Diagnosing 540i Misfires - P1347 P1353 P1355 P1357 P1341

[geordan]

2000 540i (M-Sport) - Here's what I've done based on the poking around I've done on past misfire posts.

After starting the car one morning I noticed the following symptoms...
- The idle was very "strong" (not so much rough as it was still that smooth V8 rumble) but it was causing the whole car to have a vibration.
- When cruising the power that was typically present in a lower RPM situation was gone and the whole car just felt a little slower - but I didn't really push it to find out.
- "Service Engine Soon" light was also on.
- Seems to be a knocking type of noise coming from the engine

I called a local guy that worked on BMWs for 13 years and he read the codes for me (most impressive code reader I had ever seen btw, drool). There were just a lot of random misfires. Unfortunately, I didn't think to write them down since he asked what gas I was using, I said 91 from Costco, he basically said "Ah well it's probably just bad gas then, just get that stuff out of there and use Chevron/Texaco only - possibly bad coils but it's unlikely they all went bad on you like that"

I proceeded to drive off the Costco gas and in the mean time curiosity got the best of me and I pulled the plugs and noticed they looked to be in very poor shape. So I picked up 8 new NGK R's (BKR6EQUP) and installed them.

At this point: Bad gas out and a quarter of a tank of 91 Chevron through the car and new plugs, had a code read done at Autozone. (original symptoms still present)
Autozone Code Read (20100124)
P1347 - Misfire Cylinder 3 w/fuel cutoff
P1353 - Misfire Cylinder 6 w/fuel cutoff
P1355 - Misfire Cylinder 7 w/fuel cutoff
P1357 - Misfire Cylinder 8 w/fuel cutoff
P1341 - Multiple cylinder misfire w/fuel cutoff

So to rule out the coils I swapped the coils on the misfiring cylinders to those that were good.
Swapped the coils as follows: 1&3, 5&7, 2&6, 4&8.

Now the Autozone code read is:
P1341 - Multiple cylinder Misfire w/fuel cut-off
P1351 - Misfire Cylinder 5 w/fuel cut-off
P1355 - Misfire Cylinder 7 w/fuel cut-off

I don't think it would be coils if I swapped cylinder 7 and it came back?
I also disconnected the MAF & started the car w/the same symptoms since I haven't found a T20 Torx Security bit yet; or I would have cleaned it.

I'll try to get ahold of the indy guy again but I was wondering if you guys had some other diagnostic steps I could take in the mean time.

[rathi60]

Bad gas, run a complete tank. Check fuel filter.

[sweetbro]

Geordan, I should have some Torx around the garage somewhere or you can get them at ABC auto parts on the Blvd.

[geordan]

Thanks rathi60.

Mann fuel filter has been installed - hope this resolves the issue soon. The engine doesn't seem to be very happy.

[djl15540]

I have a 97 540i Auto with 127,000 mi. and also am getting 'misfire' codes. Car seems to run great except when cold it wants to idle below normal and there is some roughness. Once it warms up it seems okay. Had a dealer check the codes in Sept and they said I need O2 sensors and one cat converter. Have changed plugs at 100,000 and replaced all 4 O2 sensors at the same mileage.

Have just checked the IAC valve and cleaned it, buzzes with ignition like it should and valve is moving freely, however resistance between the 3 contacts is 50% of what it should be. Should I replace the IAC?

Also checked the TPS, ok, and the IAT sensor, ok with ohm meter.

Any ideas would be appreciated, a new cat was quoted at $1700!!!!

[murphyc357]

I have the exact same symptoms. I know this is a very old post, but can you advise what you did to resolve this problem.

[geldent]

Hey Geordan, Reading one of your old posts I thought "Wow, this is exactly my problem!" I too have a 2000 540i six speed manual. How did you resolve your multiple misfire problem? Sincerely, Ed Garrett

Hey Murphyc357, I have a 2000 BMW 540i with your identical problem. What did you do to fix it? Ed Garrett

[sebner]

Have you checked the valve cover gasket? I have a 1997 540 6 speed that will idle rough if it sits for a couple of days. I suspected I was leaking oil internally and my Indy confirmed this was the case. You can check for a small puff of white smoke on a cold start as well.

Also if your catalytic converter is badly plugged it will create too much back pressure and cause misfires. To confirm take the pre-cat O2 sensor out and see if the engine idles better.

[ViolinARC]

I absolutely hate unresolved posts like this one. Did the OP EVER figure out what the issue was and was it ever resolved??

