My wife’s BMW X3 just got a drivetrain malfunction a couple days ago. The car still drives, we took it to the dealership, and they confirmed the timing chain issue. Needs to be replaced. Apparently it’s out of extended warranty and the class action lawsuit discount expired. The car has about 97,000 miles.
Looking online, it seems to be a not-uncommon issue that can be fixed for $2-3K. But $7.7K??!? Seriously? This is a screen cap of the dealership estimate. We’re in New Jersey.
Is this a fair estimate? Any insights would be appreciated as I get the feeling were being taken for a ride to force us to buy a new car. This 11-year-old car probably isn’t worth that much anymore, even though it’s in excellent condition otherwise. Thanks.
So unfortunately timing chains on BMWs are getting harder and harder to do. For the B/S58 they moved all the vanos hardware to the back so if you need to do a timing chain its an engine out service. I would say this is a lot for that year X3 but for a modern car this isn’t out of the world price wise considering how much labor it is just to get to the chain, maybe they are going off that and quoting you what it would cost for a much newer car.