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N13, N20, N43, N47 Timing Chain Issues Megathread

310K views 573 replies 182 participants last post by  Cristian 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
What is the Issue?

The timing chain, its guides, and tensioners on BMW's N13, N20, N43 & N47 engines were poorly designed and constructed. Because the engines are of an interference type, there is the potential for catastrophic engine damage when the timing is not correct. The substandard parts on the N13, N20, N43 & N47 engines can lead to the chain stretching, slipping, skipping or snapping, all of which have the potential to result in complete engine failure.


Which 1 & 2 Series Models are Affected?

All BMW & Mini models, regardless of year, that are fitted with the N13, N20, N43 or N47 engines can suffer from premature timing chain wear and failure. The likelihood of it occurring is higher in the earlier models. The potential impact is identical on all of them.

Note: this list only includes models relevant to this forum. The issues are present on all other series BMWs with the same engines.

E81, E82, E87, E88 1 Series

Petrol

  • 116i 2007-2011 (N43)
  • 118i 2007-2011 (N43)
  • 120i 2007-2011 (N43)
Diesel
  • 116d 2009-2011 (N47)
  • 118d 2007-2013 (N47)
  • 120d 2007-2013 (N47)
  • 123d 2007-2013 (N47)

F20, F21, F22, F23 1 / 2 Series

Petrol

  • 114i 2011–2015 (N13)
  • 116i 2011–2015 (N13)
  • 118i 2011–2015 (N13)
  • 120i 2011-2015 (N13)
  • 125i 2011-2015 (N20)
Diesel
  • 114d 2011–2015 (N47)
  • 116d 2011–2015 (N47)
  • 118d 2011–2015 (N47)
  • 120d 2011-2015 (N47)
  • 125d 2011-2015 (N47)

E84 X1

Petrol

  • sDrive16i 2010-2015 (N20)
  • sDrive20i 2010-2015 (N20)
  • sdrive28i 2010-2015 (N20)
  • xDrive28i 2011-2015 (N20)

Diesel
  • sDrive16d 2012-2015 (N47)
  • sDrive18d 2009-2015 (N47)
  • sDrive20d 2009-2015 (N47)
  • xDrive23d 2009-2012 (N47)
  • xDrive 25d 2012-2015 (N47)

What Was Done About It?

In the 2009 model year, BMW issued revised parts for the N47 which could be fitted to older cars as part of a “quality enhancement” programme – effectively a voluntary recall. The 2009 revision engines featured a redesigned crankshaft and timing chain guides, which reduced the likelihood of failure, as well as the potential damage caused when failure occurs. This again occurred for MY2011, further reducing the likelihood of failure, but not eliminating it.

BMW did not acknowledge the timing chain issues in the N43, N20 and N13 engines, at least in the UK/EU. However, in 2017, a separate quality enhancement for the N43 engine provided a route by which affected engines could be repaired and replaced. As part of the work to fit a vacuum pump sensor, if a stretched or slipped chain caused running errors which prevented the work from being completed, the parts up to and including a total engine replacement would be covered. This did not retrospectively cover complete engine failure, as it required that the vehicle had driven under its own power to have the quality enhancement performed in the first place.

From a customer service standpoint, BMW did as little as they possibly could. It only takes a brief search to find pages and pages of reports of owners being left out of pocket by thousands of £/€/$ as BMW outright refused to accept any formal responsibility for the issues. Some vehicles, such as those which were recently out of warranty or had a full BMW dealer service history, were granted one-off 'goodwill' gestures whereby BMW would cover the cost of some of the repair. Disappointingly, BMW never issued a recall in the UK/EU, despite being forced to do so in the US, where the regulatory framework for defective vehicles is much more consumer-friendly.


What are Some Signs of Timing Chain Failure?
  • Rattling sound from the engine
  • Oil pressure light (usually indicating pieces of broken chain guide in the pickup tube)
  • Difficulty starting
  • Rough idle
  • Rough running and missfires
  • Very fast cranking (telltale sign of a snapped chain)


My Chain Might be Failing – What are my Options?

A) Repair It
If you catch it prior to complete failure, the timing chain and its related components can be replaced by a mechanic or skilled and well-equipped DIYer. The chain is inside the engine, and the job requires expensive, special tools. In the case of the N47, the chain cannot be replaced without completely removing the engine from the car. Sadly, due to its complexity, this is not a cheap job on any of the affected vehicles. As a very rough guide, the price of replacing the timing chain assembly and related parts at an independent specialist is in the region of:
  • N43 – £800-£1,200
  • N47 – £900-£1,800
  • N13 – £600-£1,000
  • N20 – £800-£1,200

B) Ignore It
Strongly not recommended! By the time the signs of impending timing chain failure have become apparent, it is usually bad enough that it needs immediate attention. The longer the warning signs are ignored, the more likely it is that a £600-£1,800 repair becomes a £4,000 engine replacement. Chains most commonly snap on startup, when they are quickly put under heavy load. As-such, your best option is to have the car recovered to a garage rather than risk driving it there.

