So my car started misfiring badly and I lost all power and the "Service Engine Light" came on.

On diagnosis it turned out that one of the ignition coils was bad and this is covered under the TSB SIB 12 08 03. Apparently the coils made by Bremi with a certain manufacture date used in the E46 cars of that year were known to have some problems with the insulation cover or something and BMW recommends that IF one goes bad then all should be replaced.

Unfortunately for me - the car is a few months out of the warranty period - so despite it being a known defect (from the manufacture time) I had to pay to have this fixed.

I guess you can only have recalls for known defects only if they affect safety - but I would have thought that BMW - a premium segment product - would take care of such issues too.

It was just a little disappointing.

But on the other hand my question is - how long are ignition coils supposed to last anyway? Could it be that the natural life itself is about 40k miles? I was planning on writing to BMW expressing my displeasure - but I want to make sure I know for sure that it was due to the known defect and not perhaps a regular wear and tear item.