First GT mechanical issue?

A little disappointment yesterday when I went to start the 535 GT, it started fine then within 2 seconds the engine died. Repeated attempts had the same result - the engine starts then dies, as if it has enough fuel & air momentarily, and then doesn't.

Of course this happens on a Christmas Eve Friday after everything is closed, with a must-do trip scheduled for Monday morning . I can take the wife's car as backup, but this morning I wanted to try it again and perhaps mimic a fuel pump by giving it more gas pedal at the critical moment...

...and then it started and stayed running. It idled about 500 rpm higher for a few seconds, and then everything was normal.

Never through this sequence did any warning lights come on. I'm aware of the dreaded high pressure fuel pump issues affecting the N54 engine, but as I understand them, those were long starts or issues while driving accompanied by the half-strength engine warning light. And I'm not sure if those issues have persisted with the N55 (my guess is they have).

I suppose I'll go to the dealer Monday morning and see if it spit out any codes and then make the go/no-go decision for the trip. It goes without saying that having this happen to an 8 month-old car makes me .

Hopefully an error code was stored to facilitate diagnosis. Whats the temperature like in your area? Any chance of having bad gas?

I hope it all works out to being glitch that never comes back.

We're in a normal winter stretch for us where the highs are in the upper 40s fahrenheit and the lows are in the lower 40s (all clouds - no sun!).

I have about 1/3 a tank of gas so if this were a bad batch I figured I'd have seen it by now, but maybe not. I did buy it at a different Chevron than normal because I was returning from a trip, but it was a high-traffic station not somewhere out in the sticks. And I've purchased gas at that particular station before.

Mine quit today after a self service car wash. I bought gas yesterday while the fuel delivery trucks were filling the tanks at the station and this morning thought the car ran rough. I'd want to think I got a bad batch of gas or maybe the filling riled up the water in the bottom of the tanks and some got in the tank, (Thought they had filters to catch that!) Car died in the middle of the street. No lights, no warning, just died. Was able to get to the bike lane and get it restarted easily, ran a bit rough and make it home. Seemed to run a bit rough but by the time I made it mostly home it seemed to run okay. Hope it's not the dreaded fuel pump as I only have less than 300 miles (got the car last week) Will try to run it more later in the week and stay off the freeways "just in case".

That's a strange one. In my prior 335, I had a water pump failure which caused the car to go into limp home mode initially and then to shut down completely. But unlike your situation, mine was accompanied by warning lights.

And for others subsequently searching this thread, an update on my 535i GT issue - it was (knock on wood) completely transient, it hasn't recurred and all seems well.

Whats funny, is that I have had this happen to me, around when it first started getting cold. Never any issues (knock on wood), but that morning I was pissed/concerned regarding what was going on.

Oh and no codes/errors found

Originally Posted by magnumforc

Mine quit today after a self service car wash. I bought gas yesterday while the fuel delivery trucks were filling the tanks at the station and this morning thought the car ran rough. I'd want to think I got a bad batch of gas or maybe the filling riled up the water in the bottom of the tanks and some got in the tank, (Thought they had filters to catch that!) Car died in the middle of the street. No lights, no warning, just died. Was able to get to the bike lane and get it restarted easily, ran a bit rough and make it home. Seemed to run a bit rough but by the time I made it mostly home it seemed to run okay. Hope it's not the dreaded fuel pump as I only have less than 300 miles (got the car last week) Will try to run it more later in the week and stay off the freeways "just in case".

Ran the car for about three hours today, city and freeway without a problem. Thought I felt a slight hesitation about a minute after startup, but nothing thereafter. Made several start and stops as well and started fine. Wonder if it was just something with the fuel which has now passed through or? I do know the EPA has approved a greater ethanol mixture (15%) and wonder if that's not what we're getting out here in CA, or whether the end of February marks the beginning of reformulated fuel for warmer weather driving? It used to, but according to the following, it's supposed to be April.

The way I see it, we're just screwed with 3% lower mpg with CA reformulated fuel anyway, more ethanol coming our way and changeovers in fuel twice a year. Ugghh.

http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/gasoline..._gasoline.html

No 15% ethanol yet! It will be awhile!

As a followup, have put about a thousand miles on following that incident with absolutely no problems. I am now convinced it was the fuel. Maybe some water made it through the filter or who knows. In any event, I have not returned to that station and don't plan to in the future.