So after 3 years almost to the day I had my first major issue with my xB. All of the sudden I lost 95% of the power and had to pull off to the side of the road. I put 'er in park and the RPMs were going from about 1500 to almost 0 and shooting back up again. It kept doing this over and over. Almost stalling, then recovering. The engine seemed to have alot of hard vibration going on. After turning her off and letting her sit for about 25 mins I turned her back on and while still getting some RPM wavering it wasn't quite as bad but I didnt want to risk causing any further damage to anything.

My check engine light never came on. The only thing I did different today than any day was run her through the wash, and while it is relativly cold it is sunny and above freezing today (40F).

I got her towed to the dealership to see what the problem is, and I won't find out until probably tomorrow morning. Anyone else have this problem before or any idea what I should expect?

 

could be a burnt or damaged valve and/or a crack in the block. i wouldnt expect your block to be cracked already, but it does sound like you have a major leak from somewhere within the combustion chamber. intake valve is unlikely, but it can happen. exhaust valves are more likely, but hopefully its nothing too pricey to fix. good luck man! keep us updated

 

Thanks for the pointer. Hopefully it won't be too serious.

 

no problem. im sure theres a few more things that could cause this that I'm not aware of, but hopefully its nothing dramatic. do you have any mods to the engine?

 

Cold air intake but that is it. I am not sure of the exact model of the air intake since it came installed. I am hoping that maybe it is just a gasket or something at most.

 

yeah..could be a part of the gasket between two cylinders. CAI wouldn't do anything to cause this so that can easily be ruled out.

 

I did a little research and could be bad o2 sensor, broken gasket, or cracked head. Somehow there is an air leak and could be "simple" fix or something very serious.

 

yeah any of those makes sense. i really hope its not a cracked head.

 

Got the call this morning. Looks like the air flow sensor went completely dead, almost completely clogged air intake filter(just changed it not too long ago! grr!). Having them replace filter, sensor, went ahead and having them change spark plugs and do some other maintinance stuff that I can't get to atm and that was supposed to have been done when I took it to a different dealership. (I'm on my 3rd dealership for service now...and these guys seem to know what they are doing). I guess $600 is better than $6000.

 

awesome! glad it was something much simpler than i thought! your filter could have been clogged if you use an oil to clean it..over oiling can both kill your AFS and clog the actual filter itself.. good to know eveyrthings gonna be back to normal though!