Help / Advice Sought: PR Coils ignition Codes and Misfires

Jeffman

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Well my cylinder 2 electrical problems have returned. :coldsweat:
It started a few months ago. Started to get 2E19 DME Firing Cyl 2, especially after the engine had completely warmed up and idling or driving slowly in a parking lot or garage.
At the time spark plug 2 was only hand right. Code seemed to go away after plug was re-torqued.
2E19 then returned so I switched out the PR coil pack with a new spare one. All seemed fine for about a week, and then today the engine started to rough idle as I entered my garage after driving an hour. 2E19 returned along with misfire code 29CE (Combustion misfires Cyl 2) and SES light. No other codes.

So I’m ruling out the PR coil pack since I’m getting the same error despite changing out the old for a new coil pack. In another thread the coil wire was loose - I’m pretty confident the coil wire was tight on both the plug and the coil pack connections, but I’ll try switching coil wires 1 and 2.

Thanks in advance for any other advice / suggestions.
 
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Jeffman

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What about the DME MOSFET's? Are you on 80 or 81?
Based on my build date (04/2008) and RealOEM I’m pretty sure it’s an MSD81. I’m also IJEOS which I’m pretty sure (?) is only for the MSD81. So hopefully I don’t have the dreaded MOSFET problem of the MSD80’s.
 
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matreyia

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If you replaced plug and torqued down and it went away then came back, i would guess it is a leak in that cylinder. This is after replacing plug and coil and it comes back with no trace of foul plugs.
 

Jeffman

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If you replaced plug and torqued down and it went away then came back, i would guess it is a leak in that cylinder. This is after replacing plug and coil and it comes back with no trace of foul plugs.
It seems to only occur when the engine is fully warmed up. What kind of cylinder leak do you think is occurring? Only 67K miles on the engine. :/
 
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Jeffman

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Bad injector?
Maybe, but they are new Index 12s just installed last year / 3,000 miles on them. Is there a good INPA diagnostic or other way to check injector performance? Here is a log last week after re-torqueing the plug and installing a new PR coil on Cyl 2 after the car is warmed up on E30 (stock turbos and exhaust). It looks good and typical for my car when it’s running fine:
 

fmorelli

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What plug are you running? When you pull plugs did you carefully inspect the shaft and make sure that the cylinder head mating surface for the plug washer is clean? Since I'm asking questions - seems like your misfire is in low load situations (idle, entering garage, etc)? And out of curiosity, last walnut blast?

Filippo
 
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matreyia

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Maybe, but they are new Index 12s just installed last year / 3,000 miles on them. Is there a good INPA diagnostic or other way to check injector performance? Here is a log last week after re-torqueing the plug and installing a new PR coil on Cyl 2 after the car is warmed up on E30 (stock turbos and exhaust). It looks good and typical for my car when it’s running fine:

Yeah, I don't think.it is injector related since plugs are not fouling. Cylnder 2 only. If you changed plugs and coils then it may be something leaking...check intake manifold gasket for cylinder 2...and if you reused sparkplug then check that gap again.
 

Jeffman

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Update: Switched PR Coil wires 1 and 2 (2 may not have been on the plug as tight as it should have been). Reflashed my previous FlexFuel tune for 93 octane plus ethanol, with 15.999 AFR for cruising. Warmed it up well, filled up with Shell Nitro (93 octane), and then ran some logs that shows timing solid in 3rd gear before shifting to 4th (AT xHP Stage 3).

Oil temp reached 250F (stock oil cooler). Coolant and transmission reached about 205F. It was good and warm.

No error codes other than 2AAF for Fuel pump plausibility.

So perhaps it was the loose plugs / coil wires.

Let’s hope it stays misfire-free for at least a few weeks this time!
 
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Jeffman

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What plug are you running? When you pull plugs did you carefully inspect the shaft and make sure that the cylinder head mating surface for the plug washer is clean? Since I'm asking questions - seems like your misfire is in low load situations (idle, entering garage, etc)? And out of curiosity, last walnut blast?

