HELP-two dead cylinders - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

brianhardcore · 9th June 2006, 07:08

I bought a used 2000 M5 a year and half ago from a private party at the time it was still under warranty for 8 more months. I noticed right away that it was burning a lot of oil. when I mentioned it to the dealer ship thya said it was standard for the M5 to do that not a problem. Fast forward to 3 months ago and I get the feeling that it is burning way to much oil so I closely track it. average is 2 quarts burned per 1000 miles. I take it to a independent BMW repair and they recomment a LEak Down Test but they do not have the experience or equipment to do it on a M5 and they do not work with extended Warranty companies which I have (Standard Guaranty insurance company) one until 2009. So i go to Santa Monica BMW dealership and ask for a leak down test ($690). They do it and tell me I have two bad cylinders Number one has 80% leak through and #3 has 55% leak through the other cylinders are between5-10% which they say is normal. the leak is in the combustion chamber not the valve. They recommend a new engine $19700 plus labor $3--4k! the extended warranty company wants them to do a engine tear down=cost to me $1600 to see why the cylinders went bad. I am 95% sure the company will deny the claim if I do the engine tear down because most likely they will find carbon build up and they do not cover carbon build up related problems. The dealership says by the very nature of burning oil I will have some carbon build up. I was told to contact BMW directly to see if they could help seeing how the car has only 46000 miles on it and is only 7 months out of the factory warranty but when I spoke ot them all they said is they could call the dealership to make sure of what the problem is and that there is nothing wrong with that cars run of engines so anything beyond the warranty is not covered. I am thinking Lawyer at this point which is $750.00 to hear out my situation, but not sure even if i should be going after the warranty company or BMW? I do not want to spend $2300 on tests just to have the insurance company say it is not covered. Any Advice would be appreciated.

Al-Afghani · 9th June 2006, 07:12

Auction it off, let it be someone else's problem

ashbash · 9th June 2006, 07:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al-Afghani

Auction it off, let it be someone else's problem

You should kill yourself.

As for the original poster - search for user MAH's and Tranck's prior posts on engine issues. You may be able to get BMW to give you some goodwill towards repair (not replacement).

-Ash

Mike Krieger · 9th June 2006, 08:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianhardcore

I bought a used 2000 M5 a year and half ago from a private party at the time it was still under warranty for 8 more months. I noticed right away that it was burning a lot of oil. when I mentioned it to the dealer ship thya said it was standard for the M5 to do that not a problem. Fast forward to 3 months ago and I get the feeling that it is burning way to much oil so I closely track it. average is 2 quarts burned per 1000 miles. I take it to a independent BMW repair and they recomment a LEak Down Test but they do not have the experience or equipment to do it on a M5 and they do not work with extended Warranty companies which I have (Standard Guaranty insurance company) one until 2009. So i go to Santa Monica BMW dealership and ask for a leak down test ($690). They do it and tell me I have two bad cylinders Number one has 80% leak through and #3 has 55% leak through the other cylinders are between5-10% which they say is normal. the leak is in the combustion chamber not the valve. They recommend a new engine $19700 plus labor $3--4k! the extended warranty company wants them to do a engine tear down=cost to me $1600 to see why the cylinders went bad. I am 95% sure the company will deny the claim if I do the engine tear down because most likely they will find carbon build up and they do not cover carbon build up related problems. The dealership says by the very nature of burning oil I will have some carbon build up. I was told to contact BMW directly to see if they could help seeing how the car has only 46000 miles on it and is only 7 months out of the factory warranty but when I spoke ot them all they said is they could call the dealership to make sure of what the problem is and that there is nothing wrong with that cars run of engines so anything beyond the warranty is not covered. I am thinking Lawyer at this point which is $750.00 to hear out my situation, but not sure even if i should be going after the warranty company or BMW? I do not want to spend $2300 on tests just to have the insurance company say it is not covered. Any Advice would be appreciated.

Has anyone priced a rebuild? If the cylinders are not scored, isn't this just a new rings and bearings issue? Can you drop the oil pan, drop the crank and pull out the pistons and replace the rings?

KirklandM5 · 9th June 2006, 08:16

First off, don't take it to santa monica BMW, that place is known to be expensive. $690 for a leak down test is absurd. It's a 2 hour job max. WTF?

Sounds like the piston rings are dead on 2 cylinders.

You should call up AVUS autosport in Glendale, they have expereince pulling cylinder heads off M5s as they do a lot of port and polish jobs on heads.

