2010 318 Touring - Will It Ever Run Smoothly?

[AJS77]

New to BMW ownership and it's not going well so far...

Bought what appears to be a well looked after and serviced 2010 318 M Sport Bus Touring. Manual with 110k on the clock.

Second weekend the amber engine warning light comes on, car runs rough, low on power, etc. Garage interrogated the fault codes and replaces a coil.

A few days later exactly the same thing happens. 5 mins after cold start early morning. This time the light goes off after about 15 mins and smooth running returns. Evening trip home, same thing, 5 mins running light on, light off 15 mins later.

Back to garage. New spark plugs fitted.

Seemed better but then yesterday...a repeat bl**dy performance. Called the RAC this time and they couldn't find anything more except some fault codes relating to NOx sensor errors.

Any PHer's help would be most gratefully received. The car is with a main dealer on 2nd Nov to have the safety recall work done. We will ask them to look at this at the same time but am ready for the bill if we do...

[helix402]

Afraid it has the N43 engine. A Google search will list many common faults.

[AJS77]

Oh...thanks for the reply. Buy in haste repent at leisure! Are any issues covered by BMW recalls or latent defects warranty?

[mekondelta]

helix402 said:

Afraid it has the N43 engine. A Google search will list many common faults.

We had these exact same problems in our '09 118i. All ignition coils replaced twice. Basically it's not a great engine and mated to a manual gearbox it was really hard to make smooth progress with such a heavy flywheel action. We had issues with the NO2/O2 sensors and basically lived with them for a few years. Resetting the codes seemed to clear the errors for a while and we eventually traded it in. Only the ignition coil issues ever left us stranded. The NO2/O2 sensors don't seem to ever cause the engine to break down, just run a little rough.

I won't miss that car.

[helix402]

AJS77 said:

Oh...thanks for the reply. Buy in haste repent at leisure! Are any issues covered by BMW recalls or latent defects warranty?

If you phone a BMW dealer and ask if there any quality enhancements or recalls for your car you may get some free repairs. These engines aren’t hard to fix if you know what you’re doing, common faults are timing chains, coils, injectors, fuel rail low pressure sensors.

[bmwmike]

In fairness it's done well to get to that mileage.

Did you buy from a garage OP, if so you might have some recourse that way.

If not, get a good code reader at the very least.

[AJS77]

So an update on our rough running E91 N43. BMW diagnosed and said it needed all 4 injectors replacing along with a fuel vent valve...total cost £1300! They would not extend any goodwill and our warranty doesn't cover injectors! I went back to the dealer who sold us the car and they were very good in engaging and trying to help sort the problem. Their diagnostics showed cylinder 4 as being the culprit so changed out that injector. They also said the injectors didn't seem to be programmed to match, or something like that, I didn't really understand. So initially all seemed well. Car was running smoothly when cold, hot, under load and under tickover. Then on Tuesday...emissions light flashing again!! A quick switch off, switch on seems to clear the light and restore smooth running, which is better than before when the light would stay on. At tickover however, every so often, the engine still misses a beat, the revs drop and the engine hiccups...so I'm sure all is not well. Just wondering whether I drive around the problem, or whether it's damaging the engine or catalyst and I need to chuck yet more money at it! All advice gratefully received...

[helix402]

If it has another faulty injector it will add excess fuel to the engine which will end up in the oil.

Oil diluted with fuel will not lubricate well so could cause engine problems. However it may not be a faulty injector so needs diagnosis to isolate the cause of the fault.

[iSore]

Sadly these things are a nightmare - I'd honestly take a hit and get rid of it now. There is a QA programme going where you may* get the timing chain replaced, and it's to do with the brake vacuum pump.

Four new Bosch coils and a set of plugs does improve them but at 110k, you're waiting for the next disaster.

I would say that if it needs a NoX sensor, bite the bullet and get a genuine BMW one - about £350 and 40 mins to fit. NGK ones are no good.

A very poor engine. I refuse to work on them.