740i 1998 blown head gasket???

Well done sevenforty, for taking the initiative, but just remember DOCUMENT EVERYTHING; IT MAY COME A COURT CASE LATER !!

Re the cheque you most certainly did do the right thing!! They haven't fixed your car !!

Try not to blame the car - it's the muppets who can't fix up that you should blame.

Keep in touch and let us know your progress, but please don't let them bamboozle you into paying a penny - they haven't fixxed the car.

thing is i need a courtesy car, and my car is not really driveable, they havent fixed it so why should they get any money??

The only sulphur-related engine problem I'm aware off applies to v8's and some 6's which had the Nikasil liner. The sulphur in petrol (especially in north of England and USA) could attack the liner leading to rough running etc. This happened approx 93 - 96

This was eventually cured by replacing the block with a new one which has an Alusil liner.

Many engine blocks were replaced by BM foc. Check in your service history paperwork to see if yours has been done.

Also check the casting no. on the block and compare with the following:

Nikasil M60B30    1 725 970 or 1 741 212
Nikasil M60B40    1 725 963 or 1 742 998
Alusil M60B30     1 745 871
Alusil M60B40     1 745 872
Alusil M62B44     1 745 873

How do you tell which material is in your short block ? That part is fairly easy. But it requires getting under the right front of the car. All M60 and M62 blocks have casting numbers on the right side, directly alongside the 3rd cylinder, slightly above the coolant drain bolt.

These are the casting numbers to look for:

Nikasil M60B30    1 725 970 or 1 741 212
Nikasil M60B40    1 725 963 or 1 742 998
Alusil M60B30     1 745 871
Alusil M60B40     1 745 872
Alusil M62B44     1 745 873

NOTE, all US market M62 engines are Alusil.

This is the only way to determine which M60 you have, short of removing a cylinder head.

Hope this helps

Hi, as the car is back with BMW i cant be sure   
its a 1998 R reg though so is there still a chance it applies? Also there is definataly no paperwork in the service history for it being done, could this be the problem, i also found out there was no actual breach or crack on the head gasket when they removed it, but they say the cylinder heads were warped and needed skimming, not sure if this helps, should i maybe suggest it to BMW?
let me know
Cheers    

Hang on 740. You are now doing the dealer's job for them! It's up to them to find the fault not you, that's what you paid £4k for!

Trying to speculate it might be a sulphur corrosion problem is pointless at the moment. If it is a problem engine, I would of thought it would have shown up long before now.

Just out of curiosity how much is a recon engine ?

And also how much would a car of the same age / condition be from a dealer ?

I get the nasty feeling unless you can find somebody who you know definitly knows what they are doing you might be throwing good money after bad.

I know you following a solicitors advice, but I think reissuing your cheque was a bad idea. If you do end up suing it will take an age, & a lot of money & I'll bet you'll never recover your costs no matter how morraly right you may be.

Your tale sounds like a nightmare.

 I hope it works out for you mate

UPDATE -

found an independant technician - they charge £500 and they will go and look at the vehicle, spoke to BMW managing director and told him this, he said they have now looked at the car and they think its the vicose fan that has gone and that is causing the leak, and they are prepared to fix this for free to see it that stops the problem, if it does then surely it was that all along so the other £4100 work i paid for wasnt needed??!! Thats why we need an independent technician looking at it, he clearly didnt like the idea of someone coming in to look at the car, as clearly if we are prepared to spend another £500 then we must be serious about the case, i am phoning now to try and get some legal advise on the next step. I could negotiate a deal with the MD at BMW and try and get some money back or take them to court, any ideas people?
cheers

I havent told them to go ahead, the legal people have said i can try and get a refund to a price that i agree with and then give them one last chance to fix the car (free of charge) i had £2000 in my head to reapair the headgasket so i guess a £2100 refund and fix the vicous coupling, and then i see if its repaired to my satisfaction, failing that i get the independant engineer in and take them to court, im gonna call there MD now and suggest the refund bit first, ill keep you informed.

yeh, it is very exspensive, what engine and year was that? i did phone a few BMW dealers and this place was the cheapest, even specialist garages were charging more, and most independant garages wouldnt do the work on a V8 engine. BMW are doing the work now and calling me in the morning to let me know if its fixed and to discuss the price, thing is they always say its fixed and im the only one who can make the problem happen again so what im really hoping is for it to go wrong again when i get it back, then i can REALLY go to town

Hi there, guess we will have to wait and see, thing is not ONCE has my engine overheated, it always gets to normal temperture and NEVER goes above, it does only take about 5 minutes driving to get to normal temperture which i thought was normal with the these big engine cars?
im looking forward to geting the car back and really hope the problem is still there!
the engine just got to normal temperature when i drove it back, would it cause problems?

exactly what i thought, but they said the work will be done by the morning so we will find out, when it starts leaking again then they are stuffed, obviously they will then know the fan didnt need replacing and nor did any of the other bits they did!
roll on tomorrow