[stowers561]

I just upgraded from a very problematic e90 N52 and now have a 2018 330i with b46 (USA Variant of b48) and I am loving this car in my first month of ownership. I just ordered BMS Intake and am currently looking for charge pipe and exhaust options

[jtalweezy]

Running a B46 with Bootmod3 stage 2 tune since 32k miles. JB4 map 3 from 23-32k miles.

So far no issues, no leaks, and tons of fun. My maintenance practice is much more aggressive though. no more than 5k in between oil changes, and I am always checking oil and coolant for any crossover.

[alexonahurry]

Running a B48 with 41.000km and no issues at all.

[Luverse]

Running B48 for 40.000 km (15.000 of it on Stage 2), no issue so far other than some hex code that wouldn't go away

[siiiilky]

B48 with bootmod3 stage 1 installed at around 30k miles, it's now on 69k and it's fine apart from an annoying tick tick, on cold start, sounds exactly the same as -:

My indy said it's normal, I haven't got them to update DME yet as it runs fine and the tick tick goes away when engine is warm.

I've been getting oil changes done around every 10k miles.

[devildog81]

Just got my 2015 Mini with 75k miles on it. Any thing I should watch for on this engine?

[Palgam]

Originally Posted by stowers561

I just upgraded from a very problematic e90 N52 and now have a 2018 330i with b46 (USA Variant of b48) and I am loving this car in my first month of ownership. I just ordered BMS Intake and am currently looking for charge pipe and exhaust options

I used the ER Charge Pipe and a AFE exhaust (2.17 430i GC) I took off the Injen, too much wooshing sounds.

[Avaley]

I think so far the B48s have a pretty solid reputation. I haven't had any issues tuned and untuned.

[alexonahurry]

I'm bringing this conversation back on the table. Turns out that the B46/B48 engines have:

• cooling system issues
• leaking valve covers
• oil filter housings
• oil pan gaskets.

They will be common B46/B48 engine problems in the future. Just hit with a cracked oil filter housing on my F30 330i B48 2016 with only 55.000kms (36.000mls) on the clock.
Have lost all my coolant and it was a pretty pricey experience - sets me back about 2K (AUD) with other preventative parts such as a brittle vent line from expansion tank to cylinder head and water pump.
BTW: the vent line is already a "Service action" but in reality a recall in the US but unfortunately not in Australia.
If you after a B48 equipped bimmer than you better make sure these parts have been replaced.

[AtlantaDan]

Originally Posted by alexonahurry

I'm bringing this conversation back on the table. Turns out that the B46/B48 engines have:

• cooling system issues
• leaking valve covers
• oil filter housings
• oil pan gaskets.

No disrespect, but just because they've hit you doesn't mean they are systemic issues with the engine. The coolant vent line has a no-cost silent recall, but the other things you've mentioned seem to be somewhat rare.

[alexonahurry]

Originally Posted by AtlantaDan

No disrespect, but just because they've hit you doesn't mean they are systemic issues with the engine. The coolant vent line has a no-cost silent recall, but the other things you've mentioned seem to be somewhat rare.

The vent line is a recall only in the US, nowhere else on the planet and the cracked oil filter housing is a very common issue .Valve cover gaskets and leaking water pumps are on the rise as well, just summing up what is content of this forum and the experience of other users in different FB groups.
Is your car a B48 equipped F3X?

[Aziego]

My wagon was at 90K miles when my water pump had the leak. I would not consider that unreliable. Parts eventually wear out no matter what you own. So far no gasket leaks yet (knock on wood). These are maintenance items in my view. Other than the vent line, the leaks won't leave you stranded.

[alexonahurry]

Originally Posted by Aziego

My wagon was at 90K miles when my water pump had the leak. I would not consider that unreliable. Parts eventually wear out no matter what you own. So far no gasket leaks yet (knock on wood). These are maintenance items in my view. Other than the vent line, the leaks won't leave you stranded.

The cracked oil filter housing will leave you stranded for sure, it's a coolant leak It might be a combination of over tightened oil filter cap and aged plastic but it's not super rare.

https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1839119

[AtlantaDan]

Originally Posted by alexonahurry

Is your car a B48 equipped F3X?

Yes it is, but that doesn't really matter unless you're measuring dicks or trying to invalidate my comment. Good luck with both, champ. People don't come online to talk about how trouble-free and/or amazing their cars are. They come to forums when they have a problem and are looking for a fix.

The coolant pipe is a thing. BMW is fixing them for $0 in the US.

Originally Posted by alexonahurry

the cracked oil filter housing is a very common issue

LOL. No. The link to the oil filter housing you posted is over a year old and has 5 responses and that's the most recent post about it on this forum. Googling shows 6 posts on the entire first page of results about current owners with the problem. The oil filter housing cracking is a rare failure. Pre LCI cars had a silent recall done on B48 engines in 2014/15 where the housing was replaced with a new and updated housing. I'd wager a guess that most of the (rare) failures are now due to apes overtightening the cap.

Valve cover gaskets usually start leaking at 60-70k. It's almost universal across all German cars. (Just had to do the VCG's on my Panamera at 63k.)