C) Sell the Car
The cheapest option would be to part-exchange the car or sell it to WeBuyAnyCar or similar, as in both cases the price already reflects the risk of a vehicle being faulty. You may also choose to sell it privately, however, you would need to disclose the potential inbound timing chain failure, or sell the car for spares or repairs. Contrary to popular belief, private sales are not 'final' or 'buyer beware'. If you fail to disclose important information or mislead the buyer about the condition of a vehicle during the sale, you are civilly liable for any loss they incur, and potentially criminally liable for fraud by misrepresentation. If they speak to the Citizens Advice Bureau, they'll be given clear guidance on how to take you to court for roughly £50-£100 in fees (which you'd likely have to pay, on top of damages, if you lose). Also, it makes you a terrible person. Don't do it.


My Chain has Failed – What are my Options?

A) Engine Rebuild – £1,500-£2,500+
If your timing chain failed at very low revs, crawling speed, or on startup, it may be possible for the engine to be rebuilt. This process involves disassembling the engine, removing the heads, inspecting for damaged parts, and replacing what is necessary. The primary downside of this approach is that you will not know the extent of the damage until after the engine has been stripped, at which point you will already have incurred around 4-6 hours in labour charges. If any major engine components such as camshafts or the crankshaft require replacement, the rebuild may end up costing more than it would to have simply fitted a reconditioned engine in the first place.

B) Engine Replacement – £2,000-£4,000+
If your chain failed in motion, it is usually more economical to replace the engine. We would strongly recommend you only do this using a remanufactured/reconditioned unit from a trusted supplier. Price varies depending on the exact engine, but with this approach you will be left with an engine that is known-good and usually comes with a warranty. If you simply buy a used engine from a breaker, you may find that the 'new' engine suffers from the same issue(s) that yours did. A used and not reconditioned engine should only be considered if you intend to part-exchange the car immediately after the replacement.

C) Claim on Comprehensive Insurance
Some comprehensive insurance policies will cover the cost of mechanical failures. Others will not, however, if the failure occurred as part of another insurable event, such as you hitting a pothole and your timing chain jumping or snapping from the impact, it may fall in-scope. You will need to speak to your insurer to determine if you are/are not covered. Obviously, you will also need to weigh up the cost of your excess and increased premiums from an at-fault claim. This is particularly relevant with older vehicles, which will likely be declared a total loss/write off due to the cost of replacing the engine.

D) Sell the Car as Spares/Repairs / Part Out
If you can't afford to repair the car, parting out the car or selling it for spares or repairs is a potential avenue to claw back some of your costs. Selling for spares or repairs will usually bring you more money than scrapping, and parting it out even more so as you can later scrap whatever's left. You can check AutoTrader and eBay motors to get an idea of the value of a vehicle in its condition. The downside is needing somewhere to keep the car, or the parts you've ripped out. Some parts that are particularly likely to have value to other owners for replacement or retrofitting are:
  • Xenon headlights, LED rear lights, and xenon-capable FRM
  • Cruise control slip ring and housing
  • Power-folding mirrors
  • Full leather interior
  • Professional head unit
  • iDrive - CCC or CIC
  • HiFi or Logic7 stereo
  • Bluetooth/USB MULF and Combox
  • Front PDC
  • Literally anything BMW Performance
The official items/retrofit kits are long discontinued, so if you have the patience and space to pull these options out with all their wiring and ancilliaries, they are likely to be relatively easy to move on.

E) Scrap the Car
Last and definitely least, scrapping the car is a quick and easy way to draw a line under the issue get a small amount of cash in your pocket.

What Can I Do to Reduce the Chances of Failure?

Service the Car Twice as Often as Officially Required
One of the biggest contributors to premature timing chain failure has been BMWs introduction of extended oil service intervals, which can be as high as 20,000 miles or 24 months before the condition-based service indicator demands attention. Across the internet, forum members who have serviced their vehicles on a more realistic schedule, usually around half the official intervals, have reported a much lower instance of timing chain failure, even on the 2007-2009 N47 “danger zone” models. We recommend that all affected models are serviced no less than every 10,000 miles / 12 months, whichever comes sooner.

