Quote:
Originally Posted by Rafale
First, it is indeed an assumption I made based on feedback on this very forum that in europe much fewer failures are being reported. Come to think about it, it is also very possible that there are fewer 35i in Europe given that buyers are more cost sensitive there but I assumed it to be true.
Second... I used to work in oil as a process engineer and have actually worked in a refinery! Not all gas is being created equal and although aftermarket additives different companies add to the gasoline is a major factor, it is not everything. Even the same brand of gas will have different level of minerals (inorganic) and other components are not being filtered the same way through the hydrodesulfuration and distillation process. There will be batch to batch variations depending on the origin of the oil. How much it will affect the pump, I do not know. One would argue that in reality a lot of the refinery in europe are actually shipping their gasoline to ... the US because europe has gone mostly diesel. I know this for fact from former colleagues. It is however perfectly reasonable to think that given the price of gas in Europe, companies there are more inclined to put different (read useful) additives than in the US. The same is true for Engine oil. There is a reason why BMW imports their synthetic oil from Europe and that you cannot buy the exact same oil in the US. This is a fact, not a rumor.
Your reasoning on the HPFP design flaw makes sense except... If they outsourced the pump and it would be an off the shelf part from an OEM, other cars would use the same pump and would also have increased failure rates. This leads to think that the pump on the N54 might be specific and would have a design flaw making it incompatible or more sensitive to the gas over here. Being it flow, pressure, material degradation or whatever it is I don't know.
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I appreciate your first hand knowledge of fuel production industry that certainly trumps my own. My info is based on research though the years and a few documentary films. However, what I did find interesting here in the US is the method of storage and transport. Fuel in the US (and I can only assume the same is true Europe) is transported primarily through the same underground pipes to huge fuel depots. They showed fuel being extracted from the same reservoirs for Shell, Chevron, etc. and their additives were mixed just before being transported by truck to the individual gas stations.
BMW, like virtually all manufactures today, uses outsource manufactured products built to their specifications. This is true of fuel pumps as well. I’d have to dig around to find the thread, which assumes I could remember the forum I read it (likely e90post) but there has been some discussion about BMW working with the manufacture of the n54 HPFP to get it right.
Note the latest info from Alext:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alext
Note that the new N55 twinscroll engines (designed to replace the N54) also use the same HPFP with the same part#. Some have failed already too.
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Posted here:
http://e89.zpost.com/forums/showthre...88#post8131988
Cheers
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