BMW Z4 engine siezed need some advice please..

Bigmonty69

Hi

My car is a BMW Z4 03 plate. 2 Litre. Petrol. 5 gears.

I was driving to the train station this morning and I was about 5 mins from my house house when the engine cut out. Not knowing much about cars I pulled over to the side and phoned the RAC.

The guy came out, did a few tests then said he thought the engine might be siezed. I suggested taking it to my local BMW dealer (20 miles away - where I get my services and mot's done) but he thought it would be better taking it to a local garage that he knew first and a siezed engine can get expensive.

The garage phoned me back and said it was definetly siezed and there was no oil in it. Now this is where I started to get a bit mad - due to the following.

- I drive my car about 12 miles a weekday max and not much at all at the weekends
- It was last serviced by BMW in Aug and they did a full oil change.

Not how can my car sieze due to there being no oil in it when it was last serviced only 4 months ago!

The garage that checked it suggested that they could try and find me a second hand engine and fit it it but costs could rize to £2.5k very quickly. £1.5k approx for engine then labour. I have not yet got them to run a ful check as to whether there was any oil leakage but there were no puddles of oil on my drive and no smoke coming out the back (not much of a car finatic here)

My questions are as follows:
- do I have any sort of come back with the BMW garage seing as they did the last oil change/service.
- is it really gonna cost me £2.5k to get it fixed in a non BMW garage, is it worth while taking it to a BMW one?
- any other ideas as to the cause/getting it fixed would be appreciated.

Thanks alot in advance:

A very worried BMW owner!

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

The first thing you should check is if the low oil warning system was working - were there no oil warning lights on the dash? Modern systems "TEND TO TELL YOU IN VERY LARGE TEXT THAT OIL IS LOW" - nothing like that? Also, did it make any excessive noise before stopping? Had you noticed the engine getting louder in the mornings?

Bigmonty69

There was definetly no oil warning light and no I hadn;t noticed the engine getting louder.

Don't know if the oil warning light was faulty though, had a few problems with my battery discharging lately as I don't use the car that much, had to get it jump started.

Any further help appreciated.

hewhoisnotintheknow

when did you last check the oil with the dipstick

Bigmonty69

No hadn't checked the oil in 4 months. I am no car expert ( I appreciate thats no excuse) but I don't drive the car much so didn't feel the need.

There was definetly no oil warning light. I am assuming it would have stayed on after engine start?
I
'm assuming I have no come back with the servicing garage on this.
Are the quotes for engine replacement realistic, should I go for a new one or 2nd hand?

hewhoisnotintheknow

well im sorry but you have no comeback im my eyes

i would go for a second hand engine if its not repairable

Conor_3

Bigmonty69 wrote: »

No hadn't checked the oil in 4 months.

You haven't a leg to stand on. Just because you don't do a lot of mileage, it doesn't mean you don't check the oil. If you had, you'd have noticed it dropping and could have got the source of the leak fixed before it seized the engine.

A BMW dealership probably won't entertain you putting in a second hand engine.

4 months at the mileage you claim is roughly 1400-1500 miles. Plenty of time for the oil to leak out.

goldspanners

you never checked your oil in 4 months,its your fault. short journeys will burn off oil aswell.

MX5huggy

Go and talk to the BMW garage, I would have taken the car there first as they really know the car (Z4's in general and yours as you have been paying them a heavy wack to service and MOT it) see what they say.

hewhoisnotintheknow

MX5huggy wrote: »

Go and talk to the BMW garage, I would have taken the car there first as they really know the car (Z4's in general and yours as you have been paying them a heavy wack to service and MOT it) see what they say.

surely they will say there is no oil and when was it last checked

Bigmonty69

I need to get the garage who has it at the moment to clarify whether they mean nothing at all and to let me know if they see any leaks. I got the impression when I spoke to them this morning that they didn't do much of a check.

There was definetly no warning lights on at all when the engine was running (usual ones when the key is insterted but they went away when it was turned).

Seriously tempted to take it to my BMW dealer now. I was looking at some engine prices from some google links and its from £1,800 to £2,800 for a second hand engine from random websites like:

findanengine.co.uk and
breakeryard.com

and I don't even know if they are reputiable.