E46 330ci Coupe, Engine Warning Light & Shaking?

[slater9000]

Hey guys,

Got in the car this morning and there was some shaking/vidration that wasnt there before so I didnt pull off, several seconds later the engine light came on. Any ideas what this might be?

I left the car at home today as i didnt want to damage it.

Andy.

[bazking69]

Failed electrical sensor probably. MAF at a guess.

[slater9000]

Thanks guys, dropped it off at the garage, they diagnosed it as a mis-fire unknown reason why as sparks were changed 18k ago.

Andy

[Fox-]

slater9000 said:

they diagnosed it as a mis-fire unknown reason

Sounds like its time for a new garage!

[blondini]

They do have multi electrode plugs and they don't have ignition leads. Most likely a coil pack on the way out, there's one for each plug. Easy for a competent mechanic or diyer to diagnose if it is a plug or coil pack.

[< FORZA WEST]

do see quite a few coil pack failures at this time of year...if you have bremi or power train coils then chances are they are failing...The later versions are Bosch

[TheEnd]

I'd probably be leaning towards a coil pack for this.

[robsti]

Coil pack probably so start getting ready to replace them all over the next couple of years!

[AB]

Last time this happened to me, I had forgotten to screw the oil cap back on properly!!!

[John the Blind]

Ignition coils by the sound of it. You will have 6 of them and I had all 6 replaced on my 330, and 1 so far on my 335i.

The cars shakes and the engine sound awful? According to BMW assist they had a bad batch from Bosch in '03( my 330 was a 53 plate). Easy fix but can be difficult to diagnose which exact one is playing up.

In '05 they just changed all 6 to be sure under warranty. Now in '09 they want to replace them 1 by 1. another problem of the recession.

John

[TheEnd]

One way i found to test the coils (which includes the secondary coil, which is harder to check) is if you have the car misfiring at idle, you unplug the supply to each coil one by one (these are 12v feeds, so you won't get electrocuted) and see which one doesn't make the car worse.
That will be the one that isn't working in the first place

[blondini]

TheEnd said:

One way i found to test the coils (which includes the secondary coil, which is harder to check) is if you have the car misfiring at idle, you unplug the supply to each coil one by one (these are 12v feeds, so you won't get electrocuted) and see which one doesn't make the car worse.
That will be the one that isn't working in the first place

Agree, and then you swap that coil pack with one of the others to see if the misfire goes with it or stays on the same cylinder. If the misfire stays on the same cylinder it ain't the coil pack.