123D reliability? Timing chain?
Discussion
Evening chaps,
I've arranged to go and look at a 57 plate 123D in the morning, it's a coupe with 51k miles and FBMWSH, but I've just been doing some research and see that there are some pretty catastrophic issues with this engine in some cases - timing chains snapping etc. How common are these issues and is this a model to avoid? I'm currently driving a Seat Exeo Sport which has been 100% reliable but totally dull and uninspiring! The BM I'm looking at is £12k which is high for the year but it's got the iDrive, red leather, bluetooth and decent mileage, hence my interest
Thanks in advance,
Dave
I've arranged to go and look at a 57 plate 123D in the morning, it's a coupe with 51k miles and FBMWSH, but I've just been doing some research and see that there are some pretty catastrophic issues with this engine in some cases - timing chains snapping etc. How common are these issues and is this a model to avoid? I'm currently driving a Seat Exeo Sport which has been 100% reliable but totally dull and uninspiring! The BM I'm looking at is £12k which is high for the year but it's got the iDrive, red leather, bluetooth and decent mileage, hence my interest
Thanks in advance,
Dave
I'm led to believe that if the car has a full BMW service history then BMW will cover the repair cost if it fails. Might be worth checking with a dealer or contacting BMW customer services, it's been a massive issue for them. Do a Google search for "BMW N47 timing chain" .... there's a lot of info!
The 123d is affected, but no more so than any other 4 pot BMW engine from about 2007 onwards, so any facelift 118d or 120d is just as likely to fail.
As for BMW paying for repair, as mentioned above the best you're likely to get is a contribution when out of warranty and that's only likely if it has full BMW history AND it was purchased direct from a BMW dealer, not if bought privately or from a third party trader, so a warranty is the only way to protect you really.
Failure rates so far are hard to judge, I think there's 40-50 people on BabyBMW that have had the issue across all 1 Series out of a total membership of ~13000, but many of those 50 joined the forum specifically to talk about their failure after the event so if we made some huge assumptions it might (or might not!) give some idea of how many have failed so far
Assume perhaps half of those 50 were members originally so as not to distort the failure numbers against tool membership (25)
Assume there's perhaps 8000 active members from those 13000
around 75% of those own a 1 Series (6000)
Around 30% of those are N47 engined (2000)
So failure of ~25 cars from ~2000 would suggest around a 1-2% failure rate, which is not good but far from a likely or certain outcome.
As for BMW paying for repair, as mentioned above the best you're likely to get is a contribution when out of warranty and that's only likely if it has full BMW history AND it was purchased direct from a BMW dealer, not if bought privately or from a third party trader, so a warranty is the only way to protect you really.
Failure rates so far are hard to judge, I think there's 40-50 people on BabyBMW that have had the issue across all 1 Series out of a total membership of ~13000, but many of those 50 joined the forum specifically to talk about their failure after the event so if we made some huge assumptions it might (or might not!) give some idea of how many have failed so far
Assume perhaps half of those 50 were members originally so as not to distort the failure numbers against tool membership (25)
Assume there's perhaps 8000 active members from those 13000
around 75% of those own a 1 Series (6000)
Around 30% of those are N47 engined (2000)
So failure of ~25 cars from ~2000 would suggest around a 1-2% failure rate, which is not good but far from a likely or certain outcome.
It didn't bother me overly when I bought a 123d coupe a couple of years ago. I didn't become obsessive over the what ifs as I suspect that it is a possible, albeit highly unlikely event to occur when the overall numbers of these cars sold is considered. My car is now on 108k and was bought with around 50k on the clock and has been superb. I haven't checked prices of these recently, but if the car is well specced, in good condition and has a complete history then 12k doesn't seem silly money to me. If it's too much then go and buy a 120 or a 118
Have a listen to some of the clips on YouTube, at least you can then know what the problem sounds like.
We had 2 2009 n47's that did 95k and 70k, absolutely no issues... My 2012 has already had a new chain at 19k.
It seems that more regular oil changes may help, I'd probably get a BMW warranty to be safe.
We had 2 2009 n47's that did 95k and 70k, absolutely no issues... My 2012 has already had a new chain at 19k.
It seems that more regular oil changes may help, I'd probably get a BMW warranty to be safe.
Thanks for all your replies guys, I'm shocked that a prestige brand like BMW would allow such an issue to continue! I've decided I'm not going to risk it, I'll buy something else - whilst I appreciate that in the grand scheme of things the failure rate is statistically low, I just know I wouldn't enjoy the ownership experience as I'd constantly be listening to the engine!
I've just had this hit on my 320d - bought as an ex demo from BMW and 6 years of service history with them - just over 80k miles.
I won't go into numbers but BMW have covered about 75% of the cost which given it's out of warranty is petty good. I would t say amazing as this shouldn't happen - but at least the majority of cost is being covered. Dealer (Cooper TW) has been very good so far (their service desk in dealer is very good, call centre awful!).
I won't go into numbers but BMW have covered about 75% of the cost which given it's out of warranty is petty good. I would t say amazing as this shouldn't happen - but at least the majority of cost is being covered. Dealer (Cooper TW) has been very good so far (their service desk in dealer is very good, call centre awful!).
si_xsi said:
A colleague at work has had the timing chain on his 320d 11 plate replaced at bmw under warranty, they said it was an engine out job due to the location of the chain, hidden at the back of the engine.
Yep - it's a big job... Crankshaft, timing chain, clutch and flywheel needed on mine!
Sardonicus said:
Mad Dave said:
Thanks for all your replies guys, I'm shocked that a prestige brand like BMW would allow such an issue to continue!
Sorry not much help 
but found this comment highly amusing 
Really good car, but it seemed like a ticking time-bomb!
Since then I've only had straight 6 N/A petrols.
...seems every time I find a surprisingly interesting budget car....the can of worms falls open...
Really, timing chain at rear (like Audi V6 diesel)...what could go wrong...??!
I read somewhere that later 123ds had weakness resolved and ;problem went away...any truth in that, if so when?
A mapped 123d is appealing, but not if it grenades itself...
Really, timing chain at rear (like Audi V6 diesel)...what could go wrong...??!
I read somewhere that later 123ds had weakness resolved and ;problem went away...any truth in that, if so when?
A mapped 123d is appealing, but not if it grenades itself...
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