Just my luck

[GoldenOne]

In a similar incident to Kristupher's thread: http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=23108

My 525i just died instantly on the highway today. I was cruising around 70 mph then I felt a weird vibration from the back of the car and my gut told me something was wrong. I took the next exit and all of the sudden the car died and boy was it a pain to stop rolling from 40mph...thank god for shoguns(i think thats who it was) thread about the reviving the parking break.

My observations was that the temp indicator was normal (in the middle), half a tank of fuel, and no indicators were set off. I took a peek under the hood and it looks like the head gasket expanded/warped. So I look under the oil filler cap and it looks like it was bone dry! I did have a small leak but nothing catastrophic, infact I had check the level on Wednesday three times and it was perfect. If it was that low why didnt I get a check oil light? And if it was running w/o oil wouldnt that shoot the temp gauge through the roof?

I had it towed to my mechanic so I will try to get picks on Monday. The one damn time I didnt have my camera on me!!

If in fact there was no oil in the engine, that means its pretty much dead correct?


WHY ME!!??!?!?!?!?!?!

[GoldenOne]

help anybody?

[Espen]

Did you try too start it again?

Does the fuelpump start?

took the next exit and all of the sudden the car died and boy was it a pain to stop rolling from 40mph...thank god for shoguns(i think thats who it was) thread about the reviving the parking break.

What? Your brakes stopped working too?

[GoldenOne]

I tried to start it again but no go, it sounded like it was turning over but no ignition....it was hard to hear with all the traffic buzzin around + it was pouring.

Since there was no power there was no brake booster, and it was extremely difficult push the brake in, the handbrake helped me out.

[632 Regal]

if you were running synthetic it probably isnt trashed, if not then its probably time to start shopping for a new engine.

The temp gage will not usually rise from oil starvation.

Good luck.

[pyro]

so wait you looked in the oil filler cap and it was bone dry? Did you try pulling the dipstick to see how much oil you had?

[GoldenOne]

so wait you looked in the oil filler cap and it was bone dry? Did you try pulling the dipstick to see how much oil you had?

yes, it wasnt "bone" dry but I didnt see any oil there, I tried checking the dipstick but I couldnt tell because it was raining, its fairly new oil so it was difficult to see, and i didnt have anything to wipe the stick off...

[joshua43214]

Just tossing this out for every one to see since we have so many DIY'ers here.

Every time you change the oil, turn the key to the run position and verify the oil light comes on, then goes off after you start it. Its a simple small thing that gets over looked by even some techs from time to time.

I had a friend that worked in a Toyota dealer and he forgot to do this, and then forgot to add oil when doing the cars first oil change and just parked the car. The lot boy brought the car arround when the customer came for it. The customer made it just to the driveway and the engiine locked up, all because the wire had fallen off of the oil switch and no one noticed that the light never came on.

If you have a shop chane the oil, its a good idea to verify all the lights work when you pick up the car just incase. Idealy you should check at every start up, but most of us want to just start and go.

I hope all goes well with you car, new oil in the engine can be very hard to see even under the oil cap, so I would wait for word from the shop before you decide it had no oil.

[GoldenOne]

stopped by to check on my car this morning, there (thank god) in fact was plenty of oil in the engine.

this is the most predominant thing i can see thats wrong. any ideas??

[Morgenster]

That's not the head gasket. It's the valve cover gasket.
And I don't think that's normal.