BMW car with oil leak

[figbat]

Anybody got any insights or experience with the BMW B38 engine as fitted to the 2016 118i? My daughter’s newly-acquired car has a leak which I’m struggling to locate. It seems to be high up on the offside of the engine. This would appear to rule out the common oil filter/cooler housing which is lower down. Turbo feed and return lines seem OK. This leaves the valve cover or head gaskets as prime suspects. Oil and coolant appear to be clear and it runs and drives OK.

My poor daughter is gutted as it’s her first car. The seller claimed that the oil leak mentioned in the MOT history had been rectified. She is going to get back to them (used car sales) anyway but in the mean time I’m trying to understand what is what.

 

[Drago]

Pics?

 

[wafter]

Can't offer any specific insight but (as you're probably aware) the later engines with placcy cam covers are renowned for leaking from this area.

I was looking at costs associated with the N53 engine recently (their last N/A straight six) - cam cover bolts are single-use aluminium and something like £17ea - meaning a cam cover leak's going to cost north of £300 in parts before you've even looked at a gasket or the cover itself

Further, high pressure direct injection fuel injectors; £500+ a piece so north of three grand for a full set. Suffice to say this model's off the menu..

 

[figbat]

Yes, cam cover is a common issue but from my observation this appears to be OK.

Attached is a picture taken by thrusting my phone into a crevasse with the video running. It is, I believe, the head-to-block interface. Whether the oil is emerging from here or just tracking here I can’t tell. I am borrowing an endoscope camera later today for a more detailed inspection.

What’s the situation regarding rejecting the car or returning it? I specifically asked about the oil leak reported on the MOT history and the sales guy said it had been “rectified”. I saw oil in the engine bay and he said they aren’t allowed to clean up the engine bay before sales so as not to make it look fresh for a potential buyer.

The car comes with a warranty but it’s one of those with a million clauses and exceptions. Oil leaks are covered but only if it requires the engine to be removed to fix.

 

[Gunk]

Falls under the Sale of goods act.

The quality of the goods sold must be satisfactory (prior to 1994, this provision required 'merchantable' quality

Although clear not merchantable quality, I'm pretty sure you can’t just reject the car, you will need to allow the dealer to carry out a satisfactory repair.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Within 30 days?
Reject, no questions, no objections - it's faulty, it isn't as Sales described, it has a serious issue, known to that model.

Primer:
https://www.hibberts.com/faulty-car-after-purchase/

 

[Drago]

As Boney says, right to reject within 30 days. It's a ballache but if shes within that window thats what I'd do, as shes clearly been bullpoised by the sals boy.

After that warranty be damned - the CRA2015 places the onus on the vendor to repair at their expense, as any fault is presumed by law to have been present or developing at the time of sale.

 

[figbat]

As Boney says, right to reject within 30 days. It's a ballache but if shes within that window thats what I'd do, as shes clearly been bullpoised by the sals boy.

After that warranty be damned - the CRA2015 places the onus on the vendor to repair at their expense, as any fault is presumed by law to have been present or developing at the time of sale.

There is evidence of the pre-existence of the leak on the DVLA MOT history page. Unfortunately the daughter has fallen in love with the car despite the issues so rejecting it will be quite a tough ask. If it can be fixed then great.

I’m now in possession of an endoscope camera so I’ll be probing it this afternoon.

 

[fossyant]

Other option is blast the area clean with engine degreaser then keep an eye on it, especially if its not been cleaned off before.

 

[Drago]

No mechanic worth the job title would repair an oil leak and not clean up before dismantling, never mind after the job is finished.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

My mechanical experience is back from my younger days so I can't offer expertise, likewise for Sale of Goods, but ...

Is there an issue where if you start to work on the car then the reights to return/refund would be impacted. I appreciate OP's daughter loves the car but would she still love it (to the same degree) were significant bills to start arising? I don't know the car but BMW doesn't sound like a rare find that could take months to find another.

 

[SteveH80]

If it was an easy, cheap fix I expect the vendor would have done that. I would say reject it outright under the 30 day rule, and if that's past I would consider the sale of goods act / small claims court.
I appreciate getting her to do any of that might be difficult, young drivers with their first cars are notoriously optimistic.

 

[figbat]

We haven’t done any work on it other than remove the undertrays to aid inspection.

Endoscope inspection is inconclusive but there are ‘tide marks’ where oil appears to have leaked. They look alarming like cracks but I managed to rub the end of the camera on one and it wiped away. This is all right behind the turbo so completely inaccessible by hand or tools.

 

[figbat]

Other option is blast the area clean with engine degreaser then keep an eye on it, especially if its not been cleaned off before.

The area in question is almost impossible to reach - the endoscope camera just fits in there so trying to blast it with anything will be hard. I also don’t want to clean away evidence of oil leaking.

The tide marks suggest it has been weeping for a while and hasn’t seen daylight or a wipe, so I’d be pretty confident in saying the turbo hasn’t been off recently.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Tell FB Junior the important truth that there is always another car.