The BMW Nikasil issue

In addition to initial post. I have a 1997 523i SE, which I bought when unaware of this potential problem a few months ago.

Has anyone actually experienced problems with nikasil engines?

Dear Matt,

Thanks for info. you have posted. When I bought my 523 I was aware of the problem because a work mate had his new 523 with this problem. BMW fitted liners on the block's bores.I have experienced difficulty in finding the engine history on my car, even though I bought it from a main BMW dealer.Certainly the high sulphur fuel problem has gone away and engines involved are not likely to develop this problem.For obvious reasons the oil companys and BMW have kept this low profile.

Thanks again for the interesting info.

I have just bought a 520i estate M reg 1995, it has 112,000 miles on the clock and full service history, am I likely to suffer the Nikasil issue or would it have affected the car by now, if anyone can assist?

Cheers,

Hi BMWNUT,

When you took your car to main dealers did you just ask them to change your engine because of the nikasil problem??(and they agreed?)  I am surprised they changed it if nothing was wrong with the original engine, or that they did not perform a leak test.

When I first heard about the nikasil problem I sent BMW UK customer services an email with chassis number, reg etc. They confirmed to me that my car still had the original engine and that it was very unlikely that any problems would occur as the car has now done 74k. They did say though that if any problem with the engine should occur that "the dealers had a procedure in place to deal with this" (whatever that is).

Cheers

Matt123