cold start prb?

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by tranquility

Any idea what it would've cost w/o warranty? Thx.

EDIT: what are plug and coil? Regret being car-illiterate.

It cost my friend $5000 at a dealer in Seattle WA for his 08 335

Plug = spark plug (ignites the fuel and air in the cylinder)
coil = wire going from distributor to spark plug ('power cable' for the spark plug)

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by nicknaz

It cost my friend $5000 at a dealer in Seattle WA for his 08 335

Plug = spark plug (ignites the fuel and air in the cylinder)
coil = wire going from distributor to spark plug ('power cable' for the spark plug)

I've just had the sparkplugs replaced, so wonder how much is the coil? That is expensive! Ouch!!

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by tranquility

I've just had the sparkplugs replaced, so wonder how much is the coil? That is expensive! Ouch!!

i didn't see the work order. Friend just complained to me over the phone had he had a $5k trip to the dealer and injector failure was one of the issues.

A set of 6 injectors is $1000 from Tischer BMW, so there were probably other parts that needed to be replaced to jack up the cost so high

[army_men]

Originally Posted by tranquility

I've just had the sparkplugs replaced, so wonder how much is the coil? That is expensive! Ouch!!

Tranquility, since your car is out of warrantee, You can bring it to Brian at Advanced Power House, He is one of the best in Toronto and he works on proper race cars. We take our BMWs there too and he's been taking care of us very well.

Chances are he will be able to do a diagnosis and tell you what parts you need to buy and replace.

416 781 8671 Brian @ APH

[HerrK]

Originally Posted by nicknaz

coil = wire going from distributor to spark plug ('power cable' for the spark plug)

Really??

All these years I thought the coil was the device that converted the Low Voltage DC to High Voltage DC was a coil - learn something new everyday. However coils do have wires inside them - windings "primary" & "secondary"

BMW's don't have 'power cables" or spark "plug wires". BMW uses what are commonly refferred to as "stick coils" which plug directly onto the top of the spark plug.

[nicknaz]

Looks like I get to learn something today too

[tranquility]

All you guys are too high-level for me. I'm just glad to learn more about our cars through reading your posts.

army_men>
Thanks for the note. I have an appt w/ my dealer so will see what the potential damage is... Arrgh, not looking forward to that

[Longboard]

I just got back from vacation with the wife. We took a trip from our house in SoCal up the coast in our 35I.

We stopped in Carmel for the night. The temps got down in 40's over night. We got up early to head out for the final drive up to San Francisco. When I pushed the button the car started then began stud during back. Instantly I smelled gas. I turned it off and tried again. this time it ran rough then died. Before it died lots of smoke out the pipes. Infect, there was gas shooting out of the tail pipes

I new right away we were screwed because I had just read this tread before leaving too. I thought right away I had a failed injector and or coil pack.

Unfortunately it was Sunday and the only dealer in Monetary was closed. First thing monday we had it towed to the dealer. First, I have to say that Kenny the service rep and the whole team at Monterey BMW where amazing. They were booked solid because every one was looking to bring their cars in. He didn't think he could get the car looked at until tuesday and had no loaner cars.

Once he found out that we were stranded hundreds of miles from home he talked to his manager who gave up his personal car for the day for us. They then, some how fit ours in to get looked at. By 5pm Kenny called to say the car was done completely and ready for pickup. All covered under warranty.

Now what went wrong you ask? You already know. 3 injectors, 3 plugs and 1 coil all in bank two. They didn't replace everything just what failed. Next week I will take it in to my local dealer to talk about the failure and see if I can get the remaining injectors replaced because I now feel they are just a time bomb waiting to go. No more long trips in the Z.

One thing I want you all to know if the rough idle at start up seems to be the start of injector failure. If you get this (like I did starting a few weeks ago) take in in right away. Also, watch your gas milage. On the way up I was seeing 21mpg before it failed. On the way back I averaged 27mpg. This I believe is another clue that you have leaking injectors.

It also seems that most failures are seen between 30-40K miles.

Longboard

[ManiacGT]

Oh dear that doesn't sound good. But as for the mileage when it fails, I'd say this could be misleading as it depends how you drive your car, short journeys, long ones etc. could all have an impact. Still, glad you got it sorted but it does make you feel like you've got a car you can't rely on. A friend of mine last year took his around Europe. From the UK, went to France, Begium, Germany and then stutter, cough cough... One of the turbos went bang. He was flown home to the UK and the car was shipped back for repairs by BMW as they couldn't get the parts in time. BMW, premium brand... hmmm.

[BMWZ4RIDER]

Holy crap Batman. I have the 3 year Gold Plus warranty good to June 2016, but was planning on keeping this car well belong that. What a list of horror stories. Makes me very concerned. Wow.

