[jonney.corner]

Hi guys!

first post on here, very useful forum, refer here a lot!

I just bought my first 2008 BMW 320d 177bhp - 131000 on the clock, and found out about the faulty timing chain within the engine, I can hear it and its really worrying and annoying. I don't know what to do so I am looking for peoples suggestions. what would you guys pick?

1. BMW extended warranty to get chain covered (problem is that it has had full BMW service until the last service by the previous owner, will this make the warranty invalid?)

2. Get the chain repaired and the possibility of the crank? (Quote of £1,300 - 1,600)

3. Sell the car on and get another car (Which I find is hard because I absolutely love the car)

4. Refurbed engine from ebay? (Has anyone purchased one? or know of any good companies that can do it? I can pull the engine out myself no problem)

Suggestions will be greatly appreciated all!

Thanks a lot!

[richk84]

At that mileage you can only take out the Drive Line warranty with BMW. You would have to check that they will cover a timing chain fault.

[stringy93]

I took BMW warrenty out for this exact reason having the n47 engine. I took mine out at 59k because it's a lot cheaper with less than 60k. Over this the price pretty much doubles but is well worth it IMO, I've already had a clutch and flywheel from it.

[KM79]

I doubt very much you could take out a BMW driveline/extended warranty without a full BMW history and at 131k mls.

[Pacman83]

I've taken out a BMW comprehensive warranty with £250 excess for my 2008 320d e92 coupe for £32 PM. It's only done 49k, but I feel it's worth the money.

[makkan00]

Sell the car. Dont waste any further money on it.
And at that sort of mileage, see what K_M79 mentioned.

[KM79]

Originally Posted by Pacman83

I've taken out a BMW comprehensive warranty with £250 excess for my 2008 320d e92 coupe for £32 PM. It's only done 49k, but I feel it's worth the money.

Every BMW out of 3 year warranty should have this ,absolutely bullet proof warranty for peace of mind.

Is it really £1300-£1600 to get a chain replaced?Its not that big of a job.

[Pacman83]

It's an engine out job as the chain is located at the rear of the engine I read recently. Agree with your comments about BMWs out of the 3 year warranty. Essential peace of mind

[KM79]

You can do those chains in place,with the gearbox removed.Ive seen it done.
I too have the extended warranty with £100 excess,got my own breakdown cover as BMW where nearly an extra £100 a year for they're 'own'.

[enj_sm]

I'ts worth mentioning that you can only begin to submit claims a month after you take out the policy. So don't walk in assuming that as soon as you have it, you can call them up the next day; I remember them stressing this when I took my policy out.

[Pacman83]

Yeah, good point

[shrimpvende]

I had this on my previous 118D so can only share my experience. BMW warranty covers chain noise, but claim is limited to £5000, which won't cover a snapped chain at BMW. They charge about £7000 for a new engine if the chain snaps, and won't consider trying to repair your old one. Your car, being a 2008 model, is an early one which means it could snap. It's done well to reach that mileage and I wouldn't be surprised if it was noisy or on it's way out.

The BMW warranty doesn't cover pre existing faults, so if you took it out, waited for the no claim month to pass then took it straight in they may reject the claim, saying the noise is advanced and existed before the warranty was taken out. I tried to get the warranty when mine started getting noisy, but I'd had it serviced at an independent and they wanted me to prove they were VAT registered and submit copies of invoices to show the correct grade of oil was used. If the previous owner of yours serviced it himself they will deny you the warranty, as he obviously won't be VAT registered.

Don't even bother with a 3rd party warranty - mine wanted me to pay £500 labour to have engine removed and stripped for their assessor to then take a look, and then most likely reject the claim as when these are noisy it's generally guide and tensioner wear, not something physically broken.

At that mileage and if you have noise already I wouldn't want to be driving it much further at all. Best solution? Sell it ASAP and if you love the 3 series then get the 6 cylinder. That's exactly what I did and it was the best thing I could have done. I took a hit trading in the 1 series, but no where near what it would have cost to replace the chain or sort it out if it snapped. The 6 cylinder is better in just about every way, and doesn't have these stupid problems. 325D's aren't much more than 320D's either

[woggledog]

Originally Posted by shrimpvende

...It's done well to reach that mileage and I wouldn't be surprised if it was noisy or on it's way out.

