Hey guys,
Here is the story of how I almost lost my car a few days ago and am very lucky the entire car did not go into flames. I have a 2009 BMW 335i 6MT with N54 engine that I have owned for 7 years now. There is not a single thing that the vehicle does not have done on it (upgraded turbos, full m suspension, f80 brakes, M3 LSD etc.) and she is a blast to drive with only 80k miles.
I left the car for a week to go out for a short trip and before leaving the car was running great (no CEL's, no issues at all). Upon my return, trying to turn it on the car is running really rough like it is misfiring (My car is running the Bimmerlife R8 coils). I pop the hood and my engine beauty cover has the coils exposed for each access (I had a cutout previously done so when I was running PR coils so that I could still leverage the engine cover). I go in and push each of the coils down in cylinders 1-5 to make sure one of them didnt get loose.
Go back into the car, turn it on and it is still running rough. I turn the car back off, and go back to the coils and decide to try again this time actually pulling them out and pushing them back in. 1>2>3>4 when I get to 5 I burn my hand because it is so damn hot so Im not able to push it in all the way. At this point, I have the hood open and decide to wait for it to cool down before pushing it down all the way... Thats when I start to see the car smoking. It starts slowly and starts growing very rapidly. I have been around the platform too many years, to know where this is going. I run frantically through my parking garage to find a fire extinguisher. Luckily I find one and sprint back to the car, the car now has just now broken into flame around coil pack 5 where the coil pack meets the connector. I initiate the extinguisher on it, which puts it out but notice it keeps coming back (electricity will not stop running - there must be a short).
Luckily I have my tools in the car, so I sprint to get them out of the rear, pop the trunk and notice the rear is now smoking as well. I throw my 10mm socket on as quickly as I can to remove the ground while simultaneously trying to make sure the front hasnt reignited. I finally get the damn thing off and the smoke starts to slow until eventually dissipates. My stress is through the roof, I am shaking. Something that I have pour so much blood, sweat and tears and easily more than 3x what I could sell it for in mods almost burned down in front of my eyes had not so many things gone right (engine cut out right where the coils are, fire extinguisher being present close by and my tools happened to be in my car despite living in an apartment complex)
I go to check the car the next day and there is flame retardent all over the hood - but the damage looks minimal. Coil pack on cylinder 5 cracked pretty badly, but it appears fire was localized only to that aftermarket coil and harness, with potential damage to the factory harness on that one cylinder. My fear is that whatever current that was being sent and not grounded may have fried everything electrical in the car since it was smoking near the near as well (fried DME, Harness, Battery?) Could it be the harness, despite the ground wire being attached to the nut as instructed in the installation instructions, or could this be something entirely different?
I have factory coils on the way and my next steps are to rip out that aftermarket trash and put in the factory eldor/delphi coils (forgot which one I bought) and pray that the car starts and that the damage is not more severe than that. Does anyone have any ideas on what the hell may have happened? Any help or guidance would be appreciated to help assure me that I'm not insane and this must have been some type of freak accident.
Thank you in advance
Here is the story of how I almost lost my car a few days ago and am very lucky the entire car did not go into flames. I have a 2009 BMW 335i 6MT with N54 engine that I have owned for 7 years now. There is not a single thing that the vehicle does not have done on it (upgraded turbos, full m suspension, f80 brakes, M3 LSD etc.) and she is a blast to drive with only 80k miles.
I left the car for a week to go out for a short trip and before leaving the car was running great (no CEL's, no issues at all). Upon my return, trying to turn it on the car is running really rough like it is misfiring (My car is running the Bimmerlife R8 coils). I pop the hood and my engine beauty cover has the coils exposed for each access (I had a cutout previously done so when I was running PR coils so that I could still leverage the engine cover). I go in and push each of the coils down in cylinders 1-5 to make sure one of them didnt get loose.
Go back into the car, turn it on and it is still running rough. I turn the car back off, and go back to the coils and decide to try again this time actually pulling them out and pushing them back in. 1>2>3>4 when I get to 5 I burn my hand because it is so damn hot so Im not able to push it in all the way. At this point, I have the hood open and decide to wait for it to cool down before pushing it down all the way... Thats when I start to see the car smoking. It starts slowly and starts growing very rapidly. I have been around the platform too many years, to know where this is going. I run frantically through my parking garage to find a fire extinguisher. Luckily I find one and sprint back to the car, the car now has just now broken into flame around coil pack 5 where the coil pack meets the connector. I initiate the extinguisher on it, which puts it out but notice it keeps coming back (electricity will not stop running - there must be a short).
Luckily I have my tools in the car, so I sprint to get them out of the rear, pop the trunk and notice the rear is now smoking as well. I throw my 10mm socket on as quickly as I can to remove the ground while simultaneously trying to make sure the front hasnt reignited. I finally get the damn thing off and the smoke starts to slow until eventually dissipates. My stress is through the roof, I am shaking. Something that I have pour so much blood, sweat and tears and easily more than 3x what I could sell it for in mods almost burned down in front of my eyes had not so many things gone right (engine cut out right where the coils are, fire extinguisher being present close by and my tools happened to be in my car despite living in an apartment complex)
I go to check the car the next day and there is flame retardent all over the hood - but the damage looks minimal. Coil pack on cylinder 5 cracked pretty badly, but it appears fire was localized only to that aftermarket coil and harness, with potential damage to the factory harness on that one cylinder. My fear is that whatever current that was being sent and not grounded may have fried everything electrical in the car since it was smoking near the near as well (fried DME, Harness, Battery?) Could it be the harness, despite the ground wire being attached to the nut as instructed in the installation instructions, or could this be something entirely different?
I have factory coils on the way and my next steps are to rip out that aftermarket trash and put in the factory eldor/delphi coils (forgot which one I bought) and pray that the car starts and that the damage is not more severe than that. Does anyone have any ideas on what the hell may have happened? Any help or guidance would be appreciated to help assure me that I'm not insane and this must have been some type of freak accident.
Thank you in advance
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