tmatthews94
Member
Hi guys!
This is my first post on the forums.
I recently purchased a 2009 135i Coupe, and thought I could not be happier.
However, within a day of purchasing I began to notice problems.
Here are some pics of the car:
My new baby, complete with a smoking issue
But let me rewind a bit...
So I'd been looking for 'go-fast' car for about two years, and finally came across this 2009 135i with 70,000km, going for R225K - a hella upgrade from my Polo Vivo Zest.
The car had an intake and full exhaust installed, and was running the JB4 tune. It also had a mean M3-look bonnet, bootlip spoiler and some CSL replica wheels, making for a pretty mean look.
What made things better is that the seller was a guy from the forums (don't know what his username is, but his name is JC), and worked at an RMI approved shop - thus indicating to me that the car had been meticulously cared for and serviced to no end.
I drove out to Strand (from the Southern Suburbs in Cape Town) on two separate occasions to test drive the car with the owner (he refused to let anyone else drive the car). On these drives the owner explained how he had meticulously cared for the car whilst in his possession, and that the car was 100% from a mechanical point of view, explaining that he had done oil changes every 5000km, and changed spark-plugs, coil packs etc. at regular intervals. In other words, he had done his preventative maintenance.
I trusted his word as he gave me references to other forum members who I knew personally (Bompie), and he seemed to be a generally straightforward and honest guy.
So I agreed to buy the car from him, once he had carried out some last minute work on the car - new rear brake pads were fitted from BMW.
I transferred R220K into his account, waited for the payment to clear and the cash to reflect in his account, and then went to go and collect the car the next day.
Now at this point I must mention that I was extremely naive not to do the following:
Upon taking delivery of the car and driving it home, I noticed blue smoke coming from the car on deceleration, and a strange ticking/rattling noise.
This unsettled me quite a bit and so I did a bit of research and found that I suffered from the all-too-common N54 wastegate rattle problem. However, that didn't explain the blue smoke...
At this point I contacted JC, the now previous owner and discussed the issue with him. He seemed semi-helpful and it seemed as if he would have helped me out with a rebuild, since he sold the car to me on the premise that it was 100% mechanically sound.
I went around getting quotes for rebuilds/replacements and found the following:
Brilliant Mechanical Workshop stood out to me as I really felt listened to there. Ralph took his time to explain BMW's engineering boo-boo and contacted me the following day with the two quote options.
In the meantime I read countless threads from all sorts of BMW related forums (n54tech, bimmerheads, BMWFanatics etc.) and finally found a self-diagnosis test:
Hold the RPM's at around 1000-1500RPM and see if the car starts smoking. What this test is meant tot show is that the turbo seals are leaking oil, as at this low/zero boost pressure, the easiest path for the oil is to pass through the already-faulty turbo seals.
Sure enough, I found that my "100% mechanically sound car" smoked like chimney, confirming my worst fears that I would need to do some sort of turbo rebuild. [I will be inspecting the other common leak areas simultaneously - PCV Valve, Valve stems, valve cover etc. - but the turbos will need some sort of work done to get rid of the wastegate rattle]
See the two videos below:
Smoking is bad, kids
At this point I messaged JC (this was about two days after contacting him about the problem for the first time) to discuss the options for a rebuild/refurbishment, and the following conversation took place:
[Note the order of the pictures from 1 to 16]
Chat with JC
To round this all up, I know I was hasty and not thorough enough about my inspection and testing of the car. But gee... is there any decency left in the world these days?
What do you guys reckon I do?
A sad, frustrated and dissapointed noobie,
Taahir
This is my first post on the forums.
I recently purchased a 2009 135i Coupe, and thought I could not be happier.
However, within a day of purchasing I began to notice problems.
Here are some pics of the car:
My new baby, complete with a smoking issue
But let me rewind a bit...
