Isn't it on a sticker on the hood?

 

No, there is only a sticker with US catalyst infos, and another one with a/c warnings.

Do you have such a sticker? Could you be so kind to show me?

 

From what I can remember, the US cars have the VIN number printed in the dashboard. Step out of the car, stand behind the driver's side mirror and look at the bottom part of the windshield, there should be a small rectangular opening in the darkened part. Stare through there and you should see the VIN. With that, you can get the whole datasheet about the car, including the engine version.

 

Maybe its hard to understand what I am asking. Everybody knows about the plates with the VIN number.

The engine itself, has a serial number, stamped on the engine block, on the left side. Its like a Part number, but is unique for each engine.

This is the picture of the serial number on the US 330xi that I imported. The same number is also on the 325i, and probably on many other.

On the European E46, there is an unique serial for each engine/car, exactly in the same spot like in this picture. It should be like this: (engine type)XXXXXXXXXXXX

The engine type is not the one you know, like M52, M52TU, M54 or other. If you ask somebody at a BMW dealership, they will tell you that a 2002 325i has a M54 engine. This is not the engine type, because there are many M54, 2.0 liters, 2.5 liters, 3.0 liters etc.

M54 is like E46, its only says about what kind of BMW it is, but there are many E46 (316i, 318i, 325i ....)

Engine type is like this: 306 S3 where 30 is the engine capacity (3.0 liters) and 6 for 6 cylinder, and that S3 is the generation.

For a 318i is like 18 4 S4, for a 325 is 25 6 S4 and so on.

Finally, what I am asking: if the US engine on E46 have an unique serial number somewhere stamped on a plate.

 

Bump Bump

 

You are not going to find a unique serial number on a US engine. It's simply not needed the way we register cars here. All the relevant emissions info is located on a sticker under the hood. Is there a reason your registration authorities can't use this (Besides the translation)? You may have to find someone who has imported vehicles from the US to Romania and find out what they had to do. Or....find someone at registration who can think outside of the box and get your cars registered. Good luck with that.

 

Thanks for the info. The unique serial number is not important, the engine type which is in front of that serial number is the one that matters. The local DMV have a list with BMW engines and a corespondent emission level for each of them. So I need to show them what kind of engine is on the car, the same way I show them the VIN. Its not enough to tell them that is a M54 in this case, because there are a lot of M54, each one with different cc and generation. If they can find somewhere that the car have a 256 S4 engine, this means is Euro 4 standard emissions, which will cost me less in thousand of $.

 

bump

 

hello, I have the same problem, have found the vin as u described but where now can I find the engine no?
freda

 

sorry for bump etc
but where did u find the vin on the engine itself?

 

If you decode the vin number it will tell you everything about the car. There is no "Engine number plate" on US cars, as far as I know.

Vin number position 6 is the engine size.

If it's a (3), it's a 2.5L M52 TU or M52

If it's a (5), it's a 3.0L M52 TU or M52

It it's a (9), it's a 3.2L S54 M3

 

ok this is my vin number WBAB633431JY56064 but even that doesn't tell me my engine number?
bmw france are insisting on it?

 

I believe most cars sold in North America require the last 8 digits of the vin to be stamped on the block for anti theft purposes, that ties the engine to the car. Then you use the engine ID letter from the vin to verify the engine.

 

Hey Frenchie, why does BMW France need the serial number?

BMW France does not even get close to a US bimmer during the French registration process. They do not issue document that will help for registration.

US and EU M54 engines are the same, so if you have a e46 325i, it obviously is a M54 engine.

Not sure to understand the problem.

Now if you are unable to find the engine serial number, the car will simply be registered without engine serial number.

My e36 from France has no serial number registered for the engine, that was no big deal.

Bloody french bureaucracy...

Let me know if I can help further.

 

Also keep in mind you cannot register your car until you go though The Mines with a full engineer report (Costly). Probably around 400+ euros.
Also you need to retrofit rear fog lights and change your headlights + add daytime running bulb. You can get those things in a scrap yeard. DIY alone will cost you anyway.
To register a US BMW in France you need to have those things stating your car is conform to EU standards. But BMW will not issue such document as the car is not a EU model. Reason why you need the independant report.

Finally note that your car cannot be registered in another EU state, unless the car goes through the local Engineer inspection again.

HTH

 

ha am not french proud to still be british!!!!! ok the story is this, I bought the car LHD from a chap in the uk who bought the car in Canada and imported it to the uk, on the uk log book the motor number is said to be unknown, but in france everything is difficult and they won't except all that I have told them that I have read here. As for the mine, no I don't have to pass thru that, I contacted BMW France and with the last 7 digits of the VIN they checked to see if infact it was a model made for export and it was, luckily the previous owner kept the original headlamps and before he registered it in the uk he had to have the face on the speedo changed to miles and kilometers, I infact have a dossier with bmw france, I have to tell the tyre and wheel sizes the Vin Number, engine number and what sort of engine it is, also I had to take the car to the local BMW dealers who checked the lights and speedo and I have a paper from them saying the cars ok in all apart from the cost of changing the log book over which is around 44 euros for 1cv the bmw is 13 cv so around 600 euros and the mot all it is costing from bmw is 170 euros but we still have to find this damned engine number!
freda

 

Oki well surely BMW is able to trace the original factory order and provide you with this information.
Just by enterring the VIN number in their system they can see the engine number too.
I have the printout myself of their own application for my car with all the details.

I mean, seriously if BMW is unable to provide you with the serial number of your engine, by computer means or physical inspection, I do not know who will mate.

There is no way an engine produced by BMW, even for US export, does not have a serial number. Of course they do...

 

we have all the numbers for the gear box etc, if i have no luck from the previous owners invoice when he purchased, I do have an appointment with bmw here next week and they will look i have to pay and if however they don't find it they will do a paper saying that!
its so complicated
freda

 

we have been to bmw today and we were given this number could this be it 25/6/s/5 I rather think its the sort of engine rather than the engine number?
freda

 

It has been a troublesome problem always.

 

The engine number you are looking for is under the left sided aluminium mount of the engine,next to the serial number that u weretaling abt(256 xxxxxxx)