320d N47N engine timing chain or swirl flap failure

[Tyrone46]

Hi All. I want to find out if anyone has had issues with their timing chain or swirl flaps on the e90 lci n47 engine.

I've read about it on international forums but I don't see many instances of this happening locally.

I have done a search here and don't find much but the posts are a little old so I'm wondering since then has anyone experienced these issues?

BTW I'm new here, well, I was on the forum before when I had an e46 318i. But I'm back now and I couldn't be happier. The 320d is an excellent all round car! I picked mine up a week ago and it has 129k on the clock.

 

[Ou_klaas]

Hey Tyrone, welcome back!

I picked up my 20d with 170k km, it's now 30k kms later and no chain related issues.

Kind regards

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

 

[///M Individual]

Hi All. I want to find out if anyone has had issues with their timing chain or swirl flaps on the e90 lci n47 engine.

I've read about it on international forums but I don't see many instances of this happening locally.

I have done a search here and don't find much but the posts are a little old so I'm wondering since then has anyone experienced these issues?

BTW I'm new here, well, I was on the forum before when I had an e46 318i. But I'm back now and I couldn't be happier. The 320d is an excellent all round car! I picked mine up a week ago and it has 129k on the clock.

Congratulations bud!

The chain is not a common issue locally.

My brother in law has a 2011 E90 320d with the N47N motor I think and 157 000kms and when we replaced the expansion tank recently we noticed one of the swirl flaps were loose. Luckily the replacement seal carrier below with the flaps was only around R700 from BMW so we just replaced it and it should be good for another 150k kms.





The older N47 motors have the swirl flaps built onto the intake so may be a more expensive fix if there is an issue.

There's also the option of ordering a swirl flap delete kit from ebay etc. but we were told that once deleted you will tend to lose some low down power since there will not be a swirling effect any longer.

 

[Tyrone46]

Great thanks guys.

That'll help me sleep better. I heard about the delete kit also, I probably won't be doing that, or really, any modifications to the engine as long as it remains reliable. The new carrier seems like something I'd want to do soon for preventative maintenance.

I had the car serviced today and mistakenly told my mechanic I want premium 5w30 oil. Now reading about it, seems I should just went with 10w40 for hot weather that he was going to use. Might dump the oil in a couple months and put in thicker stuff myself.

 

[///M Individual]

Inspect your vibration damper pulley and get ZF to check if your gearbox can be serviced.

 

[Tyrone46]

To my untrained eye the vibration pulley looks okay. I have the zf autobox service on my todo list. Thanks!

 

[///M Individual]

Awesome looks like you have the preventative maintenance items covered!

Now we just need a showroom thread with lots of pics of your ride.