N20 timing chain

[KOTULCN]

Just took my 2012 328i (build date 12/11) to dealer for a OFH recall and new front windshield. When I picked it up SA told me tech found issue with my timing chain making a noise and they have to do a "puma" where they tear it all apart and take pictures, then forward to BMW for repair authorization. SA said they will be replacing it.

After she told me this I did some googling and found out BMW has known about this and started using different parts.

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/bmw-n20-and-n26-engines-receive-timing-chain-updates-1716844660

Has any hear experienced the same thing?

[magas]

Yes...
Same thing happened to me
2013 F25 BMW X3
3.5 years old 53,000 miles... just out of warranty. Dealer refuses to fix... estimate is $18,000.

See My post here... Contacting BMW now... and trying to get as many stories together so they know its a problem.

https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9691191

[MassiveWalrus]

Same Here. a while back when this was a hot topic... ( my car was out of warranty) my dealer had the chain on back order with no ETA. I just went myself and got the new updated chain directly from the OES. IWIS # 50042415 crosses to a 11 31 8 648 732 IIRC it was only $30.00. My local indie did the labor for $400.

[sak335]

Anybody know if BMW has released a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) about this? I have a 2013 328i, but it's only got 27,000 miles on it now, and no issues. But if I can swap in these new parts before there's a problem then I'm willing to do it. It's not a difficult job from what I can see, but also mine is still under warranty and if there is a TSB I may try to sweet talk my service manager to doing it for me when it's in for an oil change in the next few months.

[jherrold]

What years were affected?

[jherrold]

What years were affected? I have a 2015 328i base built date 6/2015

[BleedsBlue]

Anybody know if BMW has released a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) about this? I have a 2013 328i, but it's only got 27,000 miles on it now, and no issues. But if I can swap in these new parts before there's a problem then I'm willing to do it. It's not a difficult job from what I can see, but also mine is still under warranty and if there is a TSB I may try to sweet talk my service manager to doing it for me when it's in for an oil change in the next few months.

I'm bumping this as I just acquired a '13 320i with 48k miles and am doing due diligence. I'm an inveterate DIYer, but this is the newest BMW I've owned by ~10 years. My car is out of warranty, but there is none of the telltale sound and the chain has absolutely no shine/scratch marks on it. Anyone done a preventive swap to the new guide part number?

Or considering all of the potential failure points, should I buck up and buy a power train warranty for 100k miles? This car is to be my commuter, with few mods planned; I just need it to run, and run cheaply.

It seems the failure rate in general is still a very very low % (particularly with 320s for some reason), and perhaps is largely due to long oil change intervals. Not a coincidence that BMW both changed the part number and lowered the oil change interval a few years into N20 production...


I have a 2015 328i base built date 6/2015

You should be good, they reportedly changed parts 1/2015. But just open your oil cap and look, if the chain guide is white it's the new, improved part; orange is the old one (doubtful based on your build date).

[mlciac]

The timing chain broke on my 2013 BMW X3 two weeks ago with no warning. The car has 52,000 miles and is out of warranty. So far BMW has offered a $2000 trade assist, which made me very angry, given that I've found so many reports of people having this problem. They have yet to say what they would do by way of goodwill repair...but the trade assist offer has me considering hiring an attorney.

[Jdubs2020]

Mines a 2013 328 m sport. 62k. What noise should I listen for and I'm thinking I should just have the chain replaced proactively. What years and models are affected. Please and thank you!

[mrjeffreymlee]

Google 9/21/17 BMW ELW on timing chain. Mine was just replaced with the guides, oil pump, gaskets, out, etc. for free. 9/12 build, 2013 X3 with 65k miles. Outstanding service at New Country BMW in CT, included a loaner.

[Jdubs2020]

Bumping. Who received the extended warranty letter 7/70 on the timing chain issue? Also, how widespread of a problem is this. Obviously mine is in the build range and I’m more than a little concerned. Checking the Internet on this issue is kinda like checking web md for a cough. You’re sure it’s cancer.

