BCM's Ultimate E90 Member Hangout.

[David Yong]

I have expected you guys reactions to be like that. I am still trying hard to find out what's the problem with my high fuel and engine oil consumption. More worried on the high engine oil consumption. AB still can't detect what's the actual cause to it. They have changed the engine oil sensor which was proven faulty earlier. They have done all the test and can't detect any leaking. On an averagely, I need to top up 1 liter of engine oil at every 2,500 to 3,000 kms and I can tell u this is extremely ridiculous.

I have mixed town & highway driving. Trust me... I am not a fast driver. So I guess my FC is another problem for me to tackle

Prior to this BMW of mine, I was driving a Volvo S80 and I can tell you that I have lesser headache with it. More comfortable but of course the driving pleasure is with BMW

 

[KL2DC]

What IS it about BMWs and reliability? Reading this forum is depressing sometimes. I'm not looking forward to finding out whether I'm lucky or not when mine arrives.

Pain and pleasure comes in pairs

Seriously, the E90 is mostly reliable, the engine does have an appetite for Castrol's finest synthetics, while breaking in but iirc most BMW engines does this.

As mentioned I've had to do 2.5 topups prior to first service but its holding steady now. I must concur that David's account is rather alarming but out of the 50 E90'ers registered here, David is the only thus far that might have a legitimate problem with high oil consumption. Again, it could be a number of other things, we're not sure.

Here in the US, the naturally aspirated E90s are having a good track record for reliability. There were some accounts of valves ticking that warranted extensive repairs or replacements but the numbers were small.

Most of the internet traffic is centering around the N54's high operating temperature concerns and the expiring fuel pumps issue that has lead to BMW pushing back scheduled production and cancelling existing build allocations. There is a huge backlog for the pumps and owners have been without their 335is for up to 2 months.

 

[Juan Powerblow]

I was lucky to find a bottle of Meguiars Cleaner's Wax in my storeroom over the weekend. It's almost 2 years old cos I remember winning it at a lucky room during a Club event at Bukit Tinggi yonks ago. Anyways, I tried it on my E92 and loved the wet look. I'm quite surprised that waxing can bring out such a nice shine and wonder what's the point of polishing. I intend to do quik detailing every week (cos I got 2 spare bottles - 1 of which was FOC). Thinking of changing to Meguiars NXT Tech Wax when I finish my current stock. I love Meguiars cos it's so easy to use.

 

[Schwepps]

Sure, I hear you KL2DC I had a reasonably maintenance-free E36 which had only gearbox problems 3 years into ownership. Breakdowns of electronic and mechanical parts can be expected in all cars...our W211 recently had a minor ECU problem at 2 years. It's just that things like high fuel and oil consumption are design and quality issues of the last century, and are practically unheard of these days in even the most basic national cars. I just question why it's still a bugbear in BMWs such that us enthusiasts shrug and accept the "pain" with the pleasure!

 

[E46Fanatic]

On an averagely, I need to top up 1 liter of engine oil at every 2,500 to 3,000 kms and I can tell u this is extremely ridiculous.

With that rate of oil burn you should be seeing tell tale signs like smoke from your tailpipes, and lots of organic residue around your rear bumper/exhaust area. Do a visual of the insides of the tail pipes and perhaps even an emmission test to see how bad the burn is. I guess AB would have done a check on oil leaks already right?

I did ask my saleslady about oil burn issues on the E90 when I collected my car and she made a brief comment that she was aware of only some cars with this problem. Don't know if what she was referring to was the usual oil burn during run in or cases like yours.

Anyway, if your car fails emissions, and they can't solve it, claim warranty from BMW for a new engine

 

[E46Fanatic]

BTW, you can get official emissions done at puspakom for a low fee. They should give you a formal result reading Lulus or Gagal, and armed with this, write a letter to BMW to kick off the warranty claim.

 

[danc]

The only time my engine oil dropped was there was an oil leak in the fly wheel seal (reported in my earlier post). It seems that this was common in the 2.5 lit N52 engines esp in the 525i

 

[Macheet]

My 325i has a new engine. YES A COMPLETE NEW UNIT FROM MUNICH

Been a while guys ( been temp assigned to somehere really remote...) hence could not share my experience of this 'alladin' lamp alarm and 1L top-up' story. I will make it short...NO ITS NOT NORMAL for a top-up after engine break-ins (unless you drive like maniac connstantly on the red-line).

My 05 325i got an engine transplant after I insisted on 1) Open cylinder heads 2) Complete absolute compression test on all cylinders and true enuff once the heads were ripped opened, I saw wet plugs (pistons seals leakage 101) and wet valves of course.

The invoice to BMW Malaysia for installation of new engine RM42,000/ + 3 weeks of courtesy car ( a crappy 116i). Lucky I was overseas when all these were goin-ons.

Moral of the story. Dont let the SA fool you, while our warranty stiil valid.

Cheers

 

[danc]

Macheet,

What was the symptoms that made you open cylinder heads etc. Please share so we can all learn.

Cheers,

 

[Macheet]

Well, Danc and the rest,

I got really concerned after the 3rd top-ups only after 1000km (a long haul KL-JB-KL) where the bar on OBC showed to nearly half. This was after the SA told me the 2nd top-up after my 10k service was normal.

Never had any issues with my E46 before so I basically 'instructed' them to conduct the test and open the heads + sid to them I wanted to be physically there on the ws bay to see it for myself.

I must say the SA incharged was very helpful. What took time was waiting for BMW Mal rep had to witness to authorize replacement. Took only 10d for the engine to arrive and 2 days installtion and testing.

So far so good with the the 07 engine now after 2500km. Might be psycological but somehow feels the engine revs more eagerly now compared to the my old leaking unit.

Cheers

 

[Juan Powerblow]

Goodness gracious! Thanks for sharing your experience Macheet! It's stuff like this which makes it so worthwhile to be involved in the forum.

 

[David Yong]

Well, Danc and the rest,

I got really concerned after the 3rd top-ups only after 1000km (a long haul KL-JB-KL) where the bar on OBC showed to nearly half. This was after the SA told me the 2nd top-up after my 10k service was normal.

Never had any issues with my E46 before so I basically 'instructed' them to conduct the test and open the heads + sid to them I wanted to be physically there on the ws bay to see it for myself.

I must say the SA incharged was very helpful. What took time was waiting for BMW Mal rep had to witness to authorize replacement. Took only 10d for the engine to arrive and 2 days installtion and testing.

So far so good with the the 07 engine now after 2500km. Might be psycological but somehow feels the engine revs more eagerly now compared to the my old leaking unit.

Cheers

Hi Macheet, is your car number WPK 5500 ? I was at AB Glenmarie today to again complain about this high oil engine consumption of my machine and told them exactly the same problem that you have written here. AB mentioned this car number (WPK 5500) which was recently being installed with a new engine due to engine oil leaking problem. They suspected mine to be the same problem. Asked me to send my car in for another compression & oil leak test.

By the way, what's the procedure on the new engine ? I mean did you register it again at JPJ ???

 

[David Yong]

By the way, I reset the FC reading yesterday and now it is giving me a reading of 13.8 liter/100km. I think it's ok now coz I am running on 18" wheels.

 

[Schwepps]

Macheet, sorry to hear about your problems, but glad you got it sorted. Hope that David gets the same justice.

The question is, was the cause determined? Faulty piston rings/bore? Valves? (can't imagine these issues in a new engine) Also, were all the cylinders fouled or only 1 or 2? If all were fouled, it might be a bigger problem with the N52 top-end.

 

[Schwepps]

KL2DC, 2 out of 50 is 4% of the population. Seeing as many of the 50 are no longer active in this forum, we can probably assume it's even 6 or 8% of the population. Not good at all considering the kind of money we're paying for the E90 here. The premium is equivalent to that of Mercs and a Camry is half the price for probably double the reliability.

 

[KL2DC]

KL2DC, 2 out of 50 is 4% of the population. Seeing as many of the 50 are no longer active in this forum, we can probably assume it's even 6 or 8% of the population. Not good at all considering the kind of money we're paying for the E90 here. The premium is equivalent to that of Mercs and a Camry is half the price for probably double the reliability.

Sampling is still vastly skewed. The rate of N52 owners with high oil consumption is significantly lower here in the US given a larger active forums population.

No european cars can match the Camcords running around out there. Its an apple and oranges comparison and somewhat faulty logic. A $400k Lamborghini is not expected to be 20x more reliable than a $20k Camry.

Let's not compare Mercedes-Benz's reliability records to BMW; in a 2006 Consumer Reports report on MY2007 cars, MB took the 'honors' for having 3 of 6 worst quality luxury car, 3 of 7 worst quality sports car and the single least reliable SUV as well as the 4th worst quality SUV

Granted BMW wasn't exactly at the opposite end of the range, but they fared better than MB across the board.

Here are the latest ratings/rankings: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...ew-cars/0704_most-least-reliable-new-cars.htm

 

[Schwepps]

Ha ha! Spoken like only KL2DC would

I disagree with you though on the Camry comparison. I think it's natural to think in terms of 3-series/C-class vs Camry/Accord...luxury vs practicality. Bringing Lamborghini into the equation IS skewing it. That's a totally different frame of mind.

 

[Macheet]

Yes David, that's mine now with a spanking new 07 engine . Prior to the replacement, I went through a phase where my thumb/mind is always on the 'alladin' symbol becoz I kept checking the bar like a million time on the way to work and thinking - c' on...BMW could not screw-up this bad. Now we know even the Germans can get at the wrong end of the Murphy's Law. Still waiting for letter from AB for me to file a fresh paperwork to JPJ.


Scwepps, my old engine is now back in Munich, dont think I will be privy what's the outcome of their post-mortem. My feeling is;it was oil blow-by meaning piston rings did not 100% sealed. What I saw - 3/6 pots were esp bad. And the heads were clogged with oil crust.

I was initially concernerd if other systems of the car do not gel well with the new power plant i.e lungs, kidneys cannot work with the new heart but so far so good every other system has no issues so far.

Cheers

 

[Schwepps]

My feeling is;it was oil blow-by meaning piston rings did not 100% sealed.

If so, that would be incredibly bad manufacturing by the engine plant in this day and age. That they swapped the whole engine means it was a serious bore issue, not fixable by simply changing the piston rings. As I said earlier, this isn't a problem in cars manufactured in the 21st century. And we're paying RM288 and RM308 for them!

Good for you that it ended well, Macheet

 

[KL2DC]

Ha ha! Spoken like only KL2DC would

I disagree with you though on the Camry comparison. I think it's natural to think in terms of 3-series/C-class vs Camry/Accord...luxury vs practicality. Bringing Lamborghini into the equation IS skewing it. That's a totally different frame of mind.

Ahhh you knew it was coming The BMW vs MB debate is one we will always have, my friend.

I still don't agree about the comparisons with the CamCords, the cars were built to different missions. The BMW is a more complex car and its not farfetched to think that the more toys you have, the more stuff that can go wrong. Even Lexus is not without problems, there was some serious engine sludging problems affecting their bread and butter V6 engines and VW had similar sludging problems with their 1.8 turbo engines.