Meet Jon: Jon lives in Apex and drives a BMW X3. Jon has had his BMW X3 serviced at Peak Auto since June of 2016 and recently had a dash warning light come on of “Service Engine Soon”. BMW calls the “check engine light” service engine soon. It can be a bit confusing since we all think of service as an oil and filter change.
Jon’s BMW X3’s Service engine soon light stated that the engine was running too lean. This is usually caused by an air intake leak between the air mass meter and the engine. If the BMW car computer cannot tell how much air is coming into the engine then it cannot regulate the fuel/air mixture properly usually resulting in the engine running too lean. Lean running engine sounds great, sounds like the BMW X3 would get better fuel economy. This is not necessarily true and the biggest issue with running to lean is that the valves can overheat and cause major engine damage.
Jon dropped off his vehicle, Peak Auto’s expert technician diagnosed his issue (it needed a new Air Mass Meter Boot), looked the vehicle over to find that the drive belt was cracked and the drive belt tensioner pulley was bending. Peak Auto called Jon for approval, the car was fixed, cleaned and washed and Jon picked up his BMW X3.