Right at the end of the video, the look on the guy’s face (behind Ivan) is priceless as to how he is evidently feeling about the situation. Assuming that is the owner.

What an absolute legend Keith is

Keith is the High Priest of Automotive Wisdom, Advice, and Prophecy.

Epic diag hands down, Really humble of u to call in for help.

I really enjoy this channel. It seems almost every diagnosis leads to someones sloppy work. 'Good Job!'

Car not running goes back home 😂😂

Keith to the rescue! Great diag Ivan even tho you havent heard from owner! Today is my birthday!

Did the dealer actually do the work? The owner did change the pump and module, and as someone already mentioned, how did it get home? Just a thought, maybe he changed the gasket himself and didn't hooked the ground back up. Just a thought, I know dealers screw up plenty but sometimes it's hard for owners to admit they screwed up.

I think everybody would love to have identifazio as a phone a friend option 😆😆!! Happy birthday Keith hope all is well!! Ivan awesome work as usual!!!

Wow, that's really bad call of the dealer not to finish the job! Take it back and you got the documentation and owner can provide that to dealer, they should replace it!! I would be pissed!! Nice of Keith to join in and provide valuable information about the BMWs!! Great video!!

Ivan I remember back in the nineties and early 2 thousands when I would grossly overwork myself running air conditioning service calls here in Houston I often had a look on my face like the look you had on yours in this video.. Don't overwork yourself...

Wow I have no words, but great diagnosis as ever. Not the outcome I was expecting.

Dealer butchered a BMW? This is odd since BMWs usually butcher themselves.

Wow, If the dealer did leave those grounds off, I would be livid. Another excellent video, Ivan.

I did a valve cover gasket on that motor in an X3 a couple of weeks ago. Pretty hard to miss those two grounds but haste sometimes makes waste. Good catch.

Great video as always Ivan !!!!! That battery sounded shot . It was cranking soooooo slow

Love the structured approach! Could you have used diagnostic tool to graph fuel pressures instead of doing ammeter?

There is a chance the DME could be fried but those grounds are for shunt dissipation, the coils are designed to multistrike and what I mean is that after the initial ramp and closing of the field they will still strike 5-7 more times, and whatever build up of electricity is left shunts through those grounds. Effectively, the coils do still spark even if you took all 3 grounds off or in the case of the Mini Prince motors you leave its single ground off. BMW products have never killed spark for any reason in a cylinder even a dead hole misfire. I would not forget to try starting it with the Valvetronic eccentric shaft sensor unplugged, or even unplugging the motor and turning the eccentric shaft by hand by means of sticking a 5mm allen in the motor and leaving it in a different position, Valvetronic will failsafe and you will use the throttle body as your means of intaking air. I have seen the eccentric shaft sensors do crazy things, and because its mounted to the actual cylinder head inside the valve cover and its female connector sticks out through it there is a chance of damaging it when removing the cover. Also, an uncoded EKP will just throw the fuel pump into full working load. The weird cranking could be the valvetronic not knowing what is going on and hitting a different setpoint as it opens and closes the intake valves as it tries to start. On another note too, that car is 12 years old, the coils are so notorious for failing we do a nice and dandy easy 36 a week. Not saying throw parts at it, but make sure the coils are in working order. Some of the things I've mentioned might be common knowledge, don't know, but all I do is BMW/Mini products so sorry if it's something you already know. The only BMW product I know that really does not like those shunt protectors not installed is the V8 twin turbo with the ground being integrated into the plastic shrouding over the coils, very very easy thing to forget and very costly when it kills the TWO DMEs, and kills the BSD signal meaning alternator, oil level sensor, IBS in the trunk, water pump... and if you don't replace all you run the risk of frying all those AGAIN after startup, with the ground reinstalled. There is a TSB for that one.

Great Diag as always Ivan. Good call on getting that great backup support to. WhooHoo, KD to the rescue. Lol That island stuff will never cease to surprise us for sure. Thanks Ivan

that was one heck of a italian diag, with all that spaghetti under the hood, wha wha wha, u are a saint for traveling all that way to complete it. amazing to see u drive many hours back home, glad to see u made it back safely, thanks for posting, hope u had a good holiday with the Mrs, u deserve it

How did the vehicle get home??? Must be more to this story.

Yeah I'm suspicious .... this seems kind of fishy. Dealer works on car, car doesn't run. How'd it get to his house? Sound evidence of wiring left disconnected, anybody would be calling the dealer to pick it up. Owner says nah, I'll just pay for new ECU and programming. Never gets back to our man about resolution. Methinks there's more to this one...

