F30 335d needs a new engine. What to do?

frozenfrozen

at least it's entertaining now anyway with this new twist about the engine having been open before!

The previous owner I bought it from probably didn't do it because he tried to buy it back twice.

It had enthusiast owner amounts of paperwork with it, with receipts for all the work to match that was on the idrive service history and online. MOT history also matched up. Original order document etc all there. 1 owner for 6 years in england, 10k miles per year, the only MOT advisories were for things like worn rear tyres.

Next owner (guy I bought it from) had it less than a year and put a few thousand miles on it and this was during weird covid times. Since then I've seen him just tipping away owning one nice car at a time which he lists for sale and he keeps trading up and not stuff that looks like he's just clocking the same cars and selling them it's always interesting things, M3 at the moment.

So I don't think the car was clocked, maybe more likely my guess it had a chain snap in england and it was quickly sealed back up and sold?

The bit I'm really wondering about now is just buying an engine and putting it straight in (do chain) or going with the reconditioning plan.

I can get CMC to do either option, he's not pressuring me to do the more expensive one but he's saying it's the better choice if I'm planning on keeping the car

I wasn't feeling like I was being scammed while I was in there, I don't see what they have to gain when they are already flat out working, whether they charge me 20 hours or 30 hours for this job they've still a full queue. Now it still might be the wrong decision for me to do it but I don't think he's recommending it for any reason other than he thinks its the proper job and putting in an unknown engine could land me in the same spot again

If I get them to source me a good as possible engine, do the chain, put the best turbos from either engine and sell the rest of the left over parts that could be a decent option but I probably won't have a warranty then as I doubt anyone would warranty a used engine like that? Unknown territory for me there anyway.

From googling N57 bearing failure, n57 liners etc all of the companies advertising N57 reconditioning are mentioning the same things CMC are and lots of them have an extra charge for the block being warped on exchange so it must be common.

Need to wait for the estimate and then decide I think

mickdw

How much is a new engine from bmw. Not fitted but crate engine straight from bmw

Just to compare to the figures for having a good used engine rebuilt cause the figures here are abit nuts to me

Whatwicklow

For the avoidance of doubt, Check the numbers on the motor.

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122710777#Comment_122710777

Engine number could be checked Unfortunately, it wouldn't be possible to check that those pistons came out of his car or not.

I find it hard to believe that such a high performance engine would run fine long term with damaged pistons.

It's Always a big no no to have any marks on piston crowns as with the pressures and temps involved hot spots can occur at the rough spots etc.

These pistons look to me how I would expect pistons to look coming straight out of a broken chain engine.

One of the indents is even kinda white like a recent valve hit.

frozenfrozen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122710436#Comment_122710436

BMW probably want above 20k for an engine only if I was to guess. Can't remember how to spell his username but about 5 years ago someone on boards had an N57 have a spun bearing I think in a 330d. BMW did a deal to replace it where they covered a lot of the costs but I remember it being absolutely massive for the parts bill alone

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122711041#Comment_122711041

yeah I think if someone ever swapped an engine I've no way of really finding out as I never had the engine numbers documented anywhere I don't think. I should have asked whether it was an OE chain kit on it as if it was a cheap kit it would lead me to believe it was a shut and sell it asap type job. My guess at the moment is snapped chain quickly repaired and sold.

The only signs anything was wrong was stuff I'd chalked up to being related to the EGR job done by BMW where I felt it was down on power after. Could easily have been that the bearing started to break down around that time by coincidence so I didn't look into it. Didn't notice much else, mpg always in and around 40-45 depending on the type of journey.

I don't know how to tell how old the valve damage on the pistons was but I'd presume if it happened while I was driving I'd have really known about it?

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122711729#Comment_122711729

Seen a €15k bill from bmw for the F10 520d engine recently. And people are worried about batteries in EV’s going!

frozenfrozen

received CMC estimate today

engine €6000

+ €2000 reconditioning

+ turbo recondition €1000

exvat prices

€14500 all in including clearing the €2,300 owed so far.

frozenfrozen

Think I'm just going to say OK to it to be honest I can't keep going without my own car and can't get Bavarian on the phone to talk about their option which would still have its own delay with it and probably hidden costs if I decided to do bits and pieces of extra work while the engine is out.

I've been successfully worn down to just needing it done I think at this point

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122733962#Comment_122733962

Would you consider opting out of the reconditioning to save yourself €3k and just sell the car immediately after?

frozenfrozen

Spent a good while going through my options today back on donedeal looking at what I'd move to etc and I just sent 5k deposit about an half hour ago to CMC to do the full job

It's just done now not thrilled but that's it... I think the better financial decision would have been to sell and move to something else but I want that car back since it has all the options I wanted and I would be seriously paying extra to move to something else I like

1k of it is turbo reconditioning so my thinking was look I'm paying an extra couple of grand of the extra engine work for a warranty and the fact it should be good for many thousand miles and not end up in the same situation again.

If i did the small job and sold it I'd be buying an unknown n57 from someone else, or moving to a b58 petrol at a huge cost and extra running costs . Few more years with this then I'll think about swapping

mickdw

Decision made anyway and it's your money.

All I will say is make sure you get what you pay for, meaning make sure they actually do the refresh you are paying for.

One could argue that a garage could use the refresh money to allow them to warranty a used engine and take their chances that it almost certainly will be good for the warranty period anyway.

MetzgerMeister

My previous car was an F30 330d with the N57 engine. On my way to view an M4 it spun a bearing and needed a new engine.

Luckily where I was going to view the car was right next to Conlans BMW in Naas so I had to leave it with them. Originally I was quoted 23k all in but since it had full BMW services history and all done on time, Conlans were able to get a brand new engine out of BMW on a goodwill basis. I just had to pay 3k for labour which also gave me a 2 year warranty on the engine.

I couldn't recommend Conlans highly enough. They gave me a 520d as a loaner which I had for 2 weeks. I asked about an E92 M3 they had and if I could take that instead of the 520 and they had no issue with it. The only problem was that the tyres were in a severely bad state, otherwise I definitely would have taken it!

Henry Ford III

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122734204#Comment_122734204

Arfur Daly logic.

frozenfrozen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122815402#Comment_122815402

hi I remember that from the time, my turn now

had a good experience with conlans Limerick when it was in for the egr job with a nice loaner 520d.

no update so far apart from paying the deposit to the garage, will send them a text soon seeing what the story is.

mickdw

They should be wheeling your original engine out from the back store any day now.…..

Only joking.

extra-ordinary_

So, you're putting in a replacement engine and replacing the cylinder liners? Could he not just do a compression test and know if it's any good or not without all this spendage?