A few years ago, this job ran $4500 at a dealer in MD.

Wtf, there’s no way man . I had a 2012 328i x drive and it only costed me a grand to replace the timing belt ( and local German auto shop) even tho my car had horrendously other problems especially at the age of 19, that car gave me ptsd even though I loved it, worked minimum wage and poured thousands into it. But 7 grand for a timing chain is beyond ridiculous, even obv considering costs are gonna be different for different models.

So unfortunately timing chains on BMWs are getting harder and harder to do. For the B/S58 they moved all the vanos hardware to the back so if you need to do a timing chain its an engine out service. I would say this is a lot for that year X3 but for a modern car this isn’t out of the world price wise considering how much labor it is just to get to the chain, maybe they are going off that and quoting you what it would cost for a much newer car.

Yes, I had a F01 (N63) I did the valve seals on myself and replaced some of the timing chain rails whilst everything was apart. Dealership wanted ~$25k for the job and I believe the estimate is around 40 labor hours. It was worth it for me to do the job myself, but I sold the car a year or so after.

Depending on the engine, you can check if there’s a recall or “customer car package,” but it may be unlikely you’re still covered.

Go to an indy.