[hussainpatel]

Hi guys,

Recently joined this forum in search for an answer....

I bought my first ever BMW (320i 50k) in July 2014. I had an Audi A3 2.0TDI which was an amazing car and never let me down.

320i SE 57 REG only 50k.

The 320i was my dream car, a gift to myself after graduation :-)

After buying the BMW, 2 months into driving it I noticed the following issues:
Jerking in gears 1/2/3
Loss of power when I put my foot down - almost like the engine is skipping a beat
Once at 10mph in 2nd the car jerked and cut off resulting in the engine management light coming on
Usually in the the first gear, occasionally I find the car revving quite high before moving off.

Gave it to a BMW specialist - diagnostics identified many sensors came up - cleared the memory and took it back two weeks later after the light came on that the NOX sensor was faulty. Replaced it at £450 and still same issues.

I feel extremely let down. After reading much on the 320i, these were common faults I gathered...

Common Problems:

Fuel Injectors
Coil Packs
High Pressure Fuel Pump
Spark Plugs
NOX Sensor
Cam Shaft Sensor
Vanos

Anyone with similar issues?

I don't feel there is a fairly straight forward answer for this issue. According to others who have paid out £0000's to fix the problem, the problem still hasn't been solved.

[makkan00]

Sell your dream car and buy a normal car such as 325, 330, 335 i/d.

[mk2vr6]

Pm'd you Makkan.

[kraftyskillz]

Just want to say that the 325i suffers some of the same problems. Can we jump on the bandwagon? Lol.

[mk2vr6]

I have just bought a 2009 LCI 318i, with the N43 2.0l engine. (before anyone spits flames, I got it REALLY cheap!)

I bought it with a misfire that comes and goes. When cold it is at its worst, with the gearstick and cabin vibrating at idle. After it warms up it gets better but is still bad, however sometimes it disappears almost completely and pulls hard to the redline, but most of the time it is a pig to drive, with no power and struggling to rev/idle.

I have proof the previous owner replaced the Coilpacks, Plugs and injectors, Both fuel pumps and High and low pressure senders, plus both lambda's with genuine parts. He has told me that only the NOX sensor was yet to be replaced.

I have INPA, and a full scan shows 3 main codes - cylinder 1 + 3 misfire, and random multiple misfires probably caused by the first two codes.

I really dont want to fork out £300 for a sensor to find out it does naff all!

And I find diagnosing bits with INPA a lot harder than working with VCDS for VAG cars!

Any ideas chaps?

Thanks, Tony.

[mk2vr6]

This thread has died off over the past few months...

Makes me wonder whether everyone has jumped ship, or the revised BMW parts fitted actually solved the issues.

[mk2vr6]

Anyone know what the latest software update version is, and when was it released?

Thanks

[laurentProd]

Daten v54 flying around.

Just did an update of my dme and transmission modules with v53 this week end.

[Chris_11]

Hello guys. I need some help with some issues with my car.
Last year I bought in july a Bmw e92 320i n43. Of course a couple of weeks after i bought the car i saw this thread Now from july till january this year the car was working well. I had a problem with the nox sensor which started in november and i changed it this year in jan. From here the problems started and i am loosing my mind... when i changed the nox sensor everything was perfect, car ran so smoothly with power and great gas milleage... till the next day. In the morning when i started the car the engine began to shake and make some weird noises but i did not mind i thought it was probarly bad fuel or something, but then it gotten worst. The next mornings the shakes began to be more violent till the check engine light popped on and start flashing. But this only happend when i was starting the car for the first time that day (cold start up) and let it ran at idle for about 30 sec, as soon i was driving away the engine was working well and when it gets in temperature the idle is good.
I plugged the obd2 reader and found a misfire on cilinder 4. I switched the coils from 4 to 1 to see if the error moves but after i did this for aprox 3 weeks the car was running great. No missfire, it started perfectly with no shakes at all. This week, the horror... when i start the car and the engine is cold, it shakes violently and check engine flashing. The obd says misfire on cylinder 4. Changed the plugs, changed the coils but still misifiring on cylinder 4 at idle. The coils and injectors was changed in march 2013 and since then the car ran aprox 13000 miles. Allso now i cannot drive it anymore because when the engine gets in temperature the idle is good but in traffic suddenly the engine loses power and it tends to die and i am struggling to drive the car. When this happens i have no CEL only weird erros like: air mass system error.
The question now is... what is going on my car? Is the injector nr.4 bad? I really do not know how to solve this and it is freaking me out. I am sorry for the long story but i want to give you as much detail as i can, maybe you guys have an ideea.

