[Mgreenlee]

Apologies in advance, this will be a long post:

I am looking at buying this car from extended family, hopefully picking up next week.

It has ostensibly been very well maintained and garage kept, maintenance done on time, and low miles for the year. It had a catastrophic timing chain failure last September, which required a new (rebuilt) engine to be put in. When this happened, they got another car, and the BMW was repaired and hasnt moved much since then; only about 2k miles added since September last year.

Body has 74k miles, rebuilt engine had 62k miles when it was placed in the car, now at 64k.

I have a couple of questions/concerns, knowing the issues with the N20 motors.

1) I do not have a way of knowing when the replacement engine was made/what model it came out of. The shop that did the repair is a small german-focused indy, and I am unable to contact them via phone or email. The only concern here is if the rebuilt engine will just have the same timing chain issue - I know it was rectified in early 2015. I have the invoice from the shop, but it just has the P/N for the engine. Is there a VIN or manufacture date anywhere on the engine?

1.5) Anything else known to go wrong with these models? Timing chains and tensioners make up the majority of the conversation, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything.

2) I do plan on modifying the engine for longevity so what mods would be good? I have looked at replacing the plastic charge, boost and turbo inlet pipes and intercoolers with aluminum ones from from VRSF or FTP. Would these be ok to add with a stock tune (no CEL)? I do not plan to add a tune or anything of that nature - just want minimal things to worry about going forward.

2.5) I have also read that these cars tend to run hotter than average vehicles and that can have an effect on intake air temp. Is there a way to reduce that through mods? Are CAIs a thing for these?

What else have I missed?

[tturedraider]

The VIN should be embossed on the motor somewhere.

Your link isn’t working.

[F30_Drew]

Dead link

[Mgreenlee]

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-...ckType=listing

[Wires]

Not a N20 expert, but your concern #1 is what I'd be worried about. 62k miles isn't really "nothing" for mileage, and you would want to be on top of the timing chain if it was built before those issues were addressed.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by Mgreenlee

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-...ckType=listing

Looks like a very nice car and it looks like it’s in pretty good condition. It has the surround view cameras and the front collision avoidance options, which is somewhat unusual for a fairly basic 328i. If you poke around under the hood I’ll bet you can find something with the motor VIN on it and find out when it was produced. If you are getting a good enough deal on it even if you need to do the timing chain mechanism you’ll still probably be in good shape.