Most expensive repair ever?

My '07 550 has been burning oil for a few weeks now. It has 80k miles. No drainage on ground at home and I see gray smoke out the back on starts. I just took it in for a diagnostic at my dealer (who I actually like) and it took them a half day to find the valve seal guides are shot. They say part of the fix includes machining (machining what?)at a local shop and the total repair is 40 hours and 6-7 days for $6,200. Does this sound right? How much is a new engine? (and my extended warranty ran out 5 months ago) Could I save

can someone explain what 'valve guide seals' actually do? Why so much? Is it reasonable to think an indy shop can do it for 30-40% less?

I always heard transmission repairs were most expensive.

I just googled 'bmw engines' and a used 07 550 ranges in price from $4-7k depending on miles. (36k miles to 100k+)

Sounds like they want to do a full "top end rebuild" including redoing valve seats, replacing valve guides and seals. You could cut the bill in half or more at an Indy and just do the seals if rest is within spec. They can do a leak down test to determine how well valves fit against the seats and during work measure wear of guides to determine if those need replacing.

Valve guide seals prevent motor oil from the top end (valvle train, VANOS cams etc...) from seeping down past the valve guides and valve stems into the combustion chamber where it will burn.

Originally Posted by mmoyle

My '07 550 has been burning oil for a few weeks now. It has 80k miles. No drainage on ground at home and I see gray smoke out the back on starts. I just took it in for a diagnostic at my dealer (who I actually like) and it took them a half day to find the valve seal guides are shot. They say part of the fix includes machining (machining what?)at a local shop and the total repair is 40 hours and 6-7 days for $6,200. Does this sound right? How much is a new engine? (and my extended warranty ran out 5 months ago) Could I save

can someone explain what 'valve guide seals' actually do? Why so much? Is it reasonable to think an indy shop can do it for 30-40% less?

I always heard transmission repairs were most expensive.

What was your oil change interval since you've owned the car?

I'm guessing 10-15k miles interval.
Or like my car was running too hot bc of air lock for many days/weeks/yrs.
Bmw self bleeding system sucks!

For out of warranty work I personally would take it to a Indy shop that specializes in BMW's since the dealer charges a exorbitant amount of money to fix your car. Also something this major I would call around to see what other shops are charging to do similar work or actually take it to them for a second opinion. Just my 2 cents.

a pretty hefty price i might say, good luck OP

There might have been overheating and things (head, etc) were bent and so forth.

Here is where the repair ended up.

BMW corp. paid for half of the repair (my dealer called them about the situation). I'm not sure why BMW paid half. I have a few thoughts like 1. I had the extended warranty and it expired just a few months ago 2. BMW thinks this is is a chronic issue and they are trying to avoid a recall and upset customers.

Either way... the head ended up not needing machine work. So the repair was to replace all 32 valve seals. It was about 40 hrs work (their claim) and a few hundred in parts. The price was $5k, but with BMW paying about half I paid $2,600.

Follow-up #2

JIM165 asked about my oil history: I typically only changed the oil during the standard intervals, but the car burned about 2 quarts every 5k miles so I was always putting oil in. In the end the oil usage was going up and up and up.

But from reading a few posts on here it sounds like BMW's best practice of an oil change every 10k miles is risky and can hurt engine and parts. I can see how this would be true especially with BMW owners. I imagine most of us are more lead-foot then other kinds of drivers.