revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Dashboard lit up with a generic "engine dying stop now" warning followed by total loss of power 2s later. No PAS or power brakes either.

Blind luck that I was half a mile 'upstream' of the services.

Sat in the service car park, the engine will turn over happily but it's got no chug-chug. Just spins. It's a diesel so normally its got proper chugs and engine shakes when starting.

RAC man's OBD reader shows "chamshaft position unknown" and "exhaust gas flow inconsistent with engine speed" failures.

That certainly doesn't sound healthy. But it does sound expensive... Is the low-loader there yet?

No.

Google reckons anywhere between 2k and 7k to fix, if that is the problem. Car is realistically only worth 3 or 4k.

Luckily the employee purchase scheme goes live tomorrow I work for one of the premium German OEMs and can get cars better than half price.

Not too bothered but heard all the fans in the square cheering coz England scored.

Great atmosphere

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 7:20 pm No.

Google reckons anywhere between 2k and 7k to fix, if that is the problem. Car is realistically only worth 3 or 4k.

Luckily the employee purchase scheme goes live tomorrow I work for one of the premium German OEMs and can get cars better than half price.

If I was a cynical man I'd say this was pre-planned... Can you take out extended timing chain warranties?

Some might say it was pushing it anyway. BMW claim they're fit and forget and last at least 200k. The received wisdom of the Internet says timing chains last 100k. This car has done 120k but has always been serviced on the button by either BMW or an indy specialist.

There were no classic rattles or anything like that though.

I'll send it to the local indy in the week and see what they reckon. Not holding my breath though, just changing the chain on a functional engine is more than a grand.

The real kicker will be whether there has been valve/piston contact. I presume it's an interference type design? Most are these days. When an incompetent French garagiste Donald Ducked my Beta motor fitting a timing belt I never asked him to, 7 out of 8 valves were bent.

And that was only at tickover.

16v diesel with lots of valve interference, doing 70mph at the point of failure

I'm sure someone will be along soon with a suitable GIF or emoji...

Hope the journey home is prompt and swift...

Me and valves just don't get on.

Fingers crossed there are some leccy cars available on the company scheme

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 8:14 pm Me and valves just don't get on.

Fingers crossed there are some leccy cars available on the company scheme

What do you reckon will be available at short notice?
Cycle to work scheme?

I really don't know, been asking myself the same. If you went to a dealer and ordered a car you'd have several month's wait....

Perhaps I'll get some god awful car no other bugger wants

I can see myself with a short term lease to cover a gap at this rate. The company scheme examples I've seen are crazy good, better than half price loke I said, so fingers crossed something pans out.

Just piggy back off weeksy's car or van thread, there must be some good deals on there by now.

Or just buy the one he wants out of badness.

cheb wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 9:23 pm Just piggy back off weeksy's car or van thread, there must be some good deals on there by now.

Or just buy the one he wants out of badness.

There will be a recently fixed QQ that should be reliable for a few years

cheb wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 9:23 pm Just piggy back off weeksy's car or van thread, there must be some good deals on there by now.

Or just buy the one he wants out of badness.

Just pick one quicker that Weeksy

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 6:33 pm Sat in Trowell services on the M1 with a suspected broken timing chain. Well I haven't got one, my car has.

They're supposed to be fit for life and this one wasn't making any rattles etc. Engine just completely died out of the blue.

BMW?

MingtheMerciless wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 10:15 pm

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 6:33 pm Sat in Trowell services on the M1 with a suspected broken timing chain. Well I haven't got one, my car has.

They're supposed to be fit for life and this one wasn't making any rattles etc. Engine just completely died out of the blue.

BMW?

Aye but its the one they supposedly fixed

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 10:20 pm

MingtheMerciless wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 10:15 pm

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 6:33 pm Sat in Trowell services on the M1 with a suspected broken timing chain. Well I haven't got one, my car has.

They're supposed to be fit for life and this one wasn't making any rattles etc. Engine just completely died out of the blue.

BMW?

Aye but its the one they supposedly fixed

Hmm that sounds like they’ve been to the Kawasaki school of “fixed”.

Piston ring retaining pins allegedly fixed on KR1-S C3’s…..NOT!

The previous gen 320d was notorious for timing chain failures, one of those 'when' not 'if' situations. This generation (F30) is supposed to be miles better.

Seemingly not.

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 6:33 pm Sat in Trowell services on the M1 with a suspected broken timing chain. Well I haven't got one, my car has.

Finally got home just before midnight, having initially broken down at half four. It's about 50 mins drive from where we broke down to home, all things being 'normal', so that was a slight extension.

Top marks to the 4 year old baby D though, I was expecting it to be a nightmare but she was good as gold the whole time. The recovery truck also only had baby seat mounting points in the front seats, so she got to sit in the front cab for the whole drive. Highlight of her life so far I reckon

I just need to work out what to do now. Since lock down we've been down to one car - so now we're down to no cars Might have to buy a shit wagon to bridge a few weeks. I spoke to the BMW specialists this morning, they reckon timing chain too. It's a couple of hours labour to open it up and find out if it's a bit fucked, or proper fucked. It's some level of fucked either way so I'm wondering if it's worth it! Minimum bill is probably £1500 on a car that worth about £3k and they can't even look until Monday.