A few years ago my brother Ian had to decide whether to buy his dream car. He found a low-mileage 2011 BMW M3 convertible for sale for $29,500 in Florida, and though he wasn’t 100% sure it was the best deal, he bought it. For years, he enjoyed the fruits of that decision, hooning the absolute Scheisse out of that 414 horsepower 4.0-liter V8, feeling the crisp shifts of that ahead-of-its-time DCT automatic. But a few months back, disaster struck.
The reality is that my brother drives like a madman; I know for a fact that that S65B40 has touched over 7,000 RPM hundreds of times. Is that a bad thing? No; that’s what you pay for when you buy the greatest enthusiast’s M-car ever made. But the downside of buying a BMW is that you have to deal with BMW problems, and in the case of my brother’s low-mileage M3 whose rod bearings had allegedly been replaced by the previous owner, those problems have become dire.
A few months ago, after the car had sat for 6 months, my brother took his convertible M3 for a trip up the coast near his home of Boston, hooning it as he always does. “A couple miles from my garage on the way back I start hearing lugging / thudding noises (not too crazy),” he told me, “but the car is driving fine.”
My brother then parks the car in the garage and listens to the idle; the engine seems to be lugging. He shuts it off. He fires it back up, revs the motor to 7,000, and observes a noise that he describes as “not great.” He shuts the motor off, fires it up again, and it idles, then shuts off. From then on, it would no longer start. “It doesn’t crank again, and every time I press ignition it just gives a puff sound,” he tells me of this tragic incident, whose aftermath you can hear/see in the videos he shot below.
“I then let it sit for months before bringing it into BMW of Boston, which claims it is seized and needs a new motor.” BMW of Boston posted a video of its tech trying to turn the crank with a breaker bar; here’s a screenshot:
“We are on the crank right now … and unfortunately the engine does not crank over. I try to go back and forth, but it’s a no-go … I will be checking the filter to see if there are metal shavings. It’s highly possible that you do need an engine.”
Ultimately, the dealer determined that my brother’s M3 needs a new engine. How much will that cost? Check it out:
Holy crap! Over $40,000 after tax to replace a motor! That’s madness!
$10,458 of that is service, leaving the remaining $28,000-ish to parts costs. That’s an expensive motor! And I’m not even sure that “short engine” includes a crank and rods.
Needless to say, this is too much money for a convertible automatic M3, which is probably worth what my brother bought it for, assuming it was still, you know, running. So what’s the solution here?
The dealer’s quote is a lot, but it’s also a lot of work, so there’s no way my brother can get out of this cheaply without doing the work himself. I suggested he take it to an independent shop and see what they have to say. They can yank the motor, look inside, and see if it’s salvageable. If it needs new bearings and maybe honing and new rings, that’d be a best-case scenario. If it needs new pistons and rods, plus new bearings and a bore-job, that’d still be cheaper than the dealer’s estimate.
Worst case, the motor is toast, and my brother snags a used one on eBay. Looks like they go for between $5000 and $8000. I’d say get one that turns over and runs for closer to $5000, then have an engine shop go through it and replace the innards. I reckon you can get an independent shop to take out your old motor and look at it for a few grand. If the motor can be saved, I bet an engine shop can do that for $8-9 grand. And then the install might be another couple of grand. If he has to buy a new motor for $5-6 grand and have it rebuilt and installed, I think it’d probably cost about the same. I think my brother could get out of this for under $20,000. Maybe.
Whether it’s worth it for a car that’s worth maybe $30,000 is up to him, though. One thing I can say: Paying that $41,018.08 estimate from the dealer is clearly not the move.
Top graphic images: Ian Tracy; iOS
LS swap. I’m sure somebody makes a simple bolt in kit for these cars. Makes the same power. Then the next time the engine blows up it will be $500 not $40,000.