As the title describes I have a misfire with new coils, new plugs, and a compression test that shows just a touch over 100psi on all four cylinders. For whatever reason the misfire is a dead miss - zero combustion from what I can feel - it's popped the coil pack fuse twice at this point.

Interestingly I have two other symptoms - one that I think is related and one that isn't.

First symptom - Coil pack Number Three gets very hot when the car runs. I only let it run for a few mins at a time as I work through diagnostics but it's a consistent thing... If the engine runs for more than 30-60 seconds... coil 3 will be scorching hot if you pull it out and touch it.

Second symptom - there's for sure an air leak related to the crank case somewhere - It could be a hose - it could be a hole for all I know... I just found it tonight... I noticed that when I tried to open the oil cap it was SUCKED to the engine and couldn't be pulled away - at some point... the hole must have plugged itself because there was a noticeable change in engine idle and all of the sudden the cap was loose again.

Codes are all over the map but I'll post them anyway. Something tells me that this is more than one issue and that one part of the problem might be the battery but the dead misfire on cylinder 3 tells me that there's more to this than simply a dying battery.

P13C9
P0300
P0303
P0301
2D60
2EFE
2F01
2EE0
2EFF
2EE2

Any ideas on further diagnostics? Ideas on what I'm facing here???

Tomorrow the plan is to find the crankcase leak and continue on.

 

it could be the valve over/pcv valve or the ecu itself.

 

P13C9 Vanos Exhaust Control Fault Camshaft Stuck
2D60 Cylinder 2 Fuel Injector Circuit High
2EFE Combustion misfires, several cylinders: detected
2F01 Cylinder 3 combustion misfires detected
2EE0 Several cylinders misfiring
2EFF Cylinder 1 combustion misfires detected
2EE2 Combustion misfiring, several cylinders: damaging exhaust gas after start sequence

The coil getting hot concerns me. Greatly. I'd replace the coil. And if the new one gets hot that's likely a wiring harness problem. My limited understanding is the coils wiring can get wonky and lead to other electrical issues. Oh, and on a related note word is a wonky battery can wreck havoc on the ECU.

Bad wiring may account for the 2D60 code. But of course a bad ECU also.

Any air leak is bad. But the misfires, at least by one error code, are classified as damaging to the exhaust gas which suggests the misfires are rich rather than lean misfires. Certainly you want to find and fix any intake air leaks. But if any misfires persist then you need to look elsewhere. HPFP would be worth looking at.

Vanos exhaust control fault camshaft stuck. Not sure I'd blame possible wiring issues. You need to research this error code and its possible causes.

 

Amazing info and thanks so so much.

Swapped out the PCV valve and that cleaned up the idle just a touch. It also got rid of the whistle/suction sound I was hearing so that problem seems fixed.

Nevertheless, I still have a near dead miss on cylinder 3 and in the course of about 3 mins of running it nearly melted my coil pack it seems... Photos below - I really don't know where to go from here but to swap in another new pack and see if it continues on Cyl 3 or not (I'd be shocked if it doesn't) - Seems wiring/ECU related at this point to me but that's mostly a guess.

 

Those are interesting looking coils…. With the codes and symptoms, my path would be new coils and new vanos solenoids. It’s possible that a cheap coil has a bad winding, which would cause the excessive current and heat, and not enough voltage to fire the plug.

 

You definitely need to replace the bad coil (why its bad is TBD). You should put one of the known good coils in #3 and put the new coil elsewhere to detect if the issue is related to #3 location or faulty coil in the first place (or other in #3 position causing any coil to fail).

 

@Stephen Rivers : Agreed interesting coils. What kind are they?

Only hint I have is that when I replaced mine with Delphi coils, the lever lock didn't seat the connector all the way, and I had misfires. Solved by pushing the connectors on/in all the way by hand as I was toggling the lever. I guess lever is only for removing the connector... not seating it.

If those red coils are of questionable quality, you might want to go with Delphi:

https://www.outmotoring.com/ignition...8616153x4.html

 

Replaced coils with Bosch. Idle is smoother but just barely... Same rough miss on 3... Similar codes...
thinking of going with Vanos solenoids next...

Thoughts?

 

Guess the new #3 coil no longer gets hot?

After you installed new coils did you clear codes and road test the car?

If those misfire error codes are currently active cam timing can be a problem. My one exposure to cam timing problems with another brand of car is if the cam timing is not right this can affect combustion which will result in O2 sensor readings that are not right. To try to get these right the engine controller will change the fueling. I saw this when I viewed short term fuel trims the one bank with what proved to be a bad variable cam timing solenoid/actuator were swinging quite a bit. When I mentioned this to the tech he told me what I posted above about engine controller trying to get the O2 sensor readings it expects. But because the valve timing hardware is bad the sensor readings won't become acceptable rather the engine will transition into a misfire condition.

But before I replaced the Vanos hardware I'd like to have some level of confidence that the Vanos hardware was bad. In some cases a tech with the right diagnostic computer can command cam timing change and then confirm the change occurred by monitoring the camshaft timing sensor. Not sure an off the shelf OBD2 scan tool even for a MINI would support this even assuming the engine controller supported this level of control.

It might be worthwhile to do a bit of research to see if you can find an OBD2 scan tool that allows you to do this test of the Vanos hardware.

Or if the Vanos hardware is not that expensive -- yeah I know... -- and the amount of labor not that bad you can fire the parts cannon at the symptom and replace the Vanos hardware.

But another possible cause can be bad wiring that affects the coil output.

 

The coil doesn't seem to be getting hot anymore no. So that's progress.

Didn't road test it as it's a pretty rough misfire and I don't want to do any extra damage - I did however clear the codes BEFORE restarting it so it threw all of those codes in about 5 mins of running in the driveway.

Yea - I'm getting closer and closer to just towing it to a shop. Frustrating for sure.

 

I usually preface my advice to road test a car to do so only if the engine is not manifesting serious untoward behavior. 'course, I failed to provide this in my post to you. But you showed good sense in not driving the car given how the engine was misbehaving.

You need, the car needs, more in depth diagnosis than I think you can reasonably provide. At best you might have to buy a rather expensive OBD2 scan tool one specifically for MINIs, and even then it might not provide all that the genuine factory MINI diagnostic tool provides. Plus you probably don't have access to the factory service manual that not only provides a reference to the various codes but lists a step by step procedure to determine the underlying problem.

IOWs, yeah, think it is time to have the car in for a professional's diagnosis.

 

If you want to keep this car at all, I suggest to get the Mini Scanner from various sources. I have a Schwaben and @ECSTuning puts on sale often. This tool is indispensable whether YOU work on the vehicle or take it somewhere.
When I originally picked mine up used, it threw all kinds of codes out of the blue after a month of having it... Out of shear luck and some general knowledge I have, I found an intermittent main relay to the DME that even MINI could not find (they charged me hundreds to scan and give me pages of codes), and yet wanted to charge me thousands to replace things the codes thrown were showing... Which would not have solved any root cause but my time gone and wallet lighter.

 

Cleared codes again - gave it a few mins without the key in it and started/rescanned - Still misfiring but codes seem all related to the misfire and temp sensors??? That's what I'm gathering from BMW Hex codes - Taking it to the shop on Thursday for more info

 

According to this site: www.bmwfault.codes
Looks like you are getting secondary faults for coolant temperatures or sensor... Maybe you have a fault with the coolant temperature sensor that is causing an ignition fault?

I might agree that it would be worth it to get a master tech involved to see what they might suggest.