turboawd

exactly. were you still getting the over-heat warning while you drove that mile?
kinda sucks that we dont have a physical temp gauge.

Gpzguy

Sounds like you've got a blown head gasket. Could have been caused by a warped head by overheating. I hate to say it, but you had the wrong analysis done. You found oil in the coolant. It does not stand to reason that you would find coolant in the oil. As you said, the lubrication system runs the oil at a higher pressure than the cooling system pressure, therefore where there is a leak, the oil will flow into the cooling system, but the coolant won't flow into the oil.

I had something very similar happen on my Mercedes ('91 300E) once. On that car there is a spot on the (inline 6) where the oil passage is very close to the water jacket in the head... the head gasket wasn't a very good design due to the material and eventually erroded away where that high / low pressure interface was between the high pressure oil passage and the coolant... causing oil in the coolant, total fouling of all the heat exchange surfaces in both the engine and radiator and overheating. It kind of made the coolant look like a nasty clumpy chocolate milkshake.

The fix for my Mercedes obviously was a new head gasket. But in addition to that I refurbished the head and had it checked to make sure it was flat/ square and undamaged. The radiator was replaced, along with the overflow tank, all the hoses, t-stat, waterpump, timing chain and tensioner, serpentine belt and tensioner, and the engine block and everything else that was or had the potential to be fouled was flushed several times with a high concentration detergent to get all the oil out of it. Since I had to replace the radiator that also meant I had to change the transmission oil since it had an tranny cooler integrated in the radiator. It was a lot of work, and took me a while to do working in my (uninsulated) garage in the wintertime, but I've since put over 80K miles on that car and its still running strong.

So unless something vastly wrong happened like hydrolocking a cylinder or the timing chain skipping a link where you've got bigtime mechanical damage, its definately repairable... worst case is the head needs to be replaced if its warped too badly.

Good luck.

v_therussian

I doubt it. I waited a good amount of time. And when I restarted the car, the overheat message was gone. It came on only when I was turning into the shop's lot.

I think the problem must have existed there for a long time, because I've always had the ticking, and I've always had a little oil leaking, always had to add some oil between changes. Always figured "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"... It was probably very minor, but at one point it finally leaked - and there was no coming back from that. I don't think it even makes sense to continue to diagnose this piece of crap - just get rid of it, put it behind me, sell off the mods and get a toyota...

Got the overheat message back only when I was pulling into the shop's lot.

Yes, sucks not having an actual gauge - maybe I would have been able to notice something sooner.

What you just described, done to the E60, would cost more than to take the hit and sell it as is, I think... heck, I can buy another car with what it would cost!


I know it is fixable - that's not the problem. The problem is, what will need to be fixed next, I just don't want to keep this piece of junk anymore - I don't trust it. When kozaks stopped trusting their horses, they shot them dead - because they knew there was no fixing it.

v_therussian

Well... I was offered 8 grand for the car as is, sight unseen - by the dealer, who located it for me 3 yrs ago. Didn't take it. Decided to try and fight it.

Drafting a letter to BMW NA, in the meantime I'll transport the car to Habberstad BMW somehow and have the engine looked at by the dealer's technicians.

dragonfx

damn man, sorry to hear , hope it all works out in the end V...

DKNewYork

Damn that sucks. Hope everything works out for you.

pjinca

Good luck with BMWNA Vladdy, they weren't very helpful to me when I had my CCC die. I hope your results are waaaaay better.

selbycy

Hey V,

Just caught up on this.

Such a shame man After all the research and effort you've put into this car and the wheels ready to put on for summer.

It's a sad situation.

v_therussian

Thanks Bro! I'm gonna try my best.

Thanks guys! Worst case - I'll have to get rid of this car somehow and get something else to drive, so it isn't the end of the world. Just sad that I've put all this money and effort into this car and it would just go - without any warning.

Thanks, John! I'm gonna try to get the car inspected by a dealer first, then escalate the matter as necessary. I fear this may take a loooooong time though - my brother in law had a clutch fail on his then-brand new Bimmer some years ago, he said it took him 6 mos before they finally reimbursed him. However long it takes, I just hope that BMW recognizes that this is a complete failure on the part of their product. Of course, it is fully understood that they can always say "screw you! boo hoo hoo! EF off!"

Yeah dude, it is just UN-friggin-believable. Still I think about it and it makes no sense - how can a perfectly good engine just FAIL at 87k miles?! I mean, I had a Honda with a 4-banger many years ago, when I was in college - I bought it with 127k miles on the clock, drove it TWO years limitlessly and never as much as even THOUGHT about any engine problems; just change the oil and the filter - that's it. Now I get this supposedly great car, which was supposed to last me few years and bam - engine broke down before the friggin thing is even paid off...

PraiseTheLowered

honestly man just fix the issue, its still a good car but like any car with higher mileage it needs actual attention to detail. Not saying you didn't do this but there is something to be said for not having a car payment and just putting in the repairs.

Unless you plan on doing leases every few years, just fix your lil work horse and stop quoting ancient russian bs lol