zm coupe broken camshaft

jesus

Its certainly not a common problem.

Sounds like just bad luck.

I should think BMW would take an interest in this??

by age this will be a 321bhp unit as per E36 evo, I had heard that these have less than the usual cast Iron reputation?

Why don't you drop Jeff Heywood a line about it.
He's the Club Chairman and Z3M owner.
Always been glad to help me out!

Thank you for all your concern ive made some good contacts through the vairous web sites, Jeff Heywood has being particular supportive and sympathetic
Iam still awating the news from the main dealers on the engine strip,spoken to another BMW serice manager who also gave me some information on possible things that may have cotributed to the failure.
1, The old Vanos unit which was changed under warranty produced swarf
that may of pluged up some of the narrow galleries on the clyinder head thus starving the cam and then ''snapo'.'

2, There was also a oil issue on these engines they changed the viscosity they went from semi to fully synthetic { don't no why } was this also a potential problem that may have worn components ??????.
      
There was no noise from the engine at all before the failure i had also just checked the oil level before going out, Not used the the car for about a week was going to preston the next day, i only went out for fuel and it went on my return home.  thank you all Stuart Gwilt


Edited by sgwilt999

Hope it works out for you dude

They have told me they hope to have some idea soon i also think bmw field engineer will want to see the engine with this failure as it is very uncomon.  

I would like the car back soon as i was hoping to goto Donnington for the M coupe meet and attened the race day,i was also considering going on the better driving day in March ????    

      forever hopfull     Stuart Gwilt    

Edited by sgwilt999

you read my mind and a new clutch
 
ps i can hope     

M2_Harry wrote: So what is the s54? engine? More perforce i hope

Its the engine in the E46 M3 and the newer ZM Coupe (albeit with different bhp)

Update on engine failure;   


It now turns out that the timing chain was the original one and it's not changed as part of the vanos unit.

But all things considered it is still a very low milage car and under 60,000 miles and they don't even require a replacement at any time.

The dealer has being quite good in keeping me updated, they have already contacted BMW on this issue there first reply was there was going to be no good wil payment.

The service manager at BMW dealer has now become involved with this problem he contacted BMW direct spoke with there customer service, and now they have gone from nothing to 40% of the cost of the engine £8221.28 - 40% + labour + bits and bobs + VAT still going to be around ten grand for me to find.

I will now be speaking to BMW customer service myself as you need to go through the dealer first.

Also a bit of information i rang around a few dealers and i managed to get 10% of a new engine with out to much problem and with the 40% we will soon be down to half price . but i still feel its not enough with a car that has a full service bmw history and has already spent £2500.over the last 2yrs.

          I will try to keep you updated .  Stuart Gwilt






















Edited by sgwilt999