[alexonahurry]

Originally Posted by AtlantaDan

Yes it is, but that doesn't really matter unless you're measuring dicks or trying to invalidate my comment. Good luck with both, champ. People don't come online to talk about how trouble-free and/or amazing their cars are. They come to forums when they have a problem and are looking for a fix.

The coolant pipe is a thing. BMW is fixing them for $0 in the US.

LOL. No. The link to the oil filter housing you posted is over a year old and has 5 responses and that's the most recent post about it on this forum. Googling shows 6 posts on the entire first page of results about current owners with the problem. The oil filter housing cracking is a rare failure. Pre LCI cars had a silent recall done on B48 engines in 2014/15 where the housing was replaced with a new and updated housing. I'd wager a guess that most of the (rare) failures are now due to apes overtightening the cap.

Valve cover gaskets usually start leaking at 60-70k. It's almost universal across all German cars. (Just had to do the VCG's on my Panamera at 63k.)

No worries champ :-) - seems like you re the B48 doctor. Anyhow, the oil filter housing is a thing in Australia and I know quite a few owners mainly from FB groups with the same issue and very often 230i/330i from 2016 and 2017.

[2017F30]

Originally Posted by alexonahurry

The vent line is a recall only in the US, nowhere else on the planet and the cracked oil filter housing is a very common issue .Valve cover gaskets and leaking water pumps are on the rise as well, just summing up what is content of this forum and the experience of other users in different FB groups.
Is your car a B48 equipped F3X?

Vent line being replaced at no charge by Canadian dealers as well.

Had mine done a few months ago which I posted about.

[JBT2]

Originally Posted by alexonahurry

Anyhow, the oil filter housing is a thing in Australia and I know quite a few owners mainly from FB groups with the same issue and very often 230i/330i from 2016 and 2017.

I'm looking at getting an F30 330i and the coolant "vent" line and OFH crack issues are a worry - particularly the latter.

I know of people with Minis (same engine) that have also had the OFH crack.

Is there a typical age/kilometres that the OFH lets go?

[floydthebarber71]

Looking to buy a B48 shod car, it’ll be higher mileage (90,000km) with an X3 30i 2018 or in a 2019 X1.

I don’t expect components to last forever, but is it too expensive to do preventative maintenance on some of these concerns? Knowing there’s this potential risk before even buying into it is not ideal. Unless I’m looking too deep into this

[GeorgeF31]

BMW has been putting the B48 variants in cars since 2014 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_B48 ). Unless there’s a stadium full of B48 failures nobody knows about, you’re talking about premtively replacing components in an attempt to chase a very low probability which is just as likely to occur with the replacement items. Further, you introduce the possibility that whoever performs the work could cause additional issues.

IMO, a car with only 90,000km (90kkm?) or ~55k miles is more or less midway between “production error” and “wear failure” for things like this. Why spend the money attempting to chase an issue that isn’t likely to happen?

[floydthebarber71]

Originally Posted by GeorgeF31

BMW has been putting the B48 variants in cars since 2014 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_B48 ). Unless there’s a stadium full of B48 failures nobody knows about, you’re talking about premtively replacing components in an attempt to chase a very low probability which is just as likely to occur with the replacement items. Further, you introduce the possibility that whoever performs the work could cause additional issues.

IMO, a car with only 90,000km (90kkm?) or ~55k miles is more or less midway between “production error” and “wear failure” for things like this. Why spend the money attempting to chase an issue that isn’t likely to happen?

Was just asking the question to anyone in the know, since I don’t. Of course I wouldn’t do anything immediately, or maybe it does need to be done sooner rather than later, if at all? Or maybe just on one component, or two? Hence me asking. Doing due diligence on potential known issues on a car I’m not familiar with so I know what I’m getting myself into isn’t a crime, even if risk is low but cost could be high. Or I could be looking too deep into it, as I already said, and just see what comes. But thanks for the comment, that does help.

Cheers

[sqwinny]

Not sure if intervals but. A handful of the tunes b46/b48 guys locally chnage the oil filter housing gasket due to leaks and the coolant line with a recall. That’s about it. Motor is pretty stout and a local guy is pushing 32-34 psi on the stock block on a g25-660 + supporting mods.

Easier platform to make power and tune compared to the n20/n26, but stock turbo and hybrid turbo limits they both make around the same power. B46/b48 is fuel injector limited and intake temps limited due to intake manifold + intercooler being integrated. Thus meth injection is desired

[daniiwsz]

Hello guys, just had the same problem with a major leak of coolant and received some very bad news, what alexonahurry described apparently happened to me as well, tought it is just the water pump that failed, but apparently received from the service some videos where they took off everything under the hood to find the cause. Not really sure 100% what were the parts that literally broke, but from what I understood it is related to an oil part, plastic parts which completely got broken, including the water pump which had some leaks and the plastic connector to the cylinder, in a matter of minutes the whole coolant was going on the ground.

Wanted to share the story, the car is still in service, they told me that several 30i models got into service with almost same characteristics and in their case apparently the whole engine had some infiltrations which lead to a completely broken engine, anyone knows anything about this ?

The car is a 330i xDrive 2017 with just 90.000km, I am literally shocked how this could happen, it was out of nowhere, no signs no anything, really considering selling ASAP, can anyone share if there are some known issues with the engine ? Thank you.