Car Advice

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Janet_IHB

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<p>I recall some car experts amongst you:</p>

<p>BMW 2001 X5</p>

<p>Blown engine </p>

<p>113,000 miles </p>

<p>Great condition otherwise</p>

<p>Owe $13,000 </p>

<p>Cost to repair "$7,000 - $10,000"</p>

<p>Fix or bail?</p>

<p>(Coolant leaked - didn't stop fast enough).</p>
 
<p>Janet. If you owe 13k and the repair cost is lets say 7k. That equals 20k altogether. Did the dealer estimate how long you can still drive the SUV after repair? If you can still drive it for awhile after fixing the problem. Then keep it. </p>

<p>If you were to sell it. Would that be easy since the buyer will know there need to be repair done?</p>
 
<p>Go take it to <a href="http://www.bmsracecars.com/">Chris at BMS</a> and see what he says. You probably fried the headgasket. If you buy a BMW again you have to take care of the cooling system before it is due. Other than that they are one of the best made cars IMO. </p>

<p>Actually don't buy a BMW again because you will abuse it and I will have to turn you into the bimmer police. </p>
 
<p>bail - done the car and get a tax deduction.</p>

<p>lease a new X5 if you really want to have the same car</p>

<p>otherwise, lexus is having some good leases right now :)</p>
 
<p>Even if it is the V8, it's not going to be worth any more than $18k after it is fixed. Still borderline if the car is otherwise great and you will drive it for another 100k miles.</p>

<p>If it is the 3 liter I6, it is a definite waste of money to repair it.</p>

<p>If you do sell it, get the word out at the dealership. One of the mechanics that can repair it on his own time for half that much will scoop it up.</p>

<p>SCHB</p>

<p> </p>
 
one more thing, where the 7k number come from? Even a brand new engine from BMW costs less than that. I know you can order a six for around 2 to 3k. Labor cost can't be more than 1.5k even if you do it at dealership. If it is just the gasket, you can get it done for less than 1.5k at a BMW dealer, at less in LA
 
Talk to an independent garage who specializes in BMW's. I'll bet they can locate a complete turn-key engine from a wrecked X5 for far less money. A diligent mechanic can tell if the donor engine is healthy.
 
<p><em>"one more thing, where the 7k number come from? Even a brand new engine from BMW costs less than that. I know you can order a six for around 2 to 3k. Labor cost can't be more than 1.5k even if you do it at dealership. If it is just the gasket, you can get it done for less than 1.5k at a BMW dealer, at less in LA "</em></p>

<p>Sorry, I have to disagree with that. $2-3k for a brand new long block? Or lower end only? Though I've never worked on a bimmer I have done major repairs (including engine drops) on more than a handful of comparably complex cars and IMHO $7-10k sounds fair. E.g. a G35 short block goes for over $4k and bare heads are $600 each. Infiniti's V8 is $7500 just for the bare long block. Labor at a dealership in SOCAL is around $120/hour. I think labor for a HG is probably close to 20 hours, more if they have to drop the engine.</p>

<p>Effenheimer is right. If you want to keep the car the best thing to do is source a used engine with lower miles and have a good independent do the work. There are bimmer forums out there and I'm sure you can get a good referral from local owners. I'd guess $4k to fix if you go this route.</p>
 
<p>Heh.. You just throw in a new one. Disposable engine.</p>

<p>How I got one to survive 90k miles of teenage torture is beyond reason.</p>
 
<p>With such a major repair it is probably worth getting a second opinion from a good referral that you trust, unless it is really dead obvious what the problem is. I bought a nice sedan for really cheap a couple years ago because one shop told the owner the headgasket was blown (I had said I thought the engine was fine). The shop had not done conclusive troubleshooting. </p>

<p> </p>
 
You guys are reminding me of high school. I used to know the cubic inches of the V8s made by Chevy, Ford, Chrysler, and American Motors. In fact, when we would drink beer around the fire, that is all we would talk about...
 
<p>I still have the firing order of a chevy V8 memorized. I have not touched one in 12 years.</p>

<p>Apparently this was important stuff to me at the time. </p>
 
Hard to believe but I think firing order is quickly becoming irrelevant for working on cars. It seems so many cars are going to coil-on-plug ignitions. The harnesses can usually only connect one way so it's impossible for the order to be off.
 
GM was still using a mechanical distributor on their 4.3L in 2002. They also put that pushrod engine together with no provision for valve lash adjustment. They <a target="_blank" href="http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=3750">deserve to die</a> right along with CFC.
 
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