bmw 320d - anyone know what these engines are like?

mattyprice4004

I nearly ended up with a 320d, however decided against it due to the silly amount of engines and turbos that have gone bang, combined with the swirl flap issues. Well done BMW!

Always amuses me that Rover used the same engine in the 75, and fitted a 'dumb' manifold with no flaps, and a simpler, more reliable Mitsubishi turbocharger. They get to 300-400k without issue, so at least the basic engine design is solid.
Of course it was dog-slow, so I remapped it to 160BHP.

You'll never guess which I bought instead...

System

yeah, I guess with the swrilf flaps done the turbo is the next big worry - what's the cost of a replacement?
My only worry would be further engine damage from a turbo failure, any ideas of how much damage there would be if it did go bang?

addyboy1982

120k on a 10 year old car isn't high mileage - hopefully it hasn't done lots of short journeys, has FSH (not necessarily all BMW) and drives as it should.

Beware of the weak points others have mentioned above, and enjoy!

System

the current owners have had it for three years and own two other bmws so I don't think it's done much in those years - the husband is a mechanic too, but can never decide if that's a good thing!!

Muscle750

Swirl flaps one of the bugbears of the diesil engine

mattyprice4004

Muscle750 wrote: »

Swirl flaps one of the bugbears of the diesil engine

Only of badly designed diesel engines - I've had 6 diesel cars and none have had swirl flaps.

Pick a good diesel and it's not an issue, as loads of diesels don't use them.

nickcc

Same engine as the Freelander TD4 except the Freelander is detuned and doesn't have the swirl flaps. Both versions suffer with turbo failure but this can be cured by changing the crankcase breather to the BMW vortex modification, earlier BMW's that suffered turbo failure had the cotton type filter which was changed to the vortex type which should prevent turbo failure.

spacey2012

Every now and again, even the best get it very very wrong, this engine was a disaster for BMW.
They are tempting because they are cheap for a BMW, but for a very good reason.
They screwed the engine too far trying to play catch up with VW and Audi.

System

after a bit more reading I've decided to give it a miss, I was only considering it because it was local and cheap!
but not worth the potential problems for me - although this is how I ended up driving a mini cooper S instead of the standard cooper, the internet can be a dangerous place!

motorguy

spacey2012 wrote: »

Every now and again, even the best get it very very wrong, this engine was a disaster for BMW.
They are tempting because they are cheap for a BMW, but for a very good reason.
They screwed the engine too far trying to play catch up with VW and Audi.

Disaster for BMW or a disaster for the poor sods who bought one? (myself included)

It does bug me that granted these are 9 or 10 year old cars but the turbos are failing because of a design flaw, yet its the customer who has to fork out.