BMW 318i Tourer 2009 - BMW Seized engine 50k miles

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Tue 14 Apr 2015 19:04
BMW 318i Tourer 2009 - BMW Seized engine 50k miles - JKit

Car has done 50k miles and engine has seized. BMW say this is due to bottom bearings seizing due to insufficient oil reaching bearings. Vehicle regularly serviced by non-BMW garage who have used 5-30 oil. BMW have denied any responsibility as they say 0-30 oil should have been used. All my web searches show 5-30 oil is acceptable. Has anyone else had a similar problem and should I expect any compensation from BMW. I bought the car new from BMW

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 14 Apr 2015 19:11
BMW 318i Tourer 2009 - BMW Seized engine 50k miles - Auristocrat

If you have an owner's manual, what does that say? Don't think it matters what third party websites say about which grades of oil are acceptable, it is what BMW say.

Having the car serviced outside the BMW dealer network means they cannot be certain the car has been serviced according to their requirements.

Aside from that, you're expecting BMW to make an out-of-warranty goodwill contribution towards cost of repairs, yet you haven't shown BMW goodwill by having the car serviced via their own dealer network.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 14 Apr 2015 19:28
BMW 318i Tourer 2009 - BMW Seized engine 50k miles - Mike H

Your redress is against the servicing garage. You would need to show that they've been negligent in some way. Tough news, but as has been said, there's no way you could pin it on BMW, unless by some chance an independent technical report could identify a manufacturing fault.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 15 Apr 2015 07:55
BMW 318i Tourer 2009 - BMW Seized engine 50k miles - madf

Have BMW filters been used?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 15 Apr 2015 08:23
BMW 318i Tourer 2009 - BMW Seized engine 50k miles - gordonbennet

IMO the oil grade is neither here nor there, the diagnosis is that insufficient oil has starved the crank bearings, so either the oil level has become too low and dropped below the oil pick up on inclines/corners, or you've had oil starvation for another reason.

You have no chance of goodwill from BMW, taking the car out of their hands for servicing sealed that once out of warranty.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 15 Apr 2015 08:27
BMW 318i Tourer 2009 - BMW Seized engine 50k miles - bazza

You would need to show that they've been negligent in some way. ......

And that isn't going to be easy quite rightly. Any number of reasons could have caused your engine failure, it's a 6 year old car, I'm afraid you cannot expect to pin the blame onto a third party unless there's been proven negligence. My advice would be to source a good recon engine and have it fitted by an indie, put it down to a spot of bad luck,


Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 15 Apr 2015 09:37
BMW 318i Tourer 2009 - BMW Seized engine 50k miles - skidpan

The car presumably ran fine for the first 3 years whilst it was under BMW's warranty.

Again it presumably ran fine for the next 3 years whilst out of warranty and having non BMW services.

At 6 years old there is no way BMW are going to pick up the tab unless you can prove a manufacturing defect caused the failure and that is going to be a very costly excercise.

Suggest you find a specialist who can drop an engine into your car from a similar written off car.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 15 Apr 2015 10:42
BMW 318i Tourer 2009 - BMW Seized engine 50k miles - madf

Perhaps the OP can confirm he/she regualrly checks the oil levels?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 16 Apr 2015 01:25
BMW 318i Tourer 2009 - BMW Seized engine 50k miles - Avant

"I bought the car new from BMW."

You can't have done. Even if BMW GB own the dealership and it has BMW in its name, it doesn't matter whether it's BMW Park Lane or BMW Lesser Puddlemarsh, your contract is still with the dealer, not with BMW GB.

This isn't strictly relevant to your problem, but so many people seem confused on this that I thought it might be helpful to point it out.

I'm afraid that we can't give you much in the way of positive advice on this: you didn't have the car serviced by an authorised BMW dealer, and (whether you agree with it or not) the oil you've used wasn't the one specified by BMW. And the car is six years old and well outside the warranty.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 16 Apr 2015 12:46
BMW 318i Tourer 2009 - BMW Seized engine 50k miles - slkfanboy

<*** class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" src="http://i2.wp.com/www.quirkyuncle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/bmw_ll01.jpg?resize=460%2C202" alt="BMW_LL01" />

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Looking for a garage you can trust? Honest John's Good Garage Guide has thousands of reader recommended garages, plus how-to guides and tips on servicing.

The Good Garage Guide