F10 520d Timing Chain Failure
Discussion
Afternoon all,
My dad, bless him has received the unfortunate news that the timing chain on his 2013 F10 520d has failed. I was wondering if anyone here can assist me with the following.
Please correct me if I am wrong but as i understand from what I've read before. The N47 engine is known for having an issue with the timing chain tensioner. BMW did do a recall on all pre-2011 cars and corrected the problem for cars built mid 2011 and onwards. With his car being a 2013 I'm pretty sure he hasn't had a recall in the time he's owned it since 2016.
Do you guys think that there may be any chance at all that BMW would extend an olive branch at all and go someway towards the costs of repair? He's been told he'll be looking at roughly £3,000 for the repairs. The car has a FBMWSH. Has anyone here had any luck with getting anything from BMW or other brands and other issues for that matter with regards to known failures that the manufacturer acknowledges themselves?
It absolutely stinks that you save up so long for a nice, premium car like his and then these sort of things happen.
Any help or information would be hugely appreciated.
My dad, bless him has received the unfortunate news that the timing chain on his 2013 F10 520d has failed. I was wondering if anyone here can assist me with the following.
Please correct me if I am wrong but as i understand from what I've read before. The N47 engine is known for having an issue with the timing chain tensioner. BMW did do a recall on all pre-2011 cars and corrected the problem for cars built mid 2011 and onwards. With his car being a 2013 I'm pretty sure he hasn't had a recall in the time he's owned it since 2016.
Do you guys think that there may be any chance at all that BMW would extend an olive branch at all and go someway towards the costs of repair? He's been told he'll be looking at roughly £3,000 for the repairs. The car has a FBMWSH. Has anyone here had any luck with getting anything from BMW or other brands and other issues for that matter with regards to known failures that the manufacturer acknowledges themselves?
It absolutely stinks that you save up so long for a nice, premium car like his and then these sort of things happen.
Any help or information would be hugely appreciated.
If he is lucky it wouldn't have done to much damage - its if it breaks the camshaft carrier it starts getting expensive. On the 5 series it can be done with the engine in situ, 3 chains, tensioners, guides etc should see it around £1250 as a repair outside of BMW. They very rarely just fail, normally the chain will rattle on cold start up for a while, oil level also plays a part. Finally oil service should be no longer than 12 months or 10,000 miles.
Thanks for the responses. I believe it has roughly 80,000-85,000 miles on the clock.
He drove it home fine and then went to drive it and it wouldn't start. No noise or anything. We first thought it may be the fuel pump.
It's a good point about the BMW price massively out weighing a specialist.
He drove it home fine and then went to drive it and it wouldn't start. No noise or anything. We first thought it may be the fuel pump.
It's a good point about the BMW price massively out weighing a specialist.
A friend of mine received similar news about his 320d the other week that was rattling badly. He was quoted £1800 to repair.
As it turned out when the BMW specialist started to strip the car it was the water pump after all and not the timing chain, so he was very happy with the vastly reduced bill for his repair.
As it turned out when the BMW specialist started to strip the car it was the water pump after all and not the timing chain, so he was very happy with the vastly reduced bill for his repair.
Why are people paying £3000 to have this repaired at BMW?
If you are out of warranty get someone local to do it.
On a 5 series this is around £850-£1200 depending on where you are based.
You can also buy and upgraded kit as well with stronger tensioner etc.
If you are running these cars out of warranty find a decent BMW specialist or even a decent indi garage to use, use them for servicing, diagnostic and then when the big repairs come in they will look after you.
Search eBay, hundreds around the country advertise this job for 1/3 of the price of BMW and they will collect the car from wherever it is too if need be.
Edit: Oh, and change your oil every 10k at most. These fail as 18k miles between oil changes are simply not good enough, the tensioner doesn't get good enough lubrication and then fails.
If you are out of warranty get someone local to do it.
On a 5 series this is around £850-£1200 depending on where you are based.
You can also buy and upgraded kit as well with stronger tensioner etc.
If you are running these cars out of warranty find a decent BMW specialist or even a decent indi garage to use, use them for servicing, diagnostic and then when the big repairs come in they will look after you.
Search eBay, hundreds around the country advertise this job for 1/3 of the price of BMW and they will collect the car from wherever it is too if need be.
Edit: Oh, and change your oil every 10k at most. These fail as 18k miles between oil changes are simply not good enough, the tensioner doesn't get good enough lubrication and then fails.
Edited by gizlaroc on Thursday 25th June 14:13
MrPetrol said:
He drove it home fine and then went to drive it and it wouldn't start. No noise or anything.
It may not be a complete disaster then. The head has to come off as the clouted valves will have a slightly S shaped stem after impact. There are enough used cams and carriers about now (I've sold two sets with rockers for under £200 per set this month) and taking the head off with the engine out is no big deal. I'd also look closely at the turbo as these can have a fair bit of end float by this mileage. I would say £1800 is about right at a good specialist for engine out-repair-refit. Where are you based? I'm too old a bunny to be hauling engines out but I know a select few BMW mechanics who are really good.
