pauliehcfr

In regard to the leaking valve cover gaskets, a lot of times the oil would fill the spark plug wells and cause a misfire because the coil is submerged in oil. If the tech did the job correctly, he would have removed the coils and plugs to let the oil drain into the cylinder to be burned off. Pull the coils and see if any are oil soaked. If that doesnt correct the problem, take a coil from a cylinder that is not giving a misfire code and swap it with one that is giving a code. Be sure to write down and keep track of which coils were swapped and to where. If the fault follows the suspected bad coil to another cylinder, then you know it is that coil that is bad. On the flip side, if the fault goes away on a cylinder that previously had a suspected bad coil that was swapped with a good one, then that just confirms the suspicion of a bad coil.

Sublime

It only happened on cold start-ups and the fluctuation was very dramatic - wildly fluctuating from 1000 to 1600 RPM 2 or 3 times a second. Sounded scary - these machines are complicated beyond belief....and for what real benefit?

dawid_w

Good point, but it looks like the misfires are random (Cyl 2, 3, 7, 1,5)
It looks like that there is a problem with one of the position sensors (camshaft or crankshaft)

29CE misfire detection cylinder 2 in 4. Ignition sequence
29CF misfire detection cylinder 3 in 2. Ignition sequence
29D3 ?Misfire #7?
29CC misfire detection summation error
29CD misfire detection cylinder 1 in 1. Ignition sequence
29D1 ?Misfire #5?

Or try to troubleshoot it from a different angle.
Maybe the misfire is a fake error code which comes up when the engine is running rough.
Cold start problem can be also caused by damaged pressure regulating valve (11127547058)

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...g=15&lang=enUS

or broken hose (which are very common on this engine).

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...g=15&lang=enUS

GL with troubleshooting

Nocrapplease

As I said before dont jump to deep into this problem, if it was a crank sensor or cam it would normally show up+ it would happen not just when cold, + if the sensor if bad, normally the engine would not start at all what he has is an intermittant problem, and the earth could be that cause, with no spark the fuel is shut of to the cyl and a misfire recorded, hence why I said check the battery first as it could be on its way out, I have seen this problem many times, and persons jump in too deep, spending loads of money without checking the basics, what I have recommended really costs nothing, and this is the route to take to be honest, before exploring other avenues

crash2646

Thanks, the car is currently at the dealer and I have instructed them to look at the battery and Engine harness ground.

Update: Spark plugs were checked yesterday and appeared to be fine according to the technician. I went ahead and had them replaced since they were already in there and the car has 82k mi.

turboawd

last week i cold started my 550 and the engine ran rough and erratic, and then the check engine light came on. i shut it off, and restarted it, and everything was fine.

AchtungE60

+1 LOL this is what I've been saying all along....... if you really think about it, it's to steal you money. They have answers and won't tell the rest of the world. If it wasn't for boards like this, the world would be dumb, INDE Shops included.

On that note, i believe the gas we are buying ...even if "premium" is not up to standards. I've noticed a lot of people having a LOT of problems in the past 6 months. No correlations at all.

manaiauds

I had the same exact issue 4 days ago. My Indy told me that it was a misfire and needs to change the plugs. I cold started it yesterday at -1F outside temp and the car was fine, did not misfire at all. I did a cold start again today at 1F outside temp and still good. BTW my car is at 82K miles.

crash2646

Changing the spark plugs fixed the misfire issue for you? did your Indy notice any issues with the old plugs?

I had my plugs changed last week, but have not got the car back from the dealer yet (pending other non-related repairs ), to see if it resolved my misfire issue.

tsaros

If i where to take a quess at this i would say cam or crank shafts sensors.
A friends 4.4 X5 does the same thing from time to time, missfire on all cylinders, this more or less rules out sparkplugs, they seldom go bad all at once.