***** Motors chat - round 12 *****

Currently spinning about in a Mercedes c200, 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine... 48-volt mild hybrid thing.
Under 200bhp .... A great drive. Engine is lovely and free raving... 4 cylinder so its not like the 3 cylinders that sound like you are killing them.

Hitting just about 40mpg. .... 9 speed auto.

My idea of a great all rounder 😍

carsfan2

carsfan2 wrote: »

..... Sounded like rubbish to me at the time but maybe it’s a thing?

My ole lad bought a 4 year old is300h with north of 100k kms on it from Lexus m50 (I forget the actual name of the place)..... I reckon it was borderline for them to retail or not.

In your example for some garages the x5 described might be borderline also. Although it sounds quite fresh and is no doubt minty so wouldnt unflatter a forecourt.

wotzgoingon

Augeo wrote: »

Engine is lovely and free raving...

Where is this rave on? :pac: What is it a 90's theme club.

farna_boy

Does anyone know how long it would take a garage to diagnose a head gasket failure or cylinder crack failure?

Could I just drive up and have an answer on the spot/within the hour or would it take a few hours?

wotzgoingon

farna_boy wrote: »

Does anyone know how long it would take a garage to diagnose a head gasket failure or cylinder crack failure?

Could I just drive up and have an answer on the spot/within the hour or would it take a few hours?

Depends on how they are going to diagnose it. If they have the leak detect kit where the liquid changes colour then it only takes a few minutes.

..... I'd not rock up at a garage without an appointment. If they've all ramps & mechanics busy they might well not be able to fit you in on the spot.

Sniff test as mentioned is quick.... Compression tests also quick.... But if the garage are otherwise occupied...

Interslice

farna_boy wrote: »

Does anyone know how long it would take a garage to diagnose a head gasket failure or cylinder crack failure?

Could I just drive up and have an answer on the spot/within the hour or would it take a few hours?

Need to find somewhere that can do a compression check id say. Would depend on access on how long it would take. An hours work if it's a handy petrol engine.

Toyotafanboi

farna_boy wrote: »

Does anyone know how long it would take a garage to diagnose a head gasket failure or cylinder crack failure?

Could I just drive up and have an answer on the spot/within the hour or would it take a few hours?

I'd always make an appointment.

Any decent garage will have work pre booked and wont be sitting waiting for work to arrive and for your own sake, when dealing with something like a potential cylinder head gasket failure, you want them to take a bit of time with the car and make a good judgement call as a misdiagnosis or "quick check" could be costly for you.

That said, if the failure is fairly advanced, the symptoms are much clearer. If in the early stages they can be trickier to confirm or may not be gasket failure at all.

vintagevrs

My car came with CF wing mirror covers. No idea if they are genuine, but guessing they are cheap ones from eBay as the lacquer had faded/hazed badly enough. I was considering buying new gloss black ones but doing a bit of a clean up on the car today decided to try the polishing machine on them. Thought if I wreck them no harm as they looked like shīt anyway. Looks like it did the trick though so happy days.

Tazzimus

So I managed to break a slider pin on a spare caliper carrier I got to replace my seized one on the car. I'm guessing I'll have to drill what's left of the pin out as I can't get a grip on what's sticking out with a vice grips.

blade1

vintagevrs wrote: »

My car came with CF wing mirror covers. No idea if they are genuine, but guessing they are cheap ones from eBay as the lacquer had faded/hazed badly enough. I was considering buying new gloss black ones but doing a bit of a clean up on the car today decided to try the polishing machine on them. Thought if I wreck them no harm as they looked like shīt anyway. Looks like it did the trick though so happy days.

One of the great things about carbon!!!!
It's usually just the lacquer!!

Wibbs

vintagevrs wrote: »

My car came with CF wing mirror covers. No idea if they are genuine, but guessing they are cheap ones from eBay as the lacquer had faded/hazed badly enough. I was considering buying new gloss black ones but doing a bit of a clean up on the car today decided to try the polishing machine on them. Thought if I wreck them no harm as they looked like shīt anyway. Looks like it did the trick though so happy days.