I look forward to your vids awesome knowledge you have thanks for sharing

Man you're a good teacher.

Talk about negligence - dealer should eat the repair and then some! Great diagnostic of a nasty problem (fuel pump was just a "fait divers") and Keith's hint was invaluable, as usual :-)

Man we learn a lot with you Thanks

I don't think Ivan was told the truth about this car, as in " WHO REALLY DID THE VALVE COVER " ?

I see a LOT of comments about how the vehicle made it home. My best guess judging by the video is that the ground cable may have still been touching ground for a bit after the work was done at the dealer. The loss of ground during the drive may not be immediately evident outside of a frostbite misfire because of the current finding a path to ground through another ground path ( not a good one). Certainly there is potential in a case like this that the customer could have been making something up, bit I think I remember there being an invoice mentioned on that phone call.

I agree the dealer would not to see me and if necessary my attorney. Keith and Ivan the dynamic duo.

Did you address the A0B4 code being thrown by the CAS? If you crank the car enough times without starting, the CAS will disable the car. It's an anti-theft feature. You have to use INPA or other BMW tools to resynch the CAS and the DME. That might be causing your problem.

going to tighten all the coil grounds on my BMW tonight!

Thank you PHAD

Oh no. What a great diagnostic exercise with team work. I hate it for the customer but it was sure interesting to hear what happened.

Nice moto and keith

Thanks for another great video!

I had a very similar thing happen to my S-10. It still runs fine.

This was fascinating thank you. 🤘

Keith to the rescue!

Genius diagnosis

Nice shot of the new Tappan Zee Bridge. I thought you referred to these cars as, "Big Money Wasted," Ivan. I guess their money is as good as any one else's....Great video!

Great info thanks IVAN

He changed that valve cover himself I bet. You probably got half the story as most mechanics do

Wow. We all make mistakes but completely forgetting a ground connection ruined a vehicle. Geez.

Ahhhh. The New Tappan Zee bridge....? Sure sounds like the starter needs a little love....

thank you kieth

Defazio is a legend. Hope he's on the next Staten Island express trip.

As a BMW owner I swear everytime I hear that warning bong sound it triggers me. They might as well replace it with the sound of an ATM withdrawing cash 😂

Thats amaizing,thanks Sir.

A expensive problem, was it the dealership or the owner? Keith is a godsend, a great friend :-D What that man doesn't know doesn't matter.

Interesting one Ivan fingers crossed new module will fix it...F.

Awesome episode, just subscribed

how did car get home FROM dealer with missing ground? Was that back lug just sitting on top of post and then later jumped off? Wowzer! That computer will be at least $1,000, right? some others say the computer could have worked AT FIRST before the drivers cooked.

my neighbor has a old honda hatchback with acura tsx engine and i swear that ecu is a tank,i seen him literally switch wires around from sensors with no idea what they do/jump random wires/even had tps wires that were grounding on the closed hood/was missing valve cover ground and still the ecu didnt get damaged.the ecu is a acrua rsx and was just amazed he could just jumper wires around and short to ground and still not damage ecu.

Hope we hear back from the customer ...

I'M not a BMW tech, just a regular master tech, but I know they fry modules if the slightest ground issue happens...You'd think their techs would be very worried about grounds? :/

Wow, that dealer should have to fix their screw up, AND pay Ivan`s bill.

You were wise, Ivan, to call for tech assistance. I don't know who this Keith gentleman is, but he certainly knew what to do.

That thing sounds terrible before the fix. Still watching to see the results

the previous fuel pump suspected problem sent you down a rabbit hole. this is another example of why I always check for spark first on a crank no start. I use an inline spark tester, no need to even pull a plug., just snap it between the boot and the plug. if one plug isnt sparking, I check a couple others incase one or more of the coils or plugs are bad.,,. this will save you alot of time and aggravation., many cars are wired to where they will have spark without fuel, but not fuel without spark. also the probability of a ignition problem is much higher than a fuel delivery problem in most cases. bmws or volvos that have sat for a while without running tend to have the fuel pumps seize on them, but when they are run regularly, they rarely fail.

Can the DME be sent out for repair by a bench tech?

I’m originally 2hrs north of NYC. Wonder if he was in the Kingston, NY area. I just had a no crank, no start on my E38. Intermittent battery strength due to the heat bearing down on the Phoenix area messed with the DME. Unplugged battery for 30 minutes and installed a new one. Fired right up. A temp gauge that pins to red when the car is cool suggest the DME is not communicating. Needs a reset.

