What Are Common BMW B38 Engine Problems? The 3-Cylinder Turbo Explained
Image: BMW B38A15A Complete Engine with just 24K miles for sale at MT Auto Parts for £1,429.99 Three cylinders in a BMW. It still surprises people who haven't followed the brand's engine development over the past decade. The B38 is BMW's 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine — a unit that, on paper, sounds like an unlikely fit for a brand that built its reputation on silky inline-sixes and high-revving four-cylinders. In practice, the B38 is a considerably more capable and more interesting engine than its cylinder count suggests. It is part of BMW's B-series modular engine family and shares significant architecture with the four-cylinder B48 and six-cylinder B58, the same bore diameter, the same engineering philosophy, and many of the same BMW engine parts . But it is not without its problems. This guide covers what the B38 is, which cars it powers, what goes wrong, and how the reliability picture looks in the real world. What Is the BMW B38 Engine? The B3...
