can dirt in the engine cause permanent damage?

No more dirt than that will cause you anything to worry about! But there is something else wrong with your BMW, you need to find out what that is!

How much dirt do you think got in there? Like someone else said just a little incidental grit or gunk shouldn't be a problem. A handful of sand would. If the presence of the dirt is causing these problems then the damage is almost certainly permanent.

More likely that you f'd up when reassembling the throttle body though.

If the car was left with the inlet open over night unless you live in the middle of an opencast mine during blasting, the amount of dirt that could find its way into the inlet will be very, very low.

Sounds to me more like a problem with one of the vacuum pipes that are connected to the inlet pipe work.

Often over time the pipes become brittle due to the heat of the engine. If they are left alone there is no problem, however if you move the inlet pipe work around and out of the way of the parts you are looking to clean this can split or break of the pipes.

Remove the inlet again and look carefully around the engine bay to see if there are any pipes that have split, pulled out, broken.

If there is replace them.

Hi

I very much doubt that leaving the throttle body detached overnight has allowed enough dirt into your engine to cause your problem, but not reconnecting the TPS might though, or not refitting the throttle body correctly and leaving an air leak might as well!

Very best regards

Geordie

"Some" dirt will not do the type of damage you are speaking of. A handful of sand would be very detrimental.

Since you have already started the engine, all the damage is done and the dirt has long ago gone through the cylinders and out of the exhaust.

there is maximum in all risk no everlasting injury yet you would be able to would desire to bathe your injector nozzles.We run a fleet of medium accountability diesels. We use injector cleaners including seafoam. do not sell off it into the gasoline tanks,somewhat unhook the gasoline feed line on the pump and hook a hose to the pump and run the engine rapidly from the bottle. verify all strains and filters are sparkling previously reconnecting the automobiles gasoline line. If it runs stable for a whilst and starts off to cut back to rubble lower back you maximum in all risk nonetheless have airborne dirt and dirt interior the device and could would desire to get rid of and sparkling your tanks. If the airborne dirt and dirt become put in one tank and not the different,it is going to maximum in all risk have airborne dirt and dirt in the two by way of actual incontrovertible fact that the unused gasoline is lower back to the two tanks.

Yes! Any impurity such as dirt will eventually kill your engine because it does not burn cleanly. Oil and fuel will burn cleanly mostly leaving the engine through the exhaust. The remnants are impurities that eventually build up after a long time. That's why when you see an opened engine after so many miles are put on it, it looks blackish like tar is there. That's mostly burned carbon. Dirt will do that quickly because it douesn't burn cleanly like gas and oil do. Sorry for your tremendous loss! A BMW!

Peace

@_*

If the hood was down i don't think any dirt got inside,maybe some dust not dirt,check all your wire connections you might have forgotten to plug one back in.Good luck

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