Planning to buy an E90 330i LCI (2009) Auto... Bad idea?
Discussion
So far my understanding is:
1. N53 engines found on the LCI 330i are not as reliable as the N52 predecessor. HPFP, Injector, Coil, and valve coking issues.
2. People seem to advise the manual, but I heard the ZF gearbox got reprogrammed for the LCI and is much more responsive?
3. Avoid the SE as the M Sport suspension is much more suited for UK roads
Apart from that it seems to be a great NA car. I currently have an old Honda diesel and am tired of the boringness, also need a ULEZ car.
I'm going to have a look at it tomorrow, can any BMW experts advice what else to look out for?
1. N53 engines found on the LCI 330i are not as reliable as the N52 predecessor. HPFP, Injector, Coil, and valve coking issues.
2. People seem to advise the manual, but I heard the ZF gearbox got reprogrammed for the LCI and is much more responsive?
3. Avoid the SE as the M Sport suspension is much more suited for UK roads
Apart from that it seems to be a great NA car. I currently have an old Honda diesel and am tired of the boringness, also need a ULEZ car.
I'm going to have a look at it tomorrow, can any BMW experts advice what else to look out for?
I ran an e92 325i LCI (2011) for 3 years.
Mine was manual and although the gearbox was okay it did always feel a bit stiff and springy. When I first tried to select reverse I thought I must be doing something wrong as it needed quite a firm push! Ultimately I think the auto is more suitable for these as they are cruisers rather than sports cars.
The N53. Well, mine suffered failed injectors at 50k miles, just under a year after I bought it. I did a lot of research on this and concluded that the only solution was to replace all 6 injectors as they will just go one by one in quick succession otherwise. Failed injectors often lead to problems with the NOX sensor too. All in all it was a fairly big bill, over 2k, to sort it but after that the car ran fine for the rest of my ownership. I read a lot of stories of people who were back and forth to the garage replacing one injector at a time and their cars were never right. Most of these will have had new injectors by now so that’s something to check for. Apparently the latest index 11 injectors are reliable.
It’s a BMW so parts are quite expensive. Expect it to cost more than your diesel Honda to run. I moved from a 1.8 Civic and although it was more expensive it was a much better car overall.
Mine was SE. I would have had an M sport if there had been one available. But in hindsight the SE was very good on UK roads. It was the best riding car I’ve had and vastly better than the Honda. Many owners complained about the run flats but in SE spec they were fine and actually gave the car a suitably sporting feel. M sport and run flats are way too hard so people swap them out for regular rubber. I can’t comment much on that but I found the SE to be a very good daily and a lot cheaper than the M sports.
Hope that helps.
Mine was manual and although the gearbox was okay it did always feel a bit stiff and springy. When I first tried to select reverse I thought I must be doing something wrong as it needed quite a firm push! Ultimately I think the auto is more suitable for these as they are cruisers rather than sports cars.
The N53. Well, mine suffered failed injectors at 50k miles, just under a year after I bought it. I did a lot of research on this and concluded that the only solution was to replace all 6 injectors as they will just go one by one in quick succession otherwise. Failed injectors often lead to problems with the NOX sensor too. All in all it was a fairly big bill, over 2k, to sort it but after that the car ran fine for the rest of my ownership. I read a lot of stories of people who were back and forth to the garage replacing one injector at a time and their cars were never right. Most of these will have had new injectors by now so that’s something to check for. Apparently the latest index 11 injectors are reliable.
It’s a BMW so parts are quite expensive. Expect it to cost more than your diesel Honda to run. I moved from a 1.8 Civic and although it was more expensive it was a much better car overall.
Mine was SE. I would have had an M sport if there had been one available. But in hindsight the SE was very good on UK roads. It was the best riding car I’ve had and vastly better than the Honda. Many owners complained about the run flats but in SE spec they were fine and actually gave the car a suitably sporting feel. M sport and run flats are way too hard so people swap them out for regular rubber. I can’t comment much on that but I found the SE to be a very good daily and a lot cheaper than the M sports.
