Changed the plugs in my ’08 e93 today. It took aprox 2.5 hours. This does not include the trip to the hardware store for a stronger magnet extension doohickey needed to retrieve the socket extension I dropped in the engine bay. I only got through 4 of the twelve beers that were listed as must have in the tool list. Kartelli, if you are ever in Portland OR look me up and I will gladly drink the other 8 with you as thanks for saving me much time and frustration with this post!
I used a bicycle hub cone wrench like this (
http://www.westernbikeworks.com/prod...ed-cone-wrench) (the 16mm end fits perfect) and various different lengths of screwdrivers to remove the ignition coils. Worked perfect. The only one that was a struggle was the passenger side cylinder closest to the fire wall. That SOB didn’t want to come off. It was even more difficult getting the plug socket into the cylinder with enough room to attach the wrench. I had to use various lengths of extensions and ball joints.
Interestingly or strangely? The plugs that came out were identical to the NGK’s I ordered from Bav Auto. I was expecting them to be BMW branded but they had NGK on them.