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      05-16-2019, 11:02 AM   #1
MyEvo8u
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Unhappy Another F30 N20 Blown Motor Thread :(

Hey All!

Longtime lurker on the forums, thought I would share the bad news with everyone. Back in May of 2015, I took ownership of a new to me BMW 328i F30. I have had no issues with the car for 4 Full years! It was my baby and i never beat on it since I have another car to do that in. This car was met to be my daily for many years to come and I was also planning on becoming a loyal BMW customer with hope of getting the wife in a X5 within the next year or so.

Well let's jump into the issue that made my week go to hell. Driving to work approx. 55 MPH. I get the low oil pressure light followed by the Drivetrain malfunction light. I pulled over to the side of the road asap and had it towed to BMW. BMW called today, cause of failure was timing chain which then took the whole motor out. They want $11,000 to replace the motor...... I am super frustrated since I am a year out warranty and currently sit at 107,000 miles. There were absolutely no warning signs which makes me even more upset. As I said i don't beat on the car, i coded it to jump into eco-mode at all times. It rarely comes out of eco-mode and was never modified or tuned.... Other issue, I still owe $9,000 and was planning to either trade in this month for a new BMW or pay off in full due to balloon financing. Still trying to weight in on what to do here.

I do have a case in with BMW USA right now, but highly doubt they are going to cover anything. What pisses me off is that the failure occurred because of the timing chain issue that had an extended warranty.

So currently shit out of luck and kind of stuck in a huge predicament. I babied this car and always serviced it on time. Timing chains shouldn't go like that ever.....

I will keep you all updated, but as of right now. Pretty upset BMW owner. And I understand BMW doesn't owe me anything, but this is some screwed up situation.. Especially since there was an extended warranty for this.

EDIT: BMW USA already got back to me, their not going to cover the car at all.

EDIT #2: If you are reading this and you own a 2012-early 2015 N20. I would strongly recommend spending the money to have the new timing chain and guard put in, or trade it in now. I had no warning signs.

Edit #3: Was able to source a 2016 N20 Motor. It is going in this week. Hope this problem has been dealt with and the car will last another 5 years now hahahahaha.

Edit #4: If you have had a timing chain failure: Report it to NHTSA! the more reports they receive the better chance for a recall! This also helps aid in the legitimacy of the Class action suite! It took me 5 mins to do!https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

Last edited by MyEvo8u; 06-11-2019 at 09:29 AM..
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      05-16-2019, 11:22 AM   #2
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sigh, I'm in the same boat as you, going to have nightmares now, I baby my N20 428i, best 94 octane gas, best LL-01 oil, best everything. Also coded to start in eco pro with auto S/S off. I hope BMW compensates something for you because it's a known issue.
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      05-16-2019, 11:38 AM   #3
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Thanks for sharing this and I hope BMW does something for ya man; this only makes me wonder if you would've been okay in the end if you abused it as it "may" have failed earlier :/ I might have to use and abuse my N26 now until she blows
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      05-16-2019, 11:39 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffc83 View Post
Thanks for sharing this and I hope BMW does something for ya man; this only makes me wonder if you would've been okay in the end if you abused it as it "may" have failed earlier :/ I might have to use and abuse my N26 now until she blows
They fixed the timing chain issue by 2015, so you'll just abuse and break something else thats not covered
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      05-16-2019, 11:40 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zanity View Post
sigh, I'm in the same boat as you, going to have nightmares now, I baby my N20 428i, best 94 octane gas, best LL-01 oil, best everything. Also coded to start in eco pro with auto S/S off. I hope BMW compensates something for you because it's a known issue.
Oh man I know, biggest regret is, I wish i just paid in advance to have the timing chain replaced since it is a known issue. My other issue is that I wonder if my timing chain took longer to go then normal because I babied the car and didn't over stress it.

I am just completely lost for words. Good luck with yours man! I always lived by that saying maintenance & not beating on your car all the time is key for a long living motor hahaha.
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      05-16-2019, 11:43 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffc83 View Post
Thanks for sharing this and I hope BMW does something for ya man; this only makes me wonder if you would've been okay in the end if you abused it as it "may" have failed earlier :/ I might have to use and abuse my N26 now until she blows
Yeah right! I have been joking with my buddies. I should beat the balls out of this thing. It's funny though, you run into people who haven't had an oil change for 2 years and they beat the balls out of their car regularly and it still runs solid. Guess I was just one of the few unlucky ones
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      05-16-2019, 11:44 AM   #7
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new used engine can be had for around 2k$, plus labor to install another 2k? just an alternative to 11k that the stealership wants lol.

