Any BMW sleuths that can figure this out

Sorry to hear of the woes...

A double-row timing chain is *very* unlikely to have jumped or even stretched...any stretch would be taken up by the tensioners in any case...
The only possible explanation is that one or more of the teeth on one of the chain drive cogs has sheared...They do wear, but I wouldn't have expected it to be terminal at 145K miles...

The Vanos may have seized or jammed...and this may cause a nasty noise and poor performance.

I'd say it doesn't sound good for his quality of workmanship to have left a screwdriver under the bonnet!!

Good luck with the repair and/or sorting out the financial mess...

be very interested to hear the outcome of this one , unfortunately the problem with the specialst is that he's realized you have a very small amount of knowledge regarding cars and has been fobbing you off with allsorts of garbage. im going to try to clear things up a little for you here.

 you can not tell if if the head gasket has been changed unless the engine is stripped

 you cannot tell how new the oil is unless you remove the filter and cut it open to inspect it ( as long as the engine is well serviced it can stay a nice golden colour for over 5000 miles, my car for instance is due a service but the oil still looks like new)

 it is totally impossible for the valve gear to jam up and still allow the engine to run ,   cams are connected to the crank via a chain and  if the crank is turning (which it would have to be when running) the cam would also be turning and if the cams werent turning the valves couldnt open therefore not letting fuel and air into the cylinders therefore the car wouldnt run.

 if however the cam timing pulleys had jumped a couple of teeth  the valves could well have hit the pistons and bent the valve shaft  locking them in a slightly open position or snapped the valve shaft leaving them fully closed ! both of which would result in a severe missfire  but very little noise  and tbh  it is very very very unlikely that either of these has happend.

 if the car feels as tho it is actually trying to stop you from moving i would either point at the gearbox or even the braking system , both of which can make the noise you describe and the gearbox has the capability of making the car run badly . 

hth

 as i allready said ,im interested to know what the outcome is .

The guy sounds like a right cowboy, I'd make sure he knows you have contacted trading standards (even if you haven't) and demand some answers on Monday. Sounds like this guy hasn't a clue and you should take the car elsewhere in future!

Hope you get the right result!

Mike

Why would he have taken the head off? It is a good day's work to remove/
replace an M52 head. 3 hours? Never in a million years. You would only
remove the head to fix a cooling issue and given that it's £100 worth of
parts and 6 hours plus to do it..............no, nobody has removed the head
from your car whilst you have owned it. Not a chance.

It sounds to me like the head's been off to fix a problem before you
bought it and it's come back to bite you on the arse. It could be a valve
timing unit, it could be ANYTHING. It's an old high mileage BMW that's
been apart a few times and now is the time to get rid of it.

I wouldn't say either mechanic is a cowboy. The car frankly sounds like a
disaster and the previous lash ups are coming to light. Yes, you can often
tell if a head gasket has been changed - the clean shiny gasket visible
between old block and head, the odd dab of Hylomar/sealer.

Thanks to MBW1 for wasting his time typing

I thought that this forum was for constructive comments.

Might be wrong here, and it maybe that MBW1 just has too much time on his hands!!

 

Thanks for being constructive daddy cool

The guy has not mentioned any prices. Just the fact that he will get the parts tomorrow and will let me know when the car is done.

Given that he has not mentioned prices prior to undertaking the work, I guess that he takes some of the blame for not diagnosing the original fault correctly. (maybe I am too much of an optimist). The bottom line here is that I dont (and never have) expected anything for nothing. I went to him for an opinion and ended up trusting him and letting him do the work.

If he is reasonable he will accept that it is not an option to just throw money at a car of this age. If the car had needed a recon engine I could have got a complete unit fitted with 6 months warranty (via www.247spares.co.uk ) for £1200. The specialist said that this was not neccessary and I accepted what he said (wisely or unwisely).

I can not alter the position I am in (£700 and 1 car down). I am prepared to put another £3-400 to get the car put right and if this is not enough I will go to Trading Standards.

I have learnt lessons from this.

On a brighter note I was recommended another specialist to take my wife's Z3 to for its 60k service (the Z3 is W reg special edition and is pristine). This new specialist has proved to be a really good guy. Went over the car with a fine tooth comb and it came back running like a dream. The service cost was £530 but included front and rear pads, windscreen wipers, airbag sensor, couple of bulbs, full written report AND valeted. Really good value I think. I can't really afford this car (but most of my good friends say I can't really afford my wife). Such is life!!!!!

I hope to resolve this issue in the next few days and will keep you all posted. Thank you all for your help so far (especially daddy cool & 540 V8)

Really great forum here. I intend to put some links to your site on some of my commercial web sites very soon

 

 

 

 

Try doing an online enquiry at partsgateway.

They're usually pretty good with quotes coming back asap.
Click belowhttp://www.partsgateway.co.uk/presults/start.php?slctCar=bmw

Edited by Stone-IslandV8

New update from BMW "Specialist"

I telephoned the BMW dealer this morning for an update. This mornings "story" is very much different from yesterday's. I will quote his words:

"car seems to be running much better, but still missing a bit. I think that this is a result of the valves hitting the pistons when the chain broke. I think that we should get away with this though. After a while things should settle down and you might be ok. I will drive it up the road in an hour and then give you a ring".

Now I know that my knowledge of modern engines is limited (I used to do all things mechanical on my cars up until about 1970, but I am giving my age away here) but I cannot understand how the engine run at all with a chain (presume he means camshaft chain) broken.

His statement this morning has filled me with dread. Can't quite imagine what he means by "the car is running much better now". Compared to WHAT I ask myself, an old cement mixer!!!!!

I guess I will have to wait and see!!!!!!

 

 

Further update

Picked the car up from the garage. The "specialist" told me that the bad misfire at idle would settle down after a few miles!!!

The car was rocking all over at idle. as I drove down the road the oil warning light was flickering. When I lifted off the gas there was an almighty judder. A few hundred yards later the oil warning light came on permanently.

Called the RAC etc, etc, and they suggested taking it back to the garage but I declined and told them to take the car home.

I have called the garage. The guy said he had road tested it for ten miles and could not find any problems. (he must normally ride a rocking horse to have arrived at that opinion). Having tried the route of trusting in human nature I decided to change tack. I have asked him to come back to me tomorrow morning with suggestions for dealing with the problems. I also told him that I was getting an independant egineer to look at his work (I have done this and the engineer is coming tomorrow morning at 11am with full diagnostic kit etc, etc)

My opinion now is that the guy is a cowboy and he just wanted his loan car back and to get rid of me and the car.

He cannot be a good judge of character as he has got me completely wrong.

I will not throw money at the car, but I will throw money at making sure he does not carry on taking honest people for mugs.

Lessons to be learnt here, both for him and me

 

 

Feck...really sorry to read this thread. I get so p1ssed off when I read theses types of story. I had a similar experiance witha so called BMW Specialist It was a complete fiasco fromday one. Eventually I got rid of the car.

From reading this thread the faults with the car seem to change with every phone call...... :(

Anyhow get trading standards on to him this sort of thing is just not on.

Looking forward to hear what happens.. Finger crossed for you.

Mick