My last car problem makes me think....

[zman]

I was driving to an important event and I didn't want to be late. I also was about to drop my two girls to a baby sitter. I planned everything and went early. [driving2]

As I was driving, suddenly the car started to loose power and to vibrate. I pulled over and I let it idle for a minute. It idled roughly and the "Check Engine soon" light went on.

I turned the car off and restarted. The problem presisted. I called the BMW roadside assistance. They told me that it would take them 1 hr to get to the car. They don't provides me another transportation (i.e. Car rental). They said that it is the dealer's job.

I was puzzled with what I had to do. I finally dropped my kids off and left the car there for them to pick up. I had to call my wife to drive me to work. [target]

So, all this time it doesn't hit me that BMW is not reliable. It could break down any time specially at the time I need it the most. [thumbd]

Do you think I should consider a replacement?

 

[bmw046series]

The problem is BMW doesn't have enough service garages as other companies.

 

[aNoodle]

I'm sorry to hear of your engine woes. It's never fun when the freakin' thing fails. I wouldn't make the leap though to saying the 3 series is not reliable. BMW's in-line sixes are the envy of the automotive industry. Hang in there. They'll get it fixed.

 

[zman]

Thanks for the comfort. I got my car back! I felt happy again to drive this puppy.

The problem is again the coils. They said one of them failed. They replaced all 6.
This prolbem has occured twice since I own the car (2 years).

What is a coil?? is a coil = a spark plug??

 

[bmwrocks]

What is a coil?? is a coil = a spark plug??

A coil is a transformer that takes your car's 12 volts and converts it the high voltage (~40,000 V) necessary for your spark plugs. BMWs (and many others) use separate coils for each plug so you have a total of six on your 6-cylinder.

 

[zman]

I search and looked at the coil. I am surprise these coils fail this frequent.
Do you all have the same problem?

I asked the dealer what I would have to pay if I don't have the warranty.
They said $1200.

With this rate of failure, I will have to spend a fortune just for coils alone

 

[jstiebe]

I've had my 325i for 16 months and one coil has failed so far....mmmmmm

 

[theBMWenthusiast]

we had a 323i over a year ago, had it for 5 years, and the coils never failed, i think, but i wasn't told of everythign when i was younger

 

[bimmerbuff]

The same thing happened to two of the girls where I work. One has a 2003 325Cic...she had the coil problem back in December (she found that the car behaved normally at 40+ MPH, so she floored it to work and had Roadside Assistance flatbed the car to the dealer from there). Dealer gave her new Bremi coils and she's been fine since.

The other has a 2003 Audi A4. Her's didn't make it out of the driveway. The dealer switched her Bremi coils for one from Bosch and she's been fine since.

Both had this happen back in December, so I was thinking the cold weather might have trigged it.

There's a Service Bulletin about this. All the coils coming up faulty were manufactured by Bremi and were supposed to be replaced by non-defective Bremi coils.

See http://members.roadfly.org/bmw_e46_m3/bulletins/120204.pdf

The bulletin above is for the S54 engine, but there's also one for the M54 engine.

 

[zman]

The same thing happened to two of the girls where I work. One has a 2003 325Cic...she had the coil problem back in December (she found that the car behaved normally at 40+ MPH, so she floored it to work and had Roadside Assistance flatbed the car to the dealer from there). Dealer gave her new Bremi coils and she's been fine since.

The other has a 2003 Audi A4. Her's didn't make it out of the driveway. The dealer switched her Bremi coils for one from Bosch and she's been fine since.

Both had this happen back in December, so I was thinking the cold weather might have trigged it.

There's a Service Bulletin about this. All the coils coming up faulty were manufactured by Bremi and were supposed to be replaced by non-defective Bremi coils.

See http://members.roadfly.org/bmw_e46_m3/bulletins/120204.pdf

The bulletin above is for the S54 engine, but there's also one for the M54 engine.

I hope this is true. The dealer made coil like a light bulb. It will wear out soon or later. When the dealer said that, I felt bad. Light Bulb burnt out, but the replacement is inexpensive. These coils are $1200.

I had coil problem 2 months after I purchased the new car back in Nov 02. Now, the second coil problem is 18 months later. My car is only 15000 miles.

My light bulb last longer than the coils.

 

[hogfan]

Bad coils should lead to recall?

2003 325i 11,000 miles

I've been having the same problem y'all mentioned, only it happened after I pulled the car out of my carport to wash it and simply put it back without driving around. The service tech told me when you start the car, it puts a bunch of gas on the engine and if you don't drive it around to burn off the gas, it keeps the spark plugs from working properly. What the???

I had a friend that had a VW Jetta with bad coils and the same symptoms. hmmmm. So when I had the dealership check it, they said they replaced all the coils. I'm starting to think maybe this is German manufacturing problem. Coils shouldn't be going out because I started my engine, pulled it out of the carport and put it back an hour later. That's ridiculous!

 

[aNoodle]

we had a 323i over a year ago, had it for 5 years, and the coils never failed, i think, but i wasn't told of everythign when i was younger

Same here. Going on six years old this fall, never had a coil replaced. I have 117,500 miles on my 328. I was told (unless you have a failure) replacing the coils is something you can do on the second spark plug change...at 200,000 miles!

 

[Section_8]

2000 323i, 53k miles, no coil problems whatsoever. My car originally came from Florida.

Interesting the folks so far in this thread that have reported coil problems, are indeed folks where Winter is a bit heavier than in other places (Virginia and North from there).

 

[rp911t]

22k '03 Audi, no coil problems. Although they did recall all coils in certain Audis that did have coil failures and sent letters to those individuals that had that particular Audi/VW with a faulty coil that did not fail.

zman, everything will be fine.

 

[zman]

Thanks All. Your encouragement gives me confident.
I hope after all 6 coils being replaced I won't have to see the problem for a long time from now.