Hope that helps.
Wow that was quite comprehensive as an answer. Thanks mate. I've been researching, reading, and learning about these cars online and they just seem to be the perfect all rounder for fun and long distance travel.
I will definitely enquire about the injectors if they have been changed recently but a part of me thinks the current owner will not have a clue. Looked at the part prices the index 11 injectors I've found so far on the internet ar £200 a pop WHAT?!
I'll try and haggle the price to take into account the assumption that I will need to replace them at one point.
Especially coming from a Honda, and for a car with 170k miles it has been fairly bomb proof (alternator and new belt changed by me cost £250, all ABS sensors at £20 a corner, and leaky power steering pump hoses at £20)... I don't think I'll ever get that kind of reliability ever again!
I will definitely enquire about the injectors if they have been changed recently but a part of me thinks the current owner will not have a clue. Looked at the part prices the index 11 injectors I've found so far on the internet ar £200 a pop WHAT?!
I'll try and haggle the price to take into account the assumption that I will need to replace them at one point.
Especially coming from a Honda, and for a car with 170k miles it has been fairly bomb proof (alternator and new belt changed by me cost £250, all ABS sensors at £20 a corner, and leaky power steering pump hoses at £20)... I don't think I'll ever get that kind of reliability ever again!
It’s luck of the draw unfortunately.
The injector issue is a problem. My local Indy who was very good said that they fit new injectors to the N53 on a weekly basis it’s so common. Sadly I think it’s the reason many owners move them on leaving the next poor mug to deal with the problem. Symptoms are rough idle on a cold start but once warmed up you won’t notice so if you go and look at one make sure it hasn’t been run up to temp before you get there. As I said there were countless stories on various forums from people who had replaced injectors only to find the fault returns so their cars were in and out of garages for months on end. The only way to sort it is to replace all 6 and just suck it up. NOX problems are often linked as the rough running damages the sensor.
The hpfp is a little less common apparently. Mine was okay.
Other than the injectors I had no real problems and it was a very good car for the 30k miles I had it. They are quite cheap to buy compared to many cars, perhaps because of the N53’s reputation. Get it for the right price and budget for injectors should the worse happen and I think they still make a sensible choice. The advantage over the older N52 is that they are more efficient. Not only cheaper to tax but I averaged around 35mpg which for a 3.0 straight 6 petrol in a heavy car is quite impressive.
The injector issue is a problem. My local Indy who was very good said that they fit new injectors to the N53 on a weekly basis it’s so common. Sadly I think it’s the reason many owners move them on leaving the next poor mug to deal with the problem. Symptoms are rough idle on a cold start but once warmed up you won’t notice so if you go and look at one make sure it hasn’t been run up to temp before you get there. As I said there were countless stories on various forums from people who had replaced injectors only to find the fault returns so their cars were in and out of garages for months on end. The only way to sort it is to replace all 6 and just suck it up. NOX problems are often linked as the rough running damages the sensor.
The hpfp is a little less common apparently. Mine was okay.
Other than the injectors I had no real problems and it was a very good car for the 30k miles I had it. They are quite cheap to buy compared to many cars, perhaps because of the N53’s reputation. Get it for the right price and budget for injectors should the worse happen and I think they still make a sensible choice. The advantage over the older N52 is that they are more efficient. Not only cheaper to tax but I averaged around 35mpg which for a 3.0 straight 6 petrol in a heavy car is quite impressive.
I've made a point of avoiding the N53 engine due to the injector and HPFP issues. For me any saving on road tax can easily disappear if an N53 needs injectors or an HPFP! And I think they have EPAS rather than HPAS.
I'm on my second 3 Series with the N52 engine and have also had two Z4s with the N52 which is a great engine. All manuals because I just don't like Autos, but it's your choice.
But whatever you buy I hope it goes well.
