Quote:
Originally Posted by bimmer456
That's not my definition of an engine running great if it's leaving you stranded and/or all that stuff needed to be replaced. Though I see other threads saying the same thing, how their car ran great except for needing a million things done either under warranty or otherwise, maybe DIY or whatever. Running great in my book means nothing other than regular oil changes and maintenance needs to be done.
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I was being half sarcastic. The turbos and HPFP were obviously issues with the N54. The N55 is far more reliable. Also, technically the car did always run fine. The turbos just caught the attention of a tech and they replaced them while I had it in for another service. And the HPFP just put me into limp mode one time. Restarted the engine and never gave me an issue again. BMW of course replaced the HPFP after that fault though. So it never left me anything close to stranded ever. I know though, that people who weren't more careful with maintenance often had much larger issues. I know sometimes anyone can get a lemon, but I believe that paying a lot of attention to maintenance makes owning a BMW a significantly smoother experience.
And regarding the water pump and gaskets. That's just part of owning a BMW. It's not ideal but whatever. You just have to consider them a maintenance item. There's a reason they had to use the parts they did and they couldn't figure out a cost effective way to make them more reliable. At least they made them really easy to change out. I have a theory that BMW says coolant is lifetime fill because every owner will inevitably be changing out the water pump before 100k miles and will thus be flushing their coolant.
Other than those "small" things, the engine was always great. IMO, it was smoother and more powerful than the N55, advertised figures notwithstanding.