[DuckHawk]

Hi Folks,

I'm hoping to get some advice here -- my father in law is offering to give us his 2016 X3 28i with ~100,000KM for whatever I can sell our current 2016 Honda HR-V for.

We're thinking about starting a family soon so a larger vehicle would definitely come in handy. Based on some of the current prices I found on Facebook and Craigslist, I can sell our HR-V for ~15-17K CAD and 2016 X3s with that milage go for ~23-27K.

If you were in my position, would you go forward with this? My biggest concern is the N20 timing chain defect, which could cost up to $5-10K here in Canada. As I've read that BMW Canada did not extend the warranty to 8 years for the Timing Chains. Can somebody confirm if this is correct?

Also are there other common issues that occur around this mileage that I should be aware of?

I only owned Japanese cars (Subaru and Honda) and I managed to do most of the simple repairs on my own (change spark plugs, oil changes, etc).

Thanks for your help in advance!

[Wgosma]

As I recall the N20/26 timing chain guides were re-designed in 2015; so a 2016 model year car should be fine from that standpoint.

You can DIY many things on these cars, for the most part in my experience owing BMW's for 15+ years and doing a good deal of my own maintenance and repair work I find the cars well engineered and pretty straightforward to work on....of course these newer cars do have more sophisticated electronics so that can complicate things a bit (or a lot) depending on the problem you are faced with. A good quality scanner (or the ISTA software) is a must for the DIY person.

4-bangers engines: aside from one 1984 3-Series car, all my subsequent BMW's have had the inline 6 motors (my 2012 X3 is a normally aspirated I-6). I have owned 5 sedans and the SUV was acquired 3 years ago. Personally I'd opt for an X3 with 6 cylinder motor, BMW is renown for their inline 6's; they are near bullet-proof. The N20 w/turbo as you're speaking of possibly acquiring will run along nicely, but I'd be wondering a bit about longevity compared to a car w/6-cylinder, but that is just me - I really have minimal experience owning these cars (sans the 1984 model) with 4 cylinder engine.

Things you can expect with BMW are leaking valve cover, oil filter housing gaskets - they don't use same materials as other manufacturers so life is limited. Diligent maintenance is the word of the day, these cars are not Toyotas or Hondas; neglecting regular service/preventative maintenance is just asking for problems, often expensive ones particularly if one cannot do their own repairs. That being said, if one takes care of the car they are reliable machines that will go quite a number of miles.

Hope this helps / Good luck/ Bill

[Opie55]

You are well past the timing chain issue. I have a 2014 28i that just hit 60k miles. It has never had a repair of any kind. Not even $1. Just regular maintenance - oil, filters, brake fluid flushes, wiper blades, one set of brakes and tires. It still even has every light bulb it left the factory with.

[dtox9]

+1
agree with what they said above...

Change your fluids....
Keep up with your maintenance items...

and enjoy the drive!

[spudslatte]

+2 - I have a 2016 also and confirmed with 2 dealerships we are fine regarding timing chain - helpful advice given to me by members here for me being at 69K mi was to flush brake fluid, Trans filter fluid change, plugs, front/rear diff fluid, and tsfr case fluid. Best of luck

[DuckHawk]

Thank you all for the advice. Glad to hear that the car is reliable. Will be talking with the father in law this weekend to get this sorted out.