6th Day into Ownership - Problems during Cold Start

[Bopowarls]

Hi everyone,

I recently had my E89 35i delivered by a Sytner group franchise. Car is a 2009 and has 53k miles.

I've had the car for 6 days but I have 2 issues already. Bit of context, the car was serviced by the dealer (last week) and I found an invoice to say that they changed the spark plugs and coil ignition and cleared error codes.

Anyway, since owning the car I've had intermittent issues during a cold start. I'll run through the symptoms below but I'm assuming that its the injectors starting to go (based on the plugs and coil being changed last week already so I can discount these).

Good start:

Engine start up and goes up to 1.5k rpm, sounds crisp and smooth. Gentle idles and settles down at around 750rpm. No rough idle. No issues on my journey.

Bad Start:

Engine starts but car shakes, the engine firing is very rough, and the car instantly sounds like it's going to stall (hasn't stalled yet), the rpm goes to around 500rpm but then slowly start to settle and goes back up to around 750rpm and settles. No engine management light comes on. Onward journey is fine, and the car idle rpm is steady and smooth.

I've plugged in my basic ODB reader and there aren't any error codes, and the engine management light hasn't yet come on.

Does this issues sound like the injectors are on their way out?

I spoke to Sytner last night and they seemed helpful enough yesterday and are going to speak to their service team today and get back to me. The car has a 6 month warranty.

Cheers

[Pbondar]

I’m nor a 35i expert but that sounds like the standard hallmarks of leaking injectors overnight stated by many others..

[Chippie]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Sorry to hear that you are having problems with your new purchase, not had any issues with mine but from what I’ve read it does sound like an injector could be failing, they tend to leak and foul the spark plugs causing it to misfire, at least you have a warranty so hopefully it will be fixed.
Would be nice to see a photo or two of your pride and joy

[Bopowarls]

Yeah I'm pretty sure it's the injectors but just wanted to check with other owners. Not a big deal, as long as Sytner cover the costs...

Here she is... Coming from an E92 M3 I'm very impressed with the N54 engine!

Photos attached

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IMG_20210329_112513_011.jpg (372.16 KiB) Viewed 813 times

20210329_103136.jpg (263.03 KiB) Viewed 813 times

[sars]

That’s lovely hope you get it sorted soon. Be mindful of potholes, you’ve got the lovely but fragile 19” style 296 alloys, if they’re shod with run-flats I would change them to something softer like a PS4 at the first opportunity

[clarker63]

Here she is...

welcome to the forum, the Z4 certainly is a beautiful car (but of course we're slightly biased)

Glad to see you're a member of the stubby subgroup already... no whippy's here

Yes sounds like injectors, but as it sounds like you have a main dealer warranty you should be fine

[enzed4]

Does the car take longer than 'normal' to start sometimes? I didn't have the other symptoms you described, so probably the injectors as mentioned, but mine threw a code for low fuel pressure - I replaced the HPFP and it's fixed. It would be good if there was a way you could get this checked while the other work's being done, but I'm not sure of any signs it's on the way out (other than longer cranking to start).
Great looking 35i by the way

[craig3.2]

Very nice z, welcome to the Forum.
Hope you get it sorted okay

[flybobbie]

6th Day, wasn't good for Arnold Schwarzenegger either.