[ALF_E90]

As per my whinge a couple of weeks ago, my 2007 (N53 engine,ED) 330 had a coil pack fail recently, at 22k miles and one month out of the manfacturer's warranty. Another had also failed exactly one year earlier. Given that I had already purchased the Gold level enhanced warranty (that only comes into effect on 15th Feb) BMW paid half the bill, which was still £150.

Well today the engine management light came on again, with the same symptoms (obviously running on 5 cylinders) at the end of a drive. Thank god, it started as normal on the next start - I use the car a lot for work and have some vital meetings a long way away tomorrow.

Which begs some questions. Can they play up before failing? I would assume they were working, or not. Can anything else cause them to fail? Both times it has happened after a fairly spirited DCT-on drive - but nothing like a thrashing. The car generally has a fairly easy life of long journeys and no town driving as my 34-36 mpg average attests. And how much work is involved in changing all the coil packs? The £150 bill as "half" the price for one took me aback - what would an indie charge to do the lot?

[m1bjr]

They are about £40 each if sourced yourself.
A very easy job too, right under the plastic cowling - plug and play almost.

Someone is having a giggle with those charges.

Yes they can play up, its fairly common on all cars with coilpacks (almost all petrol cars these days).
The faults I have seen on Hondas have manifested themselves as low RPM stuttering that is often fine at WOT.
Not always the case, but the result is similar - misfire and fuelling error codes/limps that come and go, and can exitst a long time before total failure.
In your case, they have gotten a bit hotter than usual.
No rhyme or reason, they all seem to be hermetically sealed (potted) in resin and quite bullet proof.

On a side note its always worth checking battery negaive to chassis and engine supplememtary earth cabling conections on older cars or those out in the salt all year.

Steve

[ALF_E90]

Interesting, thanks. This morning I taped up the air intake hose (which can't have been the problem originally as it has only been flapping about since the dealer mended the last pack failure) as the ED cars don't let much air into the engine bay.

It then ran on 5 cylinders with the warning light yellow from a mile in to the journey until about 2 miles in - when it cleared and was fine for the remainder of the 6 hours or so driving I did today. Can't have been too hot then...

I wonder if using Super might help - though everyone except Sainsbury's (who's fuel is actually BP) charge crazy money for the stuff these days. I also wonder just how long Super sits in the tanks and whether it is actually higher octane at all! V Power I get, it is the most different of all the Super fuels in composition, but the rest I'm not sure about, and I have not so far noticed any difference in the drive or economy when using Super for a few tanks.

[335i E92]

Originally Posted by ALF_E90

As per my whinge a couple of weeks ago, my 2007 (N53 engine,ED) 330 had a coil pack fail recently, at 22k miles and one month out of the manfacturer's warranty. Another had also failed exactly one year earlier. Given that I had already purchased the Gold level enhanced warranty (that only comes into effect on 15th Feb) BMW paid half the bill, which was still £150.

Well today the engine management light came on again, with the same symptoms (obviously running on 5 cylinders) at the end of a drive. Thank god, it started as normal on the next start - I use the car a lot for work and have some vital meetings a long way away tomorrow.

Which begs some questions. Can they play up before failing? I would assume they were working, or not. Can anything else cause them to fail? Both times it has happened after a fairly spirited DCT-on drive - but nothing like a thrashing.
The car generally has a fairly easy life of long journeys and no town driving as my 34-36 mpg average attests. And how much work is involved in changing all the coil packs? The £150 bill as "half" the price for one took me aback - what would an indie charge to do the lot?

Sounds like your havin a nightmare!!

I'm currently selling genuine BMW Bosch coils, still in the box. They fit any new generation straight six which includes your car.

Steve above has allready has a couple of me. I've got 3 left @ £20 each + p&p. Have a look in the classified section for detials and pm me if intersted.

Cheers

H

[DavS1]

Coilpacks are pains, generally I think they fail due to the heat they carry from the engine/spark the emit and obviously the spark plug.

I think it'd be a good idea to run the car with the coilpack cover off, lets some heat escape and some passing air help cool them, which i'd imagine would probably help extend their life.

they are a piece of piss to change as well, dealer prices really do take the mickey! I need to start a business up for all the BMW's needing fixed, would make a fortune even charging half of what BMW charge!

[ALF_E90]

If it's a heat thing then Super might help. The ED cars are so restrictive of air entering the engine bay that I expect the whole area runs hot. 95%+ of my mileage is claimed back at 40/25p so even V Power would not cost nearly as much as I claim back.

How easily is the cover removed?

@ 335i E92 - I would be interested in the half-price coils but the list of cars on the thread does not include ED 330's with the N53 engine - or not in the quick scan of it I made!

[335i E92]

Originally Posted by ALF_E90

If it's a heat thing then Super might help. The ED cars are so restrictive of air entering the engine bay that I expect the whole area runs hot. 95%+ of my mileage is claimed back at 40/25p so even V Power would not cost nearly as much as I claim back.

How easily is the cover removed?

@ 335i E92 - I would be interested in the half-price coils but the list of cars on the thread does not include ED 330's with the N53 engine - or not in the quick scan of it I made!

Sorry, looks like they don't fit the n53.

Hope you get it sorted!!

[ALF_E90]

This happened once the other day and four times today. The first few times I was able to pull over and re-start and it cleared it. Then it happened again and cleared itself after a few minutes, but later in the day it came back and re-starting now makes no difference. Looks like dealer time

It's had two tanks of Super since the last post, and also happened for the first time today only a handful of (gentle) miles into the journey, so it seems not to be linked to driving hard, a hot engine, or 95RON fuel. Juts shoddy design or manufacturing, I guess - the car has already had two coils done and is 3 years 2 months and 24k miles old...

I am now covered by the "gold" BMW warranty at least, but a £100 excess each time for every coil - if that is how it ends up - would be a lot more than just paying an indie to change them all now, which may be an option since it needs an oil change soon. Probably best to go back to the dealer who did the recent coil pack change - though the chances of them saying "ooh yes, it is the one we changed that has broken again, we'll fix it for free" is about zero, as it would be with any car dealer.

Any indie recommendations in Hants?

[decker335i]

Originally Posted by DavS1

Coilpacks are pains, generally I think they fail due to the heat they carry from the engine/spark the emit and obviously the spark plug.

I think it'd be a good idea to run the car with the coilpack cover off, lets some heat escape and some passing air help cool them, which i'd imagine would probably help extend their life.

they are a piece of piss to change as well, dealer prices really do take the mickey! I need to start a business up for all the BMW's needing fixed, would make a fortune even charging half of what BMW charge!

Running without a cover isn't a great idea. Most of what covers do is for noise suppression, looks is a side effect. I tried the same when i changed out my plugs at 54K, it was so loud it sounded like the valves where tapping the cylinders ;P The costs of high pressure direct injection ;P

[gaza01]

Yr problem sounds like what i have and after changing all the plugs and then the 3 coils that were giving cylinder misfires i know its not the coils or plugs. Its the fuel injectors leaking petrol. They either need servicing or changing.

[IanS100]

I don't know if the bmw is particularly complicated but I recently changed the coilpack on my daughter's Astra & it was literally a 2 minute job & cost £80 for a unit containing all 4 coils. Considering that in over 40 yrs of driving & messing with cars I've only ever known one old style coil break down, modern coil packs seem a totally daft idea.

[ALF_E90]

That was a thread revival - three years between my last one and Decker335i's!

When BMW replaced all my coils/plugs in one hit I never had an issue again - though they did then again change the coils FOC for an updated part.

That was something like 60k miles ago now, no issues since.