Mr. Tire may have destroyed my engine!

Hey Folks,

So I'm not looking to write a novel here and if my thoughts seem scattered at all then I apologize in advance, but almost all of us know what it feels like to lose the use of something like your daily driven car.

I have an e30 (89' I believe) 325i. I've had the car for a while always started up just fine. Recently, in February, I took it to a local Mr. Tire shop to have an oil change done. As hesitant as I was to do it at this versus a Bimmer shop or service center, I ended taking it anyway. I figured a simple oil change shouldn't be that big of an issue.

I go and wait longer than I have ever waited for an oil change. I get my car back and its running fine. It was cold and rainy so I turn the heat on. I noticed that I'm sitting at the light the heat is blowing cold. Even with having the temperature turned to the max heat possible it still blew cold. With the engine at normal operating temp I saw this as odd. After having this right after I left the shop I didn't want to point the finger right away, because it could have been something I overlooked previously.

Even more to the point is the trip I had yesterday to work. I started the car like normal and started my trip. About halfway, 6 miles, I started seeing a little bit of white smoke behind me. I get closer to work and yeah at this point the road look like a scene out of SpeedRacer or something there's a huge trail of smoke following behind. It happened to the point where 5 or 6 cars had began to keep their distance. The whole cabin started filling up with smoke not thick enough to block my view of the road though.

I keep driving to get closer to a place where I could safely check it out. I started losing power to the point where I can't go above 50mph no matter how hard the accelerator is pressed and the chatter from the lifters and etc is get louder accompanied by a grinding noise. I'm putting two and two together, and just thinking that the oil has pretty much drained from the engine and at this point trying to operate it without replacing the oil temporarily will damage the engine or cause further damage aside from what occured. I pull over and pop the hood and I see fresh oil forming a puddle on the ground and already splattered all over the lower half of the engine bay.



At this point I pull over......fast forward I come back with a friend with 4 quarts of oil to put in. It takes 5 but I figured I'm not losing that much for it to be gone by the time I move it. I get back and my tire is flat from debris on the shoulder. FML.



At this point I don't know If I was thinking as rationally as I should have been, but I put all the oil in and tried to start it. It obviously didn't start easy, but it did start and had a somewhat decent idle with what had happened. Fast forward.......I swapped tires then that one blew



I got it to a gas station and yeah I was pretty much done at this point. My engine is pretty much f***ed or damn near, and I need a new spare and replacement tire for both that blew.

I was supposed to be to work at 12:30pm I ended up at home and settled around 8:45p


I'm seeing the root of the problem being the work that was done at the Mr. Tire seeing that:
-it happened weeks after the oil change

-the source of the leak looked to be coming from the filter, which probably had a broken O-Ring from over tightening

-and of course there is no reason to have fresh oil almost everywhere but the rearview mirror

Although getting someone to own up to it will be harder than anything, my course of action is to make them aware of it and go about getting things replaced. I want to get it checked out, if possible, by a certified BMW mechanic and at least get some facts as to what went on and narrow done a cause. I don't want to go in pointing fingers, but I definitely want some evidence or an understanding. Any info or advice on what to do at this point would be greatly appreciated.

It happened WEEKS after the oil change? There's no way in heck you're going to prove Mr Tire had anything to do with the failure. At his point you don't even know for sure WHAT failed, but I'll tell you this: you contributed to killing your engine by continuing to drive after you saw the smoke. You should have pulled over RIGHT THEN, and certainly pulled over long before it was to the point that no amount of throttle would speed it up.

Sorry for your problems, but

Well first off what is your mechanical expertise? It may be fair to assume they are related but it's highly possible you could have had something odd like your oil pressure sending unit back out and pump oil out.

You need to see where it leaked out and you should have put it in neutral and killed the motor the moment you noticed smoke before the noises. The smoke was your exhaust getting BP'd all over.

Your intuition sounds correct, but allow for the benifit of the doubt and have it inspected to see what happened.

I bet Mr. Tire has a protocol to handle this as I can assure this sort of matter happens. I worked at a Firestone when I was a 19 and they had a Expedition go out with no oil back in just a new filter.
Truck stalled on cust up the road and they ended up replacing the bearings in that engine.

