andy535xi

I took my car to the dealer for a "ticking" that occurs just after start up for about 2-5minutes, or until the car wamrs up. The dealer said the wastegate has to be replaced because of "incorrect spring tenssion", however because the wastegate and turbos are one assembly, both have to be replaced ... so I'm getting two new turbos under warranty. The car was still drivable, no power loss, no hessitation, it was just ticking. I asked the dealer how much would it cost me out of my own pocket had the warranty not been there. His reply was ... somewhere in the area of 6-7k. I asked if its a common problem on the N54, and he said yes, I'm not the only one and BMW is aware of the problem. Had my problem occurred earlier, maybe they would not have to replace the turbos, but since I have 50,000km turbos have to go.

Here is my question. Has anyone had their wastegate and/or turbos replaced because of this "ticking" sound?

Gene

did they try an SW update?

IIRC: pre 29.2 SW drivers also had complaints of a ticking sound. The fix was an SW upgrade to leave the wastegates open which stopped the ticking but caused the heavily talked about "turbo lag". Newer versions (32.2+) address/fix the turbo lag, not sure how the wastegates are affected (that thread on e90postsregarding the turbo lag is longer than the hong kong subforum we have here )

GL Andy, keep us posted....

EBMCS03

6-7K??!?!! thats crazy for something like that... if I had that problem out of warranty I dunno what to do... replace or not.. since its just a "noise" hopefully...

bigbadbull

Common problem on N54..they tried to solve it with a software flash , that then introduced Lag . Even with the replacement the ticking will come back, it is a fact.
You either can have ticking or lag? which will it be, of course you will also get ticking eventually with the laggy software. It is just noise....no performance issues. The Wastegates are just fluttering on the seals.


The software version 33.2+ and up will help but if you have a post March 08 build car , the lag won't improve, much due to the engine control installed on the car.

6-7k dose not surprise me much if you know what is involved in replacing the turbos on the N54. , they are in the block.... kinda hard to get to even though they are out bound on the block. The motor to replace is like 27-29k and there are several E90's that have had to get it done....$27k...

My R32 had an expensive motor...$13k but 27K? ouch.

andy535xi

Yes, the turbos are deep and lots of stuff needs to be removed. I asked if the noise will come back and SA said "I can't garantee anything" ... meaning it will. For now, I'm just going to stick with two new turbos since I still have the warranty.

Do I have to break the turbos in again or not?

Getting a little bit off topic, speaking about engine replacements. I noticed that BMW has put out the X5 M pacakage with 555hp and a ton of torque. Theoretically speaking, the X5 also hosts the N54 engine in its bay ... which means the engine mount points are pretty much the same. Given the assumption that we will have clearance for the ground and hood, the only issue would be to adapt the transmission. In automatic transmission cases, that could actually work, but I don't know about manual.

What do you guys think, or am I farting out of my ass?

pennetta

I don't think that it has the N54 motor, just the N52 NA one in the X5. Also if the N54 is $27K whats the X5 M engine cost???

bigbadbull

BMW is adding either the N54 or the N55 (betting on the N55 with the E90 announcement today) during the LCI upgrade to the E71.

I'm thinking the N54 is going to be in limited applications from now on... Z4 s3.5is....lol and 335is
The M v8tt in the Utes is very differnt beast compaired tot he N54. The Turbo is in the V of the V8 vs the turbos on the N54 I6 are built in the lower block. To change the plugs on the new ttV8's you have to drop the motor in the F10 and X's since there is so little room.

The new TT v12 the turbos are out bound of the motor and are very easy to get to.