BMW Case Study · 68

BMW X6 misfiring, fuel injector replaced.

A BMW X6 came in misfiring with the check engine light on. Diagnostics pointed past the ignition coils to a faulty fuel injector. Replaced and coded, the misfire gone.

Job done

Mechanical Repairs Engine Repairs BMW Specialist
BMW X6 parked at the workshop, in for a misfire diagnosis.

The brief

The X6 was misfiring, the engine stumbling and rough with the check engine light on. The easy assumption is the ignition coils, but you don't always point the finger there, a misfire can come from the fuel side too. He brought it in for a proper diagnosis. A misfire is a cylinder not burning cleanly, and that can be a weak spark from a coil, a worn plug, a vacuum leak, or a fuel injector that's not delivering its fuel properly, either leaking, sticking, or not atomising. A BMW diagnostic handset reads which cylinder is misfiring and helps narrow down whether it's spark or fuel. Here it pointed at the fuel side, a faulty injector on the misfiring cylinder. A failed injector doesn't recover, so it needs replacing, and on these the new injector has to be coded to the engine.

The BMW handset scan on the X6 pinpointing the misfiring cylinder.

The diagnosis

A diagnostic scan with the BMW handset pulled the misfire to a specific cylinder, and tests showed the spark on that cylinder was fine, so the fault was the fuel injector, not delivering its fuel cleanly. The coils, the plugs and the rest of the engine checked out, it was that one injector. That's an injector replacement, you don't rebuild it on the car, so the call was a new genuine BMW-spec injector, fitted, coded to the engine, and the codes cleared.

The faulty fuel injector identified on the misfiring cylinder.

The work

The old faulty fuel injector was removed, the bore and seat cleaned up, and a new genuine BMW-spec injector fitted with fresh seals. The new injector was coded to the engine so the management uses its correct calibration, the misfire codes cleared, and the engine's adaptations reset so it could relearn against a clean injector. A road test confirmed a steady idle, no misfires, the light staying off, and smooth power.

The new genuine BMW-spec fuel injector ready to fit.

The outcome

Smooth idle, clean pull through the rev range, no misfires, no warning light, and the engine running properly again. The X6 went home running properly. A faulty injector causes a misfire just as a bad coil does, so a proper diagnosis pointed at the right part, and changing the injector and coding it in put the running right rather than throwing coils at it.

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