stephen

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and help. Here's what I've done so far.

To fix the ABS fault I cleaned the tone rings or reluctor ring with a small steel brush that you can attach to a drill got all the corrosion off. This does require you to jack up the car, and place axle stand underneath and remove the wheel turn the wheel so that you have access to the tone/reluctor and then gently turn the hub as you brush the crud away. Then I removed the bolt holding the abs sensor and cleaned all the dust of it and surrounding area.

The abs sensor the part that sits directly above the reluctor ring when I turned it around to look at it was smooth.

The P010.0  error was the MAF sensor which I replaced the code was cleared when I had the ABS investigated by a local garage who told me it was the front right or drivers side.

As for the pulling to the left it was resolved by replacing the ball joint or the lower control arm (wishbone).  I jacked the car up put it on axle stands and spent an hour looking at it from all angles and when I went to the left side of the car and looked for play in the wheel on the drivers side it would move if I applied pressure and rocked it top to bottom which should not happen if all components are good.  This is a tell tale sign of a faulting ball joint.  

It has been very frustrating because I took it to numerous garages and they had not a clue what the pulling was being caused by even though I took it for a full for wheel alignment which surprised me.  How could they not notice a thing like that???

My last issue is with the Anti roll bar which has been causing me issues since I got the car.  I have had the bushes and drop links changed twice in a year, only to find the reason they are going bad so quickly is that the anti roll bar is bent on one side. It is sitting way to close to the driveshaft. But after inspecting both sides and looking underneath the car seeing that both bushes are in the right place and don't appear to be ripped or broken it's the only conclusion that seems obvious.

Now I know that anti roll bars are usually extremely strong and I suspect that at some point when someone has done work on it they have used a jack against it causing it to bend.  Getting a replacement anti roll bar seems like it will be difficult.

Hi Stephen, I've changed the top suspension mounts (blog entry on my website if you want: http://www.thebmwz3.co.uk/2016/09/top-suspension-mount-replacement.html)but I had a failure and not sure if it would pull if they were the issue.

Thanks Andy. I've been reading your blog. Most helpful.   I don't think mine has moved as far up as your picture shows so most likely its not that bad. This vehicle only had 58,000 MI on the clock when I got it in April last year. But I suspect it had limited use and may have even stood a while.

A friend of mine suspects the top mounts does anyone have any experience with this?. Some kind of metal cup with a bolt sits above holding the strut in position.

I'm going to change the front wheel bearing hubs and add the bolts once the old bearing hubs are removed. Just trying to get a decent torque wrench and braker bar.  The only thing I could do with is some sort of camber measurement tool or gauge so that I can adjust it manually to within the correct tolerances once the bolts are replaced.

Does it make noises and give vibration through the pedal when under braking?

 

It may be the abs kicking in when it's not needed which could be causing the pulling to the left problem.

 

Turned out to be a dodgy sensor on mine when it was doing that.

Well it does go on and off the ABS light.  No it just pulls to the left when normally driving. I've tried to look for the signs of binding brakes i.e smoke acrid smell, excessive dust, hot rim to the touch but nothing.  If I brake the pulling does not get any worse. Although I've noticed that it seems a little noisy when braking but not the normal squeal type noise you get when they need copper grease like a rough sort of noise and its normally only noticeable when first using the car in the morning. I've checked the fluid brake fluid level and it looks fine.

 

Hi,

Can't help on the pulling to the left unfortunately, but wanted to advise the P0100 is unrelated. P0100 is the MAF (Mass air flow) sensor giving a bad reading or is not giving a reading at all. This could be because the MAF has been blanked off/bypassed or that it's gunked up and no longer working correctly. At worst this may cause you reduced performance, but nothing relating to the problem you're having with the abs/pull problem.

 

 

ABS light coming on could be anything unfortunately, from sensor fault to ABS unit itself so needing further diagnostics sounds the best option, but as we all know that can generally only be done by the expensive code readers for these cars.

 

However, having said that, pulling to the left, have you had the wheel off and had a look (brake binding?), or has a garage taken a look as the readouts you've given are from a garage doing alignment testing, what did they have to say about it?

 

I've been told to fit camber correction eccentric bolts to the front struts where they connect to the spindle on each side on the front like these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162098976673/ and shims on the rear axel.

Can anyone help me with this?

The car pulls to the left.

ABS light is also coming on

Fault code P010.0 after key dance.

Also can anyone tell me where the Engine code is located. I've been trying to find it for some time.

Thank you.