[philespo]

I've been running BM3 stage 1 on my 2015 328i N26 for about 12-14k miles now. About 4k miles ago (~30,000) I had a cylinder misfire and decided it was was time to swap my plugs and coils. I ran the NGK 97506 plugs gapped at .023 per protunings suggestion and these Delphi 12138616153 ignition coils. The car has been running great since, fixed all the issues. Now, fast forward to yesterday. I was driving and noticed that in 3rd gear if i go more than 50% throttle above 3k rpm, the car starts to stutter and lose power. It was not throwing a CEL until I kept on throttle and eventually CEL and drive train malfunction. I pulled over and scanned codes and saw a Cylinder 1 Misfire, P0301. Instead of thinking it was my plugs/coils (since they were recently replaced) I pulled out my MAF and gave it a clean, the issues persists. I ordered a new spark plug, while I wait for it to arrive. I swapped the cy1 coil and plug to cy2 and visa versa. Pushed the car so it would throw a code and then cyl2 misfire. Then I kept the plugs but moved the coils back and found that was the problem. I replaced the cyl1 coil with an old coil I had and the issue is totally gone. My question is... Is this common for an ignition coil to go within 4k miles? I am only on stage 1, no other mods. Are there upgraded coils for the n20/26 available? I think I read that the m3 uses the same coils... but maybe there is a better aftermarket option. I am coming from a Mk4 GTI 1.8T that blew through coils every other week till I swapped them with R8 coils. Looking for a solution that might be similar.

Thanks!

[TK335iMSPT]

Is it common? No. At least there aren't many threads revolving around that short of a coil life. The delphi's do appears to be more fragile and go out quicker than the Eldor coils. BMW now uses Eldor for coils. They are apparently better compared to the Delphis. I am planning to switch to NGK (not the step colder ones)/Eldor set up when I go stage 2. You should not need to go colder on plugs for stage 1. PFT says no hardware modifications are needed for stage 1. With that being said, everyone's motor, gas, and environment are different.

[philespo]

Originally Posted by TK335iMSPT

Is it common? No. At least there aren't many threads revolving around that short of a coil life. The delphi's do appears to be more fragile and go out quicker than the Eldor coils. BMW now uses Eldor for coils. They are apparently better compared to the Delphis. I am planning to switch to NGK (not the step colder ones)/Eldor set up when I go stage 2. You should not need to go colder on plugs for stage 1. PFT says no hardware modifications are needed for stage 1. With that being said, everyone's motor, gas, and environment are different.

Thanks, i'll look into the Eldor coils.