[mlifxs]

just thought I'd share. Late Saturday, got a CEL after trying to accelerate hard around a slow poke. Trans kicked down, engine rev'd and the dash lit up. At the next stop light, engine ran like crap. Eventually the engine stabilized and the light went away. Scanned and codes popped up for misfires on 1 and 2.

Same thing happened Sunday morning. Same misfire codes on 1 and 2.

So, I switched coils 3 and 4 with 1 and 2....and I reset adaptations as I recall reading someone recommending this as something to try. I then tried to see if the misfires would follow the coil swap. Spent an hour or so trying to force a misfire (fun!) but couldn't cause one no matter how hard I hit the throttle. I'll keep trying

Anywho maybe there's something to that "try resetting adaptations thing". Maybe many of you know this already but thought I'd bump it as people sometimes go straight to coils as the issue, as I was tempted to. Worth a shot.

[Love The Drive]

Originally Posted by mlifxs

just thought I'd share. Late Saturday, got a CEL after trying to accelerate hard around a slow poke. Trans kicked down, engine rev'd and the dash lit up. At the next stop light, engine ran like crap. Eventually the engine stabilized and the light went away. Scanned and codes popped up for misfires on 1 and 2.

Same thing happened Sunday morning. Same misfire codes on 1 and 2.

So, I switched coils 3 and 4 with 1 and 2....and I reset adaptations as I recall reading someone recommending this as something to try. I then tried to see if the misfires would follow the coil swap. Spent an hour or so trying to force a misfire (fun!) but couldn't cause one no matter how hard I hit the throttle. I'll keep trying

Anywho maybe there's something to that "try resetting adaptations thing". Maybe many of you know this already but thought I'd bump it as people sometimes go straight to coils as the issue, as I was tempted to. Worth a shot.

Iv'e had 3 misfires in the past 2 months. Car is almost at 90k miles.
All cylinder 1. Maybe I should try switching them around.
Even my mechanic said 90k is the normal life of the coils
He had an E90 come in with 65k miles that needed coils swapped out.
Thanks for the info!

[Taskmaster]

Bad coils. I have my old whole set you're welcome to have (free!) 1 or 2 went bad, the the rest were fine.

[mlifxs]

Originally Posted by TheAxiom

Bad coils. I have my old whole set you're welcome to have (free!) 1 or 2 went bad, the the rest were fine.

so you're thinking my relief is temporary?

thanks for your offer, i'll pm you

[cpie168]

How do I perform the reset?

[mlifxs]

Originally Posted by cpie168

How do I perform the reset?

this is from a software vendor who provides a module to reset adaptations. Sometimes the module will fail to reset properly, so they offer the following (copied and pasted) to perform the reset manually:

1. Never touch the brake pedal & leave the key inserted the entire time
2. Insert key and push START Button
3. Press and HOLD accelerator pedal for 30 seconds.
4. WITHOUT RELEASING THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL, push the START Button (remember without touching the brake, so the car doesn’t really start yet.)
5. Release accelerator pedal
6. Wait 30 seconds
7. Start car normally

[cpie168]

Thanks for the prompt response! Will the car give any indication of a successful or unsuccessful reset upon going through the above procedure?

[mlifxs]

Originally Posted by cpie168

Thanks for the prompt response! Will the car give any indication of a successful or unsuccessful reset upon going through the above procedure?

no, so I run over the 30 seconds a bit to make sure.

[cpie168]

I see. Thanks again!

[mlifxs]

Originally Posted by cpie168

I see. Thanks again!

you're welcome. I keep a copy of this in my glove box

[Three_thirty_I]

And it has not misbehaved since you moved the coils around? If so, I wonder if there was not some dust or something on the contacts for those two coils - it reminds me of something that happened with a Z4 that we had borrowed coils from to test on our E46 (these are most likely also the same coils that you are using since they are used on most of the N52 engines from 04/06). Basically we removed the Z4's coil packs and tested them in the E46 (suspecting its coils were faulty) and the car indeed ran better. While fitting the Z4's coils back to the Z4, there was some dust on part of the engine cover that we had lightly dusted away. Anyway, when we started the Z4 the engine was not happy, it was running rough and clearly misfiring. I immediately removed the coil packs again, made sure that there was no dust in any of the harness plugs etc, and then after refitting them again, did the throttle adaptions reset which is similar but different than the E90. Problem solved. Another example of coil pack weirdness, also with this E46, but years ago, the car was taken out of the garage from cold and parked, then later that day just brought back in again for the night (have no idea why this was done, but anyway), the next morning when it was started it had a terrible misfire and this continued while the car was being driven. It did lucky fix itself after the engine was shut down and restarted.

[mlifxs]

^^ thanks. Yeah no issues so far. I guess I'll keep going and I have two new coils on hand in case misfires occur and move with the coil change.

[Three_thirty_I]

Keep us posted!

[BoogeyMan'sBMW]

At that mileage, its about time to swap coils and spark plugs if you haven't already.

If the car is not giving you any more problems, I would try to squeeze out as much life as I can but you should keep in mind that is is almost time.

Btw, I'm sure you know this but if you misfire again and its now cyl 3 and 4 misfiring, it is the coils who are the culprit. If its still 1 and 2, time for some new plugs.

[Wolf 335]

Sorry, could you clarify which adaptations get reset?

That process you listed sounds like the transmission/throttle adaptation reset.

[mlifxs]

Originally Posted by BoogeyMan'sBMW

At that mileage, its about time to swap coils and spark plugs if you haven't already.

If the car is not giving you any more problems, I would try to squeeze out as much life as I can but you should keep in mind that is is almost time.

Btw, I'm sure you know this but if you misfire again and its now cyl 3 and 4 misfiring, it is the coils who are the culprit. If its still 1 and 2, time for some new plugs.

yup plugs were swapped around 50k ago.

yup hoping any misfire follows the coils as same location can be plugs and I also read on our forum, it can be injectors.

[mlifxs]

Originally Posted by Wolf 335

Sorry, could you clarify which adaptations get reset?

That process you listed sounds like the transmission/throttle adaptation reset.

well you got me there, I'm assuming it's "all" based on how info was presented. I suppose I could be wrong. Google step 4 to see what I'm looking at, from the source.

sorry to be cryptic but the source was banned from the forums, probably due to competition with sponsors.

[Yborg]

Originally Posted by Love The Drive

Iv'e had 3 misfires in the past 2 months. Car is almost at 90k miles.
All cylinder 1. Maybe I should try switching them around.
Even my mechanic said 90k is the normal life of the coils
He had an E90 come in with 65k miles that needed coils swapped out.
Thanks for the info!

My Car had a Cylinder 5 missfire (this started as soon as the winter cold kicked in) and i did the process of elimination to get it diagnosed. So everything pointed to the coil, but after doing a lot of reserach i decided to change all 6 of them instead of just 1. The Car ran much smoother afterwards and the problem was solved.

I changed my coils at 47K Miles! Somehow i thought they would last longer .

[Love The Drive]

Originally Posted by Yborg

My Car had a Cylinder 5 missfire (this started as soon as the winter cold kicked in) and i did the process of elimination to get it diagnosed. So everything pointed to the coil, but after doing a lot of reserach i decided to change all 6 of them instead of just 1. The Car ran much smoother afterwards and the problem was solved.

I changed my coils at 47K Miles! Somehow i thought they would last longer .

Yea, it is best advised to change all 6 of them at the same time, otherwise they will start going out one by one.
My mechanic also recommended changing all 6 spark plugs at the same time as the coils.