I'm on my second 3 Series with the N52 engine and have also had two Z4s with the N52 which is a great engine. All manuals because I just don't like Autos, but it's your choice.
But whatever you buy I hope it goes well.
Thanks all, saw the car today and it had that rough idling from cold symptoms which is the same as what I've seen so far from people's youtube videos. Apart from the injector problem, it seems like it also kills everything else including the coil and the NOx sensor. I've seen people installing a NOx emulator to solve the NOx sensor issues which in itself is not cheap (£400 for the kit). On top of that each of the Injector seems to cost £200, and even with the Index 11 replacements, people are still reporting that these eventually fail again and at this point in time it almost feels like a consumable. Although I did see a video somewhere of a dude saying that it's because people put cheap fuel and should be putting something like Shell VMAX to ensure you get the best detergents in the fuel to keep the whole fuel system clean. Problem is where I live, it means having to drive half an hour away from my house everytime I want to refuel which I think is silly.
It was such a nice example which is such a shame.... but having weighed up the inconvenience that it will cause (yes, I'm more worried about that than the actual costs), I just can't be bothered given that I am looking to keep the next car I buy for 5 years doing at least 10k miles a year which invoves driving into Europe twice a year.
Looks like I will have to stick with my Honda for now and replan my next course of action.
It was such a nice example which is such a shame.... but having weighed up the inconvenience that it will cause (yes, I'm more worried about that than the actual costs), I just can't be bothered given that I am looking to keep the next car I buy for 5 years doing at least 10k miles a year which invoves driving into Europe twice a year.
Looks like I will have to stick with my Honda for now and replan my next course of action.
Mr Tidy said:
Shame it didn't work out, but maybe you avoided a money-pit!
Yep it didn't help when I raised the common failure problems with the current owner and he just brushed it off and said its never missed a beat etc etc. That just tells me that a. he got lucky so far and has no clue about cars or b. he was being disingenuous. Oh well. It did sound pretty good. I need to get this straight six NA bug out of my system at one point! (Mr. Tidy, I am definitely thinking of hunting for a prestine N52 this time round
)Edited by leepox on Sunday 27th June 11:10
leepox said:
Yep it didn't help when I raised the common failure problems with the current owner and he just brushed it off and said its never missed a beat etc etc. That just tells me that a. he got lucky so far and has no clue about cars or b. he was being disingenuous.
Oh well. It did sound pretty good. I need to get this straight six NA bug out of my system at one point! (Mr. Tidy, I am definitely thinking of hunting for a prestine N52 this time round )
Like I said earlier it's a shame it didn't work out, but sometimes it's for the best. Oh well. It did sound pretty good. I need to get this straight six NA bug out of my system at one point! (Mr. Tidy, I am definitely thinking of hunting for a prestine N52 this time round
)Edited by leepox on Sunday 27th June 11:10
I began my N/A straight 6 addiction in 2014 with a Z4 Coupe quickly followed by an E46 325ti Compact as a daily, but am now on numbers 5 and 6 with a Z4M Coupe and a 330i (N52 of course).
Hopefully you'll find a good one soon.
And the bonus with the early E90s with the N52 engine is Hydraulic PAS rather than EPAS.
I bought a (pre warmed up) n53 as a result of late night eBay bidding.
Yep, sure enough it has rough idle on start, and pretty shocking mpg regardless of journey.
One injector was clearly gone (plug wet with petrol) but am bracing myself to do the other 5, though the lumpiness got a lot better.
I did get it cheap though (£1.5k-£2k) below similar alternative, so not feeling too bad.
If I'd paid market rate I would have returned it due to incorrectly described (runs perfectly etc)
Yep, sure enough it has rough idle on start, and pretty shocking mpg regardless of journey.
One injector was clearly gone (plug wet with petrol) but am bracing myself to do the other 5, though the lumpiness got a lot better.
I did get it cheap though (£1.5k-£2k) below similar alternative, so not feeling too bad.
If I'd paid market rate I would have returned it due to incorrectly described (runs perfectly etc)
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