Fixed dad's car (finally)!

"Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy" (zipppyart) 01/29/2014 at 20:53 • Filed to: None

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I fixed a misfiring engine. Story inside.

Two weeks ago, on Sunday, I drove my dad's BMW 330xi to meet up with the rest of the family at a restaurant, after I helped a friend solve an issue remotely over Skype. The car was running fine that night. However, the next morning, the car was having trouble starting (due to the original battery), and once started up, ran really rough. Luckily for my father, who doesn't have to drive to work, can do meetings from his office in the basement. My father questioned me that evening, asking if I did anything stupid with the car (such as redlining while cold), and I told him I kept it under 3000 RPM.

The car sat for a week, and the battery died as well due to the cold weather, so I hooked up a battery charger for a bit. Nearing the end of the week, I told him to look up parts. I told him about Hosie & Brown, a local shop recommended by a professor at college, he decided to order a new battery and an ignition coil on Monday, and he sent my mother to pick it up, while I was busy at college.

Fast forward to today, on Wednesday, one and half weeks after the engine started misfiring, my godfather lent his garage so we could do work, It is a new house, and the garage was well insulated, opposed to our garage, which isn't. The 3 KM drive there felt like torture on the engine, despite being at low RPM. Once we got there and started working, my father and I discussed on how the plastic cover was secured, I just started tapping on one of the fake "screws" securing the cover down, and something didn't feel right about the screw I tapped on. I decided to gently tug on the cover and eventually pull it off, despite my father's warnings that I would break it off. Turns out it was only held on by some pins and some rubber rings, (same as a guide to do the same procedure on a BMW 5 series of the same year I saw on YouTube).

I noticed an oil leak pooled up on the engine around the ignition coil, and my father and I thought it was related to the coil malfunctioning. We were wrong. The coil was dry, no oil dripped inside at all.

You can see the shot below has the new coil next to an engine full of the older ones.

After we cleaned the pooled oil up, we plugged the new coil in, and started the car up, it didn't run rough at all, and it ran much better than before.

For a comparison,

Before

After

AM3R > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 01/29/2014 at 21:04

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Nice work! I love learning and working on my 328i.

The cold weather is really harsh on them, my battery also died after 4 days of sitting. It was on the original battery so I kind of saw it coming.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > AM3R 01/29/2014 at 21:41

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I was considering getting a heavy duty battery for it, as it does get cold here.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 01/29/2014 at 21:55

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Might want to change the valve cover gasket, when the weather gets warm.

heliochrome85 > AM3R 01/29/2014 at 22:24

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what year?

AM3R > heliochrome85 01/29/2014 at 22:25

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It's a late build 2007.

heliochrome85 > AM3R 01/29/2014 at 22:28

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PICS SON. PICS.

AM3R > heliochrome85 01/29/2014 at 22:41

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With how the weathers been, I don't have any good recent pictures (on my phone at least) :( I plan on a big photo dump as soon as the weather clears up and I get her washed!

It's a "Porch-uh" > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 01/29/2014 at 23:01

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Ahh the BMW M54. It has two common issues:

1) Ignition Coil Packs - check that off for a while.

2) Front Head Bolts.

BMW engineers decided to save a few grams and make the three head bolts in the front of the motor aluminum. One is exposed, the other two are under the valve cover. If you hear a little pinging sound when you open the hood, it's one of the broken bolts rattling around. If, like Arch Duke suggested, you change the valve cover gasket, replace those bolts because they will (not might ) break, as they stretch over time. From the dealer they're about $6 for the set.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > AM3R 01/29/2014 at 23:46

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Another point here, my father's been working on his car ever since the time a BMW dealer across town ripped him off over an oil change. He was starting to drive back, and just as he got on the highway, a prompt came up warning of low oil, he went back and found out the sensor somehow broke from the procedure, and the dealer didn't take responsibility for it, but my father still paid $15 for a new sensor.

AM3R > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 01/30/2014 at 00:23

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Yeah the local BMW dealerships all have decent reviews, but it's much cheaper to take it to my family friend, who's garage specializes in benz/bmw/audi. He always gives us amazing prices and always tells it to us how it is.

offroadkarter > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 01/30/2014 at 01:01

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apparently it was bmw fixing day cause I was working on my e23 while you were doing this