Thank you for your help

[Chris_11]

Changed injector nr. 4 with a new one. Nothing, still misfire. I Don t know what to do anymore

[paszczaq]

Same here. After reading this thread seeking for solution, the only conclusion is that N43 is the mystery.

Changed coil packs, cleaned MAF, throttle and solenoids but still misfires every now and again plus rough idling. No faults logged on ECU.

....any more suggestions?

[old grey steve]

Don't frequent the 320i section that oftern but here are 2 cars we've had this week. Both cars had cam shaft / crank shaft corrolation faults (which we have seen numerious times)

Apart from the numerious misfire codes usually assoicated with plugs and colis these issus are now becoming alarmingly normal. The fix is usually top guide, main chain guide, a new tensioner and 2 vanos bolts anda new rocker cover gasket, which including VAT is around £200 in parts plus labour. Once done the first one in these pictures was cured.




you can see pre work on these pictures how slack the chain was. The tensioner was lose and was also weeping oil (again we've seen a fair few of these engines with this issue) the car in question was a pre LCI 320i N46 engine with just over 70k on the clock.

The one below will concentrate the mind.

A late 09 plate 320i again cam shaft /crank shaft corrolation fault this car also had a misfire issue but something wasn't right the car had service history and recoreded at just under 33k on the clock folowing BMW's service agenda, servicng by BMW plus another garage engine in question was from memory an N43







The above is frightening. We never expected to see the above. All I'll say is we are seeing these engine coming through with cam shaft /crank shaft related faults nad of ocurse misfires etc. Oil wise the rules from where I stand are clear.

1/ CBS intervals are too long some cars that cover low mileages can have oil in the sump for over 2 years with ease (as seen above) low mileage for some cars means less care less visits as the CBS data rules.

2/ change oil every year. If you do 3100 milea a year change the oil every year.

3/ hear a rattle something doesn't sound right get it in front of someone who understands the breed. As we've discovered most "average garages" don't sounds harsh but these engine appear to be very delicate.

[Q-NAZ]

Has anyone come across an issue with oil pump failing without warning on E90 320i! Mine went in for a oil service at a local garage last week. Its done 87k running fine until I went to pick it up. Started the car up within 30 secs oil light came on. Shortly after its started to sound like a old diesel and them should a tapping noise. Showed it to the mechanic who was confused to why it was asking for more oil when it was full. After a few hours the mechanic decided to stick it back on the ramp and take sump of etc.... Anyway now the engine will not start and have been told I need a new engine.
This is all very strange and don't understand why this would happen. I have had BMW's in the past and loved them to bits, but this have totally put me right off them. Any suggestions would be helpful to whats best way to sort this issue out.
Also would it be okay putting in a 318i N43 engine as in the car if it comes too me paying to sort the issue out.

[TubbyJim]

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the forum, having read alot of helpful posts here. I bought a 320i E92 only 10 weeks ago. 2008, 30k miles, FSH. Immaculate...and my first 'decent' car ever. Bought from a garage in Glasgow and delivered to me in Aberdeen. it was delivered with a warning light on the dash, for a nox sensor which i got fixed as soon as i could. last week engine juddered and lost most of its power. turned it off and on again, fixed! Then a few days later, same again, but problems persisted. limped it home at 20mph. called RAC and got it taken to my local garage, issues with injector faults on cylinders 2 + 3. So far, so 320i, from what I've been reading. I contacted BMW and provided them with my chassis number, who informed me my car had the ignition coil fixed as part of a 'campaign' in 2012. I couldnt find any note of this in the service history...maybe they didnt issue paperwork to keep these issues as quiet as possible? Its done like 15,000 miles since having the work done...I feel like i shouldnt be having these issues so soon if its been 'fixed' by BMW?

