E91 Straight Six Bearding

E91 Straight Six Bearding

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Discussion

ATM

18,300 posts

220 months

Saturday 30th December 2017
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tomic

720 posts

146 months

Monday 1st January 2018
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Not to my taste but a very good spec. 5 previous owners on a 2010 car though and it looks like it’s got the Chrome window surrounds from an SE unless that’s part of the M Performance pack.

ATM

18,300 posts

220 months

Monday 1st January 2018
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tomic said:
Not to my taste but a very good spec. 5 previous owners on a 2010 car though and it looks like it’s got the Chrome window surrounds from an SE unless that’s part of the M Performance pack.
I think its expensive but that's just me.

PTF

4,355 posts

225 months

Monday 1st January 2018
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crankshaft said:
Yep, thinking about it, it's not a good idea. Although I don't really see why in years to come it'll be any less sought-after than an E36 328i when they are both 25+ years old.

Re Z4 - I like them, but I want a back seat. Also fancy a 130i.
Now you're talking. Love my 130i manual. Failed to find a decent E91 330i and then the 130i popped up on autotrader. 53k miles and 1 owner. It sold within a day.

ExVantagemech..

5,728 posts

216 months

Monday 1st January 2018
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Its funny how the M sport E91 demand so much more than an SE. This is my 325i SE with spanish. Guy I bought it from threw the Thule bars in for £50... WBAC and AT show it as worth about £2200 trade and £3200 private with 114k on the clock.
Its on 16" winters at the moment and by god I hate to say it it drives soo much nicer than the godawful RFT's it came with. Ive done near 25k on them and will not be putting them back on once it warms up a bit, Im looking at. Rainsport 3's.

Only annoying thing it does is has a "fluff" when sitting idling. Not all the time but 1 cylinder misses every now and then. Guessing its worth pricing up a set of coils as Ive done the plugs aready.


ferrisbueller

29,342 posts

228 months

Monday 1st January 2018
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ExVantagemech.. said:
Guessing its worth pricing up a set of coils as Ive done the plugs aready.
About £18 a pop when I got one last year.

ATM

18,300 posts

220 months

Tuesday 2nd January 2018
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ferrisbueller said:
ExVantagemech.. said:
Guessing its worth pricing up a set of coils as Ive done the plugs aready.
About £18 a pop when I got one last year.
I thought the ECU would tell you if one is dud. I'd suggest trying to read the fault codes. Then only change the faulty one.

ferrisbueller

29,342 posts

228 months

Tuesday 2nd January 2018
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ATM said:
ferrisbueller said:
ExVantagemech.. said:
Guessing its worth pricing up a set of coils as Ive done the plugs aready.
About £18 a pop when I got one last year.
I thought the ECU would tell you if one is dud. I'd suggest trying to read the fault codes. Then only change the faulty one.
The OBD will flag a misfire, yes.

If it's shot, you'll get an engine warning light and a derate.

zippyonline

Original Poster:

354 posts

167 months

Tuesday 2nd January 2018
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[quote=ExVantagemech..
Only annoying thing it does is has a "fluff" when sitting idling. Not all the time but 1 cylinder misses every now and then. Guessing its worth pricing up a set of coils as Ive done the plugs aready.

[/quote]

I had a coil go - i confirmed this by unplugging a coil and seeing if the engine sound changed. I also had the butterfly flap from my DISA sitting in the inlet port - this also caused a "fluff" when idling - but it still went pretty rapid (I quickly stopped driving it once I worked out why it had the "fluff" on idle!). Worth checking that too - load of discussion a few pages back i think.

[quote=ferrisbueller]

The OBD will flag a misfire, yes.

If it's shot, you'll get an engine warning light and a derate.

[/quote]

Mine didn't go CEL when I had a coil go. Guess it must depend on failure mode and what the computer checks to trigger the CEL.

ExVantagemech..

5,728 posts

216 months

Tuesday 2nd January 2018
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Ive got a laptop with a proper diagnosis system on it, theres never a code there for missfire nor does it flag anything else.
I did recently have an issue where it missfired badly, I stopped, switched off and restarted the car and the fault cleared and didnt happen again.

bodhi

10,540 posts

230 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2018
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stevesingo said:
bodhi said:
Related to the transmission - has anyone with an N52 ever experienced a strange stutter between 1500 and 2000 rpm? Doesn't show up in the first 4 gears, but in 5th and 6th on the motorway with revs around that area when I put my foot down, there is a strange hesitation then a clunk from the drivetrain as power kicks in again.

In low gears or over 2000 rpm it is absolutely fine, and goes and sounds like it should. It's going in for service in January, should I be worried about the size of bill incoming?
Mine does it and I don't think it is transmission related. You feel it as a clonk in the transmission but the root cause is engine related.

I have checked fault codes and nothing comes up.

It feels like you make a torque demand through the accelerator pedal, but the engine doesn't respond, in fact it dies momentarily.

I have cleaned the VANOS solenoids and swapped from inlet to exhaust, but that made no difference.

The way the ECU responds to a torque demand is the eccentric shaft motor turns the eccentric shaft to the target position for the desired load. The eccentric shaft position is fed back to the ECU via the eccentric shaft sensor. Along with this, the appropriate fuel quantity and ignition advance for the transient to new torque demand.

