[old grey steve]

Originally Posted by cupraraj

i doubt if a car has full bmw history and 80k and if the other has no service history and 80k means the full history one is more secure from chain snapping...when its time to go its time to go and i really doubt theres anything that we can do to prevent it like starting to service every 6 months or always take it to bmw for work now

We can do one thing that's service the cars as often as we can CBS IMO is good for marketing/selling cars especially for the fleet buyer as the car spends less time off road more time on the road earning its keep.... well at least on paper. Thing is having been where I am now for 3 years lengthy gaps inbetween services equal future potental issues.

But from what I've seen as an owner there's little that can be done bar getting the tensioner repalced to stop this sort of thing happening it would appear.

Originally Posted by mob17

Steve does this affect 335D? How many labour hours to replace the timing chain if done as a preventative measure?

There from the same family. Re measures service the car and if in doubt at least take time out to ensure the tensioners sorted.

Originally Posted by cupraraj

unless there is a new chain BMW have made to prevent this from happening why would you try fix something thats not broken?

apparently these chains can take 200-250k miles but now some are failing at a third of what they are quoting so even putting a new one on might be pointless?

We've got several M57's on good mileages only on Monday we had one of our regulars in with his 208.000 mile 335d in for an oil service and its fighting fit. He changes oil at least twice a year

Originally Posted by Markcaughey

has there ever been any report of chains going in any of the petrol 6 cylinders ? as i would imagine its the same chain ?

Petrols seem more durable... on paper at least. 4 cylinder units have issues there's a sticky on the very subject for the 4 cylinder units, re the 6's they seem durable, but that's not to say they won't have issues. I've read about a few but compared with the well documented diesels they seem to be more under control. But re petrols here's one that followed CBS but had only covered 30k or so. Its a 4 cylinder though from an 09 plate 320i





trust me if your car does 4000 miles a year change the oil every year don't wait for the CBS indication light to tell you it needs a service. When we got the above car it rattled like a pig if you can avert your eyes form the sludge build up this one rattled like a pig the tensioner leaked and the chain was slack plus we had Vanos issues.

Originally Posted by makkan00

Does that mean..... I should go for Merc or Audi (gays car) next time ?

BMW should make it serviceable item at 100K!

Merc's seem more durable Sam, I'm honestly not a big fan of Audi's or VW group cars when it comes to engines we've had 1.4TFSI chain issues which took over 13 hours to sort plus a 1.2 FSI engine that was repalced due to a timing chain issue(engine on exchange off the shelf) these units stretch its well known. TBH not a big fan of their engines from what I;ve seen VAG stuff is complex.

Originally Posted by makkan00

I have a feeling that chances are less on petrol variants. My gut feeling is due to less torque on Petrol cars.... Same as DMF and clutch plates go on diesel cars more than petrol cars.

Could be. We see plenty of 320d's with clutch/flywheel issues(done one today)turbo's are as we know well versed too. Petrols seem more durable IMO, but there not without their issues

Originally Posted by Dan-danGT

This is pretty worrying for me as I don't want mine to snap, I service it probably very early 5k but didn't own the car for the first 79k, however it's now got no dpf and has done a few trackdays so possibly won't help it.

As for the mercedes comment, I can vouch for the 651 engine as seen in the A, B, C, E, ML etc we have the same engine in the vans. Some of our customer have 300-400,000 miles on the clock with no chain stretch issues at all. Not sure on Audi stuff, but Mercedes don't suffer timing chain snapping.

What can you do. Honestly if you were to worry about it you'd never buy a car. Sounds hard but if you look at the amount of cars out there look at the issues written about in the real scheme of things when we read things like this its not actually that bad... however at the same time its not exactly welcoming news either.

Merc's I can say hand on heart seem to assemble a more durable package.

But re a question asked earlier by makkann re the engine well hope these pic's answer

We had some time so the engine was rotated 180 degrees the sump was removed for a nose around.




As you can see below sump's off



and if you've got sharp eyes you'll notice that everything on this is in decent shape had a close up peak of the bottom end/shells etc. all looked in good order.

I can say after looking / talking to the guys who tackled the job is that this was a failure totally unexpected