Jaysus V, you did a great job there. Look like new. That reminds me, my yoke needs a bit of a polish. Where are ya based...

farna_boy

I chanced just driving up to a local garage and they had a quick look but didn't actually do a compression test.

They cleared all the errors so the check engine light is now off but I'm still seeing plumes of smoke and a small misfire at high revs.As long as I keep it under 4k revs though everything is peachy.

Does anyone know if those petrol additives could cause smoke out the exhaust when they are cleaning the engine?

I have a feeling I know the answer but I'm hoping against hope I don't have to spend any more money on the car.

wotzgoingon

farna_boy wrote: »

I chanced just driving up to a local garage and they had a quick look but didn't actually do a compression test.

They cleared all the errors so the check engine light is now off but I'm still seeing plumes of smoke and a small misfire at high revs.As long as I keep it under 4k revs though everything is peachy.

Does anyone know if those petrol additives could cause smoke out the exhaust when they are cleaning the engine?

I have a feeling I know the answer but I'm hoping against hope I don't have to spend any more money on the car.

What did they tell you when handing back the keys.

No there would be no smoke from petrol additives.

farna_boy

wotzgoingon wrote: »

What did they tell you when handing back the keys.

No there would be no smoke from petrol additives.

They said the errors were listed as misfires but it is obvious that there are no misfires on the car now when it is idling/ under 4k revs. Even over 4k, I can only say it feels like I'm losing a bit of power, not that it is necessarily misfiring.

There had been a number of oil leaks on the car (which were also causing smoke) but I have just finished replacing the valve cover gasket, oil housing filter gasket, eccentric motor gasket and spark plugs so I think those errors are from before I fixed the car.

I had read that it might take some time for oil residue to burn off from the leaks but I would have thought that would have cleared by now.

wotzgoingon

What car is it?

farna_boy

wotzgoingon wrote: »

What car is it?

BMW E60 525i

farna_boy

farna_boy wrote: »

I chanced just driving up to a local garage and they had a quick look but didn't actually do a compression test.
....

Did they offer the option of a proper diagnostics?
Did they charge you.... They seem clueless and / or uninterested in your business.

farna_boy

Augeo wrote: »

Did they offer the option of a proper diagnostics?
Did they charge you.... They seem clueless and / or uninterested in your business.

In fairness, I just dropped in and they stopped what they were doing to help me. They hooked up the diagnostic tool but the misfires were the only noteworthy thing that popped up and once the car restarted none of the errors came back. Plus they only charged me €20 to clear the errors, so I don't think I can complain.

selectamatic

Bmw e90 320d's

Pre Lci

The first of them were m47 powered and made 160bhp. Most of these would be 2005-2006 some early 2007 regs too.

Then from 2007 on they got the n47 174bhp engine. 2008 saw the Lci introduced.
The n47 was upgraded to 181bhp at some stage and they're was some eco model that made 160bhp too.

So if I understand this correctly pre lci cars still got the n47 engines for a little while.

Is this correct? Or did all pre lci cars still have the m47 even up as far as early 2008 ones.

Me head is melted looking for a replacement car atm.

vintagevrs

I had a 2007 that had the n47 but that was a coupe. I think but could be wrong a check when browsing ads is look at the exhaust pipe. The older 163 ones are turned down. The newer 177 ones are straight out the back.

Leonard Hofstadter

N47s were introduced in cars built from September 2007 for E90s and E91s, so the last of the pre-LCIs will have this engine. Same goes for the NA petrols and other diesels, cars built from September 07 onwards got the Efficient Dynamics technology and the corresponding decrease in reliability (not to mention the loss of hydraulic power steering in some cases) that goes with it.

