New Cylinder Head? At 48K Miles? What?'04

[Phils]

I took my 2004 4.4 X5 CPO to my local dealer yesterday AM to get a few warranty things done including classic broken cup holder, slightly jarring ride when hitting bumps especially left side. Also I noted the car is rough when started cold sometimes- I included this description in the note to service advisor:

"...2. On starting cold, engine sometimes surges in RPMs. On starting two weeks ago at La Guardia I drove to parking exit to wait in line to pay and while brake applied car surged and jumped forward a few feet….had to brake harder to keep from striking car in front!"

He called at the end of the day and said they needed to keep the car overnight, as they wanted to start it cold. Also the mechanic he said has opened a PMA(?) with BMW on this. OK, no big deal I have a loaner X3 for now. At 3PM on the second day, today, he calls and says you may need to keep that loaner for a while, we think it may be a cylinder head problem and we are basically going to have to replace the head 'essentially the engine' is how he also phrased it. He said they'd confirm more detail tomorrow but it looks like a new head is needed (under warranty of course).
I'll try to get more detail, he had customers lining up, but what's up with that at 48K miles??? Any thoughts or questions to ask?

[alpac]

This is weird. Did they say what was wrong with the cylinder head? Is it cracked? Did you ever have over heating problem? One of the main cause for cylinder head's replacement is overheating causing the cylinder head to crack or wrap.
It cannot be the result of an overrev as steptronic will not let that happen and you would have damaged valves too in this case anyway.
Probably a a defect from the beginning.
Good that this will be covered by the warranty.

[Phils]

They didn't say anything about a crack. I have never had the X run even a little bit hot. Really the only issue with how it was running was what I described in the original post below. I will call the service writer tomorrow and get more detail. Very weird.

[The Cleaner]

WOW, it happens. thats a really big job. Nice your CPO covered

[X5Jay]

I wonder what a head replacement consists of - will they take the entire valve train out of the old heads and install them in the new ones or will the new ones come with all that stuff new?

[noncom23]

No warning lights?

Originally Posted by Phils

I took my 2004 4.4 X5 CPO to my local dealer yesterday AM to get a few warranty things done including classic broken cup holder, slightly jarring ride when hitting bumps especially left side. Also I noted the car is rough when started cold sometimes- I included this description in the note to service advisor:

"...2. On starting cold, engine sometimes surges in RPMs. On starting two weeks ago at La Guardia I drove to parking exit to wait in line to pay and while brake applied car surged and jumped forward a few feet….had to brake harder to keep from striking car in front!"

He called at the end of the day and said they needed to keep the car overnight, as they wanted to start it cold. Also the mechanic he said has opened a PMA(?) with BMW on this. OK, no big deal I have a loaner X3 for now. At 3PM on the second day, today, he calls and says you may need to keep that loaner for a while, we think it may be a cylinder head problem and we are basically going to have to replace the head 'essentially the engine' is how he also phrased it. He said they'd confirm more detail tomorrow but it looks like a new head is needed (under warranty of course).
I'll try to get more detail, he had customers lining up, but what's up with that at 48K miles??? Any thoughts or questions to ask?

[motordavid]

Hey, Phils...
It's your birthday, today! Happy 46th and welcome to
your solid mid 40s!

You got a great present: a CPO covered major surgery,
engine job!
BR,mD

[Phils]

Not exactly what I planned for my Birthday. I'm anxious to know what they will install in my car. Thanks for the Birthday wishes though.

[BMWguy]

Good luck. Please give me any details, I have "01" 3.0, 135K that I have to do a head gasket myself. No warranty :-(

[DT_]

The head will come as a bare head and they will transfer the cams, valves etc over. They might be replacing it for clogged secondary air ports. this will cause a check engine light but should not cause any rough running issues. It could also be that a valve seat was worn or damaged in this case you would get a new head and valves but they would still transfer over your old camshafts, lifters and rockers.

Sounds like your service advisor probably doesnt have all of the information or just doesnt understand the technical side of it. Feel free to call him/her back and ask for a better description of exactly what they are doing on your car. If he cant clearly explain it to you then ask to speak with the shop foreman or the tech who is working on the car so that they can describe to you exactly what they are replacing and why. Its your right to know.