I'm nearing the 70k miles and sweating bullets lol.
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      05-16-2019, 11:46 AM   #8
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by the way, don't get your wife the X5, that car is a worse money pit lol. For BMWs, I would only stick to 2/3/4 series as these are the "most" reliable models (by most I mean tolerable money pits). Anything else it's better to get another brand, like Lexus. I had an E60, E90, E92, now F32. The only model I regret getting was the E60.
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      05-16-2019, 11:54 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zanity View Post
by the way, don't get your wife the X5, that car is a worse money pit lol. For BMWs, I would only stick to 2/3/4 series as these are the "most" reliable models (by most I mean tolerable money pits). Anything else it's better to get another brand, like Lexus. I had an E60, E90, E92, now F32. The only model I regret getting was the E60.
I've had an E60 and currently the wife tools around in a 2017 X5. Neither cars were very bad. Other than the typical BMW issues (oil filter housing gaskets and ZF 6HP leaks) the E60 was reliable enough. Especially since I did all the work after the warranty expired (we kept it for 8 years total). The X5 is still under warranty and has been fine so far. It's still new, though, I know, but I haven't heard about too many issues with it.
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      05-16-2019, 11:55 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MyEvo8u View Post
Yeah right! I have been joking with my buddies. I should beat the balls out of this thing. It's funny though, you run into people who haven't had an oil change for 2 years and they beat the balls out of their car regularly and it still runs solid. Guess I was just one of the few unlucky ones
Never fails lol! (no pun intended)
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      05-16-2019, 11:55 AM   #11
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They fixed the timing chain issue by 2015, so you'll just abuse and break something else thats not covered
Now THAT would be MY LUCK!!!!
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      05-16-2019, 12:15 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by upsidedownfunnel View Post
I've had an E60 and currently the wife tools around in a 2017 X5. Neither cars were very bad. Other than the typical BMW issues (oil filter housing gaskets and ZF 6HP leaks) the E60 was reliable enough. Especially since I did all the work after the warranty expired (we kept it for 8 years total). The X5 is still under warranty and has been fine so far. It's still new, though, I know, but I haven't heard about too many issues with it.
I did my own work too on all my BMWs, but my E60 had the most issue, and things I couldn't fix myself, like the sunroof stuck open permanently. It was a lower mileage car too, and it ended up being more of a pain for me compare to the 3 series experience.
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Last edited by Zanity; 05-16-2019 at 12:21 PM..
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      05-16-2019, 12:36 PM   #13
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from: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...1415105&page=3
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Originally Posted by mattwong92 View Post
So update:

Got my car back from the dealership, did not get any work done. They brought in a Engineer Rep from Germany who happened to be visiting the dealership to look at my car (even got him on dash cam lol).

He explained that:
- when the n20 engine cams lobes come to rest vertically straight up at a very specific point the lobe will rotate back slightly (very rarely will it do so it needs to come to a stop exactly at that point).
- When the lobe rotates back slightly on engine stop, there will have slack on the chain that you see in my video (enough to lift the chain 1-2 cm off the guide)
- He said he was very surprised i even noticed this in my car as no one ever looks at it and happens in a very rare use case.
- Otherwise you will see very slight play in the chain, and movement side to side up and down depending on oil pressure due to the hydraulic tensioner used when the lobe takes up all the rest of the slack on the chain.
- Overall listening to my engine he said it sounded very healthy, and the only cases in which the timing chain shows symptoms of going out is the VERY loud high pitched whining noise. Additionally as more and more slack appears in the chain over time you will hear loud noises that sound like rod knock.
- Overall he said a lot of customers are concerned with their timing chains but from every single n20 that has been completely broken down in the shop for the repair they have VERY noticeable sounds and has affected a very low number of cars.
- From the engines and cars that have had this issue they were being driven or had been going over the expected oil change intervals at around 15-20k miles before changing.

