BMW 114 - Crankshaft issues?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Thu 2 Nov 2017 16:33
BMW 114 - Crankshaft issues? - catsdad
I am looking at cars next week with my son. He is now looking for a 2012 onwards mid size petrol car in tha £8-9k price bracket. Snce my earler V40 thread I have suggested all the usual suspects but decent Mazdas, Hondas, Kia etc are very rare at present. Even 1.6 Focus are few and far between. We havent got a lot to see as yet but ther are still a few days to go. Civic remains my preferred option but its up to him.

Anyway he is keen to add the base BMW 1 to his list and there are a couple of nice looking cars in price range from specialist independents. Not my sort of car in base spec but quite insurance friendly for him.

Searching on this site HJ refers in one Ask HJ response to a known BMW 114.crankshaft issue but a wider Google search doesn't throw up any more info.There are a few references to MINIs - is this the same engine - but nothing I can see specific to BMW 1. Can any backroomer confirm if there is a crankshaft issue with the BMW version or not?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 2 Nov 2017 17:00
BMW 114 - Crankshaft issues? - RobJP

I'm pretty certain it's the same engine.

You'd find a lot fewer reported problems with the BMW because so many 1 series sales were diesel. The 116d, 118d, 120d, 123d were all the same unit, in varying states of tune

Do please advise him that, while the 1 series is a great driving car (we had one for 4 years, and I believe it was Skidpan who also ran one for a few years), it is very limited for rear space and particularly legroom. That RWD transmission tunnel robs a lot of space in the footwell.

The 5 door version is also far more practical. Ignoring the difficulty of getting in and out of the 3 door version, the doors on the 3 door are ridiculously long, meaning you need huge amounts of space to get in and out.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 2 Nov 2017 17:08
BMW 114 - Crankshaft issues? - craig-pd130

The crankshaft problem is with the 1.5 litre 3-cylinder turbo engine that's in some BMWs and the Mini Coopers. Subject to a recall, if I remember right.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 3 Nov 2017 07:20
BMW 114 - Crankshaft issues? - Falkirk Bairn

Recently oil change on the 1.5 BMWs has changed to annual / 12K since the known crankshaft / new engines on comparatively new cars. !!

HJ has said this all along for as long as I have read his column.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 3 Nov 2017 10:02
BMW 114 - Crankshaft issues? - catsdad
Thanks for advice to date. Doing a bit more digging it seems the engine in his price range is a version of the Prince engine developed with PSA. Its a 1.6 four cylinder with 102hp. It was indeed shared with the Mini and has been superseded by the 3 cylinder 1.5.

There have been various developments of the Prince engine to iron out problems. Its not clear to me iwhether these were resolved in later cars. At least a low power version will have lower stresses but the number of references to problems has put me off.

BMW engine designations are of course confusing......old 114 was a 1.6, new 118 is a 1.5 and so on. No logic. Hardly worth deleting the badges anymore ;-)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

If you cover no more than 100 miles per day and have easy access to a charging point at home or work, then an EV is ideal for you.

Is an electric car right for me?