The upgrade to the four cylinder (and some six cylinder) diesel engines occurred in cars built from February 2010, they switched from using the N47 to the N47N engine, and this brought about the increase from 174 to 181 bhp for the 320d (the 316d and 318d saw no increase in power despite the engine upgrade), the 325d switched from the M57N2 engine to the N57 engine at this time, too (the 330d always used the N57 from the LCI onwards - or early 2009 in the case of the E92 and E93, while the 335d kept the M57N2 right until end of production of the E90/1/2/3).

Augeo

Augeo wrote: »

Currently spinning about in a Mercedes c200, 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine... 48-volt mild hybrid thing.
Under 200bhp .... A great drive. ......

My idea of a great all rounder 😍

Took 12 gallons to brim it after doing 480 miles..... Properly mixed driving.

All things considered, a good all rounder.

wotzgoingon

Augeo wrote: »

Took 12 gallons to brim it after doing 480 miles..... Properly mixed driving.

All things considered, a good all rounder.

Where are you based. With your gallons and miles.

Charles Babbage

wotzgoingon wrote: »

Where are you based. With your gallons and miles.

Last century?

wotzgoingon

wotzgoingon wrote: »

Where are you based. With your gallons and miles.

Well the distance was clocked up in England
I find mpg and l/100km both fairly intuitive but I do default to mpg generally.

Wibbs

wotzgoingon wrote: »

Where are you based. With your gallons and miles.

Stop. Recently I got a bluetooth doodah that plugs into my ECU and transmits the data to an app. Set it all up, calibrated the GPs an the like, but then noticed it defaulted to litres and kilometres, so figured I'd leave it as is and force my brain into this century.



Though given I've been driving cars with only kms on the speedo since the late 90's it's only in the last few years I don't automatically convert to mph in my head, so this litres to the kilometre lark could take some time. The above is largely double dutch to me. :eek::D

Interslice

My new renhall trafaro is in mph with a digital speedo so no little kmh to squint at. Made me realize I'm completely switch to km/hr. Must figure out how to change it. Still fairly stuck on mpg for the fuel though.

Wibbs

Interslice wrote: »

Still fairly stuck on mpg for the fuel though.

Same here IS. I've some excuse at least. Old dog, new tricks kinda thing.

Leonard Hofstadter

Can't do l/100 km either, even if I had a car with everything in kilometres (which I don't) I'd be converting back to mpg. I can do speeds and distances in kilometres, and in time we'll all be driving electric so for nostalgia's sake as much as anything else, I'm sticking with the old fashioned (but much easier to understand) way for fuel consumption :pac:!

Interslice

It's not so much a metric imperial thing. Km per litre I would get my head around alot sooner. I know how many litres are in the tank. I don't want to have to do maths to figure how far that gets. L per 100km is arseways to me.

Leonard Hofstadter

Exactly. If it was km/l I'm sure I would have changed, 1 km/l is exactly 2.82481 mpg, so dividing by 3 is a rough approximation in the same way 5 miles is about 8 km (1 mile is exactly 1.609344 kilometres), I'm a maths and facts person so I need to quantify and in some sense measure everything, so any system where I can't go from one to the other in my head (even approximately) is a non-runner :pac:.

Oddly enough some metric countries, such as Japan actually do use km/l for fuel consumption. I never understood how or why it was decided that we would do it differently in Europe, the whole point of metric was to make measurements standardised across the world, instead we now have two systems in both metric and imperial (a gallon here and the UK is 4.54609 litres, but that's 1.20095 times bigger than a US gallon) for fuel economy :pac::D.

joujoujou

Oddly enough, neither mpg nor km/l is fuel consumption per se. :P

Leonard Hofstadter

Leonard Hofstadter wrote: »

............ I'm a maths and facts person so I need to quantify and in some sense measure everything, so any system where I can't go from one to the other in my head (even approximately) is a non-runner :pac:...........

In my recent 40mpg example I knew I'd travelled 480 miles. As I was filling the tank and passed 45.4 l I was like, that's 10 gallons, it clicked out 9 litres lately at approx the 12 gallon point so intuitively it was 40mpg.

