Please Help!!

Thanks to everyone for all the kind and helpful words.

I have taken Bing's advice just taken a second to calm down and work out the most cost - effective way through this.

I have asked BMW to submit a goodwill claim as it seems to happen quite regularly and it shouldn't happen at 50k miles. I dont hold out much hope that they will agree but I can try.

As far as other costs go, If BMW say no I am probably going to have to find another engine. I did speak to a guy at Geoff Steel who was great and said that they could rebuild it for me - he will get a cost to me in due course but I have heard good things about them - anyone have any experience with them?

I will just try a number of avenues to see what is the best course of action. I will obviously keep you guys updated every step.

Thanks again for all the support and advice - in a weird way it does make you feel a bit better.
 
Andrew, worth speaking to Munich Legends also, they work on a huge number of E46 M3's and two of the more senior mechanics own E46 M3's and track / race them. They know the S54 inside out, worth getting a comparative quote from them also.

Ask to speak to Stu, he's the man you need. I'd phone rather than email though.
 
AndrewZ4MC said:
Thanks to everyone for all the kind and helpful words.

I have taken Bing's advice just taken a second to calm down and work out the most cost - effective way through this.

I have asked BMW to submit a goodwill claim as it seems to happen quite regularly and it shouldn't happen at 50k miles. I dont hold out much hope that they will agree but I can try.

As far as other costs go, If BMW say no I am probably going to have to find another engine. I did speak to a guy at Geoff Steel who was great and said that they could rebuild it for me - he will get a cost to me in due course but I have heard good things about them - anyone have any experience with them?

I will just try a number of avenues to see what is the best course of action. I will obviously keep you guys updated every step.

Thanks again for all the support and advice - in a weird way it does make you feel a bit better.
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Have you got a second opinion yet?

Where is the car at the moment?
 
I know how you feel, as I went through a couple of months of the same about a year after I'd bought it.

The car was running fine one minute. Turned it off to stop at an ATM, and when I restarted it the yellow EML was on and it was misfiring. I did a quick coil swap and the error moved to another random cylinder. Did the same with spark plugs and got a similarly random cylinder error.

Gave up and called BMW Assist, who asked me to drive it to a local dealer (240 miles away from home). I said I didn't want to drive it with a warning light showing, so they said they'd send out a patrol, but didn't have and BMW techs available and would send out someone else. 30 minutes later an AA guy arrives and plugs in his diagnostic kit. Finds the stored errors on different cylinders and then basically spends the next 30 minutes revving the nuts off the car (to clear any blockages) and resetting the codes before giving up and towing me to the dealership. :headbang:

Initially I wasn't worried as I assumed it would all be covered under warranty, but soon they started saying it wouldn't be covered and I'd be looking at a £14k bill for everything as they claimed I'd done something to cause the issue (i.e. dodgy downshift causing over-rev, used the wrong oil in my interim services, not serviced it properly, etc.). These were all proven to be false as other than the interim services it had only been to BMW dealers.

Every time I asked for a diagnosis the answer was different...dodgy coil, bent valve, chipped valve, plug electrode down cylinder, scored camshaft, vanos, etc.

Every one proved to be false - as they couldn't show us any proof of any of these. For example all spark plug were removed and none were missing any electrode/tip; valves were removed and inspected in front of me - again none were damaged or coked up, or bent;

In the end I didn't have any faith in the dealership at all, but to move the car elsewhere would have meant paying for all the investigative work up front and then trying to get it reimbursed (or taking it on the chin). My specialist (who I'd used for them M5s) was willing to take the job on, but he'd more or less be starting from scratch again but wouldn't have the benefit of starting with a complete engine with it's initial fault showing.

As I wasn't working at the time I was really worried about having to dig into my savings to have to pay for it as there was no equity in a broken car, so cue a couple of months of sleepless nights and nausea.

In the meantime I found a short-term contract and was just putting cash away from that just in case. Meant I was being very miserly and thus miserable at the time.

Eventually got sorted, as they couldn't find any evidence that I'd abused the car in any way, but still tried to claim the full amount of diagnostic work from both me and BMW - which was reduced by 2/3rd once I'd explained this anomaly - by letter and with a copy of the internal invoice I was not meant to have - to BMW GB and the Dealer Principal.
 
