So, cruising back down the M6 from Cumbria to Warrington last night, car drops power, shudders, engine management warning lamp lights up, pull into services.

Stop/start car, OK for a few miles, repeat performance at next services.

Get home OK (although bit slower than normal).

This morning car sounds dreadful and can smell unburnt fuel.

Call dealer, no courtesy cars available, advised to call BMW Assist.

On hold to BMW Assist for 15 mins and make arrangements for tech to come to house (day off today).

Tech arrives after about an hour (and sooner than expected), tells me an injector has gone.

Car is 523i LCI with approx 8000 miles on since delivery new in September.

Car is taken away on transporter, BMW Assist arranged for Vectra (2.2 Direct petrol auto, quite nippy, leather, nav) which arrived at about 15:30.

Car has already had one injector replaced about 3 weeks ago and had the s/w update (to protect fuel pump) at same time.

Waiting for dealer to call now to say how bad it is, the other injector failure just gave a lumpy idle, this one (if it is just one failure) almost left the car unable to run.

 

I guess this post seals my decision NOT to buy a N53 5 Series. Way too unreliable if you are private buying it and wanting to keep it for more than the legal warranty...

So, in the option list, remains the new Volvo V70 and the Mercedes C Class SW, which I'll be testing tomorrow with the C200 Kompressor engine and the auto box...

 

Got car back today, washed and vac'd and one injector replaced.

I checked if the same injector failed as last time, answer was no, No. 3 failed completely this time, No 5. was 'out of spec' last time and was replaced to cure intermittent lumpy idle.

I asked if I now have 4 more breakdowns/failures/downtime to look forward to as each of the other 4 goes faulty, was told if another one fails or starts to fail then they will get approval off BMW to change all others.

Good news is that so far the car is excellent, the obvious misfire has gone and the slight vibration around 1000 rpm has also gone, the engine is now as smooth as I would expect it to be.

It is a pity the new direct injection engines are having these component problems but at least the service from Halliwell's and BMW Assist has been great.

 

Update: car is already showing signs of another injector on the way out. Not impressed.

The occasional lumpy idle and the vibration at around 1000rpm are both back and car is making those bloody irritating cheeping noises again but no warning lights or iDrive messages yet.

When I told Halliwells they said they would look at the car immediately if I brought it in but I declined to waste any more of my working or personal time fannying around taking it in as it is drivable so they are collecting the car on Tuesday.

Assuming it is another injector failure it'll be interesting to see if #3 or #5 has failed or if one the remaining original four has gone.

 

I'm almost in the same situation. Injector number 5 went on my 530 on December 22nd. Symptoms were a judder when pressing the accelerator. Car was taken away and finally repaired on Jan 3rd (Dealer where car was taken had given several days off to his employees over Christmas plus injector took several days to arrive). I called BMW Customer Service asking for a full review of all injectors, which I know was performed for a batch of cars with this engine earlier this year as part of a recall. They refused and suggested that I take the car to a dealer of my choice and request them to look at it. I'll do that next week. But my faith in BMW is no longer there. ( I have a 6.5 year old E39 530i which has never given a single problem).

 

Wow this is interesting... I wasnt aware that the new direct injectors have been a problem on LCI cars... and both terrymac and Bris are not from North America...

 

Halliwell's collected the car this morning and called at about 4:30 to say it was on its way back.

Interesting (but very polite) conversation alomg the lines of:

Dealer " we tried a couple of TIS fixes but we couldn't fix everything, so as the car is drivable and we only left a MINI at your office we will drop your car off tonight, we will consult with BMW tomorrow and we will call you with an update. After we've spoken to BMW we will then probably pick your car up and keep it a day or two when we can arrange a suitable loaner. You may find it is running better tonight but still not 100%"

Me: " so you haven't replaced another injector today then as I expected you to have to do due to the identical range of symptoms?"

Dealer: "no"

ME: " so has another injector failed or is starting to fail?"

Dealer "we are not sure and if one has failed we know that you will not accept the car back unless all the other original injectors are replaced as well. We do understand that the car is a business asset for your company and if it isn't reliable it impacts on your business so we want you to completely happy with it"

We will see what tomorrow brings.

Drove car home, it is a bit better but not cured.

I've pasted the note below that went in with the car to see if anyone else has same symptoms.


Following problems have reoccurred:
? Intermittent rough idle (occurs daily but not every time car is idling)
o Rev counter needle will sometimes bounce when idling and car stationary, accompanied by car shuddering
o Car will sometimes shudder or just tremble when idling even though rev counter needle steady
? Intermittently reluctant to increase revs (daily)
o From idle, press throttle pedal, no response; press harder, still no response; press harder, you then get full kick-down, not ideal in heavy traffic.
o Happens regardless of length of time engine running.
o When cruising at steady speed car will sometimes either shudder when try to accelerate or will just not increase revs
? Consistent vibration when just over 1000 rpm showing on rev counter
o Immensely irritating in stop-start traffic or car park manoeuvring
? A ?clunk? can be felt every time the engine revs pass approx 750 to 1000 rpm
? Car makes ?cheep? or ?chirp? noise from engine bay, usually on overrun

 

I noticed none of those symptoms before my car broke down. Expecting it back tomorrow or Friday ( it's coming back on a tow truck from Southern Spain- 1 week to do 430 km!) I'll let you know how it drives when I get it.

 

Dealer duly called me late afternoon today. Somewhat odd conversation ensued.

Dealer: "can you please bring car in to meet area senior techie and show him the fault and then we'll need to kep the car overnight. Or probably a day or two and we'll provide a loaner of course"

Me: "er well OK but why do I need to show the techie the problems, did you not experience them yesterday?"

Dealer: "Yes but we want to be sure we are investigating the right problems and then we will connect the car to Germany whilst faults are ocurring to ensure problem is sorted out in one go"

Me: " sorry, I'm getting confused, are there other problems I haven't noticed then? Are other people having the same problems? "

Dealer: "shouldn't really say but last week we changed all 6 injectors on a new 523. Actually, we could really do with having the car for up to 5 days"

Me: "5 DAYS! Fine, but for that length of time a 3-series loaner won't do, it'll have to be a 5 or same size."

Waitng for call tomorrow to confirm suitable loaner. Expecting engine management light and limp-home mode any day now.......

I can't fault Halliwells for doing their best to look after me but bloody hell, they could rebuild or swap out the whole engine in 5 days. If anyone can enlighten me as to what they will be up to for 5 days I'd be delighted if you could enlighten me!

PS the chirping cheeping noise has gone so that's a result at least

 

Good luck with it Bris, hope it's all fixed for you