[umut335i]

So I've been having problems with my e93 335i recently. I'm full bolt on and vargas stage 2 turbos. For a long time I've been going to mechanics and they've been blaming the map and all diagnosis attempts have failed miserably.

My friend came round with his 20£ odb reader and we diagnosed the fault together. Everytime I hit the throttle in 2nd and 3rd the car would stutter and the engine light would come on and if I stayed on the power it would stutter some more then go into limp mode then the dsc fault light would come and dashboard would become a bloody Xmas tree...

Just to give you some info... I've been shafted by a load of mechanics... and finding the rights ones have really been a bloody difficult mission... always made mistakes by going to cheap and cheerful places but have realised that a lot of the ones I've been to are bloody liars! One in Sydenham in South east London Mainly not going to name and shame because I'm not a douche. I gave my car in about a year and half ago for a full service including sparks fuel filter air filter oil filter, oil change etc. It was meant to be a comprehensive service.

So a year on I've realised that they never touched the sparks... didn't change the air filter or anything I got absolutely shafted. Since then I gave my car to BMW to service, they done the oil change and oil filter replacement. This was about a month ago.

Today I took it upon my self with the help of a generous curteous friend to pull the engine covers off and delve into the coil packs and sparks. What I found absolutely horrified me. The coil packs and sparks were covered in oil. I pulled the coil packs out and they were absolutely drenched in oil and there was a HUGE amount of oil build up where the sparks were. The amount of oil in there leveled the sparks that's how much was in there. I had to get a rag and soak up as much as I could after about 6 rags worth of oil i had managed to get most of it out. Then got the compressor on and carefully got out the rest and cleaned the rest of it up. Eventually I got round to removing the sparks (had to grind down the walls of a socket to get it, yep I'm a cowboy lol) I would have waited but I desperately needed to use the car so just got on with it... fitted the new sparks and the new coils and started her up. Ran 10 times better. went for a little drive and got back to check if there was any more oil I was suspecting a rocker cover or something like that but all was good no leaks etc so I'm guessing when someone put the oil in the engine they were careless and spilt it all down into there I can't see any other reason for it...

Lessons learned:

1) Don't trust any mechanic
2) Learn to check the work or do it yourself
3) Get an ODB reader
4) Cheap and Cheerful is not the way to do things lol!

Finally running good... Remap to come

I'll get some pics up shortly...

[old grey steve]

As you may know Umut I had the misfire from hell and was sure as I could smell oil I had a possible rocker cover gasket is sure turned pity that the plug wells like you've described were swimming in oil coils like yours were contaminated but I also had a contamination isdue re injectors namely No3 and to a degree No2 the rocker cover when the engine fully warmed up could be seen opening up oil would bubble and the above is the net result well of mine anyway. The only way to be sure is to expose the rocker cover itself to check



You can see the crack circled look at to back of tge injector you'll notice a slight shiny goldenish patch that's oil.

Cracked rocker covers aren't unheard of they all seem to go roughly where cylider 3's injector is situated, leaking rocker cover gaskets again known. The picture only shows the injector area further in where the plugs are as stated oil was found there too.



With oil in the areas you've described as you say best get it checked out even though you say your cleaning shows no fresh oil the only other way I can suggest oil gets in the plug wells is if when topping up spillage occurs oil will drop down the the cover to the lowest point seen this as well but all you can do is monitor the situation I guess as rocker covers if you clean up can appear to be OK on first inspection then slowly show their hand if you look at my rocker cover crack that was difficult to see first time round we gad to strip the top covers off expose the rocker cover then run it up fir a while then watched as the cover started to open up allowing oil seepage to take place

[Aragorn30d]

Its probably a leaking rocker cover gasket thats caused the oil. The oil seeps in over time it wont just reappear after one drive.

[kiel_dafo_kenyg_as]

The soaked coil issue is known for over 20 years. It has always been a prob in bmw engines.

[umut335i]

Like I said you live and you learn. Thanks for the input Steve I'll be sure to get the gasket changed ASAP! I'll monitor it closely here-on-in... Learning my lessons slowly as you do... :-)

[Aragorn30d]

Originally Posted by whiteblue

The soaked coil issue is known for over 20 years. It has always been a prob in bmw engines.

TBH its common to many multivalve petrol engines that have spark plugs in a well.

I've owned vauxhalls, mazdas, VW's and Audis over the years all with the same issue.

[Russbmw]

Had the same issue years back on my e39 528. Although weirdly enough, it had no running issues at all, and I only noticed it when I was changing the plugs.

[AWSAWS]

This makes for a good read.
I've just started developing a misfire on cylinder 1. Hoping it's just that my plugs are coming to their end of life.
I'll be doing an oil change and plug change within the next 2 weeks. I'll have to see if there's any oil in there. Fingers crossed as it's not cylinder 3.

[zltm089]

Name and shame those fuckers!

[AWSAWS]

Originally Posted by zltm089

Name and shame those fuckers!

Agree also!

Don't let the public be guinea pigs for cowboys.