[Matt777W]

2012 May BMW F30 320d with the N47
Currently on 83000km, noticed these noise

Any clue guys?

[Zheez]

Does sound a bit like it. I had this on my E90 320D which also had an N47 engine. Here's a video I took of it a few years ago - a bit harder to hear but the same noise is there in the background: https://youtube.com/shorts/VmMx9WB7gvw?feature=share

For what it's worth, I noticed the problem at about 80k miles/128k km and never had any issues until I got rid of the car 3 years later at 165k miles/265k km. The noise never got any worse. But I may have just been lucky.

[Enabled]

Curious on the oil service interval that was followed?
The North American cars never got the outrageous 30,000km OCI for the N47.

[Matt777W]

iDrive maintenance record
2012 - no record
2013 - no record
2014/08/19 (10753km) - engine oil serviced (2 months late)
2015/07/14 (16891km) - no change of engine oil recorded
2016/07/01 (26535km) - no change of engine oil recorded
2017/08/23 (34575km) - no change of engine oil recorded
2018 - no record
2019/05/30 (51114km) - engine oil serviced (10 months late)
2020/02/04 (54400km) - no change of engine oil recorded
2021/04/21 (65274km) - engine oil serviced
2022/05/20 (69905km) - no change of engine oil recorded
2023/07/06 (82261km) - engine oil serviced (2 months late)

I picked up the car since 2023 June

Previous owner claims he has always have the engine oil change every year.

With invoice of 2019/2020/2021 , service with dealers mostly with microfilter, brake fluid, rear brakes, no preventative maintenance ever done

I hope they just didn't log the record into iDrive, otherwise I would be deeply concerned about the engine oil service from 2014-2019

Brought the car out of dealer service from 2023, mechanic suspect engine timing chain getting noisy. Drove the car to another BMW specialist in Sydney, they listen to the engine carefully and restart engine several times , they think it sounds normal. They told me these N47 timing chain problem happens quite randomly no matter the manufacturing year. Some has and some just never have these problems. They have done several N47 timing chain service and told me those car has at least 120,000km - 200,000km. They are shocked this car has only 80000km / 50000 miles that another well known BMW specialist here in Sydney raised the issue.

One thing from now on, I will definitely change the engine oil with intervals of 10000km or 1 year. Going smoothly with the engine, not revving much and shifting gear as fast as possible to not put to much strain on the engine.

[Matt777W]

One thing to add: That other mechanic suggest the sound might be tensioner pulley, kindly asked me to return if I'm still worried about the sound

[kdog_x]

Could always start it with the belt removed for a minute. If that sound is the tensioner pulley (Or anything else driven by the belt) it should go away.

I certainly agree that 30km oil changes is crazy. I think mine resets to 10,000 mi and I usually end up doing it a little early. Which looks to be the interval they started to follow in 2019+ according to your records.

[Matt777W]

New update!

One BMW dealer managed to retrieve complete service history

(seems that Sydney BMW dealerships have a combined platform for sharing information)

The car was indeed taken to several dealers across Sydney for service, the dealer in South Coast strangely didn't log some record on Drive (Phew!)

The oil service history is now:

2012 - no record
2013 - no record
2014/08/19 (10753km) - engine oil serviced (2 months late, warranty)
2015/07/14 (16891km) - no change of engine oil recorded
2016/07/01 (26535km) - no change of engine oil recorded (vehicle inspected, engine oil service next mileage was reset to 22000km??? Perhaps there might be a change?Feel free to look at my attachment)
2017/08/23 (34575km) - engine oil serviced (1100 km overdue)
2018 - no record
2019/05/30 (51114km) - engine oil serviced (10 months late)
2020/02/04 (54400km) - no change of engine oil recorded
2021/04/21 (65274km) - engine oil serviced (on time)
2022/05/20 (69905km) - no change of engine oil recorded
2023/07/06 (82261km) - engine oil serviced (2 months late)

So it seems that dealers set the oil service interval to around 20000km or 2 years. Don't know why they are still resetting the mileage this high because the car is out of warranty by then and the previous owner has high trust on dealer service here in Sydney. Thankfully this car has not logged too much miles in the last 10 years with such oil intervals. Buut from now on, MAXIMUM 10K / 1 YEAR under my watch!

The official service history is attached. Welcome to have a look and try to understand the mindset of BMW dealers.

Car bought with BMW Canterbury back in 2012
Last 2 service was with BMW Parramatta in 2021,2022
No email reply for 3 weeks from BMW Parramatta
BMW Canterbury responded within a night
Thank you for the efficiency for this

Any dealer can access your service history no matter which dealer you last went, at least in my case (Sydney, NSW, Australia)

[kdog_x]

They provided the entire repair history in symbols?

I understand the oil symbol on the left, and maybe inspection on the right. Not sure about the rest. I never received my BMW decoder ring when I bought mine.

[Matt777W]

My guess based on what was serviced:

From Left to Right

1. Oil Service
2. Air Cleaner
3. Microfilter
4. Fuel Filter
5. Front Brakes
6. Brake Fluid
7. Rear Brakes
8. Vehicle Check