E91 Straight Six Bearding

[danb79]

danb79 said:

Not sure if of interest to anyone in here (sorry Mods if this isn't allowed); but I have an N52 gasket kit that I never used on my 130i as the new rocker cover I bought came with them all!

- OEM Elring rocker gasket set/spark plug gaskets - PN: 11127582245
- OEM Continental Valvetronic motor gasket - PN: 11127552280
- Genuine BMW Eccentric shaft sensor gasket - PN: 1112755969



Ignore the wiper blades!

The Elring gaskets on their own are c£35 - happy to sell this lot at £40 inc postage; drop me an email if they're of interest to you as they're simply gathering dust in the garage!

Does anyone want these? They're getting binned otherwise as I'm clearing the garage out this weekend in readiness for a shift-around

[preacherman]

Seek said:

Just wondering if any of the resident beards can assist with knowledge regarding the approximate production date for switch from hydraulic to electric steering rack.
Was it with the switch to N53 engine or facelift bodywork?
Reason I'm asking is that I've been offered an N53 pre-facelift...

Supposedly the car also has reasonably recent injectors.
How can I identify that it has the latest index version?

I'm under the impression that electric assistance came with the N53. My 57 plate N53 has an electric rack. Plug your details into realoem.com to see for sure. (ETA: the power steering reservoir also a giveaway for hydraulic )

Injector index can be found on the grey/black plastic of each injector - long number followed by dash and the index. E.g. 12345678-11 (index 11).

Edited by preacherman on Friday 26th September 12:55

[Seek]

preacherman said:

I'm under the impression that electric assistance came with the N53. My 57 plate N53 has an electric rack. Plug your details into realoem.com to see for sure. (ETA: the power steering reservoir also a giveaway for hydraulic )

Injector index can be found on the grey/black plastic of each injector - long number followed by dash and the index. E.g. 12345678-11 (index 11).

Edited by preacherman on Friday 26th September 12:55

Thank you for the quick response! @p1stonhead as well
Very useful

How does a vehicle order in realoem differ for hydraulic vs electric steering rack?

[meddler]

bmwmike said:

I got out of my n53 after 7 years of ownership as I didn't fancy having to drop a few k on a new set. First set were paid by the warranty. 50k later it starts the odd shiver and stumble and that was my queue to move it on. Sadly i think many n53 engined cars will see the scrapper before their time as the value of the cars drops below the price of a set of injectors. Pity because when its on song its one of BMW's best straight sixes imo.

With the new injectors (official BMW Index 11), new ignition coils, new spark plugs, and an ECU tune, I’m lucky to say that my N53 is running beautifully, with incredible fuel economy to boot. But the cost of the injectors is ridiculous - as is the knowledge you might have to do it all again in 60-80k miles.

I justified the cost on the basis that I do 7k miles a year, so the new injectors should hopefully buy me a decade of use. That is, if nothing else goes wrong…!

[preacherman]

Seek said:

Thank you for the quick response! @p1stonhead as well
Very useful

How does a vehicle order in realoem differ for hydraulic vs electric steering rack?

Just checked off the back of your question and it shows both options for my car so actually not that clear! Reservoir is the safest check.

[JakeT]

I’d guess at March 2007. Thats when the efficient dynamics changes came to the E90 and E87. N47 replaced M47, N53 replaced N52, and electric steering came into play. A friend has an April ‘07 build 130i and it has EPAS. Gauge clusters and climate control panels changed too.

[p1stonhead]

JakeT said:

I d guess at March 2007. Thats when the efficient dynamics changes came to the E90 and E87. N47 replaced M47, N53 replaced N52, and electric steering came into play. A friend has an April 07 build 130i and it has EPAS. Gauge clusters and climate control panels changed too.

No reservoir in mine actually I just checked! It definitely doesn’t feel like any other electric rack I’ve had!

[bmwmike]

meddler said:

With the new injectors (official BMW Index 11), new ignition coils, new spark plugs, and an ECU tune, I m lucky to say that my N53 is running beautifully, with incredible fuel economy to boot. But the cost of the injectors is ridiculous - as is the knowledge you might have to do it all again in 60-80k miles.

I justified the cost on the basis that I do 7k miles a year, so the new injectors should hopefully buy me a decade of use. That is, if nothing else goes wrong !

I hope you’re right. I also did only 6-8k a year and I looked at it slightly differently that the £ per mile increased significantly should I have to replace the injectors, so got rid. Lovely car, had it 7 years or so, but it’s always a heart/wallet balance.

