spark plug and coil help...

[frankiG_]

i know there is no noticeable difference in Bosch branded or NGK branded plugs from BMW branded plugs but is there a difference in Bosch branded coils over BMW branded coils..? i might be investing in replacing plugs and coils in my 2009 128i e82 n52...maybe plug wires and might need injectors as well...

[Dackelone]

Your engine does NOT have any spark plug wires. The coil packs sit atop each spark plug. One some coil packs there is a tube that connects the coil pack with the spark plug. On our cars its all one unit.

There IS a difference between OE(BMW dealer) and OEM(aftermarket) parts, like spark plugs. The plugs BMW sell are branded BMW/Bosch... while the aftermarket ones only say Bosch.

Some people have had problems with the aftermarket (Bosch)plugs. I think there is something different about the internal design. Some have said the ceramic insulator is different - causing some cars to miss fire after a spark plug job. This is why I choose to go with BMW dealer bought plugs. Its only a few dollars more per plug.

On the 128i BMW says the plugs are good for 100K miles. But I would change them at around 50K miles.

Some guys have gone with Cobb high performance coil packs. I think also Bav Autosport sells a higher performance coil pack as well. I think OE would be just fine.


135i Spark Plug replacement DIY...
http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=602804

[Zombie1]

I installed OE bmw plugs last month car drives like butter so smooth

[TheSt|G]

OE is always better than OEM.

[kobeballer96]

or you didn't properly gap your new plugs? and thats why you had a misfire? coming from the turbo world we always wanted to go a step colder.

[JimD]

Mike Miller also recommends buying plugs from the dealer and says they are different even when the part number is the same. Hard for me to believe but with multiple people reporting it....

[frankiG_]

someone told me there was no difference between plugs.
the only reason i asked really. i took my car to a bmw service shop to get them replaced cause the plugs were bad at around 72k miles and i knew that. i figured might as well replace coils and plugs and maybe injectors as well.

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by kobeballer96

or you didn't properly gap your new plugs? and thats why you had a misfire? coming from the turbo world we always wanted to go a step colder.

Are they not a three prong plug? Can not be easily gapped.

[TheSt|G]

Originally Posted by JimD

Mike Miller also recommends buying plugs from the dealer and says they are different even when the part number is the same. Hard for me to believe but with multiple people reporting it....

Originally Posted by frankiG_

someone told me there was no difference between plugs.
the only reason i asked really. i took my car to a bmw service shop to get them replaced cause the plugs were bad at around 72k miles and i knew that. i figured might as well replace coils and plugs and maybe injectors as well.

If the question is between trusting some random joe and Mike Miller on BMW maintenance, Mike Miller everytime.

[631twentyeighteye]

I ordered OEM bosch plugs from ecs tuning, and literally just put them in. No misfiring or any issues what so ever. It was probably a bad batch or something, but i didn't even gap mine as the first two measured dead nuts from the box.

[Freon]

See here for pretty solid evidence that they are in fact the exact same plug besides the letters "BMW" silk screened on to the porcelain:
http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showp...95&postcount=9

I really don't think the Bosch branded plugs (ZGR6STE2) are different from the BMW OEM plugs and don't hesitate to recommend them. They're slightly cheaper ($1-3/each) and available from more vendors. If it is easy for you to get BMW plugs, nothing necessarily wrong with that either.

Just changing out worn plugs will immediately change the way the car runs as well. You might need to give it some time and driving cycles. If you are oversensitive about minor inconsistencies in the way the car sounds you may be making incorrect conclusions. I really don't buy the anecdotes of people saying the Bosch plugs caused problems. Maybe something happened during the install, but was it really a problem, and was it really due to the plug and not something else, like overtorquing? You could get a bad Bosch plug, but you could also get a bad Bosch plug with a BMW stamp on it.

I otherwise dismiss the complaints about the Bosch-branded plugs as anecdotal. The BMW plugs ARE Bosch plugs!

You should NOT be gapping most modern plugs. They should come pregapped. The three-ground style our N54 engines use is pregapped and would be difficult to gap yourself due to the design. You can damage the plug, so don't touch it! It's difficult to even measure the gap since the gap is not flat, but a curved shape. Some feeler gauges will not work.

[JimD]

I liked the pictures in the other thread arguing there is no difference. Do our 128s have the same plug requiring the funny socket? I guess I should look for a DIY.

