[hayhay7789]

I got my 340iX in 2022 and took as good care of it as I could, changing the oil early and regularly and doing my best to keep on top of any preventative maintenance. The car served me very well with no issues up until February of last year when it was at 104034km or 64643mi, with an oil change done at 100000km and a service appointment scheduled for the coming weeks. I was driving it home from work when suddenly the oil pressure warning came on, and disappeared almost immediately. I pulled over, killed the engine and checked the car sensor values with my Icom cable stowed in the car. The sensor values were reading normal, the oil light was still off, and I felt it was passable enough to slowly limp the car home (was NOT in limp mode) the remaining ~1km. When I went to start the engine in the morning, it was making a loud noise - I already had lifter tick, but this sounded like my lifter tick took steroids overnight; this sounded a lot worse. I killed the engine and had it towed to an indy BMW shop. They drained the oil and told me the car only had 3L in it rather than 6.5, and found “large metal chunks” in the oil drainage. They were absolutely certain that I somehow only put 3L into the engine, which is ridiculous. I had replaced the oil about 4,000km before this incident, and with absolute certainty filled the car with the correct amount. I think that the car potentially burned a lot of oil as it was idling, as I did unfortunately extensively idle fairly often while hanging out or showing the car off in parking lots - probably really stupid of me. There is no sign of an oil leak anywhere, not even an oil slick in my designated parking space, so I’m inclined to believe this is what happened, although it does throw me a bit that the car was running with 3L of oil for god knows how long without the oil level computer giving me any sort of warning (it worked well in the past to warn me to top up the oil).

The indy shop quoted me for an engine replacement at $16,300 (~$8,000 for engine, ~$4k labour, the rest tax). The thing is they didn’t do any further diagnosis to confirm the source of the issue, all they did was drain the oil and check the oil pan. I’m wondering if there’s anything further that I can do myself to check for damaged areas and determine if this engine is possibly repairable in a rebuild. I had a colleague’s mechanic friend friend take a look (which is when I shot the video below), but he looked at it even less than the indy shop and spat out a seemingly arbitrary quote of $25,000 altogether for an engine replacement. Not cool. I’ve unfortunately had this car on my back burner since then as I’ve had some personal issues come up that needed to be taken care of, but I’m ready to get this job done now. Before I make any phone calls to shops, though, I’d like to get a better picture of the problem for myself.

Even if a rebuild would be $15k, I’d rather pay that than $16,000 let alone $25,000 for another engine. I’ve heard varied opinions of what this might be, everything from rod knock to timing chain to valve tap. Considering the extent and type of damage will affect the engines candidacy for a rebuild (as I’m told), and that money is tight for me now, I’d much rather assess the damage myself as much as possible so as to avoid spending a few hundred on a shop taking my engine apart only to find it’s a totally unfixable dud.

I have a borescope and will be putting it into the cylinders to see if there’s any scoring. Is there anything else I should give a try for diagnostics so I can try to get an accurate picture of the state of the engine to describe to mechanics or rebuilders?

View post on imgur.com

in case it aids in anyone’s guesswork diagnosis. I also attached the work order from the shop if anyone wants to see the technicians notes.

[blacksapphire440i]

I’m not sure if this could be your oil pump basically going wrong. But if your oil pressure light came on I would assume your oil pump took a crap on you. Cant explain the oil loss or other huge chunks of metal

[hayhay7789]

Originally Posted by blacksapphire440i

I’m not sure if this could be your oil pump basically going wrong. But if your oil pressure light came on I would assume your oil pump took a crap on you. Cant explain the oil loss or other huge chunks of metal

Thank you so much for the reply.

Considering the shop said they found oil pump faults in the Icom, that could make sense. I was thinking that the faults/oil pressure light might have been from it getting starved of oil or sucking up metal chunks but I have no real insight into the state of the engine beyond the noise and the metal in the oil pan.

If that were the case, is there any way for me to check the extent of the damage from running the engine on the low oil level? I’m assuming that simply replacing the oil pump would possibly remedy the cause of the problem but I worry about running the engine if it’s been all scored up and lost a bunch of metal in unknown places. I would assume that there would be some sort of damage that would need to be remedied to prevent further wear and another possible major issue down the road. Again though I am not very experienced so I don’t know for sure.

