320D M47N smokey

A girl in work is having prob with her 2005 E46 320D.
She reckons it's a bit smokey, particularly when low on fuel(strange I thought)

I had a look today, the air filter is reasonably fresh and all hoses look in good shape, I was gonna remove the breather filter housing to check for a dirty loo roll but I'm wondering would it already have the vortex type insert ? It's a Jan05 built car.
It was low on oil too, she said the yellow oil light started coming on after she shut down the engine, it took 2 litres to bring it up to the mark.
Any more usual suspects to check out?
I'm gonna arrange to clean the EGR valve one of the days.


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Try this John for starters. If its excessively smokey (black) my money is on an air leak on one of the hoses (running high pressure even the slightest hole becomes large under boost)

http://www.bmwhaus.ie/forum/showthread.php?tid=45

Cool thanks Ciars,
Would the 2005 car already have the vortex type seperator? Did you upgrade from the loo roll type?


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if CCV valve-seperator would be blocked it wouldnt smoke black,it would be blue smoke,and would be too big engine inside pressure.

Engine probably just stuffed with carbon. Take off boost pipe onto EGR and see what it's like. If it's caked in sh!t then the manifold is the same.

The E46 came with the loo roll type CCV filter but hopefully 8yrs later it's been changed to a vortex. Oh btw don't forget to tell her to check her flaps :D

My own 2005 was a final build (March '05) and had the upgraded one fitted from factory. Its a bit hit n miss when the changeover happened, but most 04 built cars seem to have got it. Things are a bit cloudier for 03 built cars.

I did replace mine anyway with a brand new one as a precaution when I picked up the car. I only did this as the car had the 5 year BMW service inclusive coming to an end when I bought it, and me being a fussy shit with preventative maintainence and not being around for the 4 years previous servicing by BMW, felt for the price it was worth doing. It was at a time I replaced the EGR also as I wasn't happy with the movement of the piston due to previous buildup inside. Even when cleaned up, the piston was never 100%.

Report back on how you're getting on and we'll take it from there :)

Right so, first thing I'll check the EGR and clean if neccesary.
Next up the breather filter, it looks like it's never been disturbed so imagine its in the car 8 years.
After that, if she has the cash I'll propose a flapectomy.

Thanks for all the info lads.


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I'd be checking shaft play in the turbo could be on the way out