My Bmw M3 Homepage

Question: My bmw m3 engine lost power and stopped and when i started it up, after 10mins i heard this clanking sound,?

(Posted by: Onyekachi N on 2007-08-18 11:38:25)

The radiator was not overheating, i had the radiator cleaned prior to this, but the check oil signal on the dashboard came on. And the temperature gauge shot to red. I checked the oil and it was all sludgy

Posted by: wet sombrerro on 2007-08-18, 14:42:54

Did you change the oil recently? If so, did you fill it back up? If not, you should. Gummy oil is no bueno. Don't listen to dingleberry he is a moron...EXCEPT the fact that he suggested a dealership. The dealership will own all problems with the suggested repair. AKA they will take care of future issues. Thier service warr. on parts is 2 years unlimited mileage. BMW's are VERY reliable cars (check consumer reports--they have a bias toward asian cars and they even say BMW is reliable as they come) Aslo, don't listen to his oil recommendation....BMW's like heavier oils. All cars 'burn' a certain amount of oil through thier life...BMW's burn a little more because of thier bias towards performance....go with a heavy oil...

Posted by: ZCT on 2007-08-18, 15:58:27

Call the dealership right away and tell them what is going on. I doubt it is safe to drive the car as it is, doing so may well damage it. You probably want to have it towed. But in any case you don't need to be taking any chances here, doing the wrong thing could cause further damage that will be expensive to repair.

Posted by: kNOTaLIAwyR on 2007-08-18, 21:40:36

ZCT is correct about not driving OR STARTING your car. Have it towed to the dealer. I would not be surprised if your car were "pushed " inside the service bay by hand, once you tell them what happened. This could be a very serious problem, and you may need a new engine because it was still being driven while seriously overheating. Wet Sombrerro is also right that a BMW is an extremely reliable car, but sometimes we abuse them without knowing what we were doing wrong. As for Dingleberry, he doesn't know BMW's. Your M3 runs on almost 8 quarts of synthetic oil.

Posted by: rich777 on 2007-08-19, 12:40:28

You didn't mention what year it was. But if it's an E46 model, definitely do NOT use 5W-30 in it. BMW says ONLY use Castrol 10W-60. Also, the change interval on this oil is 15,000 miles. If you used something different, this could be the problem. But without knowing what year and mileage, hard to guess.