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BMW 3 Series Coupe - 2007 320d E92 - engine shaking/ loss of power - David97
I've got a e92 320d M Sport Auto with only 89k on the clock. I've only had the car for a couple of months now and a few weeks ago the battery decided to die only a few hours of being parked up, so it was jump started with another car and since then the car sounded like a tractor. I took it to a BMW specialist who adviced me not to drive it and bring it to him the next day to have it checked out. Whilst on my way to the garage the next day the car just randomly started shaking and since then the car/engine shakes violently, has smoke coming out the exhaust and also has no power. The bmw specialists had a look and decided to open the inlet manifold to check whether the swirl flaps had snapped and fell into the engine which wasn't the case and told me instead of paying them to open up the engine and finding out the real problem I was better off to just buy a new engine. From then I took the car to Sytner who charged me £150 to do some 'diagnostics' and told me they'd charge me another £500 to open the inlet manifold to check for swirl flaps. I told them that this had been done and they were there but according to them they were to start from scratch to find the problem as I could eventually need a new engine. I told them not to touch the car and decided to take it to a couple other places who told me it may be the swirl flaps but I'm better off getting a new engine instead of messing around.

Now the car has only got 89k on the clock and was driving beautifully before the battery died so I don't get why I would need a new engine? To me it sounds like it may just be the injectors, glow plugs etc. As I had the car at sytner the week before who did a health check and told me the car was fine with no problems and suddenly I need a new engine?

I was wondering whether there may be someone on here with similar problems in the past or someone with some actual advise that makes sense?

Any replies are appreciated
BMW 3 Series Coupe - 2007 320d E92 - engine shaking/ loss of power - RobJP

There is a 'good garage scheme' on here, or the 'goodgarageguide' website. Get someone recommended. Bosch diesel specialists (use google) seem to have a good reputation too.

As to taking a 10 year old car to a main agent - well, you need your head examining, not just the car. It's a very quick way of racking up huge bills.

BMW 3 Series Coupe - 2007 320d E92 - engine shaking/ loss of power - gordonbennet

Sounds like it needs to visit a proper mechanic, its either got swirl flaps still in place or its hasn't, personally if i was going to get the present engine sorted i'd remove the pointless bally things anyway, which we had done on two BMW's for around £200 each at PMW Chelmsford including bespoke blanking plates, so Sytner's £500 to check for swirl flaps is laughable.

Its possible the swirl flaps are still there but a securing screw got sucked in and has holed a piston, just thinking aloud.

My initial thought is that it suffered standard turbo failure (they all do that sir) but it could be anything, timing chain slipped even, it probably needs a compression test, it will almost certainly need stripping down to find out what's happened, so forget main dealer labour rates.

If you happen to live anywhere near Chelmsford PMW are worth looking up, also very approachable via the telephone, might be worth a call if you have no one else you can entrust this work to, could even be worth getting the car transported.

I have no contact or interest in the company other as a satisfied customer.

BMW 3 Series Coupe - 2007 320d E92 - engine shaking/ loss of power - jc2

Camel>cambelt.Please turn off the predictive text!

BMW 3 Series Coupe - 2007 320d E92 - engine shaking/ loss of power - David97

Sounds like it needs to visit a proper mechanic, its either got swirl flaps still in place or its hasn't, personally if i was going to get the present engine sorted i'd remove the pointless bally things anyway, which we had done on two BMW's for around £200 each at PMW Chelmsford including bespoke blanking plates, so Sytner's £500 to check for swirl flaps is laughable.

Its possible the swirl flaps are still there but a securing screw got sucked in and has holed a piston, just thinking aloud.

My initial thought is that it suffered standard turbo failure (they all do that sir) but it could be anything, timing chain slipped even, it probably needs a compression test, it will almost certainly need stripping down to find out what's happened, so forget main dealer labour rates.

If you happen to live anywhere near Chelmsford PMW are worth looking up, also very approachable via the telephone, might be worth a call if you have no one else you can entrust this work to, could even be worth getting the car transported.

I have no contact or interest in the company other as a satisfied customer.

unfortunately chelmsford is 150 miles away. I'll look into the turbo failure and also the compression test. ive had the timing chain checked and there wasn't anything wrong with that as well as the swirl flaps which are the 2 main common faults with this engine.