CIP4

I don’t have much knowledge on BMWs so quick question on them. The F30 320d from 2015 ish onwards what’s that like engine and car reliability wise ? As I remember all the E90 N47 horror stories. Does that engine still run a timing chain ?

CIP4

CIP4 wrote: »

....... Does that engine still run a timing chain ?

Yup.
Improved valve train design etc etc over the n47 you mention.

GustavoFring

CIP4 wrote: »

I don’t have much knowledge on BMWs so quick question on them. The F30 320d from 2015 ish onwards what’s that like engine and car reliability wise ? As I remember all the E90 N47 horror stories. Does that engine still run a timing chain ?

Buy a 330/335 instead;)

CIP4

GustavoFring wrote: »

Buy a 330/335 instead;)

180BHP and 380NM sounds like plenty of power for a mid sized diesel saloon. Was your blue one a 330d also ?

Big Nasty

335d X-Drive Sport Touring in Estoril Blue with tan leather

Wailin

CIP4 wrote: »

I don’t have much knowledge on BMWs so quick question on them. The F30 320d from 2015 ish onwards what’s that like engine and car reliability wise ? As I remember all the E90 N47 horror stories. Does that engine still run a timing chain ?

That's the B47 engine cip, not N47. No timing chain issues with that particular engine and seems pretty reliable.

CIP4

Wailin wrote: »

That's the B47 engine cip, not N47. No timing chain issues with that particular engine and seems pretty reliable.

When did they change to that engine or did all F30s have it ?

Wailin

2015. It's 190bhp and 400Nm.

CIP4

Wailin wrote: »

2015. It's 190bhp and 400Nm.

Thanks for that I seen a few that are 180bhp and 380Nm so assuming that’s the last of the old N47 engine so would that be an issue then like did they ever fix the N47 engine flaws towards the end of life or were they all troublesome ?

colm_mcm

So, like, I mean, are you, you know?

selectamatic

If its for yourself get a 6 cylinder diesel. Cos that will be the very next thing you'll want if you go for the 4 cylinder now.

CIP4

colm_mcm wrote: »

So, like, I mean, are you, you know?

Ah no not really :pac:

As bad as I am I think changing it after 4 months would be excessive to say the least. Was just curious about the F30 engine set up.

Wailin

CIP4 wrote: »

Thanks for that I seen a few that are 180bhp and 380Nm so assuming that’s the last of the old N47 engine so would that be an issue then like did they ever fix the N47 engine flaws towards the end of life or were they all troublesome ?

The timing chain issue was 2008-2011. A revision was made to the engine in 2011 which reduced incidences but they still occured. Personally I've had two 5 series with the N47 and I never had one issue. Luck of the draw really.

The 320d is a fine car and 0-60 is 7.3 sec, not slow by any means. Moving to the 330d has it's negatives too. More nose heavy, it's a big lump if an engine, and economy suffers, but still far better than your GTi (around 38mpg or slightly better). It has that 6 cylinder smoothness though, very refined and tons of torque.

Drive the 320d and see how it feels for you. You could instantly love it or it could do nothing for you.

bazz26

I think if CIP4 finds the Golf interior quality somehow lacking over his previous A4 then I cannot see him liking the F30 interior.

GustavoFring

CIP4 wrote: »

180BHP and 380NM sounds like plenty of power for a mid sized diesel saloon. Was your blue one a 330d also ?

Yeah, 330d. It's much nicer even in day to day driving and the economy difference is fairly minimal. Her 520d is doing less than the 330d.

Added benefit is the chain is less likely to be an issue on the 6 cylinder.

CIP4

bazz26 wrote: »

I think if CIP4 finds the Golf interior quality somehow lacking over his previous A4 then I cannot see him liking the F30 interior.

Admittedly it’s been a few years since I was in an F30 but back then I thought the interior was fairly decent I like the centre display set up.