[preacherman]

p1stonhead said:

No reservoir in mine actually I just checked! It definitely doesn t feel like any other electric rack I ve had!

It's certainly got a nice heft to it, albeit missing some feel. After driving hire cars I always think the power steering has packed up, it's that much heavier than modern cars. Or maybe it has and I haven't realised yet

[Mr Tidy]

The HPAS in both my BMWs is heavier than the EPAS ones I've had, but I can live with that for the extra feel.

[911Spanker]

preacherman said:

p1stonhead said:

No reservoir in mine actually I just checked! It definitely doesn t feel like any other electric rack I ve had!

It's certainly got a nice heft to it, albeit missing some feel. After driving hire cars I always think the power steering has packed up, it's that much heavier than modern cars. Or maybe it has and I haven't realised yet

I drove a 130i with EPAS this week back to back with my HPAS 130i.

I got rid of the daft thick M Sport steering wheel too - the difference in feel between the two was stark.

[g3org3y]

danb79 said:

danb79 said:

Not sure if of interest to anyone in here (sorry Mods if this isn't allowed); but I have an N52 gasket kit that I never used on my 130i as the new rocker cover I bought came with them all!

- OEM Elring rocker gasket set/spark plug gaskets - PN: 11127582245
- OEM Continental Valvetronic motor gasket - PN: 11127552280
- Genuine BMW Eccentric shaft sensor gasket - PN: 1112755969



Ignore the wiper blades!

The Elring gaskets on their own are c£35 - happy to sell this lot at £40 inc postage; drop me an email if they're of interest to you as they're simply gathering dust in the garage!

Does anyone want these? They're getting binned otherwise as I'm clearing the garage out this weekend in readiness for a shift-around

Still available?

[daver1184]

g3org3y said:

Still available?

Nope. I bagged them. Soz.

[daver1184]

g3org3y said:

Still available?

Nope. I bagged them. Soz.

[g3org3y]

daver1184 said:

g3org3y said:

Still available?

Nope. I bagged them. Soz.

[E-numbers]

Crikey just seen the cost of cup holders- second hand- on eBay for our cars… yikes. (Example: £289). I might have to deconstruct the busted one and see if it can be repaired.

[g3org3y]

E-numbers said:

Crikey just seen the cost of cup holders- second hand- on eBay for our cars yikes. (Example: £289). I might have to deconstruct the busted one and see if it can be repaired.

£25

Pair for £35

[E-numbers]

g3org3y said:

£25

Pair for £35

Namaste etc. Cheers, G3org3y!

[Ian Geary]

meddler said:

bmwmike said:

I got out of my n53 after 7 years of ownership as I didn't fancy having to drop a few k on a new set. First set were paid by the warranty. 50k later it starts the odd shiver and stumble and that was my queue to move it on. Sadly i think many n53 engined cars will see the scrapper before their time as the value of the cars drops below the price of a set of injectors. Pity because when its on song its one of BMW's best straight sixes imo.

With the new injectors (official BMW Index 11), new ignition coils, new spark plugs, and an ECU tune, I m lucky to say that my N53 is running beautifully, with incredible fuel economy to boot. But the cost of the injectors is ridiculous - as is the knowledge you might have to do it all again in 60-80k miles.

I justified the cost on the basis that I do 7k miles a year, so the new injectors should hopefully buy me a decade of use. That is, if nothing else goes wrong !

Mine is a 5 series manual N53. I bought it in 2021 and was paying £250 for a bmw index 11 injector. Then it went up to £350 for a while (ml performance) and now I see they're £516 at ml performance (bmw probably more).

I waited too long to replace mine, but glad I did it all couple of years back, including coils, plugs and I also had to replace o2 sensors as well.

I have once coaxed the trip computer to show over 40mpg (a motorway journey after the battery had been disconnected a week or so) but more often it hovers between 24-31 mpg depending on usage. Most of my driving is <2 miles to take the dog on a walk.

Ultimately it's a brisk car though and there are larger cars that do worse mpg and have worse maintenance costs.

I am just starting to play with the idea of moving it on though - not so much for engine problems. But it's at that age of endless niggles, oil leaks, components beyond their useful life that just wear me out, and like the car, I am not getting any younger.

[Seek]

Just wondering what experiences were with bringing an N53 engine to high mileage.

N52 engines are pretty troublefree, but how would you rate are N53 engines in comparison?