And BTW, I don't think carbon buildup would cause the leakdown to be so bad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianhardcore

I bought a used 2000 M5 a year and half ago from a private party at the time it was still under warranty for 8 more months. I noticed right away that it was burning a lot of oil. when I mentioned it to the dealer ship thya said it was standard for the M5 to do that not a problem. Fast forward to 3 months ago and I get the feeling that it is burning way to much oil so I closely track it. average is 2 quarts burned per 1000 miles. I take it to a independent BMW repair and they recomment a LEak Down Test but they do not have the experience or equipment to do it on a M5 and they do not work with extended Warranty companies which I have (Standard Guaranty insurance company) one until 2009. So i go to Santa Monica BMW dealership and ask for a leak down test ($690). They do it and tell me I have two bad cylinders Number one has 80% leak through and #3 has 55% leak through the other cylinders are between5-10% which they say is normal. the leak is in the combustion chamber not the valve. They recommend a new engine $19700 plus labor $3--4k! the extended warranty company wants them to do a engine tear down=cost to me $1600 to see why the cylinders went bad. I am 95% sure the company will deny the claim if I do the engine tear down because most likely they will find carbon build up and they do not cover carbon build up related problems. The dealership says by the very nature of burning oil I will have some carbon build up. I was told to contact BMW directly to see if they could help seeing how the car has only 46000 miles on it and is only 7 months out of the factory warranty but when I spoke ot them all they said is they could call the dealership to make sure of what the problem is and that there is nothing wrong with that cars run of engines so anything beyond the warranty is not covered. I am thinking Lawyer at this point which is $750.00 to hear out my situation, but not sure even if i should be going after the warranty company or BMW? I do not want to spend $2300 on tests just to have the insurance company say it is not covered. Any Advice would be appreciated.

Jon@TheMShop · 9th June 2006, 08:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by KirklandM5

First off, don't take it to santa monica BMW, that place is known to be expensive. $690 for a leak down test is absurd. It's a 2 hour job max. WTF?

Sounds like the piston rings are dead on 2 cylinders.

You should call up AVUS autosport in Glendale, they have expereince pulling cylinder heads off M5s as they do a lot of port and polish jobs on heads.

And BTW, I don't think carbon buildup would cause the leakdown to be so bad.

The leakdown I believe is caused by excessive blow by gasses passing through the rings which are worn or damaged. This causes a lot of oil vapors and condensation to travel back into the intake and to the engine causing carbon deposits.

I will call Brian tomorrow morning to offer help. BMW should cover this repair (at least a remanf long block) as a goodwill gesture.

I've seen S54 engines replaced because of excessive oil consumption and high carbon deposits on top of the pistons. However that engine was under warranty.

Jon@TheMShop · 9th June 2006, 08:29

Here's the S54 engine that complained of excessive oil consumption. The technician removed the head and I took pictures of it. BMW ended up replacing the entire engine because it was cheaper than to just replace parts because of labor.

This happened sometime in 2002 at a dealer in the Los Angeles area.

greg · 9th June 2006, 08:29

I wouldn't give up on BMW - be polite, but persistent. THEY might help you with the ext. warranty company. Carbon buildup is carbon buildup. It does not cause signficant wear. Your cyliders should not be leaking, period. Something is wrong - and those are "internally lubricated parts". Your ext warranty company is trying to scare you away but I'm willing to bet they will have to cover this. I have 120K miles on my 2000 and it still runs fine.

Joey Link · 9th June 2006, 09:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al-Afghani

Auction it off, let it be someone else's problem

Posts like this make me lose faith in humanity

KirklandM5 · 9th June 2006, 09:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by greg

I wouldn't give up on BMW - be polite, but persistent. THEY might help you with the ext. warranty company. Carbon buildup is carbon buildup. It does not cause signficant wear. Your cyliders should not be leaking, period. Something is wrong - and those are "internally lubricated parts". Your ext warranty company is trying to scare you away but I'm willing to bet they will have to cover this. I have 120K miles on my 2000 and it still runs fine.

Take it to another dealer if you want to go the dealer route. I highly recommend New Century BMW in Alhambra, ask for John Velarde, He was able to help a board member a few years ago get an engine replaced that had a big problem. You need to have an advocate to either get BMW to do something on a "good will basis" or the get the extended warranty company to pony up.

Otherwise for sure, I'd go to AVUS.