Not sure if this info is helpful or not but posting here anyways thanks!
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Sounds pizzagatey.

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      05-16-2019, 12:55 PM   #14
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You said you used ECO pro mode alot. Which means you also used Auto Start Stop. Auto Start Stop is VERY hard on the timing chain of the engine. I think this was a contributing factor to your engine failure.

I coded auto start stop off a week after owning the car and have never used it since. Also in my belief is that ECO pro mode can lug the engine by trying to always keep the RPMs low.
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      05-16-2019, 12:59 PM   #15
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You know what's funny about the high pitch noise, I heard it way back in the day and had the car looked at, they said it was nothing and for a while it went away but i would notice it every so often for a little while.... Wonder how much that is related.
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      05-16-2019, 01:05 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SilkySmoooth View Post
You said you used ECO pro mode alot. Which means you also used Auto Start Stop. Auto Start Stop is VERY hard on the timing chain of the engine. I think this was a contributing factor to your engine failure.

I coded auto start stop off a week after owning the car and have never used it since. Also in my belief is that ECO pro mode can lug the engine by trying to always keep the RPMs low.
Negative, I coded ECO PRO at start up with auto start stop coded OFF. These are 2 separate codes. My car starts in eco pro with auto S/S OFF. The reason why I did this is because I want the car to warm up in eco pro's lower RPM settings. I found comfort sometimes pointlessly stays in gear up to 2500 rpm on a cold start.
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      05-16-2019, 01:17 PM   #17
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Just an update, BMW USA followed up stating due to my mileage they will not cover anything on the repair. Unfortunately, I am not going to put 8 grand into a car that is 6 years old.

Absolutely insane that this is a known issue and only effect certain cars same exact failure.

I know many people have wonderful experiences with BMW, but this will prob be the first and the last unless the dealer can work something out which is highly unlikely.
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      05-16-2019, 01:48 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MyEvo8u View Post
Just an update, BMW USA followed up stating due to my mileage they will not cover anything on the repair. Unfortunately, I am not going to put 8 grand into a car that is 6 years old.

Absolutely insane that this is a known issue and only effect certain cars same exact failure.

I know many people have wonderful experiences with BMW, but this will prob be the first and the last unless the dealer can work something out which is highly unlikely.
Sorry to know about this, it's an awful feeling, I hope you find some solution, try some reputed indy shop, maybe they can replace it with a used motor with much cheaper labor. I had some cylinder misfire issue last week and the service tech basically did nothing and was just waiting for it to happen again. Once my warranty is over I'll probably have to be mentally ready for something like this. Plus I really DRIVE my car, always in Sport/Sport+ mode so I believe chances of this happening are more in my case

Last edited by thatBimmerBloke; 05-16-2019 at 01:52 PM.. Reason: more info
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      05-16-2019, 02:26 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MyEvo8u View Post
Just an update, BMW USA followed up stating due to my mileage they will not cover anything on the repair. Unfortunately, I am not going to put 8 grand into a car that is 6 years old.

Absolutely insane that this is a known issue and only effect certain cars same exact failure.

I know many people have wonderful experiences with BMW, but this will prob be the first and the last unless the dealer can work something out which is highly unlikely.
Time for engine swap ? Just throw a LS in it. Or drop a hellcat engine in it and make enough from youtube monetization to pay for the whole thing like some people are doing now.
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      05-16-2019, 02:31 PM   #20
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Did you use auto start/stop frequently?
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      05-16-2019, 02:33 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MyEvo8u View Post
Just an update, BMW USA followed up stating due to my mileage they will not cover anything on the repair. Unfortunately, I am not going to put 8 grand into a car that is 6 years old.

Absolutely insane that this is a known issue and only effect certain cars same exact failure.

I know many people have wonderful experiences with BMW, but this will prob be the first and the last unless the dealer can work something out which is highly unlikely.
I feel for you in your predicament.
It would be my last BMW too.




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      05-16-2019, 02:36 PM   #22
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I have GEICO's mechanical breakdown insurance to carry me through seven years, 100K miles. But even that wouldn't have helped you as you have exceeded 100K miles.

It is very unfortunate and I feel for you but with more than 100K miles, you can't expect BMW to cover the replacement. Especially since you didn't buy it from BMW but bought it used.
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