[army_men]

Originally Posted by BMWZ4RIDER

Holy crap Batman. I have the 3 year Gold Plus warranty good to June 2016, but was planning on keeping this car well belong that. What a list of horror stories. Makes me very concerned. Wow.

I wouldn't be TOO concerned. we already know the story on injectors, plugs and coils. in the rare event that this happen to your car even when it's out of warranty, it would still be a relatively affordable repair bill. Unlike a blown engine or anything too dramatic. The N54 is a solid engine, just parts around it tend to give out at random points.

[jparnes1]

Again, as I've said many times before, let's not make a risk assessment based on the problems experienced by a very few Z4 owners. If it was a widespread problem, like the HPFP, there'd be a recall. Yeah, it's scary that this stuff happens, but you have to respect the overwhelming number of cars that don't experience this same problem.
I remember reading a book called Rocket Men, about the birth of the space industry. They talked about how each rocket ship had something like 20 million parts and if you had merely a 1% failure rate, that's 20,000 parts that could fail. It puts things in perspective.

[nicknaz]

Has anyone discussed root cause of the failures with the service people or is there anything preventative that can be done?

By the way here is an interesting article about direct injection engine "things to watch out for". It suggests ethanol outside of the acceptable range (10% for our cars?) could cause injector failure and there is a potential issue with intake valve carbon build up (not sure if this contributes to injector failure, but it can be prevented by driving the car really hard to burn off the carbon deposits )


http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...in-a-nutshell/

[Lambobimmer]

Originally Posted by nicknaz

Has anyone discussed root cause of the failures with the service people or is there anything preventative that can be done?

By the way here is an interesting article about direct injection engine "things to watch out for". It suggests ethanol outside of the acceptable range (10% for our cars?) could cause injector failure and there is a potential issue with intake valve carbon build up (not sure if this contributes to injector failure, but it can be prevented by driving the car really hard to burn off the carbon deposits )


http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...in-a-nutshell/

Could be part of the problem but I ran E30 in my 135 for a year and never had an issue with HPFP, Injectors, Coils or plugs.

[tranquility]

Just found out the potential $ damage. What do you guys think and wwyd? Arrgh...

http://e89.zpost.com/forums/showpost...5&postcount=26

[ManiacGT]

Is it too late to take out warranty for those concerned about this?

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by tranquility

Just found out the potential $ damage. What do you guys think and wwyd?

Trade in for Porsche?

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by nicknaz

Trade in for Porsche?

LOL, I wish. Anyway, if I had the $$$, I'd rather get a McLaren.

[nicknaz]

In all seriousness though, if you are going to trade it in soon anyway, now is a great time while it is running nicely. From what others have posted seems like once you start experience symptoms replacing injectors is a matter of when, not if

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by nicknaz

In all seriousness though, if you are going to trade it in soon anyway, now is a great time while it is running nicely. From what others have posted seems like once you start experience symptoms replacing injectors is a matter of when, not if

I'd like to keep a car till the end of of its life, so I'll 'tough it out'. Besides, not sure I can find another car that fits all my criteria like the Z4.

I'm really confused about all these cases of having to replace various combinations of coils/injectors/plugs...esp injectors...how could they physically be defective? How long do they usually last in other cars? The dealer said that the injectors had a fault code, but I'm not sure what that means...they are crap and must be replaced? What if they are just clogged? I know if there is a puncture in a RFT, they would suggest replacing them too, but of course one can get them plugged elsewhere and they're perfectly fine. (Ok, wishful thinking, but just wondering...)

Car has been good save for those 2 near-limps. Will try some addictives first before even contemplating about shelling out $3K+.

[z4z4z4]

Originally Posted by nicknaz

Trade in for Porsche?

Supporting technical evidence of boxter dfi config provides valve back washing.

[army_men]

Originally Posted by tranquility

I'd like to keep a car till the end of of its life, so I'll 'tough it out'. Besides, not sure I can find another car that fits all my criteria like the Z4.

I'm really confused about all these cases of having to replace various combinations of coils/injectors/plugs...esp injectors...how could they physically be defective? How long do they usually last in other cars? The dealer said that the injectors had a fault code, but I'm not sure what that means...they are crap and must be replaced? What if they are just clogged? I know if there is a puncture in a RFT, they would suggest replacing them too, but of course one can get them plugged elsewhere and they're perfectly fine. (Ok, wishful thinking, but just wondering...)

Car has been good save for those 2 near-limps. Will try some addictives first before even contemplating about shelling out $3K+.

Isn't there a injector recall for n54? or does it not concern our cars?

I was going to suggest buying the 6 injectors and doing the swap at a good tuner shop. It will be no where near $3K+, but then I realized injectors needs to be coded into DME.

What you could do, is buy the parts, write down the tow rows of numbers on each injector neatly, do the swap, then take it into BMW for them to code the DME for you. A US dealer quoted $140 for coding, throw in some Canadian tax that should come just under $100K. Good luck.