What caused crankshaft failure in my BMW 320d?
I have a 2002 BMW 320d SE Tourer, E46 I think, now with 147,000 miles. I bought it in Nov 2007. After a £1500 bill to get it though its MoT my wife was driving the car and just 50 miles later she heard a bang and the car stopped. The engine would not restart, indeed it would not turn over. The car was taken to the original MoT garage where the crankshaft was found to have broken. A brown deposit was found around one of the injectors and the theory is that the injector had failed and had been pouring neat diesel into the cylinder causing some kind of "hydraulic lock". In the ensuing internal mayhem the dual mass flywheel and the clutch have been damaged and heavens knows what else. A new engine is being suggested. The car, even with a new engine, is not worth anything like the sums involved. Have you any views?
Asked on 28 June 2013 by RW, via email
Answered by
Honest John
What seems to have happened is the same as what would have happened if flood water got into the engine. Too much liquid in the combustion chamber to compress and fire, so something had to go. I can't work out how the service and MoT could have caused this, unless an injector was replaced with a duff one. If so, the garage that replaced it is clearly liable.
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