[Fla328i]

just got my letter. im just shy of 50k on my 14' 328i. i would like to get the dealer to do a full replacement of all the parts if i can.

[MSportF30]

just purchased a pre-owned 2014 328i w/ 38k on it, brought it to my local BMW dealer and had them perform a full inspection of the car. They didn't mention anything about it or replacing it in the future. Is there anything official from BMW that someone can post? What letter did you get in the mail Fla328i? I'm going to be purchasing an extended warranty on it but like to also be proactive about things when I can...

Thanks!

[floydr]

https://bmwtechnician.com/2017/08/02/timing-chain-bmw-bulletin/
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11238633&postcount=30

[MSportF30]

Thanks floydr!

[jclausen]

The bulletin 11-03-17 explains it there is an extended warranty of 7 years or 70k on the problem. This applies to a lot different makes of BMW's because it apples to the n20 and n26 engines.

[NickApex1023]

Just purchased a 2014 320i, 25k miles with an extended CPO warranty. Seems like my car is right in the middle of affected models. It has been giving some "whine" noises I only hear during highway driving. I think I am going to take it to the dealer and see what can be done. I thought it was the diff just making some noise, but this seems more likely. Thanks for the info! Cheers!

[letank]

interesting talk here, where between the OCI and the viscosity responsible for the failing of the timing chain... basically, is it an oil that is too thin which degrade the timing chain whose slack cannot be compensated by the chain tensionner which gets obliterated...

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=975382

One of the kids bought one and upon listening to the engine, I told her, this engine is noisy, have it check at the dealership... tech says it is fine...

[gtownrsx]

Hi - new here. I am/was so close on pulling the trigger on a used 2013 328i xdrive (68k miles) until I came across these horror stories. Now I am a bit reluctant and not sure what to do. I recently test drove it and it sounded fine, no whining noise from what I could hear. Would it be foolish to move forward with the sale? The car is so nice and drives great but now I am very nervous, thanks ahead for any input. Can I ask the seller to take it to BMW for an inspection?

[5mall5nail5]

interesting talk here, where between the OCI and the viscosity responsible for the failing of the timing chain... basically, is it an oil that is too thin which degrade the timing chain whose slack cannot be compensated by the chain tensionner which gets obliterated...

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=975382

One of the kids bought one and upon listening to the engine, I told her, this engine is noisy, have it check at the dealership... tech says it is fine...

It's tough because the engine, especially cold, does have injector click/tap and does, completely normally, sound like a diesel until it is warm

[M I C H A E L]

I'm bumping this as I just acquired a '13 320i with 48k miles and am doing due diligence. I'm an inveterate DIYer, but this is the newest BMW I've owned by ~10 years. My car is out of warranty, but there is none of the telltale sound and the chain has absolutely no shine/scratch marks on it. Anyone done a preventive swap to the new guide part number?

Or considering all of the potential failure points, should I buck up and buy a power train warranty for 100k miles? This car is to be my commuter, with few mods planned; I just need it to run, and run cheaply.

It seems the failure rate in general is still a very very low % (particularly with 320s for some reason), and perhaps is largely due to long oil change intervals. Not a coincidence that BMW both changed the part number and lowered the oil change interval a few years into N20 production...



You should be good, they reportedly changed parts 1/2015. But just open your oil cap and look, if the chain guide is white it's the new, improved part; orange is the old one (doubtful based on your build date).

There is no white guides. They stain over time from the engine oil.


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[Critter7r]

It's tough because the engine, especially cold, does have injector click/tap and does, completely normally, sound like a diesel until it is warm


But the timing chain noise makes it sound like it has a supercharger, not a diesel engine.

[bmcnamara417]

Just got the bad news on my 2013 328I Xdrive. Its at 82000 miles. BMW offered 2500 toward a 10000 fix. I laughed! That was from the dealer though. I have not even begun my fight with BMW NA. There is a huge lawsuit that is in litigation. I spoke with the law firm involved....the seem to think it will settle in the next 30 days or so. Most likey will extend the warranty to 100000 miles. I told the dealer he can just hold on to that car on his lot until the lawsuit is settled. Im not dropping 10 grand on a car I still owe on with the hope that I am eventually gonna get the money back. This engine should have been recalled a long time ago. If anyone has any suggestions..I would love to hear them!!!!