Great ,Great as always ivan ...keith tho no words! 12:45 , am i the only one who is scratching heads for the in cylinder and injection waveforms ... timing wise since both are from cylinder #1 ... why would the injector fire in power stroke and what is that deep vacuum on the intake stroke ,some one help me here i think i missed something

You’re the man I bet you don’t do the valve stem seals in the heads ???

Unreal. Can't even imagine the laziness and sloppy brainless work on a simple valve cover swap. Thanks Ivan!

How did he drive it home??

Even Ivan sounds sarcastic when he says "If the dealer did it, I'd be upset",

what's the easiest way to test the grounds arent bad even if connected?

thing sounds like it has weird compression while cranking

How'd the car get home from the valve cover job?

After all did the car is running fine or not

Wait MAF is used when cranking??

Nice to know these turds are so well engineered that something as simple to fix as a broken ground will have far reaching expensive ramifications.

So how did he drive it home from the dealership ?

What did u test with test light on ground on coil pack ...before start

Wasnt there a code in the CAS system which was the security system?? Was it a code that the immo was cutting off the spark??

Ivan, it's really hard to see a really nice car just fall apart. I have to wonder what the owner was really thinking as I watch his face near the end of this clip. (19:27) Wish we had some closure on this one beyond your diagnosis. You must feel the same way. Thanks for including the Pico scope files and the screen prints. Thanks for Sharing

Phone-a-friend for the win! 🏆

if you take it off put it back on. I'm sure it's not cheap to fix. Wonder if it could be fixed?

Hi, I removed the airintake manifold and all the attached components, to gain access to the starter. The nut was loose. I tightened the nut, while in there, replaced CCV and all the temperature sensors, 3 in total. Put everything back together. Now the car cranks but won't start. Tested the injectors by a scanner, they all show "off" with key in position 2. I cleaned every connector with connector cleaner and made sure they are all properly firmly connected. I have fuel in the rail, the fuel pumps works fine. Measured the voltage on the injector wiring harness with a multimeter. Negative on the car body, positive on each prong of the connector. I do have 12 volts on one prong and about 4 volts or the other prong. This is the same for all six connectors. The problem now is instead of 4 volts, I think I should have zero volts. Would you please give me some guidance. Thanks.

i have my doubt it went to dealer .how did get home hum

I only know you need to be very careful about who you have work on your equipment ect . Thanks for the videos

How long did the guy have valve cover gasket replaced before this happened

How about fuel system light shown up

Ground at the vc cover?

I also have a BMW. Which scanner are you using?

You have proof that the grounds were left disconnected? Like a picture right as it left the bay at the dealer? didn't think so

Now the first time I heard the engine crank it sounded like one cylinder had less pressure than the rest. So let's see what is found.

how did the car get home from the dealer with the missing earth?

Where can I buy that code reader ?

Actually Volvo did something very simular to me. They pinched my maf sensor wires with a metal wire they wrapped around a loam of wires and the 5v and 12v went full contact and burnt out the 5v driver. Had to eat the cost also to have it repaired. And first thing I did was to remove all that crap and put isolation extra on all the wires. Have not had a single issue with the ecu sens then.

correct me if im wrong but the injector waveform seems well passed where it should be... almost looks likes it in the beguining of the exhaust stroke...

Hi Ivan - You faced this issue while diagnosing the 4x4 bmw with the oil level sensor and unplugged grounds... IIRC where the customer drove 15 odd hours to get to your shop

How did the car get back from the dealer after the valve cover job?

I have 2014 Hyundai Sonata 2.0 4th gear ⚙️ makes hard shift and rpm go all the way to 6000. I changed fluid 3 times. Nothing changed.

I admit it might just be the acoustics of that place; but that engine sounded horrible when cranking; and the starter sounded even worse

How did he get home from the dealership originally?

Ok. Ive done several valve covers on 3 series BMWs. It's very easy to do and hard to screw up. I hope they didn't cause too much damage. It's always something simple. But forgetting to attach a ground cable is absolutely retarded. Only other thing could have been a faulty reinstall of the valvetronic motor. Other than that it's just rebolting down the cover and reconnecting everything. You have to know exactly what those meat heads did putting it back together.

How did the owner get the car back from the shop??

I had a problem like this 8n a Ford Lincoln town car. It was the safty shutoff switch in the trunk. I felt like a fool

Yes, I think that the owner is not telling all the facts. I saw his face at the end when Ivan told him what the diag discovered. Thanks Ivan.