Googling and according the The Interwebs it could be emissions related, gas cap not tightened all the way on, or that it just means the car soon needs service (SES; Service Engine Soon)..

Anyone want to share their thoughts?

I will most likely take the car back to the shop that did some repairs for me last month and ask for a free diagnosis, as the CEL could mean so many things and throw so many different codes.. (though my money is emissions related, my manual is in German so it?s not too clear what it was saying)

Stock photo;

 
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Pull the code... until you have a code there's no way to know what the issue is w/o symptoms.
 
Thanks, I said I would. I still want members experiences with E90 CEL situations and hear what it meant when it happend to them etc.
 
There are literally thousands of codes that illuminate that light. No one could ever tell you whats wrong just by it being lit.
 
So the Check Engine Light appeared on a long drive yesterday in my 2005 325i automatic.

Engine runs as normal, nothing unusual / weird sounds or anything. Did some Googling and according the The Interwebs it could be emissions related, gas cap not tightened all the way on, or that it just means the car soon needs service (SES; Service Engine Soon)..

Anyone want to share their thoughts?

I will most likely take the car back to the shop that did some repairs for me last month and ask for a free diagnosis, as the CEL could mean so many things and throw so many different codes.. (though my money is emissions related, my manual is in German so it?s not too clear what it was saying)

Stock photo;


1. Should have posted in the Q&A section.
2. The check engine light indicates that one or more trouble codes have been set. Unlike some Jaguars, your BMW does not have on-board diagnostic displays, so you will need to get access to an OBD-II reader (at a minimum) to retrieve codes from the computer. There is no other way to find out what is wrong, as others have commented.
3. A quick look at any BMW E90 forum would reveal that the number of problems that could be indicated by the light are numbered in the thousands - from 'you left the gas cap loose' to 'bend over, VANOS just died'.

If you have an OBD-II car, you should have an OBD-II reader - decent ones are often on sale for less than $30 and sometimes less than $20.
 
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Looking forward to pulling emission related codes :D
 
Get an ELM327 bluetooth adapter (less than 10 ?), and an app called Torque (~4 ? for full version) to your phone, and you can read the codes whenever CEL appears. Everyone with a car newer than year 2000 should have this set, so worth it...
 
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Get an ELM327 bluetooth adapter (less than 10 ?), and an app called Torque (~4 ? for full version) to your phone, and you can read the codes whenever CEL appears. Everyone with a car newer than year 2000 should have this set, so worth it...

iOS compatible? Tried to Google it and most user reviews talk about Android.

edit* I ordered one.. thanks for the tip
 
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manual is in German so it?s not too clear what it was saying

Could you post pictures of what your manual is saying for things related to the Check Engine Light? I'm willing to translate it for you.
 
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Could you post pictures of what your manual is saying for things related to the Check Engine Light? I'm willing to translate it for you.

it's the bottom one, because it's lit and doesn't blink. I had 5 years German In school but all I could interpret was that it was emissions related


imageupload
 
Sorry, seems that Torque is only for Android. I'm sure there are similar apps for iPhones too...

Your manual basically just says, that your emissions may be f*cked for whatever reason, and that you should visit the stealership. It simply is impossible to know the reason without the actual fault code.
 
What's with some people and their reluctance towards going to a dealer and having them inspect it?
 
Money, for starters. For the price of one fault code reading you can get five sets of OBD readers for yourself. Of course if you need to get deeper than just engine codes, you need better tools than your regular Chinese OBD readers.
 
it's the bottom one, because it's lit and doesn't blink. I had 5 years German In school but all I could interpret was that it was emissions related


Motorst?rung mit Verschlechterung der Abgaswerte - Engine interference with the result of emissions getting worse. Probably some minor fault, but it interfers with the emissions of your car so, so I guess in times where every 1g of CO2 is important the car puts the engine check light on so it gets fixed. As luokyio said, you have to visit the dealership anyway...
 
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Sorry, seems that Torque is only for Android. I'm sure there are similar apps for iPhones too...

Your manual basically just says, that your emissions may be f*cked for whatever reason, and that you should visit the stealership. It simply is impossible to know the reason without the actual fault code.

Yup, it's what I gathered from it also.

What's with some people and their reluctance towards going to a dealer and having them inspect it?

Relax IceBone. Where exactly do I say "I do not want to go to a dealer"? If you actually read what I am saying, I am saying I will go in and get the error codes but I am interested to hear if anyone else got this CEL and their experiences.

Motorst?rung mit Verschlechterung der Abgaswerte - Engine interference with the result of emissions getting worse. Probably some minor fault, but it interfers with the emissions of your car so, so I guess in times where every 1g of CO2 is important the car puts the engine check light on so it gets fixed. As luokyio said, you have to visit the dealership anyway...

Thanks Mitchi :)

Already booked an appointment with a shop + ordered that mini ELM327 bluetooth adapter for another time when I want to read codes :)
 
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