Please Help!

[Simon09]

So this morning when I went to start up the car, the idle shot up high to about 2200 rpm's, then sputtered down to around 900, and from then on it had a really rough and jumpy idle. Then I noticed white smoke, the longer the car was on the thicker the smoke became. It smells like the car is running extremely rich. I've done some research and it seems like a somewhat common issue with the N54, I'm just wondering if someone could confirm the issue. I believe that it is a bad fuel injector. I was also wondering if someone could tell me how much it costed them to fix it if they had the same issue.
p.s. the only modification to the car is Berk Cat-back.

[Colt]

That's a LOT of smoke.........

[NickyC]

Wow, that does not look good. When you say this is a common issue on the N54, yes it's common to smoke a bit when cats are deleted, but since you said the only mod you have is a cat back, there shouldn't be any smoke at all. Never mind that much! As well, as much as my car smokes from time to time coming to stop, it's only a momentary puff or two and NEVER on startup. Not sure if others smoke on startup, but my car doesn't. It only happens to me when I've been driving for awhile and I come up to a stop. My car has never *billowed* smoke like that, not even close, and I have a straight through exhaust with no cats.

From the video, that smoke looks pretty white which might indicate a head gasket failure. The smoke from my car is nowhere as light as that, it's more of a greyish black. As well, I've had a bad injector and no more smoke than normal was present.

Hopefully others on here will have good news for you, but I wouldn't drive that car at all until the issue is diagnosed. Have it trailered to a shop or something to be safe, as you'll only do the car more harm driving it that way. Best of luck, I've been there with stuff like this and know it's NO fun.

[Pig Farmer]

My girlfriend's 650i had a bad injector and it smoked almost as bad as your video. That was in the summer time in Florida. It happened when driving home from dinner, and as luck would have it... I was driving. The car was misfiring really bad and the smell of gasoline was crazy. It was so bad i made my girlfriend put out her cigarette. The car didn't start the following day. Now I'm thinking it must be cold in Colorado this time of year which would make it seam worse. That being said, I would definitely check your coolant level. I blew a head gasket in a Prelude when i was a kid and it looked identical to your video. Surprisingly the Honda ran pretty good with the blown head gasket. Pretty sure it cleaned all the carbon off the pistons and the water in the cylinders upped the compression.

[neglectedX5]

Looks like a leaky fuel injector. Hard to say but thats what is looks like. As stated check the coolant as well and engine oil. It could be burning engine coolant, but you do smell an abnormal amount of fuel. A leaky injector may wash the cylinders down so dont just ignore it. Any codes present? Are the cats glowing red? Even while idling? Considering the problems with the injectors and other fuel and spark related components I would bank on an injector instead of a head gasket failure. If you are a DIYer you could order these http://www.getbmwparts.com/partlocat...catalogid=4462, and use INPA to code them. Not hard at all. A dealer visit, expect ~$2000 or so.

[marc@x-ph.com]

This is probably a leaky injector (s). usually, at cold starts, if the car feels sluggish to start then you get whit smoke, weird revving then it is more than likely an injector(s) leaking.

Usually it is not that bad when it starts happening.

When they leak really bad, they will flood your cylinder and might cause engine failure (hydrolock)

[Simon09]

Ok I will check to see if the cats are glowing today? Yes I already do have a CEL but I don't have a tool to read them with. $2000 for a dealer visit that is crazy, I am a DIYer so if it is just a Fuel injector i'll be doing that myself. Going to the Dealer today though.

[neglectedX5]

Originally Posted by Simon09

Ok I will check to see if the cats are glowing today? Yes I already do have a CEL but I don't have a tool to read them with. $2000 for a dealer visit that is crazy, I am a DIYer so if it is just a Fuel injector i'll be doing that myself. Going to the Dealer today though.

If your not sure and have no way to read codes you may want to pay the dealer for the diagnosis fee and have them tell you what they came up with instead of guessing. That would get you closer to the problem instead of throwing parts at it. Then go from there and decide what to buy or do.

[Simon09]

Yeah, I have an appointment scheduled with the dealer to at least do a diagnosis, but from what I have been reading my car would fall in the time range for the recall of the HPFP, injectors and software. So maybe I'll get lucky

[Simon09]

Ok so just got the Prefered Action Plan back from the dealer. So all six injectors were leaking, spark plugs are fuel soaked,both vanos solenoids and LOF need replacing. Seems to me this is the same issue from the recall SI B13 14 10? would anyone else confer this? My car was built in January of 2009 so I only missed the recall by a few months. My issue is what changed in production from Oct 2008 to January 2009? Also the cost of all this is just over $2800.

[b1aze]

Unfortunately, a set of the new injectors is like $1800 in parts alone, plus install and coding. there's the bulk of your bill.

[b1aze]

Originally Posted by yulook

get over to ecstuning.com and save yourself some hassle

buy the parts from that site and get them to install it.

You can get the parts for
sparks for $108.00

and full injector set 999.95

get them to do a price list and compare.

Is that the newest rev injector? If so, they won't work just by plug and play, they need to be recoded by the dealer.

[takrdown]

Getbmwparts.com has the injectors even cheaper and with free shipping right now. I just ordered a set of six for the same problem.

[Simon09]

So takrdown you are having the same issue? What was your build date?