A screw fell from the cam shaft fell off and went into the engine, now engine is dead

[shitbrownMcoupe]

Guys,

I was at the drive through at McDonalds, as I went to the window to pay, somthing rattled and car stalled.

BMW just called me and told me that the screw for the cam shaft got loose.

They are taking apart the engine to see the extent of the damage.

Any recommendations?

What are my options?

[chickdr]

Your car is still under warranty right? If so they will fix the problem and your car will be returned at no cost to you. Maybe you will get lucky and they give you a new motor(starting over at zero miles again.) Let us know how it turns out. I have never heard of this issue before.

[inTgr8r]

^+1 this a strange one

[Serious]

Originally Posted by shitbrownMcoupe

Guys,

I was at the drive through at McDonalds, as I went to the window to pay, somthing rattled and car stalled.

BMW just called me and told me that the screw for the cam shaft got loose.

They are taking apart the engine to see the extent of the damage.

Any recommendations?

What are my options?

yep exhaust camshaft gear bolt sheared. Somewhat typical of s54's in e46 m3's.

[crfine88]

Sorry to hear.
Shoud be covered though, just a huge pain.
Hope the coupe is back on the road again soon.

[G80indy]

Originally Posted by seriousm3

yep exhaust camshaft gear bolt sheared. Somewhat typical of s54's in e46 m3's.

it is??
wow, I've never heard of this one.
at what mileage, and for what reason? random or causal?

[inTgr8r]

Originally Posted by seriousm3

yep exhaust camshaft gear bolt sheared. Somewhat typical of s54's in e46 m3's.

Is there any preventive measure?
bolt upgrade?

[Serious]

Originally Posted by inTgr8r

Is there any preventive measure?
bolt upgrade?

~04 and above s54's supposedly have improved camshaft bolts... the awkward thing is that failures are much more common on 04+ m3's.

This is the first I've ever heard of it happening on an mz4.

I don't know if there is anything to do other then remove the vanos unit and check the torque on the bolts.

[O-cha]

Originally Posted by seriousm3

yep exhaust camshaft gear bolt sheared. Somewhat typical of s54's in e46 m3's.

Are you talking about the camshaft to cam gear bolts? It is somewhat common for them to come loose, but not cause catastrophic engine damage as it gets very noisy over a long period of time when they come loose. They don't just pop off and blow the engine up.

[Serious]

Originally Posted by O-cha

Are you talking about the camshaft to cam gear bolts? It is somewhat common for them to come loose, but not cause catastrophic engine damage as it gets very noisy over a long period of time when they come loose. They don't just pop off and blow the engine up.

Sometimes they come loose and rattle out making noise, other times they just get slightly loose and shear off... destroying the motor. Other times the prongs exhaust cam gear itself actually breaks and falls into the front cover.

It's happened to many knowledgeable members on m3forum.

Only good news is that it seems to happen at low mileage so if it hasn't happened by 60-70k it likely isn't going to happen.

m3forum is down but here is a thread documenting the what usually happens... http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=706206

[mousitch]

Having a BMW dealership tear my S54 apart would scare the shit out of me. I've heard some horror stories. Maybe they have a master tech or two there that have actually tore deeply into one. A valve adjustment is one thing. I'm sure there are some good ones around.

[Hawkeye]

Yeah, would not want any of the techs at my dealership to do that. They hardly see any Z4s let alone mess with the engines!!!

[Serious]

Originally Posted by mousitch

Having a BMW dealership tear my S54 apart would scare the shit out of me. I've heard some horror stories. Maybe they have a master tech or two there that have actually tore deeply into one. A valve adjustment is one thing. I'm sure there are some good ones around.

It's BMW's policy that if any parts break internally and get lost in the engine to just replace the entire motor.

So congrats you're getting a new s54. Enjoy 1200mi break in.

[DarkstarZero]

A new engine is pretty cool but it sucks you got to go through the break in and it wont feel as fast until it's been run in for a few thousand miles.

Do BMWs come with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty? Or is it 50,000 miles and done?

