BMW has never admitted that their N47 diesel engines have any manufacturing fault due to which a number of failures are arising in the UK market. But the truth is that the BMW N47 engines are actually facing serious issues which have been roughly sorted and finished. The majority of drivers in Ireland in 2016 have decided to sue the automaker as well. At that time a solicitor from Ireland has told the media that there is the number of his clients who are looking to sue the automaker over the bad production of the N47 engines and looking to pull the automaker into the court over the defected engine issues.
He stated that they received a number of applications over this issue and media have covered the matter increasingly. At the same time, the German automaker has refused to pay the compensation to the customers over the N47 timing chain failure which leads to the entire engine failure. He also stated that he took a case on the behalf of his client. This case was against BMW for an N47 diesel engine failure. He said that the actual cases in the courts were far more than those stated in the media reports and by the company. He said that it was impossible to know the exact amount of the cases opened against the automaker and because the amount of the cases have gone much for now.
The timing chains and due to the timing chain issue, overall engine failure issues are not the thing of yesterday, they are arising and being reported to the manufacturer. Since the instigation of the BMW N47 in models like BMW 118d 2.0 litre diesel engines, it is hard to say that how many engines were reported to the automaker but this is confirmed that problem is not smaller or either ignorable. The N47 diesel engines were first introduced in 2007 in several BMW model cars and X3 vehicles. And still in action. The N47 diesel engine was fitted with BMW 1 series, 3 series and 5 series along with BMW X1 and X3 SUV models. This way the N47 diesel engine has become the favourite engine of the German automaker. The reason behind the success was the techniques and technologies they uses to blend the fuel economy with the lowest carbon emissions.
Then the issue started arising and people started reporting that their engines are suddenly stopping and leaving the power while on the go. But it usually happened at the lower speeds rather than at the higher speeds. This condition has survived the drivers from any other kind of accidents and fatal injuries.
The engine gives no signs of failure, but the engine warning light glows and everything has gone off, power delivery, acceleration and the power to the steering system. Everything including brakes stopped receiving power from the engine compartment. This situation left the driver helpless on the first hand and followed the visits to the dealership where they announce the bad luck happened to the engine in the past hour. They confirmed the engine failure and this then leads to the hefty repair cost of replacing the engine not less than 4,000GBP for an engine supply and fit service. This is bad enough for a driver how has just bought a new BMW car while being in the tighter budgets. The problem traced by the dealership always remains the same, timing chain failure.
The timing chain as name confirmed is a chain driven by the crank pulleys and drives the camshaft pulleys to regulate both inlet and exhaust valves at the same time. It also regulates the movements of the pistons by regulating the combustion process. If the timing chain keeps working in a smooth way, then everything remains tuneful but if it fails, breaks or skips the teeth, then a terrible damage happens inside the engine and engine head section. It left the engine moving parts crashing into each other and crushing the parts around.
Things even got worse when you found that the timing chain has been designed as a maintenance free part and is running on the backside of the engine. You cannot access the chain compartment without removing the entire engine out of the engine bay. Removing the engine from the engine bay is a costly and time-consuming process. So, there is no other way to inspect and replace or repair the timing chain if it is weak or damaged.
Here are some tips on car maintenance.
Only the customers who had kept their entire servicing history with the main dealers were hoped to be given a compensation, by and large, helped out by the automaker. They were paid for the new engine for their vehicle. But for those who had lost their way and didn’t pay the main dealers hefty costs for servicing in the past, they were simply refused by the automaker. For those who were recognized as automaker’s authorized model specialists, were also given a smaller chunk. The automaker says that their goodwill policy for the customers whose engines were failed outside the normal 3 years warranty, remained helpful and they got payments for their new engines but for the rest of the cases, the policy was not extended at all.
The issue of the timing chain and engine failure arises in the BMW 5 Series vehicles and it was first realized by the Irish officials when they found that the luxury larger saloon was lying in the B Band on the road tax and carbon emissions while all the same size vehicles across the globe are far away from the Band B. This engine was exclusively designed to facilitate the small and affordable cars but it has made its place in the larger SUV s as well.
A BMW spokesperson said that they have issued a campaign for the chain tensioners’ replacement, and the automaker will do it if the vehicle required a replacement. This campaign was specially introduced for the models manufactured from February 2007 to June 2008 and this offer was for all the EU markets including the UK. There were only said the batch of the vehicles was manufactured with the real engine configurations and after June 2008, some technical changes were made to the engine during the production process. However, any BMW customer who had an issue with the timing chain were advised to visit their local BMW dealership and as for the inspection of the system. He further stated that beyond the standard warranty, BMW operated a generous goodwill policy and all the requests for the assessments were handled on the merit bases.
Logically, all the customers who had an N47 diesel engine in their vehicles will definitely be concerned as well as for some reassurance that their particular vehicles are going good and had no issues at all. The timing chain issue arises suddenly without showing any unusual signs of running and cause engine failure. So that the people are concerned about their vehicles and looking to visit the local dealers to have their vehicles inspected.
The technical campaign will definitely help a number of BMW owners and their issues will not go too far and they even do not need a recall because the tensioner issue is not directly related to the safety issues. Thus the rest of the smaller problems would be handled on the case to case bases.
On the other hand, those vehicles which are affected by the timing chain issues and are in danger of sudden breakdowns can actually be a serious safety issue while being driven. Because they can fail anytime without any indication of error or fault. Here at this point, it is not a question of maintenance or the bad servicing history but it clearly mentions a manufacturing fault. As the timing chain section is not in the access of the service men and is manufactured and designed as a maintenance free.
BMW has never admitted that the timing chain issue is a manufacturing fault and the solicitors are pushing the court to go beyond the settlement points to see if it is a manufacturing fault or not. So this way some clarity might be achieved. They also requested the court to issue an order for data discovery from the manufacturing plant and to get some useful information about the root causes of the issue. A solicitor says that according to him, it is very interesting but dangerous point that the automaker still selling the cars with the same engine and the same issues. Second-hand vehicles are also on sale at the dealerships of the manufacturer. Often to the people who are under contract with the BMW and using finance plans cannot even know that their vehicle has the faulty system.
The timing chain fault can be assessed by a high pitched tinkling sound coming from the engine compartment. Although it can still fail without warning as it has happened to many drivers in the past. BMW says that the supposed fault has been fixed on all the engines during the second half of 2009 but in the market, engines from even 2011 are expiring without giving any fault sign.
