2012: Post your ride!

[xPETEZx]

The timing chain failure is a hyped problem, complete rubbish in my opinion. The petrol 4-pott engines had serious problems with the timing chains, but only the first ones... I've read of a total of four timing chain failures on a N47 diesel (3x 120d and 1x 118d) and a lot of people who imagine hearing weird sounds in the engine bay and have replaced chains, crank shafts and I don't know what for thousands of Euros. Do you know how often the N47 has been sold and how few people have this problem? As I said, I think its completely overhyped!

 

The Diesel engine has two advantages in my opinion, the first is torque, the second is economy. The torque is great, I can cruise around the city doing ~60km/h in 5th gear no worries, still accelerates properly when I step on it. The economy has two factors, one is that it simply consumes little fuel and the other is the long distance between fuel stops. If I cruise around the highway at ~150km/h (90-95MPH), the car gets 49.5 Imperial-MPG / 41.5 US-MPG. If I really open the taps and cruise along the Autobahn at full tilt, it still gets 30 Imperial / 25 US MPG.

 

Having said all that, I do eye the 125i's sometimes... the looks of a Coupé and the sound of a Straight-6 is just something else... but then I look at my bank account and decide no

Don't think its that 'hyped", just google "N47 timing chain failure" and you get pages of results.

I know one hell of a lot of N47's where sold, but still the number of failure topics I found and the expense to repair scared me off.

I drove a company 120d for a while, and the one thing I did love was the in gear pull when your in the power band. But the trade off was that you gotta change gear a lot lower down. I found pulling away from a roll (ie lights change before you are stopped dead) in 2nd or 3rd just didn't happen. You had to give it quite some throttle before it went. This I found not unique to BMW, same for every diesel I have driven.

 

Is it an interference engine? If not, who cares? If so...hopefully it's not bad.

Well, when the chain snaps the engine is toast. The topics I read, people always tried to source a re-con'd or doaner vehicle engine.

[Waco]

Then it is interference. That sucks. If my timing belt breaks I just have to replace it.

[kingdingeling]

I have a June 2007 118d N47, theoretically thats in the range where there are timing chain failures, but there's no sound coming from the engine thats unusual... I'm not that worried, haven't had a single problem with the car... fingers crossed obviously!

[Reaper_88]

Newly painted fender emblems, grill delete, and grill pony

 

 

Before they were painted

 

[Onion]

Is it lowered or is that stock ride height?

[Reaper_88]

Is it lowered or is that stock ride height?

Lowered on H&R Race series springs

[Reaper_88]

this was stock height

Edited September 20, 2012 by Reaper_88

[Onion]

Lowered on H&R Race series springs

 

Guess I'm too used to my slammed car lol.

[Reaper_88]

Guess I'm too used to my slammed car lol.

lol not a fan of the whole "slammed look", i prefer a simple lowered look (NE mustangs have a 4x4 stance stock for some weird reason). I an planning on cutting a 1/2 coil possibly to bring it down a tad bit more

[Onion]

I wouldn't cut them if I were you. Just get some shorter ones?

[Reaper_88]

I wouldn't cut them if I were you. Just get some shorter ones?

cutting them isnt dangerous (as long as the spring doesn't have a pigtail at both ends), ran cut stock springs for about 2 years before i got the H&R's

[Reaper_88]

the only severe side effect regarding cutting springs (correctly) is that the spring becomes stiffer the more you remove. it becomes dangerous when you cut them incorrectly, ie cutting waaay too much (more than 2 coils) or by cutting the pigtail (were the spring seats itself on the LCA spring perch)