318i E46 RUNNING ON ONLY 2 CYLINDERS - BMW Forum

team799 · 08-18-2012, 06:33 AM

Hi,

Please Help!

The car, 1998 318i auto 1895cc E46 M43 engine.

I have owned the car for 1 year and it has been regularly serviced.
The engine is not firing on cylinders 2 & 3.

I have replaced the following:

The coil pack.
Spark plugs.
Camshaft Sensor.
DME Module & EWS Module.

I have checked:

The wire from ECU to Coil pack...no broken wires
Checked the fuel injectors and injecting fuel...all ok
Checked timing...fine
I have checked all of the fuses,cleaned all the electrical connections, etc.

The engine starts (briefly) on two cylinders, but is obviously very lumpy.
I had it on a diagnostic computer but that did not flag up anything which coincides with the problem.

Any help / guidance would be gratefully received.
Many thanks
Katie :-)

Lord Vader · 08-18-2012, 05:29 PM

Have you done a compression test? Based on your statment of replacing the plugs, coil packs, camshaft sensor then its possible theirs a compression problem. All combustion engines need air, fuel, spark and compression to run. if your missing one, it wont.

Have you overheated the car at all? Blowing the headgasket due to overheating could cause an issue with the head as it is aluminum and that could be the reason for the compression loss.

team799 · 08-19-2012, 03:55 AM

Thanks for the reply lord vader,
Sorry meant to put on post that a compression test was done and all ok. Cylinder 2 & 3 are just not getting a spark. The car hasn't been onverheated either.
Thanks Katie :-)

Lord Vader · 08-19-2012, 08:34 AM

Have you tried swapping the coil packs from those cylinders with coil packs from the other working cylinders? Doing this allows you to see if the coil pack is faulty. But you said you replaced them. Are the groundig straps attached after throwing the coil packs in?

team799 · 08-19-2012, 11:45 AM

Lord vader,

It comes as a complete coil pack and I replaced with a new coil pack which made no difference. Checked all earths etc and all's fine.

It's driving me absolutely mad....I need my car back and I am fed up throwing money at it!

Thanks Katie :-)

Lord Vader · 08-19-2012, 11:15 PM

What plugs are you running? OEM is NKG BRK6EK.

team799 · 08-20-2012, 02:38 AM

Lord vader,
That's the plugs I am using, just fitted a new set. It's not the plugs as I have tried swapping the plug out of the working cylinder to cylinder 2&3... Still nothing :-/
Many thanks
Katie