[Stephen8991]

Just got the bad news on my 2013 328I Xdrive. Its at 82000 miles. BMW offered 2500 toward a 10000 fix. I laughed! That was from the dealer though. I have not even begun my fight with BMW NA. There is a huge lawsuit that is in litigation. I spoke with the law firm involved....the seem to think it will settle in the next 30 days or so. Most likey will extend the warranty to 100000 miles. I told the dealer he can just hold on to that car on his lot until the lawsuit is settled. Im not dropping 10 grand on a car I still owe on with the hope that I am eventually gonna get the money back. This engine should have been recalled a long time ago. If anyone has any suggestions..I would love to hear them!!!!

Sorry to hear about that, and is definitely concerning since I have the exact year/model (I'm at 67000km). Would you be able to reference the lawsuit and company to which you are referring? I'd be very interested in knowing the details.
That's a tough situation, and based on my experience, you'll have a tough time with BMW, although I have heard of situations where BMW covered 75% of the costs. You could always hire your own attorney if you aren't able to achieve anything on your own.
To my understanding, a key point in alot of these lawsuits is the following:
1. BMW advertises the timing chain as a lifetime component when the vehicle was sold. Since I purchased it knowing this information, they are responsible for upholding it, otherwise it's fraud and unethical business.

If I were in your situation, I would do exactly the same. Wait until the results of the lawsuit is determined.

[Stephen8991]

Just got the bad news on my 2013 328I Xdrive. Its at 82000 miles. BMW offered 2500 toward a 10000 fix. I laughed! That was from the dealer though. I have not even begun my fight with BMW NA. There is a huge lawsuit that is in litigation. I spoke with the law firm involved....the seem to think it will settle in the next 30 days or so. Most likey will extend the warranty to 100000 miles. I told the dealer he can just hold on to that car on his lot until the lawsuit is settled. Im not dropping 10 grand on a car I still owe on with the hope that I am eventually gonna get the money back. This engine should have been recalled a long time ago. If anyone has any suggestions..I would love to hear them!!!!

Or actually, if you are confident enough about the lawsuit, you could fix it now, and have your bill reimbursed once the warranty comes into effect. Just make sure that the diagnostics clearly indicates that the issue is related to the timing chain and falls under the qualifications of the warranty. They can sometimes come up with BS to weasel themselves out of situations. Also, if the warranty never gets extended, then you will be left with the bill.

[musclecar70sfan]

I brought my 2013 328i in for this very service about 2 months ago. The thing had only about 47k miles or so and at higher RPM it sounded like it had a supercharger thanks to the bad timing chain guides. Local BMW dealer took it in, gave me a loaner for a week, and fixed it completely free of charge.

Car runs well now (not that it ever ran badly aside from the timing noise) HOWEVER last night it briefly triggered a low oil pressure warning which went away after pulling over and shutting the engine down for only about a minute. No ticks, no knocks, no odd behavior at all. Has anyone else experienced that? Not sure if the two issues are related.

[Stephen8991]

I brought my 2013 328i in for this very service about 2 months ago. The thing had only about 47k miles or so and at higher RPM it sounded like it had a supercharger thanks to the bad timing chain guides. Local BMW dealer took it in, gave me a loaner for a week, and fixed it completely free of charge.

Car runs well now (not that it ever ran badly aside from the timing noise) HOWEVER last night it briefly triggered a low oil pressure warning which went away after pulling over and shutting the engine down for only about a minute. No ticks, no knocks, no odd behavior at all. Has anyone else experienced that? Not sure if the two issues are related.

