Sorry to hear the bad news, but I may just be santa claus bringing you the ideal xmas gift!!

My misfortune may be your goodluck. I was rear ended in Sep 2005 by a Tw#t in slough, who wrote off my mint 1997 E36 M3 Evo in standard form apart from a full stainless steel exhaust. The engine was lovingly looked after meticulously by me and Munich Legends and only covered 59,000 miles. Now for the bad news. Elephant Insurance wrote off the car and have handed it over to a salvage company whose details I could find if you need it.

Goodluck, ricky

alpina527 wrote: I would talk to BMW about this. Just about every M3 that does a big end shell is on number 5. There must be a design problem. They will obviously try to palm you off, but it's a fact.

I would not hold out for much help from BMW, the car is 8 years old, done 105,000 miles and has not been serviced by a dealer for the last 65,000 miles. Still maybe worth a phonecall, it is almost christmas.

BOYBIMMERM3 wrote: alpina527 wrote: I would talk to BMW about this. Just about every M3 that does a big end shell is on number 5. There must be a design problem. They will obviously try to palm you off, but it's a fact. I would not hold out for much help from BMW, the car is 8 years old, done 105,000 miles and has not been serviced by a dealer for the last 65,000 miles. Still maybe worth a phonecall, it is almost christmas.

You would not get anything out of BMW. As has been said the car has not been serviced by BMW for 65k miles. They would be stupid to give a penny. No offence intended 

alpina527 wrote: So, the fact that just about every big end failure is on number 5 means nothing?? The 328 Nikasil issue was still being resolved by BMW after 9 years. Surely we shouldn't just roll over and accept an obvious design fault.

I agree with you, it does mean something.  Now that i've learnt this is a regular failure, I'm going to find as many online second-hand reviews as I can and post the bad news about number 5.  What really eats me up is the fact that these cars become financially unrepairable if something like this goes wrong.  £10500 for a new engine (not fitted) - have they only got 15 engines left or something?  Also, there is no recondition/exchange system available for these engines!  I'll blame the independents this time around, probably skimped on the oil, excessive heat build up in engine components, promoting an early component failure.  Independents suck!  They haven't a clue about real cars, just keep giving them the Vauxhalls and Citreons of this world - even those pieces of rubbish deserve better than a 'redneck'.  Just as i'm getting peed off again, someone reminds me 'its just a piece of metal......get another bit of metal'.  Hmmmm! - easy for some eh.  Thanks for looking y'll.

alpina527 wrote: So, the fact that just about every big end failure is on number 5 means nothing?? The 328 Nikasil issue was still being resolved by BMW after 9 years. Surely we shouldn't just roll over and accept an obvious design fault.

No it doesn't mean nothing. However the fact that the car has not been serviced by BMW for 65k miles means effectively that they have a get out. Also from their point of view how do they know that the car has been serviced correctly? You can't expect a manufacturer to help out with the cost of a repair on a vehicle that has been out of the dealer network for so long, all IMO of course

BMW only sorted the Nikasil issue on cars that had a full or almost full BMWSH and less than 100k on the clock.

You are probably right about selling being the most financially sensible option.

Still you can't be to hard up after all that since you've gone and got yourself an E46 M3.  

Peter Fenwick wrote: You are probably right about selling being the most financially sensible option. Still you can't be to hard up after all that since you've gone and got yourself an E46 M3.

'Hard up' - whats that.  Seriously, i bought my old mans because hes had it from new. its nearly 3 years old, 22k miles and I took out a five year personal loan, to cover the insurance  . otherwise i wouldnt  have bothered with another m3.  Anyways, no one here is hard up; otherwise you'd be posting on the Rover forum.  There is a real reason actually for not being hard up right now - its called 'hard work'.  Hey, Ive owned a Metro and that wasnt because I was an enthusiast!

......and that's the point - "put some of that decent stuff in it" - yeh, great.  'Decent oil' is fine for a 540 (*global warming alert*), not an M3.  BMW spec Mobil1 which is far superior to 'decent oil'.  Therefore, 'decent oil' = excessive heat build up, more than engine components are engineered for and subsequent 'early failure'.  No independent stocks it because it's too expensive and lets face it, how the hell do you tell.  I know a lot of people will agree with you, independents are very trustworthy - do you know any ladies, at all, or people who don't know about cars.  Who said anything about no previous engine work?  Perhaps it was rebuilt at 80K - ive only had it 10 months.  And now you're slating main dealers and comparing a mass production car with an exotic............WHATEVER.  By the way, the 525i was a lot better than the 540i.

Pegsta wrote: I live with my parents and would kill to be able to afford (and run) an E36 M3.....  let alone a 46.

sounds like a bargain to me. 

Independants, main dealers, there all in the car trade therefore a significant proportion of them are rubbish, or rip off merchants. Out of all the garages i've used well over 50% of them have given me reason not to go back.

Steve, why not compare the engine of an M3 to that of a Ferrari?

After all they have similar specific outputs so must be in a similar state of tune?

It may be mass produced but that doesn't mean that it is not highly strung and highly stressed. TBH I can't see how the 3 litre is a lot better based on that arguement though.

Oh and Steve, my local independant offers Mobil1 oil. They are crap though, just like my local main dealer.

Going to BMW for a service on a car woth e.g. sub £10k may not seem worth it especially when you have to have an Insp2 on an E36 evo. But there are some good independent BMW specialists like Birds or Munich Legends where you can take your car, though they are independents they are a hundred times better than local garages.

A car like an M3 even if its 10 or 15 years old and is'nt worth much money still has to be serviced by a specialist or BMW. You can't take an engine like that to your local garage and expect them to do a proper job even with their best intentions. They just dont have the knowledge, experience and specefic checks in place to look after cars such as these. They are as highly tuned as some porsches and ferraris pushing out almost 100bhp per litre which from a non turbo or supercharged engine is amazing.

Even the BMW range of standard oils for the M3 Evo is really wide. I 'phoned up the last dealer to service my car to check what had been used. Turned out to be Castrol SLX 0W30, which was right at the 'thinnest' end of the spectrum.

I have subsequently used a specialist for servicing and provided Mobil 1 (0W40) - always make sure the receipt for the oil goes into the service history though...

Sorry to hear about engine failure woes - though I'm sure getting into an E46 M3 should ease the pain over time!