[Gecko123]

I have 2011 328 xdrive.


Is there such thing as a better quality ignition coil that will last at least 100,000km or 60,000 miles. 100k km is not a lot by the way
I don’t even feel comfortable taking the BMW on a road trip worrying that the water pump or ignition coil might go. I changed all ignition coils at 40,000 km and now I’m at 98,000 km.

My other car is a 4Runner and it’s at 260k km. No issues with ignition coils or anything for that matter

[nhhiep]

IC is almost lifetime on this engine. my 06 with 150k miles and 08 at 80k miles. both still strong with originals. it's the spark plugs that you should change at around 100k miles.

it's the wp that you should be worrying. mine died near 100k miles while on a trip too.

Take a 4runner on the trip. don't gamble with an old bmw.

[ricx]

Originally Posted by Gecko123

I have 2011 328 xdrive.


Is there such thing as a better quality ignition coil that will last at least 100,000km or 60,000 miles. 100k km is not a lot by the way
I don’t even feel comfortable taking the BMW on a road trip worrying that the water pump or ignition coil might go. I changed all ignition coils at 40,000 km and now I’m at 98,000 km.

My other car is a 4Runner and it’s at 260k km. No issues with ignition coils or anything for that matter

What car issues are you having to make you think the IC are goimg bad?

[mecheng77]

122,000km on original Bosch coils and plugs. I looked at one plug and it looked good. Take the BMW and enjoy the drive, if you want to fall asleep driving take the Toyota

[WoodE30]

Best stock configuration ignition coil you can throw in a BMW is an Eldor coil. Hit up fcpeuro.com for lift time warranty on parts.

[CTinline-six]

Originally Posted by mecheng77

122,000km on original Bosch coils and plugs. I looked at one plug and it looked good. Take the BMW and enjoy the drive, if you want to fall asleep driving take the Toyota

+1

I took my E90 on a 1200 mile road trip this summer, most of it was spent hammering on it through the mountain roads in the middle of nowhere. It did fine and I averaged 28 mpg.

[e90yyc]

While I can understand your reliability concerns, I’ve never understood why people compare German vehicles to mid-level Japanese cars (or even higher-end ones)...

The reason brands like Toyota offer the reliability they do is because their level of innovation and adoption of leading-edge tech is trounced by brands like BMW. I’m not saying they’re bad at what they do, but when they develop a new engine for example, its production life is so effing long they pretty much iron out every conceivable issue. So you get reliable, sure, but it isn’t without its drawbacks.

The German brands on the other hand are constantly releasing new engines with mind boggling technologies that are so insanely refined and efficient it makes you wonder how they can possibly improve from here. And then bam, they do it again.

Just sayin... I’d replace the IC’s on my car every couple years if it meant never having to drive a Civic again.

[TunafishE93]

That's a laugh refined and efficient! Thanks. I changed to Bosch and had no issues but only running 2000 miles, I had Delphi in there and they were giving me problems... Not sure if they were stock or not but changed them at 60k, they were falling apart on removal.. Wasn't impressed.

[dmatre]

Buy a spare coil and a code reader. Throw both in the trunk, then drive whenever/wherever you please. Not rocket science.

[JM98]

Originally Posted by dmatre

Buy a spare coil and a code reader. Throw both in the trunk, then drive whenever/wherever you please. Not rocket science.

Smart. I keep a couple spare coils and a serpentine belt in my trunk just in case.

[Gecko123]

Originally Posted by ricx

What car issues are you having to make you think the IC are goimg bad?

Not having any right now but when I bought the car it had about 49,000 km. One of the IC went, got it replaced under warrant. After another, 10k km, another IC went so BMW replaced all of them since my car was a certified preowned and under warranty.

Now my car is at 98,000 km, does that mean another coil will go soon.

[Gecko123]

Originally Posted by dmatre

Buy a spare coil and a code reader. Throw both in the trunk, then drive whenever/wherever you please. Not rocket science.

Thanks Mr Cocky

[Gecko123]

Originally Posted by e90yyc

While I can understand your reliability concerns, I’ve never understood why people compare German vehicles to mid-level Japanese cars (or even higher-end ones)...

The reason brands like Toyota offer the reliability they do is because their level of innovation and adoption of leading-edge tech is trounced by brands like BMW. I’m not saying they’re bad at what they do, but when they develop a new engine for example, its production life is so effing long they pretty much iron out every conceivable issue. So you get reliable, sure, but it isn’t without its drawbacks.

