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Misfire on cylinders 4,5, and 6 need help

25K views 20 replies 13 participants last post by  Tartastic 
#1 ·
Hey so my car started up and the service engine light came on and was idling weird and when I drove it down the street it would drive like it had no power. I had the codes ran and it said I had a misfire in cylinders 4,5,and 6. I'm guessing I should start buy changing the spark plugs I don't know if they have ever been changed. Anyone ideas? Thanns
 
#10 · (Edited)
Yes lets just throw parts at it without properly diagnosing it.

Spark plugs I would change first, since you stated your not to sure how old they are to begin with. once the plugs are in clear your codes and start/drive your car. see if anything changes or if any of the codes come back. Dont go replacing all the coils because someone said to or you THINK its a problem. miss fires can be caused by so many things.

If the plugs dont fix your miss fires and your not to familiar with diagnosing the vehicle or have the equipment to do it, take it to a shop that can get it fixed for you the first time. in the end a 1 hour diagnostic charge at the shop will be cheaper than replacing all coils. And hopefully if its a good shop they will have it fixed the first time properly.

But if you have money and dont care about the shops, then be my guest and go changing all coils and see what happens.
 
#9 ·
Sounds like something that happened to me three months ago.
Hopefully yours is something else, but mine was VANOS failure on exhaust cam... $3,400 replacing with a used VANOS and a bit of time in exploratory labor. Runs great now...

My symptoms:
-rough idle
-a little bit of power in low RPMs, but it was like the throttle was strangled above 3,000 RPMs.
-Check Engine light with codes of misfire on many cylinders.

This all came on very quickly: something seemed odd, then the CES light came on and there were many codes.
When the mechanic was searching for a VANOS unit, BMW Seattle informed him that they have sold one of these units in the past five years, so it seems like a rare failure.
It was some sort of a holding ring that slipped out somehow. This ring did fall into the timing belt chamber, but fortunately did not cause any further damage (or so my mantra goes).


Apparently mine was an expensive failure, but also rare, so maybe your coils just went sour at once. Damn, I'm pessimistic... just wanna share my pain, maybe.

Anyway, hopefully yours is something else.
Yours could more likely and hopefully be the VANOS solenoid that would render the same symptoms of not varying the timing of a cam and therefore causing simultaneous misfires. For a solenoid failure there is a site that sends you a refurbished and reinforced (improved) solenoid then gives you about a 50% refund when you send your ruined unit back to them. Like $300, then a $150 refund. HERE.

I also have my original and tested as functioning VANOS solenoid pack since I had to buy an entire VANOS for my repair. We could work something out if you want to use my unit to test or repair. It is unlikely I'll ever need it (mantra 2).
 
#11 ·
So I got 6 new ngk spark plugs I put them on my car sounds a bit better but still sounds like its misfiring. I also switched the coils I put 4,5, and 6 where 1,2, and 3 were. I want to see if the new codes will read misfire on cylinders 1,2, and 3. But I also went down the street and I gave it full throttle it was moving and it felt like there was no misfire but as soon as I stopped at the light and got on it again it seemed like it was misfiring once again. Fml. I guess next steP should be is getting new coils?
 
#12 ·
Yeah, try out the coils. I know when my M3 was having misfire problems, it turned out to be a problem with one of the coils. The symptom was that the car would sputter and stall only at stop lights (when the car was idling). Once you gave it gas and got going the engine would act better. Start idling, the car would stall.
 
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