Gen 4 ignition coil failures - serious problem !!

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nich146

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Hi All,
About a month ago at Snetterton on the sighting laps my Gen 4 with 1000 miles on the clock started misfiring so badly I had to limp back to the pits. The dash had 'Engine problem' displayed on the dash and 'take to nearest authorised dealer'. It felt like the coils had failed so having returned home the following day called the emergency BMW technician out to examine the problem. To be fair he usually just replaces batteries and didnt have much idea but he put the fault analyser on the ecu and could not find any fault codes other than a couple of historic ones. I ran the bike and up came the fault but did not specify what the issue was. The bike was taken to Pidcocks Long Eaton and they asked if the bike had been mapped I was straight up and said it had and immediately the Service Manager said that would be the problem and my warranty would probably be void. I told him that I thought it was the coils and asked him to test them first as they also couldnt find the fault via the ecu. He said he had checked and they were fine so I agreed to have the map removed and of course it made no difference. They are very busy with backlog work and he said it would be mid august before they could look again. meanwhile trawling the bmw forums in the US i found that the coils were a regular issue and there is tons of batch details etc that confirm this. I e mailed BMW and they ignored the information. This was two weeks ago. They have today swapped the coils around on the bike and yes youve guessed it they are faulty on two cylinders. nothing to do with the map. The only reason I am postying this is as a heads up should you encounter the same problem. BMW have no coils available so they are on back order and i can guess why, demand outstripping supply!! So I have lost a track day, my bike for a month and counting and no end in sight. Fortunately i have a gen 3 I can use on track but thats not the point. Hope this is useful.
 
Coils are pretty easy to check with an oscilloscope and a breakout box onto the ecu. A broken down coil will show up straight away. Used to have to do it all the time working for BMW and Audi car dealers. Very common failure.
 
Coils are pretty easy to check with an oscilloscope and a breakout box onto the ecu. A broken down coil will show up straight away. Used to have to do it all the time working for BMW and Audi car dealers. Very common failure.
i asked them to check these coils on day 1 and they told me they had and clearly they didnt. Rubbish service at Pidcocks Nottingham
 

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