So I'd been looking for 'go-fast' car for about two years, and finally came across this 2009 135i with 70,000km, going for R225K - a hella upgrade from my Polo Vivo Zest.
The car had an intake and full exhaust installed, and was running the JB4 tune. It also had a mean M3-look bonnet, bootlip spoiler and some CSL replica wheels, making for a pretty mean look.
What made things better is that the seller was a guy from the forums (don't know what his username is, but his name is JC), and worked at an RMI approved shop - thus indicating to me that the car had been meticulously cared for and serviced to no end.
I drove out to Strand (from the Southern Suburbs in Cape Town) on two separate occasions to test drive the car with the owner (he refused to let anyone else drive the car). On these drives the owner explained how he had meticulously cared for the car whilst in his possession, and that the car was 100% from a mechanical point of view, explaining that he had done oil changes every 5000km, and changed spark-plugs, coil packs etc. at regular intervals. In other words, he had done his preventative maintenance.
I trusted his word as he gave me references to other forum members who I knew personally (Bompie), and he seemed to be a generally straightforward and honest guy.
So I agreed to buy the car from him, once he had carried out some last minute work on the car - new rear brake pads were fitted from BMW.
I transferred R220K into his account, waited for the payment to clear and the cash to reflect in his account, and then went to go and collect the car the next day.
Now at this point I must mention that I was extremely naive not to do the following:
- 110-point check at BMW or a BMW focussed workshop
- Test-drive the car myself
- Have someone more experienced than myself test drive the car
Upon taking delivery of the car and driving it home, I noticed blue smoke coming from the car on deceleration, and a strange ticking/rattling noise.
This unsettled me quite a bit and so I did a bit of research and found that I suffered from the all-too-common N54 wastegate rattle problem. However, that didn't explain the blue smoke...
At this point I contacted JC, the now previous owner and discussed the issue with him. He seemed semi-helpful and it seemed as if he would have helped me out with a rebuild, since he sold the car to me on the premise that it was 100% mechanically sound.
I went around getting quotes for rebuilds/replacements and found the following:
- Riyaan (Rennzport) - 25K for turbo refurbishment, upgraded compressor wheels, and an upgraded wastegate
- Sherwin (recommended by Bompie) - 40K for BMW OEM replacements
- Brilliant Mechanical Workshop - they gave me two quotes: 36K for an OEM replacement; 14K for a refurbishment and upgraded wastegates
- Turbo Tech - to be honest they seemed pretty useless. They wanted to tell me that the car doesn't have wastegates, the smoking was from piston rings, and they even asked me if a 135i is a diesel car... So I didn't bother getting a quote from them
Brilliant Mechanical Workshop stood out to me as I really felt listened to there. Ralph took his time to explain BMW's engineering boo-boo and contacted me the following day with the two quote options.
In the meantime I read countless threads from all sorts of BMW related forums (n54tech, bimmerheads, BMWFanatics etc.) and finally found a self-diagnosis test:
Hold the RPM's at around 1000-1500RPM and see if the car starts smoking. What this test is meant tot show is that the turbo seals are leaking oil, as at this low/zero boost pressure, the easiest path for the oil is to pass through the already-faulty turbo seals.
Sure enough, I found that my "100% mechanically sound car" smoked like chimney, confirming my worst fears that I would need to do some sort of turbo rebuild. [I will be inspecting the other common leak areas simultaneously - PCV Valve, Valve stems, valve cover etc. - but the turbos will need some sort of work done to get rid of the wastegate rattle]
See the two videos below:
Smoking is bad, kids
At this point I messaged JC (this was about two days after contacting him about the problem for the first time) to discuss the options for a rebuild/refurbishment, and the following conversation took place:
[Note the order of the pictures from 1 to 16]
Chat with JC
To round this all up, I know I was hasty and not thorough enough about my inspection and testing of the car. But gee... is there any decency left in the world these days?
What do you guys reckon I do?
A sad, frustrated and dissapointed noobie,
Taahir
