[F30London]

Hello Bimmerpost community,

I hope you can help me out. I have had an annoying drivetrain error for the last couple of months which I was trying to solve and exhausted all the channels (including BMW dealership).

The issue:
Whenever accelerating from 30-40mph to 70-80mph, the drivetrain error pops-up and the car goes into limp mode. Reading with Carly BMW app, it tells me the error code is "120308 low charge pressure". Sometimes the error disappears in the morning or after a sharp acceleration but later comes back in similar manner (while accellerating 30-40mph to 70mph).

What I've done so far:
- I had an indy garage change the turbocharger intake pipe (was not cracked but close to cracking - error disappeared but couple of days later came back).
- I had another indy garage do a smoke test and no leaks were found.
- I had BMW dealership (BMW London/Croydon) do the pressure test for turbocharger, check cables, etc - they said they didnt find anything unusual.

Any suggestions what else could be causing this problem? I am so tired of keeping my car at mechanics that I am considering to change the turbo itself. Do you think this would solve the problem or this error might be caused by some other fault unrelated to turbocharger itself (that I should check before changing turbo)?

The car is 2013 BMW 316i (F30) N13 engine (Petrol).

Many thanks!

[rjd_F30]

Could be a bad MAP sensor perhaps? Looks like you've done everything that I would first suspect. After that I would start looking at the turbo.

[F1020bob]

Originally Posted by F30London

Hello Bimmerpost community,

I hope you can help me out. I have had an annoying drivetrain error for the last couple of months which I was trying to solve and exhausted all the channels (including BMW dealership).

The issue:
Whenever accelerating from 30-40mph to 70-80mph, the drivetrain error pops-up and the car goes into limp mode. Reading with Carly BMW app, it tells me the error code is "120308 low charge pressure". Sometimes the error disappears in the morning or after a sharp acceleration but later comes back in similar manner (while accellerating 30-40mph to 70mph).

What I've done so far:
- I had an indy garage change the turbocharger intake pipe (was not cracked but close to cracking - error disappeared but couple of days later came back).
- I had another indy garage do a smoke test and no leaks were found.
- I had BMW dealership (BMW London/Croydon) do the pressure test for turbocharger, check cables, etc - they said they didnt find anything unusual.

Any suggestions what else could be causing this problem? I am so tired of keeping my car at mechanics that I am considering to change the turbo itself. Do you think this would solve the problem or this error might be caused by some other fault unrelated to turbocharger itself (that I should check before changing turbo)?

The car is 2013 BMW 316i (F30) N13 engine (Petrol).

Many thanks!

Hey man! I have been on a deep dive searching forums and trying to figure out this exact issue on my F20 116i equipped with the same N13 1.6 turbo petrol engine. It's a problem that has been undiagnosed ever since I have bought the car over a year ago.

Have you managed to get to the root of this issue? If yes, I'd love to hear how it all went down. I yearn to see the day that this drivetrain error does not show up when I put my foot down in Sport mode.

Cheers.