Disable Auto Stop-Start
As has been noted, timing chain failure most commonly occurs on startup. Disabling auto stop-start (either using the button, or permanently via coding) removes the additional wear on the chain that the stop-start duty cycle causes.

Will an Aftermarket Warranty Cover Timing Chain Issues?

In the experience of BabyBMW members, the answer to this question is an emphatic no. In fact, many aftermarket warranties specifically exclude the N43, N47, N13 and N20 by name due to the large list of expensive issues each engine suffers from. Those policies that don't specifically exclude the engines often include a clause stating that 'common issues' will not be covered, which they use to avoid liability for timing chain issues due to their widespread nature.

The only warranty proven to reliably cover timing chain issues is BMWs own, be that the new car warranty, approved used warranty, or extended warranty. However, it should be noted that these warranties will only cover unmodified cars with full service histories. Additionally, the basic "driveline" extended warranty has a claim limit of £5,000; this is insufficient to cover the full cost of an engine replacement due to timing chain failure, which will be in the region of £7-10,000.

I Still Have Questions!

Luckily, this is a forum. Post 'em up :)

This thread was originally posted in 2014 by a member who has since deleted their account. It is now maintained by the BabyBMW Staff, and has been updated in 2022 to reflect the current state of affairs and more recent information.
 
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#5 ·
Great info! Very informative, but my question is my 2008 (58Plate) 118d has the N47D20C engine code...would it be possible they used revised engine parts all the way back to late 2008/9?
 
#6 ·
MontegoBlue said:
Great info! Very informative, but my question is my 2008 (58Plate) 118d has the N47D20C engine code...would it be possible they used revised engine parts all the way back to late 2008/9?
No, my 2012 car had a new chain last year, I had to wait 5 weeks for revised parts as they had just been released (was a change to the tensioner I believe).
 
#7 ·
Good info, the only thing I would say is that BMW are saying there's no risk of failure on the later cars, I still believe it's too early to say that. My 2012 car has covered 30,000 miles on the new chain, and the noise is back (although not as bad).
 
#8 ·
Thanks for this summary post. Mine is a September 2009 car and since buying it I have heard a very slight metallic rattle noise. Think I will be ringing BMW before the used warranty runs out!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 
#10 ·
irh77 said:
My engine code is N47D20UO. Is this type A or B? It's in a 118d registered 25/09/09.
I believe the engine codes aren't quite adding up as I thought they should, I'll edit the original post. Going by the date yours is 'safe', and falls into the second category of engines. Chain can still get noisy but won't snap, and a repair for a noisy chain will be around £1000, requiring only chains, guides and tensioner
 
#12 ·
Shrimpvende said:
I believe the engine codes aren't quite adding up as I thought they should, I'll edit the original post. Going by the date yours is 'safe', and falls into the second category of engines. Chain can still get noisy but won't snap, and a repair for a noisy chain will be around £1000, requiring only chains, guides and tensioner
yip ... seems to be the case... my wife's car is a Nov 10 build 120d auto and it is an N47D20C according to the sticker on the drivers door
 
#16 ·
Nice thread :) and although I've posted these pictures on another t/c thread, it would be useful to repeat them here :-

N47 engine - 120,000 miles from an 07 320d auto

stripped for new parts


old parts


partially re-assembled


head cover on next - this is made from black plastic


These were taken at Peter van der Veer's workshop while I was having some more goodies added to my car.

This particular engine was just noisy and was in for a full service and clutch plate replacement (incidentally if your clutch is showing signs of wear, get it replaced while the engine is out as it will only add a few minutes to the labour cost).

The guide tensioners were right at the end of their travel, but Peter reckons more due to chain wear rather than the guides themselves (all were replaced).

I did ask Peter about changing cranks - he wasn't convinced about that as he hasn't noticed any difference between the current and early crankshafts.
 
#17 ·
redwizard said:
I did ask Peter about changing cranks - he wasn't convinced about that as he hasn't noticed any difference between the current and early crankshafts.
Thats VERY interresting

Can we get some more Info about that

Ive just posted (in another thread) asking why the part number of the Crank is the same When looking at bmwfans/realoem, when it should have been revised..