While I’m no expert, I believe a couple of things would cause it (according to my limited knowledge), which is failed oil pump chain, or by extension failed timing chain, but this is not the case since it is still works. Or maybe there was a blockage caused from something that got sucked in but didn’t pass through. Once you shut it down, it became dislodged and allowed oil to flow once you turned it back on. Were the revs on the car fine?
Also, maybe check your oil level and make sure it’s fine, but I think it would be throwing notifications at you if that was the case.
Maybe some of the more knowledgeable members can share their thoughts.

[Critter7r]

I brought my 2013 328i in for this very service about 2 months ago. The thing had only about 47k miles or so and at higher RPM it sounded like it had a supercharger thanks to the bad timing chain guides. Local BMW dealer took it in, gave me a loaner for a week, and fixed it completely free of charge.

Car runs well now (not that it ever ran badly aside from the timing noise) HOWEVER last night it briefly triggered a low oil pressure warning which went away after pulling over and shutting the engine down for only about a minute. No ticks, no knocks, no odd behavior at all. Has anyone else experienced that? Not sure if the two issues are related.


Take it back and let them figure it out.

[Stephen8991]

I believe this thread ( https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1614899 ) provides details on the aforementioned Lawsuit in regards to the N20 Timing Chain. Sounds like the deal will hopefully be a warranty extension for 10years/150000miles. However, an agreement is yet to be made.

[Richard Blais]

Hi all 2012 to 2015 (Jan build) F30 owners with the 4 cyl N20. My mechanic said it's not if, but when the timing chain guide will fail. I got our 2013 F25 (N20) from my sister in law with 110,000 klms on it (about 70k miles) and it had the whining sound. I opted to have the new chain/guide/oil pump kit installed and sure enough the mechanic said we were lucky because the guide was cracked and being held together by the squeeze of a bolt. The job took about 18 hours ($4,000 including spark plugs etc). They have been doing so many they found a trick method of not having to pull the motor out completely. The new white plastic turned brown soon enough, so one cannot tell if the guides are new later on. The new chain has 9,000 klms on it and everything is solid. Just one thing went bad after 5,000 klms, and the mechanic is still looking into why the oil level sensor stopped working. Maybe due to plastic parts floating around? Coincidence?


Don't wait for it to break, because then you will most likely need a replacement motor. If you get a used engine, replace the timing chain before it goes back in. PS> Canada was not offered the extended warranty; only the USA.

[mandd]

Hi all 2012 to 2015 (Jan build) F30 owners with the 4 cyl N20. My mechanic said it's not if, but when the timing chain guide will fail. I got our 2013 F25 (N20) from my sister in law with 110,000 klms on it (about 70k miles) and it had the whining sound. I opted to have the new chain/guide/oil pump kit installed and sure enough the mechanic said we were lucky because the guide was cracked and being held together by the squeeze of a bolt. The job took about 18 hours ($4,000 including spark plugs etc). They have been doing so many they found a trick method of not having to pull the motor out completely. The new white plastic turned brown soon enough, so one cannot tell if the guides are new later on. The new chain has 9,000 klms on it and everything is solid. Just one thing went bad after 5,000 klms, and the mechanic is still looking into why the oil level sensor stopped working. Maybe due to plastic parts floating around? Coincidence?





Don't wait for it to break, because then you will most likely need a replacement motor. If you get a used engine, replace the timing chain before it goes back in. PS> Canada was not offered the extended warranty; only the USA.



Not to sure what they are on about with the "not needing to pull the motor'' I do alot of these and never pulled a motor they are always done in the engine bay (F25/F10/F30). Wow from what you paid I guess i am not charging enough.
For the oil level sensor not working you may have an issue with the oil control valve or the level sensor.

When you attempt to read the level does the measurement cycle stop at 17-25%?

Mark.

[White94RX]

I was going to say the same thing. No one ever pulls the motor to do the chains.

Maybe the it needs a new oil level sensor?

