Quote:
Originally Posted by heart_doctor
Not according to my dealer. I just had the same problem. Driving home. Dreaded "engine malfunction" error. Boom. Ignition coil. Apparently it's a big problem across all BMW lines. So much so that they changed suppliers. They have actually recommended replacing all the coils when one has failed. That's $$$ $75 to $95 per coil.
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Hi folks,
I know that this is a three year old thread but since I am facing a similar issue, I didn't want to create a new thread and instead use this.
Quick background: Mine is a 2011 E90 I purchased recently from a fellow member; car has 43k miles on it and I am the second owner. Weekend car. Car is perfect but going by the suggested old school maintenance, I had my friend (an ex-master tech) replace at his shop the spark plugs using NGK. This was two weekends back. After replacing the sparks, he checked the codes and found an error code on coil # 3. After swapping it with other coils and rechecking the codes, he confirmed that it was indeed a faulty coil and we replaced it with an OEM coil. All was clear, and car seemed fine for last two weeks.
During the last few rides this week, I noticed a distinct but extremely brief loss of power when changing between 2, 3 and 4, and I assumed that I was doing a sloppy job when disengaging the clutch. Plus, I wasn’t sure if this was due to the battery which is still original. Last evening on the highway, I got the engine malfunction message and the 'service engine' light. Car now has rough idle and thanks to guidance my buddies here - BOOF and Derbo -, I took the car immediately to Autozone to read the codes. (yeah, I am going buy a tool soon.)
Autozone's tool indicated two error codes P138B and P0357. BOOF checked those for me and disclosed that it is ignition coili # 7 and also oxygen sensor.
Would love to hear some feedback/guidance from other members on the following:
1. If you chanaged your coil, may I know the year of your car and the approximate mileage you changed it please? I know that a good % of you are still on the original coils but still curious to get details from those who changed.
2. If you changed, did you change all 8 or only 1 at a time?
3. OEM or any other manufacturer you would recommend? I cringed on paying $135 at the dealer, and found that OEMs cost about $91 online. Prefer OEMs but if I have to replace all 7, better to get your opinions.
4. Could the second coil's (# 7) failure be due to my tech friend not doing the job properly two weeks back when he changed the spark plugs?
I ask because it's been < 150 miles with the new sparks and one new coil (#3); surprised to see that # 7 possibly went bad so soon even though it appears that many earlier model M3s with higher mileage are yet to change even one. Hence these queries to see if it could be a human error or my bad luck with the coils.
Thanks!