CornishRob said:
I don't understand why suddenly in the last few months, there seem to have been a few cars all with the same problem. I haven't ever noticed this in the previous few years of being on this site.

It doesn't seem to effect any particular mileage etc either?

Any ideas?
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Probably due to the time of year, More people driving them, more people having fun in them both on and off track and using the engine much higher in the rev range.
 
Having suffered a bearing shell failure with a S54 engine on my Z3MC, it starts with a noticeable, rhythmical, tapping noise which can be heard inside the car whilst driving. This noise does NOT go away and very soon it sounds like a Kango hammer.

Below is a photo of what the damaged shells look like. If the bottom end of your engine has been inspected then this will confirm if you've got a damaged bearing shell or not.

bearingshell.jpg

I'm wondering how you managed to get the car home and drive it to a garage for an inspection if your engine really has all the problems you've listed? I had to get mine repatriated on a transporter.

Insurers (warranty company) will try to wriggle out of anything, so you need to have facts on your side and then you can argue with logic. If the car was warrantied for you by the seller after or when you bought the car, with the known, 8 month delay in service in the service history documentation you've been given, then the seller must be responsible for selling you an unwarrantable car, and would be responsible for the full cost of repairs. The fitting of the Eventuri intake shouldn't materially affect the warranty, although it does give the insurer the opportunity to wriggle. I would write a good letter to the management of BMW UK, stating "URGENT" setting out the facts and describing your ownership experience and the situation that you now find yourself in (BMW Dream turned to BMW nightmare) before you move the car elsewhere. I would await their response before I made any choice.

In your position, I would try not to panic so as not to act in haste. For my Plan B, I would get in touch with one of the better-known BMW Indys in your area and see what they might have to say about the problems and how it might be rectified by them at reasonable cost. I would also get in touch with a few of the BMW salvage companies, (Plan C) such as FAB Direct to see if there's a relatively low mileage S54 engine available, which could then be fitted as a direct replacement, which may be the cheapest option.

When this happens, it is very stressful, and potentially very expensive, but if you have to pay for this yourself, you'll soon come to the conclusion that your car doesn't need a brand new engine at a cost of £14k, and that there are much cheaper options. Good luck with sorting this out. :thumbsup:
 
Thanks again - the information is great. Exodus - I will take that advice - i dont like to feel like i'm being taken for a mug (it feels like I am at the moment) but because i'm not technical its difficult for me to know when I am and when I'm not.

The pictures that BMW have sent me are:

bw05ers%20002_zpsdpslitf1.jpg

bw05ers%20007_zpswyxpkgxy.jpg

bw05ers%20003_zpsr98fymfd.jpg

The "worn" shells dont look anything like the ones in you picture exodos.

StevenH72, I have spoken to Stu and he was great so thanks very much for the recommendation. He said that they could probably do all the work for around £1,700 +VAT so an incredible amount better.

BMW also said that they didn't know that the oil pump was faulty they just replaced it as a precaution - is this normal?

To sum up - the current situation is: The car is still at BMW - I will be writing an email and sending it the the chief exec of BMW UK. I will see what they come back with. I will then make the decision whether to use option A, B or C.

Thanks again for all the help

Andrew
 
AndrewZ4MC said:
weird they are using Halfords tools as well - I just noticed
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I saw that as well. I am assuming the date on the photo is correct with your timings etc?

You can see some wear on the shells, but they haven't been eaten like Exodus's Shells.
 
Is it me or does that oil look fairly dark. When was it last changed? I assume the cars has been serviced with the schedule?
 
The photos show that you've got worn bearing shells but that's not yet a catastrophic bearing shell failure and won't require a new engine. :thumbsup:

The fact that there will be no broken pieces of bearing shell loose inside the engine (as there would be in my case) means that repair is safe to do.

The crankshaft needs to be inspected to check that the worn bearing shells have not damaged the shaft at the points of contact, and fingers crossed, it should be OK because the bearing shells are much softer than the crank itself. Personally, I'd visit the garage with my camera and take some decent photos of all the bearing shells and the crankshaft, in situ, to check exactly which shells are damaged (note on which cylinder). I'd want to stand under the car whilst it's on a ramp and be shown exactly the situation by the tech who is working on my car. If you can get in a conversation with him, I'd pick his brains as much as I could and ask him what he reckons of the problem(s) and the solutions rather than getting the info from a manager trying to get the cost up.