[sully997]

I have a 2015 (build date 2014) 320i xdrive with 32k miles and got a letter extending the warranty for the timing chain for 7 years but time is running out.
Does anyone know what percentage of these N20 engines have been affected? Should I keep the car or sell it? It still runs great, no complaints
so far. Dealer has always put 0-30w oil in the engine. Opinions welcome!
Thanks

[Critter7r]

I have a 2015 (build date 2014) 320i xdrive with 32k miles and got a letter extending the warranty for the timing chain for 7 years but time is running out.
Does anyone know what percentage of these N20 engines have been affected? Should I keep the car or sell it? It still runs great, no complaints
so far. Dealer has always put 0-30w oil in the engine. Opinions welcome!
Thanks


oil change frequency seems to be the deciding factor in whether or not the timing chain/ oil pump chain failure occurs. The lower the mileage between the first couple of oil changes, the better.

I work at a medium-volume dealer (we sell about 1,000 new cars a year, and service 75-100 cars per day) and have seen a couple dozen N20 failures. Every one of the failures I've seen had gone more than 10,000 miles before its first oil change.

If your car's oil changes have been at less-than-10k intervals and you don't have any chain noise, I would switch to 5w/30 oil pronto and keep the car.

Semi-related opinion: 0w/30 oil is junk.

[sully997]

oil change frequency seems to be the deciding factor in whether or not the timing chain/ oil pump chain failure occurs. The lower the mileage between the first couple of oil changes, the better.

I work at a medium-volume dealer (we sell about 1,000 new cars a year, and service 75-100 cars per day) and have seen a couple dozen N20 failures. Every one of the failures I've seen had gone more than 10,000 miles before its first oil change.

If your car's oil changes have been at less-than-10k intervals and you don't have any chain noise, I would switch to 5w/30 oil pronto and keep the car.

Semi-related opinion: 0w/30 oil is junk.

I called service at the BMW dealership which is a high sales/service volume operation and asked if I should switch to 5-30 and they transferred me
to the parts guy who said 0-30, 5-30 - doesn't matter not going to make any difference. Go with either one he said. They have used 0-30 for every
oil change I had under the free OC warranty period.
So now I have a genuine BMW 0-30 oil kit coming from FCP today. Strange they don't offer a BMW genuine 5-30 kit.

[Vikings81]

Have a 2013 328i that has a misfire . DME not sending signal to fire cylinder 3. Replaced DME and now have everything back but still seems out of timing. No codes now . Based on the N20 4 cylinder issues, considering replacing timing chains. Has just over 111k so BMW probably won’t cover anything after settling the class action based in miles. Local garage said I should sell it but then said he would possibly buy it in a month to fix it and use for loaner car. Already have $2500 into it with plugs, coils, fuel injector. Looking for some help in here

[WELL Driven BM]

I recently did this timing chain procedure myself with all TDC lock tools and now I have had second thoughts on the whole thing and I'm wondering where I could have messed up. I followed step for step on the FCP Euro video and Im thinking it something in the exhaust or intake cam was off rotated a whole 180 degrees and I lined it up at TDC and put it all together wrong I believe because the car doesn't crank over at all now. so Im getting a tow to BMW of Chico for diagnostics soon, just wondering if there is anyone that has any pointers in the mean time, they would be much appreciated! thank you

[RBNetEngr]

Question about the Class Action suit (deadline to submit is tomorrow, June 30, 2021)…

The document says that this can also cover future repairs (done after June 30, 2021), provided that a claim is submitted by June 30, 2021. But filling out the claim form seems to imply that you had to have already experienced the timing chain failure, and have paid for a repair. I would like to get mine replaced proactively, before it fails and potentially takes the engine with it.

Is there a specific way to complete the claim form for this case?


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[Critter7r]

If you're not experiencing the problem described in the Class Action, then replacing it proactively isn't a covered repair. The Class Action covers vehicles that are having a problem, it doesn't cover the repair "just in case".

[RBNetEngr]

Thanks for the reply. The letter seemed to indicate that they also allowed people to join the suit to cover a future repair.


-rb

[Critter7r]

It's probably worded in a way that lets people know that if they have the repair done between now and when the Class Action is approved, they can still get reimbursed for it.