My ride started running super rough on the freeway and after pulling over, experienced a very rough idle. Cancelled my work day (losing money) and limped home over the mountain. The 5'er ran fine as long as I didn't push past 50 but anything over that and there was a definite lack of power.

SES flashing and then solid. Hooked up diagnostic code reader and it shows "SES Off"...WTF. Turn the ignition on and the SES is on. Pending trouble code brings up P1355 so I'm targeting the 210k coils. It's too hot to check out the plugs but when things cool off, I'll pull the plugs to see what they look like.

My feeling is to just order new coils because they are so old anyway. I've been putting it off for several THOUSAND miles now so maybe it's time. Any input will be greatly appreciated...

BTW, it isn't "bad gas" either because I've been running Costco Top Tier for a while, getting very good mileage and everything has been perfect until today. Of course my registration is due and I MUST pass the smog test...

[senorpinata]

I absolutely hate unresolved posts like this one. Did the OP EVER figure out what the issue was and was it ever resolved??

My ride started running super rough on the freeway and after pulling over, experienced a very rough idle. Cancelled my work day (losing money) and limped home over the mountain. The 5'er ran fine as long as I didn't push past 50 but anything over that and there was a definite lack of power.

SES flashing and then solid. Hooked up diagnostic code reader and it shows "SES Off"...WTF. Turn the ignition on and the SES is on. Pending trouble code brings up P1355 so I'm targeting the 210k coils. It's too hot to check out the plugs but when things cool off, I'll pull the plugs to see what they look like.

My feeling is to just order new coils because they are so old anyway. I've been putting it off for several THOUSAND miles now so maybe it's time. Any input will be greatly appreciated...

BTW, it isn't "bad gas" either because I've been running Costco Top Tier for a while, getting very good mileage and everything has been perfect until today. Of course my registration is due and I MUST pass the smog test...

Yeah same here. I too have a miss fire issue
However mine is a little complicated. I have 98 540 e39. Car was originally an auto that got converted to manual. This was my gf car she made a poor choice when she bought it. However that's a different story....anyways... Car was an auto converted to manual by the po car had a pretty gnarly misfire. That misfire turned out to be low compression in too cylinders. Motor got replaced everything checked out fine with the motor. Bam misfire. Spark plugs got swapped still misses. Cool packs got swapped still missed. We ended up swapping out injectors for a rebuilt set and what do you know it actually fixed the problem, or so we thought. Car ran fine for a while however under wot getting close to redline the car would miss. We really didn't car since it would only miss during wot, so I left the car alone since my girlfriend babies the thing. However I was recently given full ownership of the car and all its problems. Whatbive noticed daily racing the stupid thing is that the car will hesitate between 3-4500 rpm at around 5-6k the car takes off. It feels like it cracked vtec. After I shift the cel starts blinking and bam misfire. What I also noticed today is that all these runs I had between half and full tank of gas. I ran the car the same way again with an almost empty tank and I get consistent power thru the whole power band. No hesitation no misfire. I did a pull from a dig, 1-2nd gear to redline no misfire until I let off and started coasting to a stop. I'm.kinda stumped on the symptoms and the codes I pulled are not very helpful. Can anyone shed some light on this..


Also sorry for the long ass post.

[Jmartin732]

Did fix the issue, what was cause?

[geargrinder]

SEVEN YEAR OLD THREAD people. One where OP only replied once 7 years ago after the orig post, and only ever had 9 posts on the entire board!

OP has probably owned 6 other cars, 5 different jobs, got married, divorced, and remarried, retired, died, gone to heaven, had his grandchildren grow up and grow old and have grandchildren of their own since this thread was last active.

There's about 900,000 'misfire' threads all over the place in this forum, why an ancient zombie has to be resurrected I'm not sure. Pretty massively well known issue with this car.
And if yer gonna zombie resurrect - this thread blows anyway because the orig post 'bad gas' diagnosis is a huge stupid red herring and was an idiotic suggestion, given that misfire issues are common for these cars when they age and haven't been maintained 110%. Of all the zombie threads to resurrect, this is a pretty pee-poor one.

Misfires possibly attended by mixture and/or O2 codes and/or bad idling:
- VACUUM LEAKS VACUUM LEAKS VACUUM LEAKS
- oil in plug wells
- bad plugs / boots, or eventually bad coils

Less likely:
- bad O2's
- failing MAF