ronmexico

-2010 550i e60
-75k miles

What a ride it's taken to get here. I was driving along and I started to get an engine misfire. To the point where the car stalled and wouldn't turn over. When I tried turning it on the next morning, it turned over but wouldn't idle. The engine would shake and then turn off.


Had it toweed to my shop, and they started the repair(s) & troubleshooting. :

:EDIT:
They replaced all 8 spark plugs & coils. Forgot to mention this in my first post.

-Replaced the 2 motors on either side of the intake which had been throwing a CEL for a few months. That Engine code gone - but a new one appears: Random misfire.

-Isolated the random misfires to a single cylinder. #5. Replaced the injector on that cylinder, and it idles a little better at operating temp. Still misfiring, and throwing misfire code on Cylinder 5.

-Completed compression test & cylinder passed compression threshold (160-175 I bleieve they said it was). They also took apart the valve cover and inpsected the Valvetronic system- all operational.

-They removed the manifold yet again, and checked for carbon buildup or debris. Remarkably clean - no carbon to speak of.


They are running out of ideas. I see A LOT of chatter about the "Carbon" service that BMW offers, along with replacing the injectors, and those don't seem to be the culprit.

At this point, they're reccomending a new ECU. Is it really posible that the ECU is bad? Aren't the ECU's designed to not fail? I mean almost the entire car depends on it, on if it was bad, would it just affect the engine? Wouldn't there be some other symptoms?


If it is the ECU, what is the chance that getting a reman. from BMW is going to have the same problem? I'm just kind of like is going on here?!?


They quoted me $1100 for a reman OEM BMW ecu. Kind of what I was expecting, but I'm not entirely sure this is the culprit.

Can anyone put my mind to ease? It's starting to be quite a stress.

:EDIT2:

This has been a firetrucking nightmare. I figured I would update this thread so if anyone else has such a problem with their service center, they can get it fixed. My car isn't fixed (still) but it seems like it's on its way. $4500 later.

I had to involve BMW North America and have them assign me a case. Then my car goes back to the dealer and the "comp" the diagnosis. It looks like my tuning shop was right all along: the catalytic converter (not the ECU, after further testing) was bad. It should be (and in fact is) covered under a federal 80,000 mile warranty. Problem is they don't have the cats in stock. They're ordered, and will be here friday. And its even better: No one else except the lead foreman and his team can touch the car. No other service people. Well these guys will be off for 3 days starting Friday, and won't be back until Tuesday. So I'm w/o the car, still, until next wednesday. But it looks like it might finally get fixed properly, after a lot of money and effort.


I called the BMW center in San Antonio and my service advisor basically ignored me. I told him specifically to look at the catalytic converter and/or ECU - because of the history up to that point (new plugs, new coils, variable intake motors, and lengthy troubleshooting from my shop). They charged me for a battery (which admitedly I probably needed, but certainly wasn't causing or even related to my problem) and performed additional diagnosis on my car (at a crazy rate) to tell me the improper coils were installed. Still not fixing my problem, I decided to take it back to my shop.

I watched them pull all of the plugs and each and every one of them was the same, and OEM spec. Nothing wrong with them. BMW San Antonio also neglected to give me the alleged faulty coils. I'm certain there was nothing wrong with those either.


:EDIT3:
Finally got the dealer to admit and diagnose the catalytic converters. Was the problem the whole time, and they replaced the driver side manifold as one unit. I still went through hell getting them to do the work, and had a terrible headache getting a loaner as well. All-in-all - just an awful experience from top to bottom with the dealership. I do plan on sending BMW NA a letter with great detail about all of the trouble, and hope to get some of the $1600 I spent @ the dealer - for nothing - re-imbursed. We'll see about that. Might take it to civil court too, but that seems like a huge hassle.




TLDR
BMW San Antonio sucks. They hire used car salesman as Service Advisors and make BMW look pretty bad. My indy shop did an admirable job tuning up my car, but the problem(s) they found - BMW San Antonio didn't fix. And I still don't have my car.

Jim165

Sounds more like a coil problem...I wonder why did your shop not check the obvious before throwing parts at it like injectors, ECUs, or "motors" and taking unnecessary crap apart? Sounds like you need to find a new shop! Should be just a coil(s) that has gone bad..

pcy

^ +1000.

Ignition coil on #5 should've been replaced (at least swap it with others and see if the error 'migrates' to the new cylinder).

ronmexico

Sorry I forgot to mention this.

This was the FIRST thing they did. All new coils and plugs. I forgot to include it on my list, because it didn't solve the problem, and the cost was minimal. They also checked all of the plugs for fuel or debris, as this is known problem when the injectors fail or get clogged....

ssalb

FYI,
The carbon build up that you near about is on the direct injected engines (N54) like on the 535. As only air passes over the intake valves instead of fuel and air.

DanL

Hard to believe it's the ECU, but if it is, it's covered by the federally-mandated 8 year / 80K mile emissions warranty. You'll find details on page 33 of the warranty book that came with your car:The problem is you'll have to bring it to a dealer and pay to have them confirm it's the ECU. If it is, they'll have to replace it free of charge.

Jim165

Good to know, thanks for posting!

ronmexico

Interesting....


So if the shop says ECU, I should perhaps have it taken to the BMW dealer for confirmation, and a possible free ECU? Just paying the diagnosis?

ronmexico

So here's an update like 6 weeks after it started...

Had it taken to BMW & they said the battery was low, and not holding a charge.

The engine is still misfiring on just one single bank of cylinders. BMW wants me to pay $560 for a new battery and then ANTOHER $270 2hr diagnostic to figure out the misfire. My SA told me he needed more time with it in addition to the battery replacement. They don't know what the problem is either.

This sounds insane to me. I just paid a diagnostic fee of $270 for a $570 battery - and still have a problem. I told them to replace just the battery & let me pick it up. I also asked for any of the codes that remain to be recorded. I can compare them to what my indy shop pulled.


I understand a bad battery can cause major problems in the e60 - is it possible the battery is/has been causing the misfire?

ronmexico

Would a bad ECU throw some type of code? They're telling me they spent 2hrs with it (minimum diagnostic charge) and it needs a new battery. My only hope now is that the battery was causing the problem. If not, then they still haven't checked the ECU, or anything else & want another 2hrs (and $270) to diagnose it further...