New engine for €35k or spark plugs and a tightened nut?

[Revolvo]

I’ve always brought my car to the Alpina dealers here in Berlin for regular and preventative maintenance. I recently bought new summer tyres from the dealer and they spotted when I was there, that I was about 3000 miles away from an oil change, so they offered to change the oil and of course I agreed.

The day I picked it up from them, I took it on a high speed blast and heard something from under the bonnet, a new sound that was quite brief and then the car felt like it lost a lot of its power, like a flat, fizzyless, soft drink.

The car ran smooth after that but didn’t have any fizz or pop and then I noticed that black smoke appeared from the exhaust when accelerating.

I took it back to the dealer who investigated it and told me that they found metal in the oil and that I would HAVE to buy a new engine from Alpina. A new N54 engine with fitting was quoted to me at just over €35k. The dealer told me that the car was unroadworthy and therefore had to be scrapped if I didn’t fit a new engine, and that they could not legally allow me to drive the car from their workshop.

I found a BMW specialist who collected the car on their truck and brought it to their workshop.

Now - I had driven the car from Berlin to Sussex in the week prior to me bringing it to the Alpina dealer here in Berlin. The guys at Munich Legends we’re really very helpful, visually inspected my car and gave me some suggestions as to why I was seeing black smoke under load. When I explained to them that my dealer said I needed a new engine, they reassured me, even though I was back in Berlin, that my motor was relatively healthy and worth another inspection by a Berlin based specialist.

The Berlin specialist I found, inspected my car and told me that they couldn’t find any traces of metal in the oil and the hat the black smoke was because the fuel injector on cylinder 6 was loose. They adjusted the injectors and fitted new spark plugs and the fizz is back. They ran full diagnostics which showed no error codes whatsoever. There is now no black smoke, the engine starts up much quieter and less dramatically than before although it settles down to the same note/thrum on idle. I also noticed that the smell of petrol I used to get every time I started the engine, is now gone (I guess that should have been a telltale sign in itself).

So - the dealer quoted me €35k for a new motor and I had to pay them €782.15 to have my car released from their workshop.
The specialist, brought my car to their shop, repaired it with new spark-plugs and examining the injectors, then ran a full set of tests to check roadworthiness at a total cost of €681.48.

My lessons have been learnt and I will stick with the specialists in Berlin, Sussex or Ireland rather than the dealers - except for the OEM tyres as the dealers are less expensive for tyres as BMW works with Michelin to create the tyres and my new Michelin Pilot Sport 4S* tyres do make for a nice ride.

I am writing this with a huge sense of relief as I had been budgeting €10k - €12k for an engine rebuild and now, it seems that the dealer has spectacularly (and kinda distressingly) misdiagnosed what my car’s issue was.

Anybody else similarly experienced anything like this - and suffered those sleepless anxiety filled nights……….?

[hashluck]

Lost for words but then I guess nothing should surprise me by now

[JohnW]

The dealer cannot just diagnose a new engine by seeing black smoke and even metal particles in the oil, it could be anything without changing a whole engine, that’s just chancing it with you or just can’t be bothered to run proper checks.

Any decent mechanic would have seen the loose injector pretty quickly after taking the plastic engine cover off and loosened the solid fuel pipe lines to the rail.

There is an order to diagnose this, always go for the cheapest option first - plugs, coils, injectors, rocker cover leaks. Then with the N54 suspect high pressure fuel pump, the perhaps worn turbochargers on higher mileage cars.

Great result though from the specialist.

[Gorgerak]

Holy smokes! The bottom of my stomach fell out reading that, goodness knows what would've happened if I'd been in your shoes!

Not being mechanically minded - I would've smelt a rat if the car was running fine - then the dealership changed the oil - then a problem arose and the same dealership quoted €35k for a new engine....

Definitely a good shout in getting a second and third opinion! Glad it was (relatively) cheap to sort out in the end and your baby is now fit and healthy again!

[ScooBeeFive]

That's an unbelievable story. I'd be wanting my €780 back from them. Glad to hear the happy ending though.

[Marc 76]

Good work getting that second opinion!

Yours is quite an extreme case, but personally having used BMW main dealers since 2006 (mainly for servicing) i have come to the conclusion that you shouldn't believe a word they say. That opinion certainly hasn't changed since i became an Alpina owner.

The most noteworthy case i had was when the car (E46 330D) would start in limp mode but then clear once warm.
A BMW main dealer had three shots at diagnosing this on separate occasions, ultimately declaring that the turbo was at fault and would be £2500 to replace. I declined.
Turned out to be the fuel pressure sensor (£70 fitted) which I ended up diagnosing myself with the help of the internet.

[Revolvo]

That's an unbelievable story. I'd be wanting my €780 back from them. Glad to hear the happy ending though.

Yep, having experienced it firsthand and looking back at it, it’s almost hard for me to believe that this happened; that the dealer even went so far as to say that they found metal in the oil, suggesting catastrophic engine damage, when clearly there was none.
Kinda shortsighted of them and looking back over my experience, I can see now why they lost some top-end franchise licences in their premises over recent years. They previously had the franchises for multiple brands, not just BMW/Alpina but now, they don’t. They clearly don’t follow the procedures of how to diagnose engine issues and they just wanted me to trade up to something newer.

Now, I took the car to 280kph over the weekend and it was fine both leading up to, during and after the run. The only noise I heard was my passenger telling me that I was going more than fast enough. I’m hoping that a healthy high speed run like this indicates that I won’t have any issues when I move back to Ireland and the top speed I’ll be travelling at will be a more sedate and easier-on-the-engine 120/130kph.

[Norrie]

I think that at the potential expense of 35K for a new engine, I would be seeking advice from a number of service providers. I have had many poor experiences with UK main BMW dealerships in respect of service, replacement window screens, warranty work and failure to even understand what an ALPINA is. I am lucky having found a decent Independent local provider who are experts.

The problem is with main dealership is it is all about revenue and workshop hours and targets and little to do with customer satisfaction.

Who knows what will happen in 2026 when ALPINA will be in every BMW dealership.