My 135i DCT N55 *Nightmare*

[DJKapeesh]

Back in in September is when it all started. As my car approached the extended warranty mileage of 78,700k miles I began to strap down on the maintenance and repairs to make sure the vehicle would last me well into the 100ks (or so I thought).

The car had just crossed over 77k miles and I proceeded to do the maintenance that would not be covered under warranty first. I had my very reputable shop in South Florida "Transcend Performance" perform the simple maintenance of spark plugs, ignition coils, oil and inspection for items that may need repair. I provided the parts and they did the job. At the end they informed me the Oil Filter Housing was leaking and could be fixed.

Alright so I have 1 item to take to BMW to claim on the warranty. As I leave the shop and make the appointment with BMW I begin to notice the car has a hickup in the engine when stopped at a light or sign and in gear. It can be felt in the brake pedal every 20 seconds or so but in my head it may be a simple misfire of some sort resulting from a loose plug or coil.

I take the car to BMW of Pembroke Pines and inform them of the Oil Filter Housing and the warranty. I also mentioned the hickup if they could determine the source of my problems. After inspection BMW comes back to me and says the Valve Cover Gasket is also leaking and needs to be repaired with the Oil Filter Housing before the hickup can be determined. Eventually I agree to the repairs at the expense of my $250 deductible.

The car is then repaired and BMW lets me know they cannot determine the exact source of the hickup but there tools show a misfire in 2 cylinders possibly caused by bad injectors. Of course they also tell me my warranty wants to only replace the 2 injectors because they are not indexed. At this point I smell something fishy and decided to inspect the car personally before proceeding to only replace 2 injectors.

I get the car back and head back to the indy shop. This time I have them use their diagnostic tool to test each injector separately under load and no load. This reveals all injectors are misfiring at some point and time during combustion or stopped. *Great so we found the problem right?* NOPE.

We clean each injector before putting them back in to determine if they need to be replaced. After the cleaning and then individual testing the misfire has completely vanished and the car should be smooth as butter. I take the car home and find that now, not only does the car hickup but it is not showing weird behavior with the transmission. The car begins to start jumping forward and jumping in RPMs when stopping very often and paired with the hickups this is turning into a nightmare at this point.

We are well into the end of October by now and I have just crossed over the warranty mark and things are getting pretty serious and expensive to say the least. One day at work I come out to the car and see a ding in the panel behind the drivers door. I take pictures and contact the owner to arrange an easy repair without the police and insurance. The female Hyundai Sonata driver then contacts me later that week and insist she did not hit my car and refuses to pay. At this point I realize Florida is not working out and I should have called the F*ck*ng police when it happened. Never the less I setup another appointment with my shop and try to get a new diagnosis and estimate to repair the ding.

Halloween hits before my appointment and South Florida drivers seem to get stupider as it gets later into the Holidays. That being said the same night of Halloween I get smashed in my rear end while sitting in traffic (a story for another day). Geico proceeds to look at the car and only sees fit to give me $600 to repair the whole rear bumper with pains and putty? Mind u the car has never been in any accidents and has never had a scratch until the ding and now this.

My shop receives the car and argues back and forth with Geico until they finally order a bumper and are ready to paint. At this point I had to return my rental because it being in an accident due to a Florida driver parking their car in the middle of a turning lane in a blind spot and I have to drive my own car until the car bumper is ready to go on. I get the car and we are near Christmas now and the car still has the mechanical issues and the minor accident cosmetic damages.

Well fast forward to yesterday Dec. 23 2015.
The car has now been in the BMW dealership 2 times, the Indy shop 3 times. So far the Ignition Coils, Sparks, Oil Filter Housing, VCG, Oil, and Fuel Injectors have all been taken care of and the car is still not right.

I have since contacted BMW of NA and spoken with an adviser who has since spoken with BMW of Pembroke and agreed to help resolve this issue. I then make my appointment and prepare to drop the car today at 4pm.

WELL, on the way to week which is a 5 mile journey total, the car goes into limp mode throwing engine over heated and completely disables the gas peddle. After a few times turning the car off and on I finally give up and call a tow truck at 8:30AM to be towed to BMW ahead of schedule.

The car now sits at BMW on Christmas Eve, and I have a loaner. The car has a total of 82k miles but seems like it's on its last leg. My legal council has advised me to file a lemon law if the car is not 100% fixed by this next repair that will be coming out of my Pocket$ since we are now out of warranty and BMW failed to fix the problem under warranty. It has only been 1 year and 9 months since buying the car and it appears it wont be with me much longer.