Are people still continuing to to have coil / injector issues AFTER the BMW official 'fix'?

This is my first Beemer and first 'premium' car. my previous 12 year old £1800 Alfa Romeo was more reliable than this! on a positive note when it works, the coupe never fails to put a smile on my face

[Chris_11]

Ok guys... after a month of problems with my car especially at the first start in the morning, i think I got to the bottom of this... I guess you will have a shock but hear me out. For those of you with n43 engines running like crap and you don't have any idea what is rong with it... check the oil fill cap. It seems it does not plug in perfectly and that is a source of 1000 problems that could go rong, sending fake erros on ECU and making the engine to run like crap(misfires, no power, judders, etc). Just try and change it or put it the other way arround, with the "Bmw recomends Castrol" the other way arround. My car is running ok after i modified the position of the cap and i will change it with the new one.
Another thing with this cap... i had a friend with a 1 series with the n43 engine and the same... engine runs like crap, no power, sounded awfull. Bmw Service told him to replace the nox sensor and the crankshaft senors. I looked at his oil cap, i tried to modifie those two pins so the cap can force to isolet on the engine and the probleme is gone. For nearly 3 days that 1 series is working perfect. On the 2011 n43 they changed the oil cap with a new one. You might want to check it out...

[nieko]

hey Chirs_11
It sounds like an option
How things going with your car now. Was there any issues after oil cap has been changed?

[Mr HG]

Hi folks, a few weeks ago I bought a 2008 E93 320i M sport, my most expensive vehicle ever and my first BMW, a 7 year old car to some, dream machine to me, so it's with sadness that it's this thread that has brought me to the forums.

I only started looking online to determine the two engine fault codes I am getting, which are P122F and P121C , I was narrowing my search down to coils and leaky injectors(or perhaps faulty sensors for either) when I stumbled upon a link to this thread and after some reading I got a little worried i'd made a bad move, my last car was a 2005 A4 2.0TDi S Line and it never let me down in over 3 years.

It was interesting reading the first 7 or 8 pages because it was back in 2008 when my car would have been brand new and it gave me hope that perhaps these issues had been resolved by previous owners but when I skip to this page it seems there are people in the same boat as me.

Like many have said before, the car seems to be running ok, it ticks over fine ,it sits steady at just under 700 rpm and if it blips or judders at all you'd struggle to even notice, I do think there's something sluggish about the response between the pedal and the power but if there is any then it is very little.

I'm going to write to the previous owner whom had it for 3 years to see if I can get some history on the car.

Anyway thanks for reading my tuppence worth, even if just to let others know they're not alone.

It really is a beautiful car and drives like a dream otherwise, hopefully I won't have to post on this thread in the future

[TubbyJim]

Hi Mr HG, hopefully you're car is fine - there must be good ones out there!

I'm (disappointingly...) probably going to have to battle the garage I bought it from to cover more costs from what they've said last week, but I'll get there with persistence no doubt.

[Chris_11]

Originally Posted by nieko

hey Chirs_11
It sounds like an option
How things going with your car now. Was there any issues after oil cap has been changed?

Hello. Well things are going pretty well. Changed the oil cap with a new one wich is a little different from the one i had on the car and till now everything is ok. I think the lambda after cat will need to be changed to but for now everything is ok.
In other news... on realoem i saw that bmw changed the bosch coils with delphi ones.

[vtwin_man]

I feel your pain!

My E92 drove me mad, had it one year and had everything from the vanos set to the coils changed. Gave up in the end and got a 330d which hasn't missed a beat.

[Mr HG]

Had all four coils done yesterday, car seemed to be alot better, only a few miles last night and a few more today and the engine management light is on again, car still feels alot better ,monday will reveal what code it throws up this time, hopefully only one this time.

[TubbyJim]

Sorry to hear the EML is on again Mr HG. The earliest I could get a diagnostics from BMW is Monday 27th, so I'll report back!!