Originally Posted by hornhospital

It happened WEEKS after the oil change? There's no way in heck you're going to prove Mr Tire had anything to do with the failure. At his point you don't even know for sure WHAT failed, but I'll tell you this: you contributed to killing your engine by continuing to drive after you saw the smoke. You should have pulled over RIGHT THEN, and certainly pulled over long before it was to the point that no amount of throttle would speed it up.

Sorry for your problems, but

No I understand your point. The point of the throttle issues is when I did pull over as soon as I could. The particular portion of the road I was on didn't have enough space on the shoulder to pull over so having someone rear-end me at 60+ mph was what I wanted to avoid while going as slow as possible. With proving it I understand what you're saying to a degree, but like I said the odds of this happening without influence from them is pretty slim. It's almost like your computer going to crap when it's been working fine for ages only after you get a virus on it. Coincidently you remember seeing your roommate or little brother walking away from it with boner and a tissue in their hand. There's botd, but at the same time all things point to the guy who dl'd porn to your machine at that point. Slightly out off left field, but I feel like it could be understood in relation to story.

Originally Posted by SWISS

Well first off what is your mechanical expertise? It may be fair to assume they are related but it's highly possible you could have had something odd like your oil pressure sending unit back out and pump oil out.

You need to see where it leaked out and you should have put it in neutral and killed the motor the moment you noticed smoke before the noises. The smoke was your exhaust getting BP'd all over.

Your intuition sounds correct, but allow for the benifit of the doubt and have it inspected to see what happened.

I bet Mr. Tire has a protocol to handle this as I can assure this sort of matter happens. I worked at a Firestone when I was a 19 and they had a Expedition go out with no oil back in just a new filter.
Truck stalled on cust up the road and they ended up replacing the bearings in that engine.

Yeah definitely. I was too stressed and over it to really take a look. Like I said I don't want to point fingers, but I do want to develop an understanding based on facts and evidence even they turn out to have no part in it. Clearly I'm upset, but I do want to exercise the botd by getting it checked and find out. I don't want to play angry customer and be a jackass about it only to find out something totally different.

It's the chrome fender trim's fault.

Guessing your check panel was malfunctioning, or you don't have one?

Lesson: Check fluids while filling fuel tank.

Originally Posted by ForcedFirebird

It's the chrome fender trim's fault.

Guessing your check panel was malfunctioning, or you don't have one?

Lesson: Check fluids while filling fuel tank.

Haha your sarcasm says a lot about you. I can't say that I check every time I fuel up, but I did check within a week and found the levels to be substantial.

My lesson has been learned regardless of the source of the problem. I usually am on top of things even before and after I get work done, because it's do hard to find a honest mechanic and it pays to know what's going on with your car. I'm getting it checked and I'll more than likely do a swap anyway it's what I was looking to do, but of course not under these circumstances.

Swap? 24V swap?

I thought a lot about getting a turbo setup where a rebuilt engine or swap with less miles would be more practical. Understandable?

Originally Posted by nosirah

I thought a lot about getting a turbo setup where a rebuilt engine or swap with less miles would be more practical. Understandable?

No I don't are you talking about boosting the stock M20? Or swapping in a 24V engine? Or just replacing the engine with the exact same one?




Here is my issue.

If you can't change or check your oil. How and the h3ll do you think you have the minerals to pull off a swap?

BAHAHA, just buy a Honda, they run a while on the same oil. Leave the E30's to the people who can handle it.

I'd start with taking the car back to the tire shop. A thousand years ago I had a brand new 533, at my first dealer oil change I checked the drain plug (wearing a suit). It was finger tight! Why I checked it I have no idea, but it was a $32,000. car in 1984. It still gives me the willies.

You can get a M52 engine cheap, installation could be a good learning process. (It's only six bolts!). I did an auto to manual conversion in an e28, DEC cat, dinian chip, M3 clutch as a first time project, by myself in a parking lot. All the information is on the web.

It ain't rocket science. Unbolt, remove - Install, rebolt. Throw away extra parts!

Of course you'll need access to another car while yours is being "fixed"

Peter