The German brands on the other hand are constantly releasing new engines with mind boggling technologies that are so insanely refined and efficient it makes you wonder how they can possibly improve from here. And then bam, they do it again.

Just sayin... I’d replace the IC’s on my car every couple years if it meant never having to drive a Civic again.

Some of the things you say are true about BMW leading edge technology so more things are likely to go etc. But what about things like door lock and trunk actuators and other basic electrically that are non leading edge technology. Seat air bag sensors, etc. All those fail at early stage. Anyone who has owned Japanese and German cars can do a more OBJECTIVE comparison. It’s people who accepts these faults is why BMW don’t give a care about making it better. It’s true what they say love is blind.

We love our BMW cars but guys be objective. Don’t get all offensive when we say there are certain faults.

Keep objective and constructive comments coming.

[Welcome to NBA Jam]

Originally Posted by Gecko123

Some of the things you say are true about BMW leading edge technology so more things are likely to go etc. But what about things like door lock and trunk actuators and other basic electrically that are non leading edge technology. Seat air bag sensors, etc. All those fail at early stage. Anyone who has owned Japanese and German cars can do a more OBJECTIVE comparison. It’s people who accepts these faults is why BMW don’t give a care about making it better. It’s true what they say love is blind.

We love our BMW cars but guys be objective. Don’t get all offensive when we say there are certain faults.

Keep objective and constructive comments coming.

I've had both.

Honda:
- Entire gauge cluster would shut off sometimes when I turned on the headlights
- Did not know how much gas was in the car because the gauge cluster was wrong
- CD player wouldn't play any CDs
- Handbrake was loose and didn't work
- The sway bar came loose some how
- Shocks/struts were worn and made driving actually dangerous

Subaru:
- Ear-piercing screeching at full volume would randomly come out of all speakers and continue playing until the car was turned off and on again
- The navigation system would sometimes freeze with some addresses and could only be fixed by turning the car off and on again
- Tire pressure monitor failed
- Every speaker on the right side of the car failed at 80,000 miles
- The brake pedal started squeaking at 45,000 miles
- Control arm bushings needed replacement at 60,000 miles
- Stability control stopped working at 100,000 miles
- Timing belt had to be replaced

On my E46:
- DISA valve failed at 110,000 miles
- Some LEDs in the rear left tail light stopped working
- Intake boot idle tube was torn
- Front control arm bushings needed to be replaced

On my E90:
- Water pump died; replaced under warranty
- A seat button jammed; replaced under warranty
- The blower motor was squeaky in cold weather; replaced under warranty
- Shocks/struts were worn but driving was not dangerous
- The fuel pressure regulator needed to be replaced because the car would take a little longer to start sometimes
- One cup holder needs to be opened manually now
- The start button text rubbed off at 100,000 miles
- A speaker made a crackling noise at certain frequencies
- The right side seatbelt arm doesn't work correctly
- The volume down button on the steering wheel was slightly harder to press
- Spark plugs replaced at 100,000 miles
- The expansion tank leaked at 117,000 miles

Everything else I pretty much replaced for fun or because I broke it by accident.

Point is, every car has a bunch of stupid bs about it and BMW isn't any different other than it costs more at a shop for some reason. The stuff that broke in the Honda and Subaru made driving a really shitty experience.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by Gecko123

Thanks Mr Cocky

Dude, my first coil died at 280,000 miles in August of 2015, 9 years into my ownership. I replaced the rack of coils at that time with genuine BMW OE (Delphi) coils. It's been over 100,000 miles since then. Not a hiccup from the coils. And I change plugs at 100,000 mile intervals.

You worry too much. Mr. C's advice is actually good if you are paranoid about reliability.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by Gecko123

Some of the things you say are true about BMW leading edge technology so more things are likely to go etc. But what about things like door lock and trunk actuators and other basic electrically that are non leading edge technology. Seat air bag sensors, etc. All those fail at early stage. Anyone who has owned Japanese and German cars can do a more OBJECTIVE comparison. It’s people who accepts these faults is why BMW don’t give a care about making it better. It’s true what they say love is blind.

We love our BMW cars but guys be objective. Don’t get all offensive when we say there are certain faults.

Keep objective and constructive comments coming.

I've driven BMWs for 30 years and 920,000 combined miles. Wouldn't trade any of that time for a Japanese car. And I owned a '89 Acura Integra for 230,000 miles, so I've had experience with Honda. And I have a 20 year old Honda flat-6 motorcycle too.

