It pains me that I have to start this thread, but I have a story to tell and it's not a fun one. I'd like to start by apologizing to the car. You were awesome and did your job and it's my fault. Somewhere in here, I'm looking for opinions and advice and I have my own ideas and thoughts.
I like to drive fast and I wanted to know how fast the car would go. I put a Shark Injector on the car and it did it's job. I just got back from my vacation and the car was awesome in the mountains and ran like a champ. Ever since I bought the car, I noticed it would use some oil if I ran it at 100 or more for a while or really got in the gas hard in town on a somewhat consistent basis. It was somewhat of a tradeoff for me to show off and have fun and occasionally throw in a quart. It used some oil in the mountains, but not a great amount.
My story starts in Salt Lake City. I checked the oil when getting gas and was about 1/2 a quart low, but didn't add. I went to Bonneville the next morning and the conditions were great with no wind and nobody else running. My tires held up great. I got the car up to 173 on my first run and didn't really shift at optimum times. It was somewhat of a hard pull above 150 out on the salt and hindsight tells me I could've built up speed a lot faster on pavement. I took it mostly easy on my way back to the starting point, but neither checked the oil nor cleaned out any salt. My mechanic doesn't think not checking the oil was a big deal since I probably only did around 2-25 hard miles out there total.
My problem as best I can tell was on the run back to the start where I was determined to shift at max RPM's for each gear. I had my girls with me and I just flat out forgot to shift from 4th to 5th on that run. There was one other time around town here that I forgot to shift from 1st to 2nd or 2nd to 3rd on time and might gotten around 7600-7800 RPM's before shifting, but there was no problem with the engine. Anyway, I was doing around 130 and got it up to around 8000 RPM's and felt the car lose power, but it didn't click. It was like what a "limp home" mode would feel like in my estimation except I had never felt that in the Sharked car. I hit the gas again and it cut out on me a 2nd time and this time I remembered that I was redlining it. I slowed all the way down to either 1st or 2nd and started working the gears again and it seemed fine. I started another run and got back up to 140 in 6th and the engine just died on me. It gave me that nasty engine light and my first thought was, "I blew a motor".
The car coasted for a ways before I got smart and turned it back towards the starting point to be closer for a tow. At some point I turned off the ignition and let it coast until it stopped. At that point I tried to start it and couldn't (I got the nasty engine light and add coolant). The tow truck wouldn't come on the salt flats, so they pulled me back to their truck with a four wheeler. "It Must've Been Love" by Roxette has always been one of my favorite songs, but I've never known why a hopeless romantic like me would love that song so much. Needless to say, I had Roxette music playing while I was out there and listened as I was getting towed back. "It Must've Been Love" came on while I was getting towed and you better believe the line "It must've been love, but it's all over now" from that song hit like a sledgehammer and it was the first time in my life that I truly felt a connection for that song I love so much actually applying to my own life. I didn't even feel that way about the song when I was getting divorced, but I do about the car.
Anyway, they towed me in to the BMW place in Murray, Utah. I've got to give the people there props as they seem like decent people. They gave the girls and me a ride to the mall so we could eat and they called with the bad news. The engine was blown and a piston connecting rod put a hole in the block. They don't know what other damage might be on the car, but they said maybe metal in the exhaust and it's possible I might need a new clutch. The main thing is an engine replacement and they said $28K. I've seen used engine/transmissions on here for $7-8K. I'm going to get the car trucked back to Texas and my mechanic here thinks my best bet would be to buy another M5 and use my current one for parts since he doesn't think I could get mine fixed for less than $10-20K. I might be looking at letting it sit for a while, but I want a running M5 at some point.
What do you guys think about this stuff:
1. Auctions and salvaged vehicles are a potential option. I know they can be crapshoots, but I had a car that was running perfect and my big problem now is just an engine that doesn't work and I might not need much off of another car to get mine running.
2. My car is an 02. How well do the parts from 02 cross over (To mine or from mine) if I bought an E39 from another year?
3. How well do the engines hold up for cars that are in crashes? I know a rear collision wouldn't be much of an issue, but how about side and front collisions? Common sense tells me cars get salvaged because the damage is more than a car is worth and that could be a red flag for engine problems, but I've also read about plenty of salvage vehicles that are totaled even though the damage is far less than the car value.
4. Flood damage vehicles seem to get decent marks for buying as salvage, but what do you think about the mechanical performance of those vehicles?
5. When I broke it, my original desire was to fix my car, but I'm open to using it as parts when I see a deal good enough to buy another car. Do you think my better option is to buy a good working car and just cannibalize from mine when needed? I can't get over thinking that my car could have hidden problems that show up later, but then again, maybe my worst is just replacing an engine.
