E85 flashing Exhaust emissions light

R

R_McC

Member
 Central Scotland
Hi,

Ive just went to start the car and straight away it was vibrating, then the engine emissions light came on after a few seconds and started flashing. I pressed the accelerator a few times to see if this would clear it but the engine sounded awful and flat. The car had been fine when I drove it earlier on.

Ive had the light come on before but it was steady and a reset at an indy dealer cleared it for about 5000 miles.

Any thoughts on what it could be and if its safe to drive to a agrage without me doing any major or costly damage?

Thanks
 
sounds like a coil pack ? £30 / £50 rough guess for replacement .
had similar happen to me whilst in france middle of nowhere on a VW passat . managed to limp 30miles but car felt real rough & when i opened bonnet the CAT was glowing like a furnace :o no harm done though & 1 coil later all good :thumbsup:
 
I once saw that happen on an old van where the distributor cap went bad and the engine ran like an old donkey, whats the reason the pipes / cat get so hot? I would have thought no spark = less heat or is the fuel still being dumped into the cylinder and igniting/heating up downstream in the exhaust?
 
i have had that happen on the Z4 too btw - however after a restart the problem went away, it has happened 2 or 3 times over the life of the car from new. i also suspect my hesitation when very cold at about 2.5k has something to do with it
 
Flashing light indicates severe misfiring. We need a light to tell us that??? Continuing to run the engine could damage the cats. I wouldn't drive it. Is it even possible? I would fear being stranded in the middle of the road with no lay-by in sight.

I suppose limping a short distance to a nearby garage might be OK, but nothing else.
 
I got Bremi coil packs from GSF for about £22 each iirc. They are a good brand too.

Deffo need to check your codes though to see which one/s have gone, if they have indeed gone at all!

BMW fault codes are really good imo if you read off with a specific tool or INPA or something, so find out what is wrong and get it fixed imo :D

Dave
 
Well it's all sorted after a trip to the garage.

I had to drive the car there which I didn't really want to do for fear of completely stopping or doing damage but it was only a couple of miles on fairly quiet roads. The car felt horrible to drive, had no power, was hesitating and sounded really rough.

The coil pack on No. 3 cylinder needed replacing. So once this was done and the codes reset all is good again. Hopefully no more problems for a while.

Thanks for all the helpful comments and suggestions.
 
glad you got sorted .
if it were me i would have the rest changed in the near future as a preventative measure :wink:
 
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