# MY 2002 530i BROKE DOWN!!!



## Pzhu0221 (Oct 25, 2004)

Did this happen to anybody? It has to be towen to the dealer for fix.

I bought a second hand BMW 530 just a month ago. It is a 2002 car with only 19500 miles. Car had maintainence 2 week ago. 

What happened is that the "Service Engine Soon" light come up in the middle of driving, I kept drive slowly for another 2 miles, the car started vibrating at stop, the the torque disapeared and the car is not drivable even though the engine is still on.

Is BMW so fragile?


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## Salvator (Oct 14, 2003)

Pzhu0221 said:


> Did this happen to anybody? It has to be towen to the dealer for fix.
> 
> I bought a second hand BMW 530 just a month ago. It is a 2002 car with only 19500 miles. Car had maintainence 2 week ago.
> 
> ...


Sounds like coils to me... With malfunctioning coils, the car does not get spark, and thus those cylinders don't fire (giving you the vibration and lack of HP)... Happened to my car, dealer replaced the coils under warranty. BMW (and Audi, and VW...) having been having coil problems back in the 2001 - 2002 timeframe... I think its a supplier issue... frustrating and annoying, but not the end of the world. In regards to your questions "Is BMW so fragile", I would say "No more so than the rest of the computer controlled electronic gizmo laden cars of today"... Whereas old cars without electronic aides would continues to run even when things weren't right, modern cars are on the bleeding edge of efficiency, performance and pollution control, so if something goes wrong, it goes wrong completely... Take it to your dealer and if you are still under warranty, it should be covered...


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## FireWalker (Apr 19, 2004)

It's unfortunate that a 2002 BMW can leave you stranded like that. 
What's really scary is that I've heard other 02's and even an '03 that needed their ignition coils replaced. 
Shouldn't something like the obviously deffective ignition coils, that make an essentially new car "undrivable" and can leave one stranded in the middle of nowhere, be a subject to a service bulletin or a recall?

Salvator, I'm glad I haven't experienced ANY probs with my 530, but what would the "symptoms" of bad or failing ignition coils be?


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## Salvator (Oct 14, 2003)

FireWalker said:


> Salvator, I'm glad I haven't experienced ANY probs with my 530, but what would the "symproms" of bad or failing ignition coils be?


Sort of as the inital poster described... Rough idle / running, lack of power... Effectively you are running on less than your usual number of cylinders, so the loss is quite noticeable... On my car, two coils went bad temporarily (I drive a few miles and the car drove so bad, I pulled over and shut it off... when I restarted it, it ran fine :wow: ) When I went into the dealer, they made an appointment for me, told me it was still safe to drive (especially now that it was running fine) and when I brought it in, the computer told them which two coils were at fault, so they replaced them... In retrospect, I wished that I had demanded that they replace all 6 coils, but thus far (knock on wood) I haven't had that problem to that degree since... Occassionally, when the weather changes, I'll have a rough idle, so I'll drive for a mile (out of my community), shut the car off, and restart, and everything is fine... I think "warming up" has something to do with it... If in doubt, the BMW answer seems to be "reboot" (Restart the car)... Has worked for me thus far...


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## FireWalker (Apr 19, 2004)

Salvator, thanks for your info.
I've never had this problem in ANY of the cars I've owned, including my current 530 (knock on wood), but what really buggs me is the fact that this seems to be a common problem in a basically new 1 to 2 year old car!  
My question is, WHY isn't BMW addressing, what seems to be, a common problem with the ignition coils? Since unlike many other car problems, this one can actually leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere!
fw


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## Salvator (Oct 14, 2003)

FireWalker said:


> Salvator, thanks for your info.
> I've never had this problem in ANY of the cars I've owned, including my current 530 (knock on wood), but what really buggs me is the fact that this seems to be a common problem in a basically new 1 to 2 year old car!
> My question is, WHY isn't BMW addressing, what seems to be, a common problem with the ignition coils? Since unlike many other car problems, this one can actually leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere!
> fw


Everything is on a "Customer complaint" basis... If you don't complain, they won't do anything... IMHO, the coil problem is a supplier issue... VW and Audi went through the same problem around the same time... They ended up having everybody come in and get new coils... I think there is a TSB for it, (don't have it handy) but you have to have the problem first... they don't want to spend the money up front to keep you from getting stuck somewhere... they'll just come and tow you if you do... :tsk:


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## Cliff (Apr 19, 2002)

Salvator said:


> Sounds like coils to me...


Not necessarily. My car has mis-fired on two occasions and it was purely a software malfunction. I shut the engine down, waited a minute, restarted it and all was well. It has been more than a year since the last occurence.


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## roadie (Jun 1, 2004)

*This is your crankshaft position sensor*




Pzhu0221 said:


> Did this happen to anybody? It has to be towen to the dealer for fix.
> 
> I bought a second hand BMW 530 just a month ago. It is a 2002 car with only 19500 miles. Car had maintainence 2 week ago.
> 
> ...


This is your crankshaft position sensor. Easy fix. take it to dealer


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## Salvator (Oct 14, 2003)

Cliff3 said:


> Not necessarily. My car has mis-fired on two occasions and it was purely a software malfunction. I shut the engine down, waited a minute, restarted it and all was well. It has been more than a year since the last occurence.


Mine does that every time there is a change in the weather from hot to cold... first cold snap, car runs like crap, I let it warm up a little, shut it off, restart, runs fine... fine after that, even though the temperature goes up or down in the meanwhile... :dunno:


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## Ågent99 (Jan 7, 2002)

Too many 0s and 1s controlling our cars...finicky things these zeroes and ones.... 

Chris


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## Salvator (Oct 14, 2003)

Ågent99 said:


> Too many 0s and 1s controlling our cars...finicky things these zeroes and ones....
> 
> Chris


Yeah... you get a l instead of 1, or a O instead of a 0, and your hosed...


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## liuk3 (May 3, 2004)

Pzhu0221 said:


> Did this happen to anybody? It has to be towen to the dealer for fix.
> 
> I bought a second hand BMW 530 just a month ago. It is a 2002 car with only 19500 miles. Car had maintainence 2 week ago.
> 
> ...


I just had similar symptoms about a month ago at Phoenix Raceway. I had to limp home to L.A., but everything was covered under warranty. Turned out to be camshaft positioning sensor. I don't know if you could say the bmw is fragile, but it definitely has a lot of techno gizmos running on it that when out of wack can cause your car to [email protected] out.


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