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2007 E83 X3 2.0d - 3.5 yrs old Decoke needed £3200 HELP

15K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  4wheeldriver 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Engine Management light came on, garage just checked, said carbon build up, will cost at least £3,142.19 (love the 19p!) 6 months out of warranty. Have done 56,000 miles half motorways. BMW garage has always serviced car on time. Only got diesel from Texaco (get air miles) except occassional motorway service stations. BMW garage says may ask BMW to contribute!!

Anyone had similar problems?
What is likely to cause this?

I have had 318 and 320 Estates for last 20 years, this is first X3, never had a problem before with BMWs.

Help

Thanks

Ian
 
#2 ·
There's not much on the forums about decoking tho if you try an online search a fellow X3 driver has suffered with the same problem.

Some of the intake components (Inlet manifold and EGR) needed cleaning thoroughly and refitting.

Bryn Motors of Swansea did the decoking might be worthwhile giving them a bell? Something in the Welsh air perhaps?

Sorry its not much to go off, but its a start.

Good Luck and hope you find a cost effective solution and please keep the thread updated.

btw Welcome to the forums :thumbsup
 
#3 ·
£3142? I'd love to see the breakdown of that. I think you'll find they've pulled that figure out of thin air.

EML is most likely on because the EGR is chocked up with carbon deposits. Common problem on diesels that don't do any miles. It's a pretty easy job to sort yourself if you're handy with some spanners. A bottle of brake cleaner, a pointed blade, some old rags, some elbow grease and a few spare hours are all you need to do the EGR and get it sparkling. The inlet manifold is trickier as you have to be careful to not let the bits of carbon you chisel off fall down inside the engine, so a steady hand and a strong vacuum cleaner are needed to catch the bits.

I got my local garage to clean the EGR (only) on my old Vauxhall which had a fairly heavy build-up in places and he charged me £40 cash.

Ring round some places and get some quotes, especially diesel specialist places as they'll probably see this kind of thing on a regular basis. Once you've got it sorted, if you're not gonna be doing motorway work, run it on Shell V-Power diesel as this has strong cleaning agents in it and will keep your engine internals nice and clean. It also gives better mpg as well, so don't scoff at the extra cost of it because you'll be preventing problems like this in the long run. :thumbsup

Keep us updated.
 
#4 ·
Bit more info:
I forgot to say car 2.0d
The quoted £3,142 breakdown is made up of
Cylinder head £665
Sump £630
Clean Cylinders etc £700
Parts £600
Vat etc

BMW have agreed goodwill to pay 80% labour and 100% parts which sounds great until I now find that the BMW dealer says this means £800 where £300 is the 20% of labour and £500 is "OPEN TIME" something not claimed.

BMW Customer Services have been very understanding and helpful and if I had to pay 20% or £300 in total I would think this very reasonable.

It is my local BMW dealer that has the odd attitude - having bought BMWs from them for 22 years plus Minis for my wife.

Still have the unresolved issue of why it happened and what is to stop it happening again? Since I do 16K miles per year at least half on motorways, always been serviced on time by local BMW dealer I bought car from and always had good diesel.

Dealer charges £110 per hr + VAT might be cheaper if I take it down to my solicitors for them to work on it.
 
#9 ·
Out of interest I have just checked with BMW Warranty and they say that even their Comprehensive Policy would not cover Decoking - and they charge £464 per year no excess no breakdown cover.

Appart from the £22 per wiper blade local dealer wants £89 + VAT for Air filter and £44 + VAT for Oil filter. Also £1995 + VAT for just labour - but miraculously the repair would only take 1.5 days.

Has the same sort of feel as European Union Accounting - dream up the highest number you can think of and still be able to keep a straight face.
 
#14 ·
I know I've X5 3.0d but I regularly pour a couple of bottle's of injector cleaner through before a fill up and the odd tank of v power diesel.
 
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