[TunafishE93]

That's good .. Thanks for sharing.

[e90yyc]

Originally Posted by Gecko123

Some of the things you say are true about BMW leading edge technology so more things are likely to go etc. But what about things like door lock and trunk actuators and other basic electrically that are non leading edge technology. Seat air bag sensors, etc. All those fail at early stage. Anyone who has owned Japanese and German cars can do a more OBJECTIVE comparison. It’s people who accepts these faults is why BMW don’t give a care about making it better. It’s true what they say love is blind.

We love our BMW cars but guys be objective. Don’t get all offensive when we say there are certain faults.

Keep objective and constructive comments coming.

BMW are not without their faults, true. By no means am I suggesting that. I've owned numerous Japanese vehicles, one Audi and two BMW's over the past ~14 years—not a large number but enough to get a feel for the ownership experience. I gotta say I'm with Welcome to NBA Jam on this one. I also haven't had any issues with door lock actuators or seat occupancy sensors, but perhaps it just hasn't happened yet. Let's not forget when Toyota was installing airbags that were blowing peoples' faces off just a few short years after they had "sticky" accelerator pedals that were causing people to rocket into walls and ditches. I'm mentioning these things only to illustrate that these brands don't always get the basics right either.

My sister owns a Honda Fit that I've helped her fix over the years. The rear hatch handles on these cars eventually rust and seize and cost ~$80 CAD if you choose to just replace them. (I disassembled it and fixed it, but most people likely wouldn't.) On my old Civic, half the wires in the door harnesses turned into dust, so I usually had just a few speakers working at a time and no power door locks. My suspension also became incredibly sketchy and the CV joints failed multiple times. There were other issues too... these are just some examples.

On my E90, which now has 320k km's on it, there are no electrical gremlins, no rust on the body, and I just replaced front and rear struts probably 20k miles ago. They were bigtime overdue, but at no point has the car felt sketchy to drive. It was just soft and less engaging to drive. Absolutely the cost of ownership is higher relative to Japanese, and there are certainly other things that have been fixed that are less common.

Anyway, to your original post: I wouldn't worry too much about your IC's unless you're having issues. I replaced mine once at ~260k kms. I used the OE Bosch coils because they worked perfectly fine for me. Some folks prefer Delphi, so maybe you could give that a try. That's really your only alternative—Eldor coils are for 335's.

[Gecko123]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Dude, my first coil died at 280,000 miles in August of 2015, 9 years into my ownership. I replaced the rack of coils at that time with genuine BMW OE (Delphi) coils. It's been over 100,000 miles since then. Not a hiccup from the coils. And I change plugs at 100,000 mile intervals.

You worry too much. Mr. C's advice is actually good if you are paranoid about reliability.

not being paranoid, but numbers dont lie. this is based on what i've read, talk to bmw owners, etc. IC are known to go bad on these cars. you get the odd few that last for years. Just use Google if youdont believe me

[ryan stewart]

Mine made it to 90k and I just replaced them all with the Delphi ones. I will admit they dont feel as quality as the ones in my old S52 that were going strong at 150k when I sold it. But they are MUCH cheaper, cheap enough I just tell anyone if you drop a coil replace them all and be done with it.

Guess you could try the BavAuto coils from Turner, but its double the cost of the regular coil and who knows if it actually lasts longer. But Ill just swap them with the plugs (which I choose to do at 60k instead odf 100k).

[dmatre]

Originally Posted by Gecko123

not being paranoid, but numbers dont lie. this is based on what i've read, talk to bmw owners, etc. IC are known to go bad on these cars. you get the odd few that last for years. Just use Google if youdont believe me

How many incidents of coil failures have you read about? Now divide this be the 1million plus E9X cars produced. Doesn't seem such a big number after doing the math.

If you want to be pro-active: typically it's coil #5 or #6 which fail. Both are up under the dash/windshield, where there isn't much airflow, and the ambient temp is higher. This is likely the main cause of the failure (all electrical devices have reduced life spans with increasing temperatures).

Swap out those two and you've greatly reduced the probability of a failure.

If you think that coil failure is imminent, then you have three options:
1) ignore it and whatever happens, happens
2) buy a coil or two and swap them out, or have them sitting ready
3) trade the car and get something with 'more reliable' coils

Good luck regardless of which path you choose.

[mweisdorfer]

Just get Eldor Coils and call it a day