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E90 '09 328i added water to coolant

3K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  mgarciah 
#1 ·
I have a '09 328i lci
I started getting the low coolant message last week. This morning before I went to work I got it again, so I grabbed the manual and browsed through it and briefly read "combination of water and coolant"...so went inside my house filled a cup with water and pour it in the coolant reservoir and topped it up. turned the car on and the message was gone and went to work. I added about 300ml.
After work, after 2 miles driving at a red light when I started accelerating the car started acting up...I can only describe the acting up as if some of the fuel injectors were dirty...but it was sporadically... at least when I accelerated. so I continued for another mile and it was more frequent so the check engine light came on. It felt as if the car did not have its usual power as I accelerated and was decreasing. I stopped on the side of the road, turned it off and waited for about 5 minutes. Then, turned it on, the check engine was off and it still felt the acting up. Got on the highway and turned on cruise control and it felt fine. Drove about 20 miles, then at the next traffic light, when I started accelerating same thing happened and check engine light came on so I drove it about another 3-4 miles and got home.
did I screw up my car by adding regular water? Do you think that a coolant flush would help or fix it?
 
#3 ·
it sounds to me you get hesitation when you accelerate but it is running fine when there is very little load on the engine. Pull your plugs and see if they are wet. could be coolant. You have a leak somewhere...You should get the CEL codes if you can. Probably misfire.
 
#4 ·
Hondo/Spicytofu,
both right...it was just a coincidence and there is a misfire.
I took it to auto zone, they ran diagnostics and they give code P0304 - Cylinder 4 misfire condition. Explanation is ignition system fault; probable cause is plugged or faulty fuel injector, vacuum leak, engine mechanical condition.
now what?
I was reading some other post and they suggest ignition coil replacement...I guess this would be the cheapest first try to resolve this issue.
any suggestions?
 
#5 ·
My money is on a faulty ignition coil. How many miles (or kilometers) are on the odometer?
 
#6 ·
Either that or some water in the fuel? Maybe a bottle of techroline, tank of Shell V93 and a few trips to redline...:bigpimp:
 
#7 · (Edited)
Carlson,
it has 76120 miles. I bought with about 50000...only maintenance I've done is oil changes and air filter.
do you guys know about website where I can find BMW parts at a reasonable price?
 
#8 ·
#11 ·
or you can switch the coil pack from one cylinder to another and see if the fault code moves to that cylinder, Saw that on youtube! but if I was going to go to that trouble to get to the coil packs and the spark plugs, and provided you can do the work your self, I would just replace the coil pack and all the spark plugs, cause if you can do the work yourself, you saved enough labor money from the BMW palace that the parts would be free. thats what I would do your situation may dictate other wise, but I have no kids, no wife and at the present no girlfriend, So I have a lot of free money

Hondo
 
#12 ·
The coil/plug nearest to the passenger compartment is under higher temperature, is closer to the firewall and there is no good ventilation that deep, so it is normal that fail prematurely, if the engine has a misfire error, unstable idling, buy one coil/plug and swap it starting from the one that is closest to the passenger compartment, this is a plug and play operation. Dealer will recomend to change all of them but you can save a lot of money DIY.
 
#14 ·
I appreciate all of you inputs. I've been looking around for coils and plugs. I am going to change them hoping that will fix the problem and it is not a head gasket or something like that.
these are the cheapest I've found: Bosch 12137594937 for $227.40 all 6
Also I found these used ones, it's a lot cheaper, but what do you think?
here are the NGK plugs
 
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