[RBull]

Wow, that's a little bit scary. G/L with the fix or the new engine sbmc.

[Serious]

Originally Posted by DarkstarZero

A new engine is pretty cool but it sucks you got to go through the break in and it wont feel as fast until it's been run in for a few thousand miles.

Do BMWs come with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty? Or is it 50,000 miles and done?

4years/50,000miles.

CPO extends that 2 additional years and upto 100,000 miles.

[O-cha]

Originally Posted by seriousm3

Sometimes they come loose and rattle out making noise, other times they just get slightly loose and shear off... destroying the motor. Other times the prongs exhaust cam gear itself actually breaks and falls into the front cover.

It's happened to many knowledgeable members on m3forum.

Only good news is that it seems to happen at low mileage so if it hasn't happened by 60-70k it likely isn't going to happen.

m3forum is down but here is a thread documenting the what usually happens... http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=706206

The prong you speak of, which actually drive the radial piston pump is somewhat common, but does not grenade the motor, makes a rattle.

Where's the document of them sheering off completely freeing the cam, because I have not heard of that happening.

[Blind32]

Sorry to hear this happened. Hope it all works out for the best and you get your shitty brown car back on the road

[Serious]

Originally Posted by O-cha

The prong you speak of, which actually drive the radial piston pump is somewhat common, but does not grenade the motor, makes a rattle.

Where's the document of them sheering off completely freeing the cam, because I have not heard of that happening.

I did a bit more research and went through a few more threads.

mainly:
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showt...=cam+gear+bolt
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=267798
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=216082
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showt...light=cam+gear

On m3's at least the cam gear cog seems to be the most common failure but supposedly that part was updated.

What mainly suprises me is the failure of the (hex head)cam gear bolts loosening up and shearing off in an mz4 (apparently what happened to OP), supposedly the improved bolts (updated ~06 so they should be in all mz4's) were designed with locktite to solve the backing out problem.

Good news is BMW seems to be willing to cover at least most of the cost due to these failures.

Better news is that 90% of all our cars are still under warranty and best news is that my car being CPO is covered for 3 more years. /wipebrow

[O-cha]

Originally Posted by seriousm3

I did a bit more research and went through a few more threads.

mainly:
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showt...=cam+gear+bolt
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=267798
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=216082
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showt...light=cam+gear

On m3's at least the cam gear cog seems to be the most common failure but supposedly that part was updated.

What mainly suprises me is the failure of the (hex head)cam gear bolts loosening up and shearing off in an mz4 (apparently what happened to OP), supposedly the improved bolts (updated ~06 so they should be in all mz4's) were designed with locktite to solve the backing out problem.

Good news is BMW seems to be willing to cover at least most of the cost due to these failures.

Better news is that 90% of all our cars are still under warranty and best news is that my car being CPO is covered for 3 more years. /wipebrow

Ok, still no reports of cams breaking free.

[Serious]

Originally Posted by O-cha

Ok, still no reports of cams breaking free.

what did I ever say about cams breaking free? Just 1 or 2 of the 6 bolts holding attaching the cams to the camgear backs out and gets sheared off and goes down the front cover or is loose in the vanos unit/cam gears and chews them up.

[O-cha]

Originally Posted by seriousm3

what did I ever say about cams breaking free? Just 1 or 2 of the 6 bolts holding attaching the cams to the camgear backs out and gets sheared off and goes down the front cover or is loose in the vanos unit/cam gears and chews them up.

First, you said destroying the motor, that's hardly destroying the motor, I can fix that in an afternoon.

Second the bolts you are speaking of and linked that attach to the camshaft, when they back out, can go nowhere, THOSE do not fall into the engine, they just make noise.

The bolts that can fall into the engine are the bolts that hold the vanos gear to the sprocket. And if these back out the vanos gear loses its preload and rattles like a sonofabitch so not fixing it and letting them back out completely is...

Most of the time when the bolts fall in they don't cause damage anyway, do you know how many BMWs are running around with random bolts in their oil pans? A lot, a whole lot.