Honestly at this point I am so frustrated I probably wont be buying another BMW for a LONG time unless it's a beater.

[lowbudgethero]

yikes, sorry to hear, and people wonder why i keep sticking to older cars

[ErvGotti]

Have the injectors been replaced? You said they were "cleaned" but not replaced. I don't think you can "clean" injectors. Once they start to go bad, they'll leak causing all sorts of issues and the only thing you can do is replace them.

Other thing to check is vacuum lines. They can cause a lot of issues that's hard to diagnose. As far as the overheating/limp mode, that's common with these stupid electric water pumps BMW fits to all their cars, and really any car with an electric water pump. I understand that electric pumps reduce parasitic drag on an engine, which saves gas and what not, but they fail way more often than belt driven pumps.

[DJKapeesh]

The Overheat issue has been confirmed to be a electric water pump. Stealer wants $1200 to fix it before fixing the other issues...
SMFH

[T1M]

What a pita dude. The water pump is a known issue for bmw, they usually last around 50k miles so you did pretty well out of yours! I'm surprised your Indy didn't suggest you proactively replace it by now.

Hope they address the rest of the issues for you. We have woeful support from BMW Australia vs bmw NA, your guys are out of warranty replacing S65's with spun bottom ends whereas here bmw tells you to take a hike. Good luck.

[houtan]

sorry for the issues. I might be missing something, but it sounds like your engine hiccups started after you had your shop replace the spark plugs and ignition coils. My logic tells me if that is the only difference before your misfires, that it may be due to one or both.

Just because the parts are new doesn't mean it cant be the problem. Did you check the spark plug gaps? What brand are the spark plugs and coil packs and where did you buy them from? I have read in multiple threads that bosch spark plugs are not the same as the bmw spark plugs, even though they are supposed to be. I also remember reading something about certain coilpacks on amazon that caused a bunch of headaches.

either way, take a step back and look at what you changed before and after the issue, maybe that is where the problem lies.

[mikesiravo]

Is the water pump covered under Warrenty. I just 35,00 on my 135i N55 DCT. I heard about this water pump issue and hope BMW covers it.

[DJKapeesh]

Originally Posted by mikesiravo

Is the water pump covered under Warrenty. I just 35,00 on my 135i N55 DCT. I heard about this water pump issue and hope BMW covers it.

I would assume so, only if it goes bad under warranty

[The Wind Breezes]

Of course the water pump is covered under warranty. It also doesn't fail as often on the N55 as the forum would leave you to believe, although you will be stranded if it fails.

Also, how on earth did you clean the injectors? You realize the injectors go directly into the combustion chamber and have 2000+ PSI fuel going thru them? I've never even heard of having to clean DI injectors for this reason.

Finally, are you sure your "indy shop" put the right spark plugs in? Lots of people have complained about unsatisfactory results with non-factory spark plugs.

[nacaruh]

Eek, sorry to hear about your bad experience!
Can you find out if your failed water pump is the updated part?
I think N54 models had an older model water pump that was infamous for failing, so BMW updated the water pump. And in addition to what Wind Breeze said, it could also be because there aren't many high mileage N55s compared to N54s, from what I've seen.

If you do replace it, buy it from the dealership (getbmwparts has the kit for $475). It comes with a 2 year manufacturer defect warranty, and just pay the labor at your goto shop (Or you can DIY it). I had mine replaced at 101k on my previous 1er. 1 year later, I was replacing my coolant hoses, the pump started to leak all of sudden. I verified that it was my pump, took it to the dealership, and they replaced it everything for me for free + coolant.

[houtan]

Any updates?

[DJKapeesh]

Yes the was fixed last week Thurs.

The water pump and coolant pump were supposedly bad. I was told it could possibly be due to hooking a JB4 up improperly to the car while the ECU was alive which caused a malfunction.

Also the mechanic ran a smoke test and reveals that cylinder 2 has a leak under. This means the O rings are probably bad an need to be replaced. I'm no mechanic here but what I know the O rings relate to the fuel injectors usually. This can be the source of the problem I have been trying to solve or just more repairs I may not need. Either way it will cost me $250 in parts and labor and probably should be done before considering any JB4 in the future.

I got the car back for 1 day before having to give it back because the rear bumper was not complete. The 1M rear end I opted to put on instead of the stock bumper from the accident takes more modification than expected. In order to get the bumper on properly I had to install a quad exhaust modification and move the pan where the second tips needed to go. I will be getting the car back today and will take pictures.