My car broke down last week. X3 f25 ,2011 with 130,000 miles. Just have a quote to say the it's the timing chain and a repair will cost £2000
Does anyone have experience of this. I know it's meant to be a common fault with BMWs. I'm in two minds whether to just scrap it, he's also offered me £1000 for it as it is. It's quite an old car but I have recently spent £550 to have a good tow bar fitted and have a specific roofbox for the car.
Does anyone have experience of this. I know it's meant to be a common fault with BMWs. I'm in two minds whether to just scrap it, he's also offered me £1000 for it as it is. It's quite an old car but I have recently spent £550 to have a good tow bar fitted and have a specific roofbox for the car.
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sorted byHas the chain snapped or just stretched or is it rattling? either way it is expensive. the chain is at the back of the engine so often means engine out.
If rattling at the top you can try replacing the tensioner (can be done with engine in).
There are actually 3 chains, one top, one bottom and a middle that drives the oil pump. You can feed a new one though in situ if its the top one and just stretched. otherwise its engine out. You can just about get the sump off to access the bottom chain, but its a pig.
plus you need the engine out to access the guides.
if its snapped then its bad news - it can also take out the cams, cam carrier#, valves, pistons and crank - but you need the engine in bits to see how bad it is.
it is a really poor design.
And because so many go bang used engines are expensive (plus you'd want to replace the chains/guides/tensioner before fitting.
one possible tip - I understand that the same engine was supplied to toyota and is called the 1ww when fitted to the avensis.
I do not know if it's snapped 100% of what, he just mentioned chain, teeth and taking parts out.
It's a 1 man band who specialises in BMW's. He said he fixed this issue all the time. I'lle check the Toyota thing. Thanks
If you know a BMW specialist then it should be simple to get servicing and repairs on it and assuming the engine isn't damaged from the chain breaking it will be good for another 130k miles baring things like EGRs, turbos etc which is a risk on any car.
Once back on the road it's worth £5K plus.
Was it a dealership or chain.
You might be able to get a better quote from an independent garage.
Timing belts and chains are expensive to replace.
They are a specialist (check their facebook page out) plenty of posts and reviews etc
They also offer your car to be towed to their garage and back to you
May be worth getting a quote from them if it helps
Or alternatively theres BM connected LTD they are based in braintree (again there on facebook)
Im in various BMW groups on facebook as previously had a 120D which had the N47 engine but never experienced the timing chain issue and currently have a BMW 330E (edited)