Filippo
I’m running new (April) NGK 95770 plugs gapped to 0.022”. Yes, when I pulled the plug I looked carefully to ensure the mating surfaces were clean. It look a little grimy so I cleaned it up with some WD40 and a paper shop towel wadded on a wood skewer (I should have taken pictures, LOL).
Last Walnut blast was last year / 2500 miles ago.

As I just posted, the car felt great tonight. The previous problem may have been caused by the coil wire pulling itself out when the engine got hot...unlike solid materials like plastic and metal which expand when heated, rubber actually shrinks. I have a theory that the rubber PR coil wire boots that go down the spark plug well may be shrinking too much when heated, thereby pulling the connector wire away from the spark plug and causing an electrical connection failure. I also noticed quite a bit of excess dielectric grease on the end of the boot when I pulled it off of the problem plug #2, which could have made it easier for the shrinking heated rubber boot to pull the connector off the plug. And one would expect the problem to get worse over time as the engine stays warm, which is what I experienced. Who knows? But if I’m right then coil wire boots made out of plastic like the stock coils could solve this problem.
 
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Jeffman

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Yesterday I had switched PR plug wires 1 an 2 and checked connections three times to make sure everything clicked into place. Problem plug 2 wire may have been loose at first(?) - maybe the source of the problem? Fully warmed up and ran a log - no misfires no DME Cylinder 2 codes on WOT , etc.
Reflashed this morning and then this afternoon did a couple of WOTs and the Cylinder 2 codes and misfire SES came right back. Cleared codes. Cooled engine a little and restarted - it idled roughly and threw codes and misfire SES again.

So in summary: getting same Cylinder 2 misfire and DME Cyl 2 codes.
Changing the #2 plug for new didn’t make a difference.
Changing the coil pack made no difference.
Changing the coil wire made no difference.

Any more ideas?
 

fmorelli

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IMHO, good time to do a compression test as well as leak down. I know the injectors are reasonably new, but it seem like the only other component specific to that cylinder. It would be nice to inspect the injector and its spray pattern.

Filippo
 
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Jeffman

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IMHO, good time to do a compression test as well as leak down. I know the injectors are reasonably new, but it seem like the only other component specific to that cylinder. It would be nice to inspect the injector and its spray pattern.

Filippo
Good advice, thanks. Hard to believe my old-school maintained N54 with only 68K miles would have a leaky cylinder...so I will eventually do the compression and leak down tests.

The 2E19 DME Firing Cyl 2 code only started appearing after I installed the PR coils, so I have a sneaking suspicion that the problem could somehow be related to the electrical system. My LPFP pressures were unusually low today (40-50 psi) during cruise and idle conditions, and LPFP swung wildly under WOT...just a wild-ass guess, but could a stressed-out EKPM3 module put stress on other electrical components of the car, such as the ignition system? I have a Torqbyte BPM4 LPFP controller arriving tomorrow and will install that to test this theory.

If the 2E19 / misfires continue I’ll then check the injector - maybe the simplest test is just to replace it with a new Index 12 injector (FCP Euro lifetime warranty). Speaking of injectors, there is a “rough running” routine in INPA that allows one to shut off one cylinder / injector. Do you know if this rough running routine is designed for testing injectors this way?

If after installing and coding a new injector I still have 2E19 / misfire, then I’ll do the compression / leak down tests.
 
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Jeffman

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The 2E19 DME Firing Cyl 2 code only started appearing after I installed the PR coils, so I have a sneaking suspicion that the problem could somehow be related to the electrical system. My LPFP pressures were unusually low today (40-50 psi) during cruise and idle conditions, and LPFP swung wildly under WOT...just a wild-ass guess, but could a stressed-out EKPM3 module put stress on other electrical components of the car, such as the ignition system? I have a Torqbyte BPM4 LPFP controller arriving tomorrow and will install that to test this theory.
@V8bait Justin, I’m curious if you have any thoughts about this? Thanks.