One or two cylinders not working in the morning

[t_marat]

As in the title, early in the morning, after just starting the engine, one or two cylinders are not working. I say not working because the idle is rough. After the engine warms up a little (towards the end of the blue zone on the gauge), it smoothes out. The temperatures during the night is about -20C, in the morning about -15, -16C.

What might be the culprit? I changed the sparks about two weeks ago to Beru Ultra. Beru website says these are exactly for my BMW.

[smcgowan]

The Hydraulic Lifters. Until the oil fully pumps them up the engine the valves will not be opened all the way and will run rough. One other sign is the valve chatter when first cranked. Mine did it until I switched to a thinner oil. It also reduced valve chatter when the engine is first cranked. Since you stated the outside temp at being negative. I'd bet this is your case. What oil are you running?

[Bill R.]

sometimes in the morning.. a couple of pepsi's usually takes care of that though.. In your case it could be the hydraulic valve adjusters not pumping up because the oil is too thick when cold. Switching to a 0w40 synthetic mobil one should help that if thats the case. If that is the case the valves will be tapping louder until it warms up also.. Otherwise on some cars it seems like the injectors are plugged up or stuck until the engine runs for a few minutes too. Running a couple of cans of good injector cleaner through should help if thats the case. It can also be vacum leaks at the intake manifold or somewhere in line from the mass air flow sensor to the engine. To test that you'd need to spray some throttle body cleaner around all the areas that it could leak such as manifold gaskets throttle body gaskets, vacum hoses etc with the engine running and cold when its missing, if it suddenly picks up the cylinder after you spray an area then you know where its at.

As in the title, early in the morning, after just starting the engine, one or two cylinders are not working. I say not working because the idle is rough. After the engine warms up a little (towards the end of the blue zone on the gauge), it smoothes out. The temperatures during the night is about -20C, in the morning about -15, -16C.

What might be the culprit? I changed the sparks about two weeks ago to Beru Ultra. Beru website says these are exactly for my BMW.

[t_marat]

What type of throtle body cleaners do you use?

[t_marat]

The oil I am using is semisynthetic, 15W-30, Esso.

I was told by the mechanic 0W-40 is too liquid for my car. That it will "consume" a lot of that oil.

[SRR2]

15W is pretty heavy for the temperatures you're seeing, not to mention that it's part dino oil. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine that lifters are the problem, though that diagnosis would be a lot more solid if you'd have posted what model car and engine you have. Unless your engine has a lot of wear on it, and/or you have reason to believe that oil consumption could become a problem, you might want to give M-1 0W-40 a shot. That's what I use in the Porsche and I can tell you that there's no hydraulic tappet problem at those low temperatures.

Those "Beru" plugs. You sure that BMW lists those? Where is the gap set? When I had the 535 (M30) it didn't idle well at all unless the gap was .035 or so. That was with Bosch single platinum plugs.

[Kalevera]

Those "Beru" plugs. You sure that BMW lists those? Where is the gap set? When I had the 535 (M30) it didn't idle well at all unless the gap was .035 or so. That was with Bosch single platinum plugs.

Steve, we beat this one into the ground last week. No fact or logic did any good

[t_marat]

BMW does not list Beru; but Beru supplies other things. I read about spark cables and many other staff to other automotive companies.

Steve, we beat this one into the ground last week. No fact or logic did any good

So Beru is actually a reputable company. I did not believe the problem was due to sparks.
I looked all over the Beru website but did not find a "Beru Ultra" with two electrodes. I think the ones I have are fakes.

[Bill R.]

2 electrode plug from beru, bmw uses a 2 electrode plug on the m50's so beru is providing the plug that bmw calls for. I would not thing its a fake based on the electrodes. You haven't yet stated whether it taps loudly in the morning when its missing until it warms up, that will tell alot about whether the problem i HVA related or something else

BMW does not list Beru; but Beru supplies other things. I read about spark cables and many other staff to other automotive companies.



So Beru is actually a reputable company. I did not believe the problem was due to sparks.
I looked all over the Beru website but did not find a "Beru Ultra" with two electrodes. I think the ones I have are fakes.

[t_marat]

2 electrode plug from beru, bmw uses a 2 electrode plug on the m50's so beru is providing the plug that bmw calls for. I would not thing its a fake based on the electrodes. You haven't yet stated whether it taps loudly in the morning when its missing until it warms up, that will tell alot about whether the problem i HVA related or something else

I don't think I have enough experience to tell if it taps loudly. But it seems to me that there is no difference in engine noise while its cold and warmed up.

I changed the plugs and put the old Denso ones back. When the engine is started at first, it idles smoother, but after about a minute idle becomes a little more rough (the same as Beru Ultra). Those old Denso plugs look very bad. Another thing, after reaching operating temperatures, engine starts pinging when I accelerate a little faster. When its cold it does not. I did not have this pinging with Beru plugs. Picture of the Beru plug, exactly the one that I currently have. Even the made in France text http://www.partsbase.nl/ShowImage.asp?ID=Z14
Below are images of the Beru plugs after they were taken from the engine. I think the gasket on the cylinder head needs replacing, as there was some oil (a drip or so) on the some of the sparks.