Question for Beemer mechanics

[red griff roger]

Excuse an interloper. My wife's 125 started to sturrer under acceleration. She says it was fine at constant speed. But yellow engine light came on, so she took it to the local dealer. It still drove. The dealer says it need 4 new coils, +4 injectors + 4 spark plugs. All in £1,185 notes. It is 08, under 30k miles.

Question I have is what causes such a massive failure? It can't (surely) be one of the components being replaced? Is it some controller higher up the system? The worry is that this all goes again. I would rather get any big fault sorted. Any suggestions please?

Cheers chaps, roger

[Dracoro]

I'm not a mechanic but sound to me like they don't really know what the problem is so just replacing a load of parts. Did they tell you what the actual fault is?

I assume it's just out of warranty? With that mileage (and FSH??) I would speak to BMW UK and see what goodwill there is.

I would also get a 2nd opinion on the error codes/fault.

[red griff roger]

Cheers - are you a psychic? My worry exactly - let's replace everything we can think of and see if that light goes out. And yes, it is just (three months) out of the warranty given when she bought it.

And yes, BMW has already offered £900 'goodwill' before even asking.

What numbers do you use for the lottery?

roger

[Dracoro]

So, it will cos you £285 to fix. It may cost you that whatever the issue is anyway. If they volunteered £900 then they may offer more if you politely push them. Ask them if it guarantees to fix the problem, and if not they will pay ALL the cost (given they haven't fixed it).

I'd get that 2nd opinion though (assuming light is still on).

[Sticks.]

Just to note re goodwill - when I had a goodwill payment on my Z4 I was told by the dealer that because I made a contribution the part was guaranteed for 12 months, and if I hadn't, it wouldn't have been.

So the dealer said anyway.

[E30M3SE]

Sticks. said:

Just to note re goodwill - when I had a goodwill payment on my Z4 I was told by the dealer that because I made a contribution the part was guaranteed for 12 months, and if I hadn't, it wouldn't have been.

So the dealer said anyway.

This is correct, but it should have been 24 months, as all BMW parts are warrantied for 24 months.

OP, let them do it it is only going to cost you £285, if you were to tackle it yourself parts would probably come to that sort of figure, if not more, if they have volunteered goodwill it is probably a known issue on these cars.

Edited by E30M3SE on Wednesday 7th December 10:53

[RiccardoG]

You say its a 125, is this is 'i' or 'd'? I assume the engine is a 6 cylinder, so why are all the parts as for a 4 cylinder? Or is it just a typo?

By the way, my parents have an 08 325i and it was recalled by BMW two months ago to have some of the above parts replaced, even though the warranty was expired. This was in Italy though...

[onesickpuppy]

E30M3SE said:

This is correct, but it should have been 24 months, as all BMW parts are warrantied for 24 months.

OP, let them do it it is only going to cost you £285, if you were to tackle it yourself parts would probably come to that sort of figure, if not more, if they have volunteered goodwill it is probably a known issue on these cars.

Edited by E30M3SE on Wednesday 7th December 10:53

I had the coil packs replaced (under BMW AUC warranty) on my old E46 330 - mechanic told me it was a common fault on that engine at least. He replaced all 6 IIRC, although only one was faulty at the time. Symptom was intermittent non firing on one cylinder.

[Dracoro]

RiccardoG said:

You say its a 125, is this is 'i' or 'd'? I assume the engine is a 6 cylinder, so why are all the parts as for a 4 cylinder? Or is it just a typo?

By the way, my parents have an 08 325i and it was recalled by BMW two months ago to have some of the above parts replaced, even though the warranty was expired. This was in Italy though...

If it was a 'd', it wouldn't need spark plugs!

[RiccardoG]

Dracoro said:

If it was a 'd', it wouldn't need spark plugs!

Yes, I realised just before I hit 'submit' that that part of my post was irrelevant, still left it though for some odd reason...

[ghibbett]

Oh dear, this sounds like a case of 'we don't actually know what's wrong, so we'll replace everything that could be wrong and hope the issue is fixed'.

Sounds to me like a coil has failed. There's no way all 4 coils have failed together, as apart from that being almost statistically impossible, the car wouldn't just stutter under acceleration - it wouldn't run at all.

That being said, I would imagine a single coil replacement along with the associated labour and diagnostic costs would be around the £285 mark. Therefore to get 4 x new plugs, injectors and coils, along with the work warrantied, sounds like a bit of a bargain.

[red griff roger]

Thank you all for the thoughts. Firstly, my error - it is a 120, so only four pots. And, yes it is 'i', therefore sparks. I have had a coil fail (twice) on my M3 (6 pot), and that is very noticable, and it is not a fault only under load, it is all of the time. Drives like a pig. I am pretty sure that if 1/4 of the coils went, it would be even more obvious, let alone all of them. And if only one goes, is it usual to replace all the others? And why injectors, etc?

She has already taken the decision to get the work done as the bill moved from £1100+ to £265. She needs the car. We collect the car tonight.

I am taking her to the garage. I will certaily ask what the underlying fault is. I just wanted to have some ideas, and the usual dealer bluff of "trust us, we know what we are doing, and you sure don't" is a load of manure. I have been messing around with cars since I had to learn to keep my old A reg (62 A that is) Spitfire on the road. I can turn a spanner, but am not much cop at the leccy stuff and 'puters.

I am just gobsmacked that 4 coils, 4 injectors, etc should all suddenly take a unanimous decision to pack in together. AND the car still drives!

I will post later to let you know what I am told. Thanks again for putting up with an interloper!

[red griff roger]

OK, they have no idea what caused the fault. Apparently, it is quite common on n16, n18 and n20 'i' series. BMW have a well established repair protocol - new coils, injectors, plugs. Hence the volunteered contribution to the cost. We are assured that this will fix whatever it was.

I am filled with confidence. Bottom line, it has cost us £260, and a wishful hope that whatever it was has been cured.

How much does BMW spend on R&D for engineering?

Back to my TVR.

[TheEnd]

red griff roger said:

OK, they have no idea what caused the fault. Apparently, it is quite common on n16, n18 and n20 'i' series. BMW have a well established repair protocol - new coils, injectors, plugs. Hence the volunteered contribution to the cost. We are assured that this will fix whatever it was.

I am filled with confidence. Bottom line, it has cost us £260, and a wishful hope that whatever it was has been cured.

How much does BMW spend on R&D for engineering?

Back to my TVR.

Yep, it's down to the injectors.
The usual plan is change the plugs, then a coil, then the lot, then the injectors.

People do seem to report that it gets better for a short while after changing bits, but usually it'll keep coming back until the injectors are changed.

I've yet to hear the full explanation of what is going wrong, maybe BMW haven't figured it out themselves yet, but it certainly is a common pattern.