Reliability/Ownership help on E92 320d

[Ravic838]

Looking to purchase a e92 320d as my second car as it is within my budget and I really like the way it looks. It will be a higher mileage one, possibly around 100-110k miles. I've been told to stay away from N47 engines are they are atrociously unreliable and the timing chain on those engines fail like crazy, not to mention the prices for getting it replaced. Is this true, should I look for ones that already have it replaced? Some people told me these engines can go up to 200-250k without any major problems. I've also read that the turbos on these cars can go at around 80-100k? Is this really a bad engine?

[d_a_n1979]

It's deffo one engine I'd stay away from, no matter the mileage, personally...

Each to their own; but everyone I know that's had the N47 engine has had nothing but issues and never again

They have a bad rep for a reason

Yes; some have hit moon mileage with no issues at all, but it's Russian roulette IMO

[smashy]

Some will say there were millions made and so only a few timing chains went.

They never had it happen to them.

Do a Forest Gump and keep running

[Court_S]

Not the most reliable engines in the world but then again I had an N43 powered 1 series and that didn’t grenade itself.

Is the bigger six cylinder not an option?

[anonymous-user]

Was the E92 available with the M47 engine? I had it in an E90 and it’s the one to go for if you must have a 320d IMO, but not sure when they started selling the coupe.

[g3org3y]

Go naturally aspirated 6 cyl petrol - 325i or 330i imo.

[helix402]

Or M57 diesel, 330/5d. Run far far away from the N47.

[MarkJS]

I put 90k miles on my E92 320d M Sport coupe. The only issue I ever had with it was blocked filters in the washer fluid reservoir.

It performed faultlessly other than that and was a great car.

[DaveZed]

As stated above, naturally aspirated 6 cyl petrol is what BMW always did best. Fuel consumption will be higher, sure, but also not as bad as you would expect. The 3.0 N52 is my pick. I still have two, 15 and 17 yrs old! A Z4 3.0si Coupe and E90 330i. Average consumption is 10.5 litres/100km, about 27 mpg, but you can get better depending on usage profile.

Also as predicted, there is a case for saying there were gazillions of the N47 2.0d engines produced, and it's very likely that the timing chain issues affected mainly (although certainly not only) poorly maintained examples. Incidentally the problem also affects some of the 6 cyl diesel N57's from what I've heard. My daily driver 2009 E83 X3 2.0d with the N47 engine is approaching 290 000 km with no issues, but I do change oil and filter every 10 000 km. I'm the second owner, having owned it for 9 years / 200 000 km. There's always some risk, I guess, but they definitely aren't all the time bombs that some will claim.

[e21Keith]

There's an easy and quite reliable method of checking how reliable they are. Run a search on eBay for the number of 320ds that are being sold as non runners, spares/repairs etc. I think you'll find quite a few.

I've run a total of 5 330ds including an e90 and an e92. One I ran to 215k miles before the turbo expired, a super reliable car.