Help Head gasket blown

[GT475]

Good day all,

Mine is about to go to hell

Just got a call from the dealership who's having our 2000 X5 for oil in prestone.

Original taught was that the oil separator was the culpit but it looks like the head gasket has blown. Curiously no white smoke ever came out of the car just a lost of cabin heat which resulted from low prestone (no warning light what so ever (and the dashboard light works).

I had top it off for 2-3 weeks. The engine temp gage never went off the middle. I don't understand with all the engineering in this howcome we never got a warning sign.

Anyhow, they are going to spend the required 3 hours to pull the top off and see if there is more damage.

The service man (which we have been dealing with for several years now) is warning me that there might be a possiblity that they could not be able to remove the head bolts without stripping them. In which case, he is saying that we might have to get a new block

How can that be?

Cant they just fix the damage thread in these blocks, if any?

He said a new block is in the 10G+. The car is just worth about 19kCDN.

Anybody with taughts, comments, past experience with this is appreciated.

I am totally devastated with this car now.
We had put in some big $ last fall to fix some minor rust and other regular maintenance stuff, new set of winter tires, etc.

Were thinking of selling it this spring and order a 335xi for next winter.

Don't know what to think anymore.

Marc

[01 BMW_X5]

I would get the X away from the dealer.
Let it rest in my garage while I....
Check the junkyards/eBay/craigslist for a complete engine/long block and get an idea on pricing.
Call a few indies about what it would cost to remove replace.

10G is just for engine.
Figure in labor costs, water pump, thermostat(whatever caused the overheating), gasket sets and whatever they find/damage while they removing the engine and you going to have one biggggggg bill.

Having it in your driveway/garage gives you time to think!!

[01 BMW_X5]

3 hours to pull the head??
Stripping head bolts??
New block??

If he told me this, I would ask him how wide should does he want me to start spread my legs and I hope he is not gonna charge for the lubrication/grease.

[CanadianX5]

10g's !!!!
Take it to another place and dont mention what the first guy said.
Let the new mechanic come to his own conclusions.

Good luck

[Islands52]

Is it a 3.0 or a 4.4?

First off, you should be using BMW coolant and not Prestone. I'd also be getting a second opinion as a blown head gasket should have definitely had symptoms such as sludge in the oil...unless its a very minor leak, in which case a new head or block should not be needed...anyway, I would definitely get another opinion, or even two, before either spending $10K or sourcing a junkyard motor.

[mrbmwx5]

ask bostonblux5 i think he had similar problem.
here is posted.
http://www.xoutpost.com/x5-e53-forum/...-fine-now.html

[vinuneuro]

Having oil in the coolant is indeed a symptom of a headgasket failure and not an oil separator issue. Them telling you that they might now be able to remove the headbolts and you needing a new block is totally bogus. I've never heard of a headgasket failure causing the head or block to warp enough to create such a situation.

After they remove the head/headgasket, make sure they check that the head and block are not warped at all. If so, either might need to be resurfaced.

[UCrewX5]

Loss of coolant could also be attributable to a bad valley pan gasket.

[vinuneuro]

Originally Posted by UCrewX5

Loss of coolant could also be attributable to a bad valley pan gasket.

That wouldn't lead to contamination of oil/coolant afaik.

[UCrewX5]

Originally Posted by vinuneuro

That wouldn't lead to contamination of oil/coolant afaik.

Unless I am overlooking it, I don't see anywhere in the original poster's message about contaminated oil. Only a loss of coolant.