[Patterson]

2013 BMW 328i – Twin power turbo, N26 Engine, F30 body style. Purchased 2018
Such a fun ride until the engine locks up at 73,000 miles and leaves me stranded and looking like an jerk because I’m not pushing my dead BMW to the side of the road, as state road signs instruct. Well, the transmission is programmed to lock into Park upon engine failure and leave you a sitting duck. Break down in the fast lane on a fwy? You will be parked in the fast lane with no hope of coasting the car out of the way of oncoming traffic. Your BMW paper weight will likely be smashed into by an innocent driver, killing you, them, and who knows what else. There is a term in Engineering called ‘Fail-Safe’. That means a device capable of harming the user, upon its operational failure, must fail into a malfunction mode that is ‘Safe’. The way these cars breakdown is hazardous and goes against traffic safety common sense.

That said, I’m talking to the dealer tomorrow, they’ve done their free preliminary analysis and said it doesn’t look like the timing chain was the culprit. However, an Indy shop I towed it to the day of the breakdown said the engine was locked up. They tried to turn the crank to roll the motor over, it would not budge; locked. I am going to mention the SULEV warranty, even though Arizona only signed up for 2012 models, ours is a 2013.

My questions are, was there a significant difference from the N26/F30 btwn 2012 and 2013?

Also, after an engine lock-up, what else could’ve caused it other than timing chain failure? I guess starved for oil would cause it, and the timing chain settlement appears to include the oil pump drive chain.

This is my wife’s car and she loved it when we bought it used in 2018, still under dealer warranty at that time. Hell, I loved it, I drive a 2002 Jaguar that has 160K miles on the clock, runs great, but this is now our shared car.

Conclusion so far: German Engineering shitz the bed and the Ultimate Driving machine becomes a nightmare.