If you state in your letter to BMW UK that you believed that BMW had ironed out the bearing shell problem with the early E46 M3, but your low-mileage car would suggest that this is not so, might get you some goodwill. (I got a brand new engine FOC with a 7 year old car with just 31k miles as "goodwill" and I made no secret of the fact that my bearing shell failure occurred whilst driving around the Nurburgring GP track - albeit at a BMWCC track event).

I think you can start to sleep better from now on. :D
 
The inspection II service was done on 42,000 miles I think.

Thanks again Exdos that does make me feel a bit better - what would you say in the letter about the oil filter and the service being 8 months late?

I will get the letter written tonight.
 
AndrewZ4MC said:
The inspection II service was done on 42,000 miles I think.

Thanks again Exdos that does make me feel a bit better - what would you say in the letter about the oil filter and the service being 8 months late?

I will get the letter written tonight.
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Have you seen any info to suggest the Cams/Followers are also worn? Didn't you say it apparently needed a new head?
 
AndrewZ4MC said:
The inspection II service was done on 42,000 miles I think.

Thanks again Exdos that does make me feel a bit better - what would you say in the letter about the oil filter and the service being 8 months late?

I will get the letter written tonight.
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Andrew,

Since you bought the car at 45k miles, which is some 4k miles after the Insp II was done before you bought the car, the seller knew the situation and presumably did a pre-sales inspection before taking your money, therefore, the non-standard filter was his responsibility. Am I correct to believe that your car is an AUC car from a BMW dealership?

If you'd like me to look at your letter before you send it, then I would be happy to do so (I'm something of an expert consumer complainant :evil: ).
 
Hope you get this sorted to your satisfaction, Andrew. We probably all know that "sick in the stomach" feeling when something goes wrong and it looks like it's going to be expensive. £14k is just a joke - you'd just buy a new MC and break the old one, wouldn't you? Much as I like my car and, somewhat generically, BMWs overall, I (and I know I'm not alone in this opinion) find their dealers are just complete scaremongerers. The real BMW experts - read that as S54 specialists - don't appear to work for BMW but instead work in the specialist Indy garages, some of whom are named on this thread. I honestly think they just try to scare you with a big enough number so that you soil yourself and ask for a new car at exorbitant cost. Why you'd sign up for a new one (eg E89) after they way they behave is beyond me. Still, I suppose their managers are trained in the "businesses" they run so, hey, that's BMW's problem. I also intensely dislike the way they take your car apart without great consultation, nip down to Halfords to get their grubby tools and give you photos that no-one could really make a lot of use of. As I've previously said, their solution is normally replace, replace, replace starting with the parts that are clearly not fecked.

There is some good advice on this thread and, whilst you will inevitably worry, you will get this sorted :thumbsup: Consider going back to them to gloat when you have the ultimate invoice to clear this all up and it shows it cost maybe 20% of the price they suggested.

Stevo
 
After reading threads like this, who else feels an urge to lock their currently functional ///M in the garage and hide the key :cry:
Sorry, I've got zero knowledge to contribute here as I think I'd feel as helpless as you if this happened to me. So kudos to the experts who are helping out here, you guys are gems :thumbsup:
 
CornishRob, Cams and followers are both gone mate - all need doing.

exdos, The car was from a private dealer - I am in talks with him at the moment as well considering the inspection II was done just before I bought it and this shouldnt be happening 6,000 miles after buying it. I will send a draft of the letter when its done - thanks mate.

stevo///m3, The total cost isnt 14k mate, it will be almost £10k from BMW - but as I say Munich Legends reckon £1,700 but I have to get it there first - shouldnt be too expensive.

ncrossy1980, Yup, people on here are great - so glad of it

Thanks again to everyone for the positive words
 
I'm not sure how you will go on if you have done 6000 miles in the car since you bought it.

It's obviously not the dealers fault it's happened, but always worth an ask to see if you have any luck.

So have BMW put shells and an oil pump in the car and it's still making a noise?
 
Z4M-2006, Yes, BMW have already put in shells and oil pump but hasnt fixed the problem.

just got the bill as it stands at the moment £2,200 +VAT :thumbsdown:
 
Andrew really sorry to read this , once back home tomorrow i can post properly. I really feel for your situation right now and everyone needs to understand rod bearings are an ///m short coming , the s65 s85 are doing exactly the same thing but much worse.
 
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