/ *L*
 
#19 ·
Hi

I have recently bought a approved used 123d from BMW which I have owned for about a month, I recently. Heard a noise which I thought was a wheel bearing , a BMW mechanic came out with me for a road test and it turned out to be nothing serious, but what he did pick up on was a slight metallic noise at about 16000 rpm, he told me it was a the timing chain , and it needed replacing along with all the tensioners and related parts, he told me that BMW have finally admitted the fault and they where now offering this fix, and once done you will never need worry that this problem will happen again. This is an engine out job and takes 2 days, fortunately for me it has a years warranty on the car so I won't be giving them a penny. The reason I have posted this is it may be worth a call to your local dealer it may be a recall option I don't know, but if you suspect a problem give them a call

Just an update BMW have had my car for 3 days so far, I phoned them today, they told me it would be Friday hopefully when all work would be done that's 5 days. The mechanic I spoke to told me that BMW had also advised them to change the crankshaft which is now being done this sounds like a massive job, I have heard that if your car has been serviced regular by BMW, then you may qualify to have this work done.
 
#20 ·
Gazza540 said:
Hi

I have recently bought a approved used 123d from BMW which I have owned for about a month, I recently. Heard a noise which I thought was a wheel bearing , a BMW mechanic came out with me for a road test and it turned out to be nothing serious, but what he did pick up on was a slight metallic noise at about 16000 rpm, he told me it was a the timing chain , and it needed replacing along with all the tensioners and related parts, he told me that BMW have finally admitted the fault and they where now offering this fix, and once done you will never need worry that this problem will happen again. This is an engine out job and takes 2 days, fortunately for me it has a years warranty on the car so I won't be giving them a penny. The reason I have posted this is it may be worth a call to your local dealer it may be a recall option I don't know, but if you suspect a problem give them a call
Lucky you had the AUC warranty! Unfortunately there is no recall and BMW haven't officially admitted or acknowledged the problem. They have released several PUMA updates, which are instructions to the dealers on what to do to remedy the problem if it is identified in a customers' car. They know there is a problem and they have released several revised chain and tensioner designs to try to correct the problem, but it is still up to the customer to pay for these new parts if they do not have a warranty.

BMW's official word on this is still that it is not a widespread nor manufacturing issue, and they are treating it on a case by case basis, offering goodwill gestures at their discretion. What this really means is if your car is fairly low mileage and has full BMW service history, bought through their dealer network as an AUC car or bought new, you may get a contribution from them towards labour or parts. Non dealer history or the cars been out of the dealer network and forget it, they don't want to know
 
#21 ·
Hi, I wonder if anybody is able to tell me which engine I have please? I am new to owning a BMW, and keen to know of any issues. Note I do not know much about cars in general frankly, which is why this forum is worth it's weight in gold for me.

Car is a 2008 (first registered 21/07/0:cool2: 120d M sport 3-door.
VIN:WBAUB52090VE79592

If I can provide anything else to help, do let me know.

Thanks.
Ant
 
#22 ·
ase7en said:
Hi, I wonder if anybody is able to tell me which engine I have please? I am new to owning a BMW, and keen to know of any issues. Note I do not know much about cars in general frankly, which is why this forum is worth it's weight in gold for me.

Car is a 2008 (first registered 21/07/0:cool2: 120d M sport 3-door.
VIN:WBAUB52090VE79592

If I can provide anything else to help, do let me know.

Thanks.
Ant
Ant,

You have the early N47 as described in the first post. This is statistically the most likely engine to have the problem, and if the chain gets noisy it could snap. However, you only need to worry if you can hear the noise (have a look around youtube to get an idea). Getting the BMW extended warranty and cutting oil changes down to 8-10k miles are the best things you can do to minimise your risk, and make sure that you listen out for it every now and again to get used to how it sounds so you can tell if anything changes. There are plenty of members on here with early N47's and no issues, so it's luck of the draw. Mine only got to 63,000 miles before the problem, and it went from fairly quiet to much louder very quickly, I believe if I had kept the car longer it would have snapped.
 
#23 ·
Thanks for the quick reply. Ah, I was hoping I'd dodged that potential bullet.

I purchased the named component level cover from BMW a few days ago as it goes, and this is effective beginning August. Historically, are they known to cover and pay for this issue without any hassle? I understand the claim amount is limited by the purchase price of 9k. I am on 63k now.

Thanks again.

Ant
 
#24 ·
ase7en said:
Thanks for the quick reply. Ah, I was hoping I'd dodged that potential bullet.

I purchased the named component level cover from BMW a few days ago as it goes, and this is effective beginning August. Historically, are they known to cover and pay for this issue without any hassle? I understand the claim amount is limited by the purchase price of 9k. I am on 63k now.

Thanks again.

Ant
Then no need to worry - any level of the BMW warranty covers chain noise or snapping so you're financially safe from the problem. Just make sure you don't do anything to void the warranty now, such as miss a service/have it serviced with non BMW parts or modify/remap it etc and enjoy some worry free motoring. They're great little cars really, and apart from the reliability these engines are good, very fast and economical for what they are
 
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