Thank you again!

[Oksamit78]

It is not easy to make out the exact location of all the noises, but it does sound that a lot of that is coming from the upper portion of the engine. The thing is, if your engine ran with low oil, there could be extensive damages to the valve train at the top. The lobes of camshafts could be scorched and damaged, for example. If you absolutely need to see for yourself - you'd have to take the valve cover off. Same type of damages could have occurred to the crank shaft bearings due to the starvation of oil...

The replacement of the oil pump is a major undertaking on it's own as a lot of things need to be removed from the bottom (absolutely need a shop lift to do that) before one can reach the oil pump. I know that on X5/X6 the lower frame has to be removed first in order to get the oil pan removed to access the oil pump. Those vehicles have the oil pump premature failure history, but the engines are slightly different as B58 Gen 1. Could be the same challenge with F30.

Overall, it is a huge job, as the engine would need to be taken apart from top side and from bottom gradually stripping a lot of things off until the sources of loose metal found. The head would need to come off as well. Then the internals need to be washed to flush out the metal debris that could be stuck in the internal passages.

I don't see you talking about the oil filter. Did anyone check it for trapped debris? There has got to be some since the shop found the metal in the oil pan.

You are stuck in a tough spot, tbh. If you don't have a garage space, time and tools to do the engine rebuild, you need to find a reputable local shop to do that for you.

Good luck.

[E36 wire harness]

You need to cut the oil filter open and see how bad that looks first.

Removing the pan and doing bearings in place in the car isn't so bad. You just have to lower / remove the subframe.

But doing the timing service, would, in addition, be removing the transmission. I couldn't really imagine doing the timing service up in the trans tunnel, crawling around, bumping my head, getting dirt everywhere. Then all the RTV and cleaning, no thanks. If you had a lift it maybe wouldn't be as bad.

The other problem with the timing cover is there's a risk of damaging the head gasket. The factory manual on the old m52 says you can do it just remove the oil pan and be careful not to damage head gasket. That didn't work for me and I destroyed the head gasket. On the b58, factory manual just straight up says remove the head. I don't think you would have to, but you may end up having to, if unlucky.

So given all that, others may disagree but I would say timing service = extract engine.
It's not bad, your choice to drop the transmission, or leave it attached and remove the bumper. i did the latter and am still trying to get the headlights perfect.

[yupetc]

First off, condolences to hearing about your demise. And after reading it all, I sense that you're wanting to continue with the car, but this big one-time cost is making it really hard to proceed. I've been in this situation before, but I've since become really inclined with my way around the engine after all. Not sure how willing are you to take on fixing the engine on your own, but the way I did it years ago on my first stab was I did it step-by-step, slowly, but surely, went all the way in, then button everything back all the way out; took a year and a half for the entire rebuild and all went well, luckily. The reason I mention my method as an option to you is so that you take note of the timeline. In my case, it was on an N55 X5 and spanning the entire engine rebuild over 18-months gave me enough time to learn and tinker, but most importantly, I got to spread the overall cost over 18-months. And luckily on that N55, I had to source a used good short block and go from there. Total tab I absorbed was around $5.5k-$6k, vague accounting. Rest was just me learning how to do things, watching videos, and actually went at the car. Before doing this, my mechanical extent was simple brake jobs, an occasional transmission swap, and few times with suspension work.

The only things you don't really get back in return is the special tools you need to buy to set timing or remove certain injectors, seals, etc.. Other than that, you gain a engine that you build, plus the knowledge to deal with it. Oh, and if you're really going for the rebuild, consider swapping the pistons with Mahle's PowerPak or some forged options out there. Not sure if your Gen-2 B58 pistons are forged or hypereuretic, but if OEM isn't forged, you may as well go with a forged set of pistons while you're at it. And "NO NOT" hone the cylinder walls per your forged pistons' spec sheet since the walls are arc-sprayed with iron coating, those will have the lubricity hash you need on the wall by default. Honing it will get into aluminum layer too soon and destroy the cylinder.


