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Old 08-23-2017, 09:03 PM   #21
equ
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Thank you so much, Terry.

I have parking spots but no garage spacious or lit enough to work in. Well, one spot is, but the queen boxster lives there .

Since I'm not doing plugs (they are only 10k old), I thought I could do the coils on the street or in my driveway. Is that too optimistic (or ghetto)? Everyone made it sound so easy.
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Old 08-24-2017, 12:57 AM   #22
Terri Kennedy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by equ View Post
Since I'm not doing plugs (they are only 10k old), I thought I could do the coils on the street or in my driveway. Is that too optimistic (or ghetto)? Everyone made it sound so easy.
It should be easy - just take the plastic cover off to access the coil packs. I tend to not want to do things on the street because that just temps fate with some silly little thing you need and don't have, and of course the car is apart.

Here are the instructions (for an E46, but the only difference is how much of the cabin microfilter housing you need to remove to get to the rear part of the engine cover): https://www.glaver.org/transient/coils.pdf

Give me or Sue a call here if yu run into anything - we can at least roll w/ instructions, tools, and parts.
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Old 08-24-2017, 12:41 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by Terry Kennedy View Post
I tend to not want to do things on the street because that just temps fate with some silly little thing you need and don't have, and of course the car is apart.
This exact scenario played out a few months ago when I swapping the steering wheel of the 535i. I broke a small wire connection and the car was on the street right in front of my living room. The car without a steering wheel sat there for about a day. Our town has no street cleaning though. Which means there is the occasional carcass () or eccentric car that never moves.
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Old 08-24-2017, 01:46 PM   #24
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It should be a 20 min job roadside or in a parking spot without issue. The only tool needed is a socket to remove the engine cover. The coil latches swing open (be sure you swing them all the way vertical) and disconnect. There is a hole in the latch to put your finger through and pull them out. The plastic at the hole is a little sharp, so you may want some light gloves or a rag to displace the load a bit. pop the new ones in (be sure the rubber sleeve doesn't bunch at the top of the opening, snap the latch down and you're done. (at least that was how it was on the n54).
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Old 08-27-2017, 10:04 PM   #25
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Did the DIY. I had some other stuff going on, so it took the better part of a day on and off. Total time spent, way more than an hour, probably two. Next time around, maybe 30-40 minutes, done carefully, but definitely not roadside work. Some cables/harnesses to unclip and move around. Turbo intakes all running on top etc. Coils themselves were relatively easy to pop in and out. Access? Not so much. I think part of the problem was that there was exactly zero write-ups/DIY's to follow for the f10 platform. Only for e90 and f30 with the same engine. So I had to remove as I went and figure it out.

Anyway, it does feel a bit better, still a slight idle shake but dare I say it, car feels smoother and stronger 2 to 4k rpm, i.e. under load. We will see if the CEL comes back.
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Old 08-27-2017, 11:42 PM   #26
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Wow - that is a TON more stuff in the way than I would have thought.
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Old 08-27-2017, 11:54 PM   #27
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Nicely done!
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Old 03-27-2018, 10:47 AM   #28
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Update. The idle shake came back. CEL (misfire cyl.3) was gone for a while but recently came back and stayed on. Idle shake got a bit worse. So off to the mechanic...

Lo & behold, spark plug #3 was bad. They gave me a high price of labor for all six instead of just one, so I just got that one done. He wanted $120 for the diagnosis & labor of the bad one, fair. But $300 for doing all six. What?

In retrospect... I was basically "in there" for all six when I was doing the coils. Having never done plugs, and with no one around who had the "feel" for it, I did not feel confident I had the mechanical feel and I got paranoid about engine threads. I have many destroyed threads in my history, don't need to add a BMW N55 to that list. I do have a torque wrench for wheels, not sure if it would apply to plugs, and I think I'd need to get a socket for plugs. Next time...

The other lesson was that I "over-relied" on the service history. Plugs were done at 41k at an indie just before my purchase. By 45k, the car already had idle shake. So I suspected coils etc. I did the coils just before 50k, here we are at 52k and finally reaching the culprit. So I lived with a bad plug for more than a year and 8k miles. The symptoms seemed to be contained to idle rpm, car still got 27mpg on the highway, but now that the plug is done, the butt dyno says +10% in mid-range. Hope the shakes and misfires didn't do any mechanical damage. Just tired the engine mounts, perhaps.
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