[631twentyeighteye]

No you don't, I managed to use a regular old spark plugs socket i had. It fit with PLENTY of wiggle room, don't know what all that fuss is about.

[JimD]

The 135i apparently has a much different plug which requires a special socket. After posting above I googled the plugs. Bavarian says we need a Bosch FR7NPP332 which they offer for $10. Tischer has both a NGK and Bosch plug for $18.52 each. That's a big enough difference to make me consider going against Mike Miller on this one.

Did you get parts from the dealer or go aftermarket? The coil packs at Tischer were $50 each. Roughly $420 to do coils and plugs! Bavarian has bosch coils for $40 each. So $300 to do coils and plugs with Bosch parts from Bavarian. I guess it's not that much more for dealer parts. Bavarian also has the BMW coils for $61- more than Tischer. Just for grins I also checked my favorite "cheap" auto parts place, Rock Auto. They have the same Bosch plugs for $8.35 each but the coils are all off-brands for around $40 and up - think I would go Bavarian although Rock Auto has good service.

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by 631twentyeighteye

No you don't, I managed to use a regular old spark plugs socket i had. It fit with PLENTY of wiggle room, don't know what all that fuss is about.

So you used a regular 16mm (5/8ths, 15.8mm) 6 point, spark plug socket> ?

I know for the 135i you MUST use a special 14mm, 12point 3/8th spark plug socket.



For me on my 135i, I could have bought OEM spark plugs online for $9 but I went to my German BMW dealer and paid 14 euros($21) each. They had a list price of 18 euros each. I just did not want to do the job twice. And frankly I have been fed up with poor quality OEM parts. So I went OE. Then I start to read all these misfire horror stories here. So I was even more happy I went with BMW dealer bought plugs.

[631twentyeighteye]

I'll take a picture of the socket later when i go out and post it up, just a regular ol spark plug hex head socket. And All my parts were ordered from ECS tuning.

[TheSt|G]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

For me on my 135i, I could have bought OEM spark plugs online for $9 but I went to my German BMW dealer and paid 14 euros($21) each. They had a list price of 18 euros each. I just did not want to do the job twice. And frankly I have been fed up with poor quality OEM parts. So I went OE. Then I start to read all these misfire horror stories here. So I was even more happy I went with BMW dealer bought plugs.

Originally Posted by Ian///M

You don't hear about people fitting OE plugs and having issues, only OEM.

Everyone gets here eventually, sadly few are willing to listen and skip the slightly cheaper OEM step.

http://getbmwparts.com/
$18.52

http://www.thebmwpartstore.com/
$14.72

http://www.tomkinsonbmwparts.com/
$17.36


http://www.circlebmwparts.com/
Get a quote

All OE part suppliers. The first three tend to trade off who is cheaper, while Circle is pretty much always cheaper but more work to use. Sometimes you can Google a part number and have the word "circle" in the search as well to pull it up quickly.

[frankiG_]

the service shop i took it to used bmw parts.
they asked if i wanted to use ngk spark plugs it wouldve been cheaper. as well as some chinese sounding coil...i said bmw was fine.
whole job w parts and labor cost me 460$, which i find to be a rip considering i couldve done it myself just my current situation i dont have my tools i have back home, and 2 i dont have the space to work on my car, my apartment complex is pretty strict on the whole no car servicing within the complex. so yeah.
thanks for sparking a nice debate though haha

[kobeballer96]

Originally Posted by frankiG_

the service shop i took it to used bmw parts.
they asked if i wanted to use ngk spark plugs it wouldve been cheaper. as well as some chinese sounding coil...i said bmw was fine.
whole job w parts and labor cost me 460$, which i find to be a rip considering i couldve done it myself just my current situation i dont have my tools i have back home, and 2 i dont have the space to work on my car, my apartment complex is pretty strict on the whole no car servicing within the complex. so yeah.
thanks for sparking a nice debate though haha

they saw you coming man. ouch! spark plug job isnt that serious and shouldnt cost that much. should of a used a friends drive way or taken it somewhere else. heck i think advance auto parts even lends tools if you needed them just to do the job. Better luck next time

[JimD]

Looks like he paid less than $50 over the parts cost. That is cheap. They probably got the parts cheaper but your time is worth something.