IGNITION COIL RECALL: Information from dealer and BMWNA

I called up both my dealership and BMW of NA today about the ignition coil recall we've been hearing about. It is in fact a legitimate recall. The dealership said they've already had 4 people come in today to get it done. And they are in the process of trying to contact all the customers.

Then I called BMW of NA and they confirmed that my car was on the list of cars that needed to be serviced, and that it was the Bosch ignition coils that needed to be replaced. All E46s model years 2002 to 2005 potentially have this problem. I told the customer service guy that I didn't receive an email like some of the other drivers did, and he said they are still in the process of sending them out in batches, and they do not have the emails of every driver. So do NOT waste them and schedule an appointment with your dealership asap. Just because you haven't received an email doesn't mean you're not affected. Either BMW hasn't gotten around to contacting you, or your email is not listed within their system.

Potential problems include stalling, sputtering idle, cold-start issues, and according to the customer service guy, apparently fires. Although I highly doubt the last one.

My appointment is set for Thursday. I think everyone on here should try and schedule one asap as well.

-Ken

Just to clarify, it's the Bremi coils that are being replaced. If you have Bosch, you're all set. And no, fires are not an issue!

My 525i was just in to the dealer for a weird noise from the transmission turns out it was actually the drive shaft and it needs to be replaced. Anyway, on the paper of the jobs done it showed that the Ignition Coil had been replaced due to recall. I was not aware of the recall, and did not request it to be done, but they did it anway.

^^ That is correct... You must have misunderstood Ken...

Bremi coils are being replaced with Bosch coils..

Fire is NOT an issue, and this recall has been out for almost a year...

I don't know, that's what the dealership told me. I guess the service advisor told me the wrong thing :-(.

-Ken

Take it from a parts guy...SA's get cunfused easily...

lol. Yeah, you are right. The SA at the Gainesville dealer lost my friend Tyler's car.

-Ken

You mean this? http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/att...chmentid=49115


Sad part is they kept putting know bad parts in NEW cars after they issued this bulletin

Originally Posted by kpeng

lol. Yeah, you are right. The SA at the Gainesville dealer lost my friend Tyler's car.

-Ken

my cars a 2002 with 56k miles.... do i have a chance of gettin this recall done for free if i need it or am i SOL

Originally Posted by dave12345

my cars a 2002 with 56k miles.... do i have a chance of gettin this recall done for free if i need it or am i SOL

Any recalls are done by the dealer at no cost to you, per federal law.

dave, I would just call the dealership.

This is funny if it's been out for like a year. Because I"ve brought my car in for service before complaining of rough idle and cold-start issues, and each time they gave me some lame excuse. Like my car was in "transport" mode or my fuel pump was bad.

-Ken

As posted in the other thread, these are the cars affected:

Here are the vehicles involved in the recall:
E46 with M54/M56 from 09/02 up to 12/04.
E39 with M54 from 09/02 up to 07/03.
E53 (X5) with M54 from 09/02 up to 12/04.
E65/E66 with N62/N73 from 09/01 up to 12/04.
E85 (Z4) with M54 from 09/02 up to 12/04.
E83 (X3) with M54 from 09/03 up to 12/04.

Here are the E46 chassis numbers: (Last 7 of the VIN)
Model Chassis Number Range
325i KL58793 – KL62880
NH02298 – NH05784
PD00558 – PD01068
325iA KL78812 – KL89995
KR24002 – KR32361
PD56824 – PD58282
NJ21783 – NJ47934
NJ80013 – NJ96910
325Ci JY96097 – JY98108
PC99012 – PC99995
325CiA PL00001 – PL04548
PG60108 – PG62814
325Cic JY43694 – JY44229
PG97089 – PG98243
325CicA PG88872 – PG92999
PL24020 – PL31534
325iT EZ15376 – EZ15633
325iTA PC11346 – PC12725
325xi PF58422 – PF62576
325xiA PH86839 – PH90969
PM52033 – PM59296
PR06010 – PR12874
325xiT PE91490 – PE92062
325xiTA PF01600 – PF04589
325iA SULEV KP78010 – KP87556
PH30108 – PH36104
325CiA SULEV PJ15045 – PJ16347
JT20009 – JT22530
325iTA SULEV PJ00063 – PJ00924
330i KM02321 – KM07066
330iA KM24352 – KM36386
330Ci PD95092 – PD97653
JU28717 – JU45159
330CiA PL10037 – PL14136
PH02210 – PH05245
330Cic EV90090 – EV90753
PJ94042 – PJ95840
330CicA JU95942 – JU99831
PL40018 – PL46594
330xi PG09391 – PG11594
330xiA PG20116 – PG23990
PN30039 – PN35923

-Ken

im callin them first thing tomorrow and if it was never done im gonna flip cuz i brought it in for an oil change in july and they put my key in their computer thing and said everything was up to date and all recalls were performed..... wat are some symptoms i would get if my ignition coils were bad ill go for a ride to see if i notice anything

I would think rough idle, sputtering and whatnot.

-Ken

Ken-
Do you have the recall id number?
So they can track it in there system?

This sucks, I paid almost $200 to replace my Bremi coils because my car was out of warranty.

Anyone else pay out of pocket? I guess I'll have to give NA a calll...

Originally Posted by kpeng

Potential problems include stalling, -Ken

I wonder if this is what happened to my car that they couldn't duplicate? What kind of stalling? When sitting idle at a light, then stalling? Or stalling while driving at highway speeds? Both of these scenarios apply to me.

The dealership was not able to duplicate the problem and could not find anything wrong with my car. What they did was update my software. But my car stalled again after it was out of warranty. That's 3x it's happened....

Guess I'll call the dealership and see if they have my car listed on this recall. Is there a recall # I should refer them too?

TIA!

I don't know the recall number, but I think they would know what you were talking about. At least my dealership did.

-Ken

I remember the 3rd Coil went bad on my 323i once. The car just felt like it lost all its power and would barely move. I would turn off/on the car it would be fine again.

Originally Posted by dave12345

im callin them first thing tomorrow and if it was never done im gonna flip cuz i brought it in for an oil change in july and they put my key in their computer thing and said everything was up to date and all recalls were performed..... wat are some symptoms i would get if my ignition coils were bad ill go for a ride to see if i notice anything

Dave, there were no outstanding recalls on your vehicle at that time. The new recall (just issued this month - 10/2005) is to replace Bremi ignition coils (the 223's) with Bosch ignition coils (the 219's). I'm a warranty administrator at Pacific BMW. kpeng, listed the vehicles affected earlier in the thread. If you had all your old Bremi coils replaced with Bosch ones already per SI B12 08 03, you are completely fine and don't need coils again. You would know if you had this performed already if the defect code 12 13 92 12 00 is on your DCSnet Vehicle History report that your service advisor can look up (and print out) for you.

And xxcosmicxx is right, some service advisors get confused pretty easily! So if the ones at Crevier are confused, ya'll should send your cars up here to Pacific for the proper service! j/k

If you haven't been notified yet, don't stress. Most of your cars are probably running fine right now. Just imagine how many thousands of cars are affected. It wouldn't make sense to notify these people all at once and overburden BMW service departments throughout the country. IIRC, BMW NA is notifying customers with E39 (prev. gen 5 Series) and E53 (X5 SAV) vehicles with the M54 engines first.

I hope this helps!