N55 turbo reliability

[jlquinn]

Hi folks,

I've thought about putting a tune on my car (2011 135i) on and off since I've owned it. At this point, I have 145K on the motor and I'm WAY past the warranty.

My concern is whether the car is too old to do this safely. My mechanic told me he sees N55 turbos starting to go around 150K. This gives me pause about boosting the car as well as contemplating moving on to a newer vehicle.

I've twice had the car run very rough and lose power but then shutting off the car and starting it 15m later it was fine and showed no codes.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

Thanks
Jerry

[HawkeyeGeoff]

Originally Posted by jlquinn

Hi folks,

I've thought about putting a tune on my car (2011 135i) on and off since I've owned it. At this point, I have 145K on the motor and I'm WAY past the warranty.

My concern is whether the car is too old to do this safely. My mechanic told me he sees N55 turbos starting to go around 150K. This gives me pause about boosting the car as well as contemplating moving on to a newer vehicle.

I've twice had the car run very rough and lose power but then shutting off the car and starting it 15m later it was fine and showed no codes.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

Thanks
Jerry

It's very hard to make blanket statements, but my experience with ANY turbo is that you can usually expect 100k out of them. After that usually it will need new seals.

[04mazdaspeed]

Well it sounds like your not ready to pay to play. Keep in mind, modding any car at any miles will reduce the reliability but to say at what mileage will something fail is too open. ive seen brand new motors take a crap and ive seen modded motors last over 100k miles of abuse. You have to be ready to replace parts that break from modding so if you don't want to do that then just keep it stock to try to prolong the reliability. The turbo would be the least of my worries anyways since its not a huge expense compared to the motor shitting the bed which at that miles and depending on how far you go on mods would only be a matter of time anyways.

[The Wind Breezes]

N55 turbo reliability: high

If you're diligent with maintenance tune the car. Keep in mind there are very few 150k mile N55 motors out there your and mechanic is mostly not having people bring him perfectly healthy cars. A good tune is not a problem for an old but healthy turbo.

[HyeWarrior]

I'm at 70K miles on mine, expecting 100K. N55 turbos seem to be really reliable *knock on wood*

Planning on keeping the car long term as a project, so when the turbo goes, thats when I'll probably go "all-out" with mods and an upgraded turbo