BMW what to do?

nicolakate

Hi all,


Just wanted some advice to be honest, my pride and joy a 1 series 118d sport blew on Tuesday with 4 finance payment left.
I was 500 yards from home when the amber oil light flashed and right away I started to loose power so I stopped the engine and called the AA.
He wouldn't even look at the car said he needed to get it straight to the garage as Bmw have a known issue with the engine I have.


Once at my local garage they said the same thing, and to leave it with them and they would see what they can do. So now I have no car.
I went to the local BMW garage and explained I may need a new car at which they offered me 1500 without a working engine as the spec inside is so good. I was looking at another 1 series but as the sales guy had a cant be arsed attitude and took a personal call whilst dealing with me so its put me off.
My question is What can I do if the engine has blown I would have thought BMW have a duty to inform customers of the potential engine issue wouldn't they?.
Ive been advised by my local (not bmw) garage that they should have recalled my car but they didn't obviously where do I stand.
Im quit upset as if it cant be fixed im going to be starting again with no deposit to buy a new car and having to take finance again.
Any advice would be fantastic please tia nicola

Iceweasel

A bit more info is needed.

What age is the car? - build date month is on the label on the driver's door-post.

What mileage?

Full BMW service history?

What exactly has 'blown'?

jk0

I'm wondering if you can't get a reconditioned engine from somewhere? The rest of the car can't be very old, can it?

Herzlos

Have you had estimates on repair/replacement engines? It must be cheaper than buying a new car.

AdrianC

The well-known engine failure in these cars is the timing chain.
"The oil light came on and it started losing power" is not a symptom of a timing chain failure - but noise usually is, for quite some time before the tensioner fails. You make no mention of noise.

It's not exactly new news:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/23p5j5wzPtYflS7kFvmKVZf/bmw-deny-engine-failures-are-due-to-manufacturing-fault

jk0 wrote: »

I'm wondering if you can't get a reconditioned engine from somewhere? The rest of the car can't be very old, can it?

It could be 12yrs old and no more than £2-3k worth, even in good health. And used N47 engines are going to be in VERY short supply...

jaydeeuk1

You're BMWs favourite type of customer. Car blows up, on finance still, and you want to buy another of same model also on finance.

Can you really afford to finance another BMW? As you've found out, German quality means f*ck all, its a reputation built up in the 70's and 80's.

Strider590

I'll go ahead and ask the obvious question........ When was the last time you "popped the hood" and checked the levels?

bigjl

nicolakate wrote: »

Hi all,


Just wanted some advice to be honest, my pride and joy a 1 series 118d sport blew on Tuesday with 4 finance payment left.
I was 500 yards from home when the amber oil light flashed and right away I started to loose power so I stopped the engine and called the AA.
He wouldn't even look at the car said he needed to get it straight to the garage as Bmw have a known issue with the engine I have.


Once at my local garage they said the same thing, and to leave it with them and they would see what they can do. So now I have no car.
I went to the local BMW garage and explained I may need a new car at which they offered me 1500 without a working engine as the spec inside is so good. I was looking at another 1 series but as the sales guy had a cant be arsed attitude and took a personal call whilst dealing with me so its put me off.
My question is What can I do if the engine has blown I would have thought BMW have a duty to inform customers of the potential engine issue wouldn't they?.
Ive been advised by my local (not bmw) garage that they should have recalled my car but they didn't obviously where do I stand.
Im quit upset as if it cant be fixed im going to be starting again with no deposit to buy a new car and having to take finance again.
Any advice would be fantastic please tia nicola

Well BMW don't offer much info on the problem with the ABS unit on 1 Series or the vacuum pump on 1 Series.

And they will happily tell you to whistle if your 2.0d engine eats itself a few weeks out of warranty for a problem they have know about for years.

Iceweasel

Well those with the timing-chain problem are being quietly repaired with no publicity - for those with a full BMW service history.

No chance of a full recall - it's far and away BMW's most common engine - the factory in Austria was churning them out at the rate of near 5000 a day at one point.

Of course the chains should not have failed at any mileage- but if we are honest, it's a very small % of failures.

Marktheshark

They can also suffer oil pump seal failure which can often be fixed by fitting a new oil pump.
I would get a "real mechanic" to have a look instead of the fast fit technicians at the dealers who can usually just bolt on certain new parts and beyond this tell you its new engine on a pallet time.

bigjl

Iceweasel wrote: »

Well those with the timing-chain problem are being quietly repaired with no publicity - for those with a full BMW service history.

No chance of a full recall - it's far and away BMW's most common engine - the factory in Austria was churning them out at the rate of near 5000 a day at one point.

Of course the chains should not have failed at any mileage- but if we are honest, it's a very small % of failures.

Actually going by the number of these engines failing in the London PH trade it seems to be an awful lot more than a small percentage.

Perhaps it is more common on higher miles vehicles, but from the story's I am hearing the problem has little warning compared to other vehicles with common camchain problems that can soldier on for quite a while, Saab, Corsas and Navaras/Pathfinders for example.

There are lots of garages that specialise in fixing these now.

But let's be frank, BMW have some of the longest oil change intervals these days, as in fact did the Pathfinder (never owned a Navara but probably the same) which was 18k miles or one year (on my 08 plate) luckily mine had done above average mileage by an Electrical Contracting Co based near Crawley that drove most days to Bluewater and back so all easy miles on the oil and had been serviced every 18k but significantly usually every 7/8 months till I bought it at 3 1/2 year with 91k.

Now consider if your Navara/Pathfinder was being run stop start all day round town, but still covered 16/17k a year. That car would get one annual service even though being used in pretty harsh conditions, maybe even idling for several hours of the day in traffic or on a site. I can't remember if there was a Severe Service interval mentioned in the Handbooks to be honest, I just changed the oil every 6 months, and when sold after three years my camchain was fine. Coincidence?

Let's think about the Saab petrol lump, didn't Saab discover that due to the routing of the turbo pipe work the oil was being effectively overheated all the time? And the way to fix the issue was to cut the service interval, if I remember correctly from my time on Saab Scene enthusiasts and Saab specialists had been doing that for a while.

My point is could these problems with BMWs be prevented by just performing an extra oil change at half of the scheduled interval?

Not that this benefits the OP now, but could be something for BMW 2.0d owners to consider if they intend to own the vehicle for several years. I have always been a firm believer in preventative maintenance, probably because it is cheaper than repairs.