330d F30 water in engine: 50k to fix. conrod bust

[[email protected]]

drove over small water stream, water got sucked into engine and stalled. conrod 2 got bent. no stock in SA, have to buy whole set of 6 from Germany at R14000. my many questions are: any1 ever bought a set of these that they dont need and now have spare? does a 320d use same size as 330d so i can instead use 320d conrod that way i buy only 4? is it possible to machine the bent one back to health somewhere here in SA at some awesome company? is there anywhere else in the world where i can buy 1 conrod instead of all 6 from BMW (we live in a global village afterall)? lastly i also have to buy R8000 gearbox oil, cant i get it cheaper somewhere else instead of germany too?

 

[Mcaevans]

You could pickup a complete engine local for that price if you shop.
Gearbox oil bmw should have stock. I always recommend auto gearbox oil from OEM vendor as they have additives mixed specifically for purpose.

Happy hunting.

 

[[email protected]]

You could pickup a complete engine local for that price if you shop.
Gearbox oil bmw should have stock. I always recommend auto gearbox oil from OEM vendor as they have additives mixed specifically for purpose.

Happy hunting.

BMW said they dont have gearbox oil and i need 8litres at 1 grand a litre apparently

 

[Ratslaaf]

Where you based? There’s many independents that could help. Ideally you should get a second opinion.

That being said, R50k doesn’t sound unreasonable if you want the job to be done properly. It might visually appear that only one rod is bent, but more of them could be as well, albeit very slightly. And considering the amount of work involved stripping the engine to just change one rod, it seems silly not to do the rest.

As you may have guessed, the cost of rods is only a small part of the cost of the rebuild. There’s bearings, seals, headgsakets, possibly engineering and a whole hoarde of other things involved. So trying to save a few grand by taking a shortcut is short sighted.

I’m assuming your car has the 8HP ZF gearbox. Phone ZF for oil, or use the Fuchs equivalent, it’ll be cheaper. I can assure you there is stock of suitable oil, as many of those gearboxes are currently having their oil changed.

 

[cOlDFuSiOn]

Has the block been inspected for micro cracks yet? Was the motor started after it got hydrolocked? After my ordeal in my F30 320d I avoid all water.. Cost was 150k for a new Short block 5 years ago..

 

[tman]

Woah, how big was the river you drove through for water to get in the engine?

Im sorry about your misfortune, have you tried to claim from either motorplan / insurance?

As mentioned above, get a 2nd opinion, and make sure the job is properly done - last thing you would want is to drop R50k and have more problems down the line.

 

[[email protected]]

Where you based? There’s many independents that could help. Ideally you should get a second opinion.

That being said, R50k doesn’t sound unreasonable if you want the job to be done properly. It might visually appear that only one rod is bent, but more of them could be as well, albeit very slightly. And considering the amount of work involved stripping the engine to just change one rod, it seems silly not to do the rest.

As you may have guessed, the cost of rods is only a small part of the cost of the rebuild. There’s bearings, seals, headgsakets, possibly engineering and a whole hoarde of other things involved. So trying to save a few grand by taking a shortcut is short sighted.

I’m assuming your car has the 8HP ZF gearbox. Phone ZF for oil, or use the Fuchs equivalent, it’ll be cheaper. I can assure you there is stock of suitable oil, as many of those gearboxes are currently having their oil changed.

My take from what your reply is that I must just change whole 6 conrods coz there might be others that are damaged but can't be seen by naked eye so no cost saving there but I can look to save on oil? That make a lot of sense, never looked at it that way. Now how do I look for this oil and where?

 

[RAArmstrong]

Where you based? There’s many independents that could help. Ideally you should get a second opinion.

That being said, R50k doesn’t sound unreasonable if you want the job to be done properly. It might visually appear that only one rod is bent, but more of them could be as well, albeit very slightly. And considering the amount of work involved stripping the engine to just change one rod, it seems silly not to do the rest.

As you may have guessed, the cost of rods is only a small part of the cost of the rebuild. There’s bearings, seals, headgsakets, possibly engineering and a whole hoarde of other things involved. So trying to save a few grand by taking a shortcut is short sighted.

I’m assuming your car has the 8HP ZF gearbox. Phone ZF for oil, or use the Fuchs equivalent, it’ll be cheaper. I can assure you there is stock of suitable oil, as many of those gearboxes are currently having their oil changed.

My take from what your reply is that I must just change whole 6 conrods coz there might be others that are damaged but can't be seen by naked eye so no cost saving there but I can look to save on oil? That make a lot of sense, never looked at it that way. Now how do I look for this oil and where?

Like he said, phone ZF for the oil. He gave you those answers too

 

[Junz]

Sorry for my ignorance, but how does water get sucked into the engine ?

 

[M135i]

Same way air goes

 

[DavidV]

I had the same issue back in 2012 with my Merc C200, just my conrod snapped and i hit a hole in the block. Luckily for me my insurance covered it was caused by that heavy rains out in PE during July of that year. It set them back about R186K all in all as i new engine had to come from Germany.

Good luck with your repairs though, i hope come right.

 

[Dax]

Not Nice,

I was at the CPT motor show last week and ZF had a stand and had some specials on. see below

hope this helps

The guy told me they do a lot of work for BMW.

Dax

 

[hereticangel]

Not Nice,

I was at the CPT motor show last week and ZF had a stand and had some specials on. see below

hope this helps

The guy told me they do a lot of work for BMW.

Dax

Good pricing!

 

[Waseem 333i]

I wonder how much water you need to drive through and how fast. I went through water that was pavement height before. I crawled through the water and came out the other side fine. The way i see it the water has to go through the airfilter then down to the turbo then down to the intercooler then up to the intake manifold. So sounds like you gotta be holding high revs and consume alot of water

 

[Mcaevans]

Water crossings, higher than your bumper on a BMW you looking for trouble.
When you cross water you need to do it a pace similar to a brisk walk.
You then create what is called a bow wave which means you push the water in front of the vehicle away and flows around your vehicle.

With a turbo your suction is high thus water ingestion is quick and many liters.

Have you checked if your turbo is still in one piece?

 

[Moto_GP]

I had the same issue back in 2012 with my Merc C200, just my conrod snapped and i hit a hole in the block. Luckily for me my insurance covered it was caused by that heavy rains out in PE during July of that year. It set them back about R186K all in all as i new engine had to come from Germany.

Good luck with your repairs though, i hope come right.

That's hectic was the car even worth that yoh.

 

[officially_kage]

I can bet a thousand bucks that you can get that oil locally.... importing oil is ridiculous, it might not even be possible (not sure what the import/customs rules and regulations are).
As for the damage - chances are that there is more damage than just the one bent rod unfortunately. Besides, assuming it is just the one - it would be wise to atleast do your rings and bearings while you're at it.
Just had my Mini rebuilt - total cost R48k or so and in my case it was just one piston that had a piece break off - everything else was fine but rather decided to do EVERYTHING (bearings, rings, pistons, valves, valve seals, some machining and all new gaskets).
Why wouldnt insurance pay for that though?

 

[DavidV]

I had the same issue back in 2012 with my Merc C200, just my conrod snapped and i hit a hole in the block. Luckily for me my insurance covered it was caused by that heavy rains out in PE during July of that year. It set them back about R186K all in all as i new engine had to come from Germany.

Good luck with your repairs though, i hope come right.

That's hectic was the car even worth that yoh.

I really thought they were going to right the car off but they found value in it to fix it.