What I think is happening is that either the eccentric shaft motor is sluggish and the engine runs too rich momentarily or the sensor is misreading and the incorrect fuel quantity is added.

My money is on the sluggish motor as the transient fueling will be calculated from the rate of torque demand increase and not from a measured amount of air from the MAP sensor. Also, mine only does it on rapid application of throttle. If you are gentle, no issue and also when cold also no issue as probably the cold start enrichment is covering the transient acceleration enrichment to some extent.

Kind of wish I had some logging software to test the theory.
Just in case it helps anyone on the thread, I took my 125i in over Christmas to get this and (another) stuck caliper sorted. Took it out for a test drive with the chap who looks after it for me, the issue presented itself straight away - 40mph, 6th gear, try to accelerate up hill, instant misfire. First he thought plugs as it has been about 60k since they were changed, so did those. Engine ran better but the misfire was still there, so he started changing coils next. Changed 2 and the car was transformed, pulls happily from 1500rpm in any gear better than any 115k mile old N/A engine has any right to.

He mentioned at no point did it throw any codes, so it was a bit of old fashioned diagnosis, was about £550 to fix in total, including a new caliper for the rear, 6 plugs and 2 coils and an adjusted handbrake. Could have done without doing it around the holiday season, but the 2nd stuck caliper (both on the rear) in 3 months forced my hand a little.

balernoStu

5 posts

163 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2018
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ExVantagemech.. said:
Its funny how the M sport E91 demand so much more than an SE. This is my 325i SE with spanish. Guy I bought it from threw the Thule bars in for £50... WBAC and AT show it as worth about £2200 trade and £3200 private with 114k on the clock.
Its on 16" winters at the moment and by god I hate to say it it drives soo much nicer than the godawful RFT's it came with. Ive done near 25k on them and will not be putting them back on once it warms up a bit, Im looking at. Rainsport 3's.
I've much the same car and mileage (but in black), also running 16s in the winter and appreciate the comfort in poor weather. It is nice to put the 17s back on in summer though, just when 16s start feeling "squidgy". My preference in summer is a set of non-RFT performance tyres with moderately stiff sidewall.

ferrisbueller

29,342 posts

228 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2018
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bodhi said:
Just in case it helps anyone on the thread, I took my 125i in over Christmas to get this and (another) stuck caliper sorted. Took it out for a test drive with the chap who looks after it for me, the issue presented itself straight away - 40mph, 6th gear, try to accelerate up hill, instant misfire. First he thought plugs as it has been about 60k since they were changed, so did those. Engine ran better but the misfire was still there, so he started changing coils next. Changed 2 and the car was transformed, pulls happily from 1500rpm in any gear better than any 115k mile old N/A engine has any right to.

He mentioned at no point did it throw any codes, so it was a bit of old fashioned diagnosis, was about £550 to fix in total, including a new caliper for the rear, 6 plugs and 2 coils and an adjusted handbrake. Could have done without doing it around the holiday season, but the 2nd stuck caliper (both on the rear) in 3 months forced my hand a little.
Good to know. Mine has always been happy running down there or up high. Not sure of the life expectancy on a coil, mine failed completely and seemingly instantly, but given their price and ease of access, apart from the rearmost, it might be worth considering swapping them anyway as part of routine maintenance.

4340BB

856 posts

209 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2018
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I've just replaced all 6 coils on mine at a cost of £140.
Did it myself as its so easy. Car was transformed.
It was suffering with lumpy idle and misfire until the engine had a bit of temperature in it.
Once warm it was ok but it did throw the eml on.
Got a mate to clear the eml who has the correct software and lead on his computer.
Car was on 85000 miles.

zippyonline

Original Poster:

354 posts

167 months

Thursday 4th January 2018
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Yeah, coils are quite quick and easy (longest part of the 'job' is removing the covers!). Mine were original on over 185k miles when I changed them. I changed all six even though it was only 1 that had failed.

ferrisbueller

29,342 posts

228 months

Thursday 4th January 2018
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Did my first at about 80k I think - about 10 years old.

ExVantagemech..

5,728 posts

216 months

Thursday 4th January 2018
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Im saving it all up.... a set of tyres, set of coils, oil and filter.... Then something major will go wrong smile

SidewaysSi

10,742 posts

235 months

Saturday 6th January 2018
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Agree with the Sport vs SE. IMO the E90 cars are better in SE spec.

Particularly given these cars are hardly sports cars.

ferrisbueller

29,342 posts

228 months

Saturday 6th January 2018
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They're small saloon cars with sporting characteristics. That's what a 3-series has always been. SE slightly softer but the Sport is hardly stiff in comparison with modern equivalents.

gizlaroc

17,251 posts

225 months

Saturday 6th January 2018
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SidewaysSi said:
Agree with the Sport vs SE. IMO the E90 cars are better in SE spec.

Particularly given these cars are hardly sports cars.
Hardly comfort cars either, they're too small for that.

M-Sport with non run flats is actually the nicest in terms of overall comfort, really nice Bilstein dampers on the M-Sports.
If you then put on SE springs it is even better, this is what Alpina use on their set up, but you gain some ride height so can look a bit odd to some.