Other than the above method, I'm afraid there's no cheaper way to skin the cat. And if you do decide to rebuild the B58 engine on your own, given the type of damage likely to have occurred, you'll possibly best to source a good short block and go from there. Or buy another low mileage B58 and drop it in by yourself. All you really need is a cherry-picker for the job and ways/tools to separate the engine from the gearbox and mounts, etc..

Or go back to your quoted jobs and just choose the least of those poisons.


Last option is to ditch it and sell it as-is, let other people deal with this headache. You can source a similar car at some extra cost, but motor's going to be smoothly good.

Good luck, bro.

[hayhay7789]

Originally Posted by Oksamit78

It is not easy to make out the exact location of all the noises, but it does sound that a lot of that is coming from the upper portion of the engine. The thing is, if your engine ran with low oil, there could be extensive damages to the valve train at the top. The lobes of camshafts could be scorched and damaged, for example. If you absolutely need to see for yourself - you'd have to take the valve cover off. Same type of damages could have occurred to the crank shaft bearings due to the starvation of oil...

The replacement of the oil pump is a major undertaking on it's own as a lot of things need to be removed from the bottom (absolutely need a shop lift to do that) before one can reach the oil pump. I know that on X5/X6 the lower frame has to be removed first in order to get the oil pan removed to access the oil pump. Those vehicles have the oil pump premature failure history, but the engines are slightly different as B58 Gen 1. Could be the same challenge with F30.

Overall, it is a huge job, as the engine would need to be taken apart from top side and from bottom gradually stripping a lot of things off until the sources of loose metal found. The head would need to come off as well. Then the internals need to be washed to flush out the metal debris that could be stuck in the internal passages.

I don't see you talking about the oil filter. Did anyone check it for trapped debris? There has got to be some since the shop found the metal in the oil pan.

You are stuck in a tough spot, tbh. If you don't have a garage space, time and tools to do the engine rebuild, you [...]

Thank you for the reply!

Certainly a lot of info to think over. I appreciate all the effort you put in to trying to give me some help.

As for the oil filter I believe the shop mechanic told me verbally that they pulled the filter and changed it, but on closer inspection it seems that they didn’t put it in the notes, so I could very easily just be totally misremembering. I will be checking the oil filter today.

A tough spot indeed lol. Thank you for the support!

[hayhay7789]

Originally Posted by yupetc

First off, condolences to hearing about your demise. And after reading it all, I sense that you're wanting to continue with the car, but this big one-time cost is making it really hard to proceed. I've been in this situation before, but I've since become really inclined with my way around the engine after all. Not sure how willing are you to take on fixing the engine on your own, but the way I did it years ago on my first stab was I did it step-by-step, slowly, but surely, went all the way in, then button everything back all the way out; took a year and a half for the entire rebuild and all went well, luckily. The reason I mention my method as an option to you is so that you take note of the timeline. In my case, it was on an N55 X5 and spanning the entire engine rebuild over 18-months gave me enough time to learn and tinker, but most importantly, I got to spread the overall cost over 18-months. And luckily on that N55, I had to source a used good short block and go from there. Total tab I absorbed was around $5.5k-$6k, vague accounting. Rest was just me learning how to do things, watching videos, and actually went at the car. Before doing this, my mechanical extent was simple brake jobs, an occasional transmission swap, and few times with suspension work.

The only things you don't really get back in return is the special tools you need to buy to set timing or remove certain injectors, seals, etc.. Other than that, you gain a engine that you build, plus the knowledge to deal with it. Oh, and if you're really going for the rebuild, consider swapping the [...]

Thanks so much for the reply. I really, really appreciate all your time spent writing this out to lend a hand. Your N55 story sounds very similar to what I would hope to achieve; I am very interested in learning as much as I can and gaining the knowledge to do as many things myself as possible. It’s a shame I never had many opportunities when I was growing up because mechanics has always been a deeply seated natural interest for me. I gained all the knowledge I could from books and YouTube; it’s about time I got the chance to solidify that knowledge with hands-on experience.

I’m very keen on the DIY idea for the above mentioned reasons and so I can save money. The only issue would be finding a space to work in, but that’s certainly more easily doable for me right now than a $16k bill.

Thank you so much again - plenty of food for thought.