Q: First day of ownership car has ticking noise - 2008 BMW 528xi
When I purchased our car, it had been a demo and I was assured that it was certified. The first day I owned it, it started ticking and the BMW dealer said all that was needed was an engine bleed-down. They did this ‘four’ times and none of that helped at all; the ticking noise was still present. I decided to go to another BMW dealership where they told me that it needed a new cylinder head because of a manufacturer defect. They have had my car for weeks and still have not started working on it!! What should I do to get this car into good running performance?
If the car is a certified pre-owned and is still under warranty when the complaint was logged BMW should still still cover this concern. The 6 cylinder engines have had challenges with the HVA (hydraulic valve actuators or lifters). They tend to trap air and then will tick as they are not completely filled with oil. While this makes a noise it will not hurt the engine. There is a service bulletin to do a bleeding procedure on the VHA’s but generally when this does not correct the issue the dealer will either replace the lifters or replace the cylinder head. If the dealer is letting your vehicle sit you may need to contact BMW customer assistance department to get this issue looked at more promptly and possibly get a technical service engineer out to look at this vehicle at the dealer.
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