E89 M sport buying advice
- Thread starter aki
- Start date
Thanks I'll get it checked out soon. Pricing sounds about right from what I know
Deepseaskateboard
Senior member
£1800 plus parts is likely with the oil pump drive replacing too.
BMW wanted an extra £750 for that, on top of the £1500 to replace the timing chain + guides.
You get plenty of warning: the noise, the tightness of the chain, etc.
The three month ownership thing is odd, but perhaps thats why it’s priced higher.
It’s not a bad price for a good spec Z with low miles.
You can take a torch and check the plastic guides through the oil cap, if they are orange, they are the old version. The replacement modified parts are white.
BMW wanted an extra £750 for that, on top of the £1500 to replace the timing chain + guides.
You get plenty of warning: the noise, the tightness of the chain, etc.
The three month ownership thing is odd, but perhaps thats why it’s priced higher.
It’s not a bad price for a good spec Z with low miles.
You can take a torch and check the plastic guides through the oil cap, if they are orange, they are the old version. The replacement modified parts are white.
That's good to know thanks
derin100
Active member
The worrying problem isn’t ‘chain failure’ and “getting plenty of warning”. The much more worrying issue is disintegration of the plastic chain guides.Curious to know if there is any forum members on here who has had terminal timing chain failure? I have just done a forum search and didn't get any hits outside of those doing 'preventative' (which I read as expensive and unnecessary!) Did I miss them then
This can be a problem with forums - they can save you money but they can also cost you. As @Pondrew points out, ignorance can also be bliss.
Yes I know sh*t can happen, but with the millions of units of the engine in existence, we'd all know someone first-hand if it was the catastrophe that is made out here.
But earlier in the thread there is talk of a car issue free and on 130K miles!
Personally speaking, I'm comfortable enough not bothering with any so called 'preventative' maintenance not least because there is generally enough warning if the thing is about to go pop.
Car is a 2012 on 76K miles (covers circa 3K miles annually). Shock and horror - there is an outside chance that a 14+ year old car might develop an engine related fault!
Due to the composition of the actual plastic of the chain guides in pre-2015 engines, this disintegration can be sudden, without warning and absolutely catastrophic!
I know forums can often be full of other stories of woes and lead to false or unnecessary worries….but this isn’t one of them!
Yes, of course, there are people driving around with pre-2015 N20 engines with higher mileages on them and without problems and who are also blissfully unaware. They are lucky!
Firstly, they are lucky that it hasn’t happened….yet. And secondly, they are lucky that they are blissfully unaware.
BUT…once you know and once you know the mechanism of how this can happen, you will know that you’re playing with fire if you don’t get it preemptively sorted.
If you’re buying a car that might require this and it hasn’t been done, you need to factor in the cost of doing this.
I have a recently acquired 28i with c.80k miles. It hasn’t been done….and I effectively haven’t driven it anywhere yet. I’m abroad at the moment but once I get back to the UK, I’m having this, and other preventative measures, done immediately before using the car.
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Scottish Borders
Its worse than that Jim, bits of the guides can break off and clog the oil passages and oil filter!-
FWIW I'm aware of quite a few that 'just let go'
Now whether a 5th Dan engineer would have spotted it..who knows..
You can’t on your 118d aki, the oil cap is at the other end of the engine to the chains and guides, and even if you take the cam cover off all you can see is the very tip of the top guides, and that’s with having to dismantle all the plastic bulkhead, cross bars etc, etc, no use to anyone, it also has two more guides further down that are only visible by taking the oil backing plate off which is a gearbox off job, and then it’s such a struggle to get the plate off it’s easier to take the engine out, and even if you could see the guides, that won’t tell you anything, you can’t tell when they’re ready to break visually. At 98k your engine is a ticking time bomb, ignorance is bliss until it lets go then you’re into some decent money, do your own research it’s all out there should you wish. I’m no expert but I’ve done 2 engines for preventative maintenance, and one for the guides breaking into pieces, the damage was so bad the owner sold the car for £500 spares or repairs.
Anyhoo your call obvs.
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I'm going to speak to my local BMW indy and get advice from them after they check my carYou can’t on your 118d aki, the oil cap is at the other end of the engine to the chains and guides, and even if you take the cam cover off all you can see is the very tip of the top guides, and that’s with having to dismantle all the plastic bulkhead, cross bars etc, etc, no use to anyone, it also has two more guides further down that are only visible by taking the oil backing plate off which is a gearbox off job, and then it’s such a struggle to get the plate off it’s easier to take the engine out, and even if you could see the guides, that won’t tell you anything, you can’t tell when they’re ready to break visually. At 98k your engine is a ticking time bomb, ignorance is bliss until it lets go then you’re into some decent money, do your own research it’s all out there should you wish. I’m no expert but I’ve done 2 engines for preventative maintenance, and one for the guides breaking into pieces, the damage was so bad the owner sold the car for £500 spares or repairs.
Anyhoo your call obvs.