I'd ignore the aforementioned scare mongering… My 2007 E91 320D has just done 191,000 miles and there's no sign of chain noise

[KM79]

I would agree.For the ratio to n47's sold to chain failing is small.If they where as bad as a lot of people make out on here BMW dealers would be doing them daily/weekly and well,erm, we aren't

[jonney.corner]

Hello all!

Thanks for the suggestions, much appreciated! I have been shopping around for quotes instead and I couldn't find anything so I was just about to sell the car until I went to see an independent BMW specialist who gave me a reasonable quote, so I thought I would take it. I asked him to check the engine over also to make sure everything is not damaged at all, and considering the lump will be removed I have given him a clutch to put in whilst everything gets connected back. lol

The car is going in this Monday, the mechanic is picking it up from the house, I dare drive it until its done to be honest, the sound seems to be getting much more painful, and knowing my luck the chain would go by Monday haha!

In the future I think that when I pick up another BMW, plenty of research will be done before the purchase!

When I have the full bill after repairs have been done i will keep you all updated, because I am sure there are a lot of Independent BMW mechanics out there who are doing the job for a bit of a better price for people who are unable to pull out warranty

[shrimpvende]

Originally Posted by woggledog

I'd ignore the aforementioned scare mongering… My 2007 E91 320D has just done 191,000 miles and there's no sign of chain noise

I wasn't intentionally scare mongering. As I said I'm only sharing my experience, and when mine started to fail I did a huge amount of research across all BMW forums and phoning indy's and even speaking to someone I know that works for a main dealer. Over on babybmw there are alot of reported failings, very disproportionately high compared to the amount of N47 cars on there. When I was researching I found loads of posts saying the chains were going at around 120-130k miles.

also some of the indys I spoke to when getting quotes were doing around 1-5 per week in some cases, and the main dealer is doing more than that, so my claims are neither unfounded nor intended to worry anyone, just trying to state facts to help out the OP

[woggledog]

Its funny, as Hydro unit failures get much more visibility on here than timing chain issues, but you can drive around forever with a knackered Hydro unit. I know it's a hell of a job to change the chain as the engine has to come out :-(

[Pacman83]

I simply can't believe that one of the worlds foremost car manufacturers have intentionally allowed a 'faulty design' to be circulated amongst its customers, with the possibility of jeopardising their huge reputation and following.

Here's a recent recall of 1.6 million 3 series for an airbag fault. OK, this will be a cheaper fix than an engine fault, but nonetheless, they seem to take their product and reputation very seriously. LINK

My car has been serviced at BMW main dealers and has covered 49k miles. If there's a timing chain fault in the future it's exactly that, and will be repaired under the extended warranty guidelines.

[shrimpvende]

It's because an airbag fault is a direct health and safety risk, which could result in them being sued along the lines of Toyota for the sticky accelerators. Faulty engines don't pose a direct health and safety risk, so they can get away with it.

It's a well known design fault, there are already 4 PUMA's circulating, each time using newer revised parts to try to solve the problem, but they can't. The latest PUMA states that warranty repairs for noisy chains aren't allowed if they have the latest revised parts, so the poor owners just have to deal with the noisy engine.

The facts are that 2007 - 2009 N47's can get noisy and then snap, causing the huge bills. 2009 was the first update to guides and tensioners, and N47's produced after this don't snap their chains, but they can still get noisy. 2011 saw the latest parts revision, however the F series cars are having problems now, we have a fair few F2X 1 series owners on babybmw with timing chain noise.

If you spend some time googling it you'll find plenty of seriously p***ed off BMW owners who have shelled out thousands for this design flaw, but they won't recall them because of the cost. The amount of labour alone required to change the chains at main dealer rates would be extortionate, seeing as the N47 must be their most popular engine in Europe.

Again..no scare mongering, just facts from my extensive research

[Pacman83]

I'd like to know the ratio of 'faulty/snapped' timing chains in relation to 3 series cars sold with the N47 (or any other related engine) actually is. I think you'll find it is minuscule in comparison.

[bishbosh]

I took out a BMW driveline warranty on my car at 100k miles. At 108k the chain sounded noisy, and over the the next month or so the sound got worse. This was 5 months after I took out the warranty.

Took it into BMW. They covered the repair, I only had to pay £250. They replaced the crank, shells, chains, tensioners & guides.

Now at 128k miles and engine is still nice and quiet

Don't forget the dealer will want the business and invoice the warranty company!

[kayfaz]

Interestingly Nissan has recalled 104k Jukes back due to a faulty timing chain...

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/05/15/n...-timing-chain/