BMW N46

The N46 is BMW’s naturally aspirated port-injected four-cylinder of the 2000s, built from
2004 to 2015 in 1.6 and 2.0-litre forms. It was the ordinary four-cylinder of the European
range for a decade — the 316i, 318i, 320i and the four-cylinder Z4 — and it was
never sold in the United States.

What the N46 is

A 1.6 or 2.0-litre inline-four with two overhead camshafts, port fuel injection and
Valvetronic variable valve lift. It is a revision of the earlier N42, and it sat alongside the
direct-injection N43 in the same range and the same years.

Valvetronic is the feature worth noting, because it connects this engine to the mainstream of
BMW engineering. The system first appeared on the N62 V8 in 2001 and
has been on every BMW petrol engine since — including the
B48 and B58 that Americans do buy.

Why it is not in our records

Our specification pages come from United States government data, and the N46 was not
certified for sale in North America. It appears in no EPA record, no Transport Canada record and
no brochure in this archive, which is a United States archive.

The gap it fell into is stark. Our records hold no four-cylinder BMW at all for model years
2000 through 2011. The last of the old fours here was the 1.9-litre
M44 in 1999; the next was the turbocharged
N20 in 2012. The entire production life of the N46 falls inside that
twelve-year absence.

What we do not publish

No reliability rating, no power figures and no specification table. Nothing here comes from a
record we hold. The NHTSA complaint database covers vehicles sold in the United States, and
these were not, so the flawed method usually used for such claims is not even available.

Common questions

Which BMWs have the N46?

The E46 and E90 316i, 318i and 320i, the E60 520i, the E83 X3 2.0i and the E85 Z4 2.0i, in
European and other markets from 2004 to 2015. None in the United States.

What is the difference between the N46 and the N43?

Fuel injection. The N46 injects into the intake port; the N43
injects directly into the cylinder and runs lean at part load. They were sold alongside each
other.

Did any four-cylinder BMW reach America in these years?

No. There is a twelve-year gap in our records, model years 2000 to 2011, with no
four-cylinder BMW in it at all.

Is the N46 related to the N20?

Only as predecessor and successor in the four-cylinder line. The
N20 is turbocharged and direct-injected and is a different design;
it is also the engine that ended America’s four-cylinder drought in 2012.

Sources

None for this engine. The twelve-year absence of four-cylinder BMWs from the American market
is from EPA fuel economy data, named on every specification page.