Engine overheat?
 

I took the X today for a drive through carwash, then drove home (it had been on for about 15 minutes at this point). As I was parking the car and getting ready to turn it off, The car chimed and I noticed the temp gauge needle was in the red zone all the way to the right and the red temp warning light was on, so I quickly shut off the engine. I waited an hour and drove the X off to its destination, and it performed fine. Temp stayed in the middle the entire time like usual. From what I can see no coolant or anything has leaked at all, and the car sounds and performs fine. Was this just a glitch or should I look further into it, and has this happened to anyone here?

It's been about a week and 800 miles since its Inspection II, and its worked great since then.

If it pertains, the air conditioning was on during the car wash.

It can be an actual overheat, caused by a thermostat, fan problem, etc, or a sensor failure, which looks just the same.

Given the high cost of resultant engine damage due to overheating on these engines, I would keep a close eye on it.

It happened to me before, I turned the car off and on again, everything was fine, it's been two years now..

I took a look into the reservoir where it says to measure coolant in the manual (I think its the expansion tank? I don't think its the radiator). According to the owner's manual, there should be a red stick bobbing in the coolant. When I checked, the red stick is not bobbing and that reservoir seems to be bone dry. I see some fluid on the outside of this tank, faintly bluish green but I'm not sure if it's coolant. Also, I'm not sure why my low coolant light hasn't come on?

I think the next step I will take is fill it up to where the manual says it should be, measure it, and see if it drops over the next few days.

If it pertains, the coolant expansion tank, water pump, and thermostat were changed six months ago.

What is your warranty on that work?

Since it was done 6 months ago, those parts still have an 18 month parts warranty left if I'm right. The dealer wants a 120 dollar diagnostic fee though

I'm gonna fill it up and then check for leaks. However, the dealer is quite far from me so I'll have to get an auto zone type fluid. Is this alright as long as its blue-green like the stock fluid and a premium, phosphate free fluid?

I replaced it with Pentofrost-NF, which seems good for all BMW's. Anyway I let it warm up, gave it a little gas, still nothing. So I parked in a different spot, gave it some more gas, and lo and behold, coolant is spilling from under the car. I shut it off, and I'm waiting to get it towed.

What are the chances that the cylinder head was warped or damaged? This is the first time the car has overheated, and when it did it was shut off within 5 seconds or less.

Impossible to estimate from the information above. Higher chance than with a typical domestic vehicle. But if it didn't get too hot, for too long, you could be fine. It isn't that it warps the head with every overheat, it is just that when it does overheat and warp something, it is expensive.