Small update. its been just over 3000miles since i got it going again. It continues to run perfectly fine. I learned that ISTA has a way of checking all fuel grade history for the car. I pulled that and the car had 0 "low grade fill ups" 456 "medium" and 113 "high" grade fill ups. Its rated my last 5 fill ups of 93 octane as "medium" grade. Also ISTA is telling me it doesnt detect a tune. no clue if that means theres never been one or if there just currently isnt. This i think kills my theory this dammage was done with low octane fuel.
BMW X3 xDrive28i N20,146k, 7.5k M1 Euro OW40 , high wear
- Thread starter levesqu6
- Start date
Yours is an interesting case for sure. Thanks for this, please continue to keep us updated.
Finally got around to checking the cylinders out with a new borescope. Some observations
-bores look like they are in good shape. some light vertical scratching. I suppose this isnt a surprise since the engine uses nearly no oil.
-build up on intake valves looks fine. BMW must have figured this DI issue out way back in 2012 when they released this engine.
-some carbon on the pistons
anyway its at 152k now. about time for a oil change. I dumped the oil during the valve cover/timing job to take a look at it. It looked like it had fine sparkly material in it. I found some shavings on the tensioner and its bore when i took the tensioner out. They were not there the first time I pulled the tensioner to put the tensioner checking tool in there. Current theory is they are from the tension checking tool that gave me trouble. Maybe they are from a previous failure in this engine? maybe they are the symptoms of the failure. I dunno. i think i might give up here, it continues to run fine.
-bores look like they are in good shape. some light vertical scratching. I suppose this isnt a surprise since the engine uses nearly no oil.
-build up on intake valves looks fine. BMW must have figured this DI issue out way back in 2012 when they released this engine.
-some carbon on the pistons
anyway its at 152k now. about time for a oil change. I dumped the oil during the valve cover/timing job to take a look at it. It looked like it had fine sparkly material in it. I found some shavings on the tensioner and its bore when i took the tensioner out. They were not there the first time I pulled the tensioner to put the tensioner checking tool in there. Current theory is they are from the tension checking tool that gave me trouble. Maybe they are from a previous failure in this engine? maybe they are the symptoms of the failure. I dunno. i think i might give up here, it continues to run fine.
Checking in at 157,4xx. I replaced the turbo again about 2k ago. The refurb unit i put in at 119k to address the wastegate being worn out... wore out even faster and was in way worse condition. New turbo is another refurb but looks much higher quality. Did oil filter housing gasket and water pump while in there. While diagnosing the low boost code, i found a section of the BMW DME diagnostics that holds onto old codes/info. There was old info in there for fuel pressure related faults. I bet the piston damage this motor has is from whatever that fault was. The DME should have protected the engine since it has fuel rail pressure and a wide band O2 sensor but sure looks like it didnt. Car continues to run great.
Similar threads