85'000 miles is disgraceful.
My £3200 bill was from an independent engine reconditioning company. Cars only worth 5k too,
It was covered by a MotorEasy warranty. They completely refused to pay out, didn’t even bother inspecting the car after telling me to get it stripped. By that time I was £650 in on labour I had no option but to dig deep.
Car was extensively maintained oil changed every year its whole life. It’s a 2008 122k
It was covered by a MotorEasy warranty. They completely refused to pay out, didn’t even bother inspecting the car after telling me to get it stripped. By that time I was £650 in on labour I had no option but to dig deep.
Car was extensively maintained oil changed every year its whole life. It’s a 2008 122k
So by the time you've removed the gearbox, flywheel, rear engine cover, cylinder head, sump, dropped the front crossmember.......you're lying on your back or on a ramp reaching up to work on 50% of an engine.
Valves bend but it's only when you put them in a drill that you see that they're not quite right. Of course you can risk it but when the valve head drops off and smashes the piston and head not long after you've performed major engine surgery.....
No. Pull the engine out and do a proper job. It's actually easier.
Valves bend but it's only when you put them in a drill that you see that they're not quite right. Of course you can risk it but when the valve head drops off and smashes the piston and head not long after you've performed major engine surgery.....
No. Pull the engine out and do a proper job. It's actually easier.
L88AGC said:
My £3200 bill was from an independent engine reconditioning company. Cars only worth 5k too,
It was covered by a MotorEasy warranty. They completely refused to pay out, didn’t even bother inspecting the car after telling me to get it stripped. By that time I was £650 in on labour I had no option but to dig deep.
Car was extensively maintained oil changed every year its whole life. It’s a 2008 122k
That is terrible. It was covered by a MotorEasy warranty. They completely refused to pay out, didn’t even bother inspecting the car after telling me to get it stripped. By that time I was £650 in on labour I had no option but to dig deep.
Car was extensively maintained oil changed every year its whole life. It’s a 2008 122k
What was their reasoning for not paying out?
Surely this is exactly why you take out a warranty. It is not expected wear and tear, it is a weak point and the reason you take out a warranty.
L88AGC said:
My £3200 bill was from an independent engine reconditioning company. Cars only worth 5k too,
It was covered by a MotorEasy warranty. They completely refused to pay out, didn’t even bother inspecting the car after telling me to get it stripped. By that time I was £650 in on labour I had no option but to dig deep.
Car was extensively maintained oil changed every year its whole life. It’s a 2008 122k
I assume this is an N57, I understand they have thinner chains compared to the M57? This is what puts me off buying a £5K BMW, at that price point it is right in no mans land if something like this happens. Too expensive to just scrap, and not worth enough to want to spend £3200 on repairs.It was covered by a MotorEasy warranty. They completely refused to pay out, didn’t even bother inspecting the car after telling me to get it stripped. By that time I was £650 in on labour I had no option but to dig deep.
Car was extensively maintained oil changed every year its whole life. It’s a 2008 122k
I am assuming there are currently thousands of 120d and 320d cars being broken due to uneconomical to repair engine issues.
gizlaroc said:
That is terrible.
What was their reasoning for not paying out?
Surely this is exactly why you take out a warranty. It is not expected wear and tear, it is a weak point and the reason you take out a warranty.
They said it would have been audible, I can 100% say it certainly wasn’t. The car was at a specialist only 6 months prior for quite a substantial list of repairs. It was sent the ironically to make it future proof as I intended on keeping it. What was their reasoning for not paying out?
Surely this is exactly why you take out a warranty. It is not expected wear and tear, it is a weak point and the reason you take out a warranty.
They rejected the claim immediately without any inspection or documentation, then after I complained they offered to send an independent inspector, who never bothered to appear. They then asked for images of the stripped engine and decided that as there was slight discolouration on the cam lobes it was ran without oil, which is again not true.
I’ve had to embark on the court rout to try and clawback something.
Sounds like a right cowboy warranty company.
On another note £3200 is a lot of money to rebuild one of them. Like others have said - pulling the engine out is easy - especially on a 5 series - you can have them out and on a bench in an hour, once it’s out - it’s pretty straightforward to work on- someone on here a little while back done it all themselves without being a mechanic at his home with a little bit of advice from the people on this forum.
On another note £3200 is a lot of money to rebuild one of them. Like others have said - pulling the engine out is easy - especially on a 5 series - you can have them out and on a bench in an hour, once it’s out - it’s pretty straightforward to work on- someone on here a little while back done it all themselves without being a mechanic at his home with a little bit of advice from the people on this forum.
Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff