cube

The E39s will/ must live forever. But then again more reliability nightmare, mine had a turbo at 55k and I think the place that I used put in a 2nd hand turbo because it failed again at 75k and I got no paperwork. And while we're on that, I used Turbo Technics at Northampton for the 2nd turbo. Good on 2 counts - 1) They have their own workshop so the whole job was done by them (removal/ recon/ refit) which is much better for warranty and 2) They were nice to deal with and have great credentials. Turbo was still ok 50k miles later. My E39 had one last chance but blew it on the way back from a ski trip to the alps and had to be left in France/ recovered later. It added insult to injury (literally) as I had a broken collarbone from said ski trip. Ha. Still think it was more comfortable than the F11. And the suspension airbags lasted MUCH longer. But we digress.....

Yes, a 2011 335i convertible. I've read the early N55 had a different oil pump, revised in later versions

Ha, thanks @Steve84N I had come across your thread earlier today and realised it must be you. I feel like I've now read every single thread and article out there on the oil filter housing gasket/ engine failure issue on the N55. Must be so many wasted hours/ so much wasted money by everyone on this. I added up the costs of all the work/ parts that had been done on mine just before this episode with investigation into water leak and oil leak, water pump, OFHG, rear discs and pads, a brake caliper, it's £2,000. Def feel my affection with BMW is waning. They're great when new / under warranty / working normally but otherwise seem like a massive liability.

Thanks @duncan-uk mine is convertible (no judging / comments please, ha) just looking on Autotrader seem to be around £11-12k, similar to the engine change plus turbo recon. I saw in @Steve84N's thread that you have an E39. I had one of those from 33k-125k miles. Was good but let us down on trip to the alps, had to go unfortunately and replaced by a F11 530d. This experience with the N55 has naturally added to the massive paranoia about all the stuff with the N57 engine in the 530d!

Oh yeah completely agree re much easier on the bearings on the starter. On post I read suggested removing the spark plugs as well to allow the starter to spin the engine faster/ more easily. If I was doing it myself, I think I would do that. My main problem is the cost, although mine is low mileage (77.5k/ 2nd owner/ bought it 9 years ago), it's a 2011 car and the cost of a new engine is the same as the value of the car. So it feels like having to buy my own car, or sell it for little and buy something else/ inherit someone else's problems.

Thanks. Yes, the place that did mine were dismissive of lack of priming being the reason my engine is ruined. But the low mileage on mine and the way it's turned out is so similar to the others I've read about, I'm convinced that not priming is the reason. I came across someone in America on Facebook talking about the importance of priming the N55 oil system. He had gone to the trouble of checking in the oil filter housing while cranking an engine after an OFHG change and in one case on an N55 he said it was a whole minute in total on the starter motor before there was oil in the housing. That has to be long enough oil starvation to cause damage to bottom end bearings if the car is started without priming. I'm finding it hard to find definitive info in the UK. E.g. these service information bulletins SIB 11 09 15 and SIB 11 02 20 both specify, the latter even reference specific engines including the N55, that priming the oil system has to be done after work on the oil filter housing. But what isn't clear to me is how these are included in say the BMW repair instructions, and especially in the UK. If there is anyone here who knows that side of it, I'd be interested to know.

Hi Andrew. I've found out the hard way re priming the oil system, my N55 just had the oil filter housing gasket done but now has a knocking bottom end and metal in the oil. Just curious how you knew about the need to prime the oil system as not everyone does, especially in the UK from what I can tell?