6. Thanks for any replies! I just wanted to bounce it off of you guys to see what you've experienced or heard.
I like to drive fast and I wanted to know how fast the car would go. I put a Shark Injector on the car and it did it's job. I just got back from my vacation and the car was awesome in the mountains and ran like a champ. Ever since I bought the car, I noticed it would use some oil if I ran it at 100 or more for a while or really got in the gas hard in town on a somewhat consistent basis. It was somewhat of a tradeoff for me to show off and have fun and occasionally throw in a quart. It used some oil in the mountains, but not a great amount.
My story starts in Salt Lake City. I checked the oil when getting gas and was about 1/2 a quart low, but didn't add. I went to Bonneville the next morning and the conditions were great with no wind and nobody else running. My tires held up great. I got the car up to 173 on my first run and didn't really shift at optimum times. It was somewhat of a hard pull above 150 out on the salt and hindsight tells me I could've built up speed a lot faster on pavement. I took it mostly easy on my way back to the starting point, but neither checked the oil nor cleaned out any salt. My mechanic doesn't think not checking the oil was a big deal since I probably only did around 2-25 hard miles out there total.
My problem as best I can tell was on the run back to the start where I was determined to shift at max RPM's for each gear. I had my girls with me and I just flat out forgot to shift from 4th to 5th on that run. There was one other time around town here that I forgot to shift from 1st to 2nd or 2nd to 3rd on time and might gotten around 7600-7800 RPM's before shifting, but there was no problem with the engine. Anyway, I was doing around 130 and got it up to around 8000 RPM's and felt the car lose power, but it didn't click. It was like what a "limp home" mode would feel like in my estimation except I had never felt that in the Sharked car. I hit the gas again and it cut out on me a 2nd time and this time I remembered that I was redlining it. I slowed all the way down to either 1st or 2nd and started working the gears again and it seemed fine. I started another run and got back up to 140 in 6th and the engine just died on me. It gave me that nasty engine light and my first thought was, "I blew a motor".
The car coasted for a ways before I got smart and turned it back towards the starting point to be closer for a tow. At some point I turned off the ignition and let it coast until it stopped. At that point I tried to start it and couldn't (I got the nasty engine light and add coolant). The tow truck wouldn't come on the salt flats, so they pulled me back to their truck with a four wheeler. "It Must've Been Love" by Roxette has always been one of my favorite songs, but I've never known why a hopeless romantic like me would love that song so much. Needless to say, I had Roxette music playing while I was out there and listened as I was getting towed back. "It Must've Been Love" came on while I was getting towed and you better believe the line "It must've been love, but it's all over now" from that song hit like a sledgehammer and it was the first time in my life that I truly felt a connection for that song I love so much actually applying to my own life. I didn't even feel that way about the song when I was getting divorced, but I do about the car.
Anyway, they towed me in to the BMW place in Murray, Utah. I've got to give the people there props as they seem like decent people. They gave the girls and me a ride to the mall so we could eat and they called with the bad news. The engine was blown and a piston connecting rod put a hole in the block. They don't know what other damage might be on the car, but they said maybe metal in the exhaust and it's possible I might need a new clutch. The main thing is an engine replacement and they said $28K. I've seen used engine/transmissions on here for $7-8K. I'm going to get the car trucked back to Texas and my mechanic here thinks my best bet would be to buy another M5 and use my current one for parts since he doesn't think I could get mine fixed for less than $10-20K. I might be looking at letting it sit for a while, but I want a running M5 at some point.
What do you guys think about this stuff:
1. Auctions and salvaged vehicles are a potential option. I know they can be crapshoots, but I had a car that was running perfect and my big problem now is just an engine that doesn't work and I might not need much off of another car to get mine running.
2. My car is an 02. How well do the parts from 02 cross over (To mine or from mine) if I bought an E39 from another year?
3. How well do the engines hold up for cars that are in crashes? I know a rear collision wouldn't be much of an issue, but how about side and front collisions? Common sense tells me cars get salvaged because the damage is more than a car is worth and that could be a red flag for engine problems, but I've also read about plenty of salvage vehicles that are totaled even though the damage is far less than the car value.
4. Flood damage vehicles seem to get decent marks for buying as salvage, but what do you think about the mechanical performance of those vehicles?
5. When I broke it, my original desire was to fix my car, but I'm open to using it as parts when I see a deal good enough to buy another car. Do you think my better option is to buy a good working car and just cannibalize from mine when needed? I can't get over thinking that my car could have hidden problems that show up later, but then again, maybe my worst is just replacing an engine.
6. Thanks for any replies! I just wanted to bounce it off of you guys to see what you've experienced or heard.