[X3Fangirl]

I took my well-cared for 2012 X3 3.5i to a local mechanic for routine service including brakes, tires, oil change and inspection, mileage 140,695. Upon recommendation from the mechanic, I agreed to oil filter housing replacement. A day and a half later (~60 miles) the engine seized while driving. I naively had it towed back to same mechanic where he claimed to drain the oil to make sure the oil reservoir had been full. He said he could hand crank the engine and recommended a new starter at $900 to try to turn the engine over to determine why the car stopped. At this point, I had the car towed to a dealer where it was diagnosed with a seized engine due to visible metal fragments in the oil filter. I am in the process of filing a civil suit against the original mechanic. Please help me find resources to better understand what questions to ask. Note: this is not the 4- cylinder engine with the timing chain issue. Thanks in advance.

[x3sm]

My guess would be coolant mixed with oil and seized the engine. Do you have samples of oil or pictures?

[F30ed]

Not sure how strong is your case. Metal shaving is an indication of extreme metal-to-metal friction, which is usually due to no lubrication. But that does not have a solid link to original work, as the mechanic claims he drained oil out (true or not).
#1 you probably should not have brought the car to the same mechanic if you suspect it is related. Now he had a chance to cover for a mistake.
#2 all you listed is easy DIY (except tires of course).
Once, on simple transmission work, I ended up with drained engine and 2x overfilled tranny - trusted indi mixed the drain plugs - assigned work to junior after school mechanic.

[Iowa X3]

A new starter? What for? The starter has nothing to do with the engine seizing. Get away from this mechanic.

[Opie55]

You need to prove whatever he did caused it. You will need somebody who knows what they are doing to disassemble the engine, and analyze the damage and look for any foreign fragments. It's your burden to prove. You need a theory. No oil? Can't be unless you ignored a big warning light in your cluster. Replacing the filter housing? What could he have done there to seize the engine? It will be interesting to see what the cause was if you figure it out.

[X3Fangirl]

Thank you for the feedback. Unfortunately, I do not have an oil sample or photos. BMW dealer quoted "a couple thousand dollars" to dismantle engine to determine cause, and minimum $7500 for new engine. I was already out over $2k for original repair work, so I opted to trade in the car for $1k. I know I did the wrong thing in trusting original mechanic, and now I do not have any proof. My best chance is to question the mechanic on the stand, and try to find errors. For that, I need to understand where the mistakes likely happened. Let's assume there were no issues with the work done to brakes, tires and inspection. They had my car for 4 days, during which I asked them to hold off on the oil filter housing while I checked to see if I was covered under the BMW Service Bulletin. 1. Could there have been issues if he changed the oil first, then went back to the filter housing a few days later? 2. If he drained the oil as claimed, would he not have seen metal fragments in the oil confirming seizure? That would negate the need for a starter. 3. What are typical mistakes when replacing the oil filter housing?

[subieworx]

As someone who has worked in the automotive repair industry for quite a while, you have essentially 0 chance of getting any money back.

Based on your story the mechanic doesn't seem to be the brightest bulb in the bunch, but unless you have video evidence of them screwing up the job you have no leg to stand on in court. With 140k miles on the engine anything can happen. If the car has been subjected to BMW's 15k oil service intervals throughout its life one could claim that the problem of spinning a bearing is a direct result of that maintenance.

[GMWNashville]

So while I don't think you will get money back-I will say that I thought I remember BMW having a bulletin about when OFHG is done to not just crank the car over and start it but to prime it first then start it to prevent dry starting. I would guess most indy shops dont know that and/or don't pay attention to that-though I would guess a lot of dealer techs likely wouldn't listen to that anyway.

EDIT:I think its actually in the repair instructions.

[X3Fangirl]

Thank you @GMWNashville. What is the best way for me to get a copy of repair instructions? Should I contact BMW? Buy a manual?

[Opie55]

As a trial lawyer, I would advise you to go outside and scream and swear for a few minutes, then move on with your life. You won't find mistakes in questioning a mechanic on the stand cold. There are not going to be common oil filter housing mistakes. As to whether he saw metal fragments when draining the oil, not if he drained it directly to a big tank like many places have. No question the mechanic is a bad mechanic based on the idiotic starter suggestion, but the odds you win this are not good.

EDIT: And I should add that since you traded in the car you now have no physical evidence. You cannot even show what happened to the engine internally, which would be step one in proving some other thing caused it. You really have no case at all.

[x3sm]

Something doesn't add up here, If the OP spun a bearing prior to coming in to the mechanic than he wouldn't even make it to the mechanic, you can't drive for a while on a spun bearing. I also don't think that the engine seized due to incorrect OFHG replacement, its a fairly simple process. Something else had to happen while the car was with the mechanic.

[Opie55]

Originally Posted by x3sm

Something doesn't add up here, If the OP spun a bearing prior to coming in to the mechanic than he wouldn't even make it to the mechanic, you can't drive for a while on a spun bearing. I also don't think that the engine seized due to incorrect OFHG replacement, its a fairly simple process. Something else had to happen while the car was with the mechanic.

Maybe, but proving the something else will be impossible. What are the possibilities if the mechanic actually caused it, as opposed to coincidental timing on a fairly high-mileage engine? He put no oil in it at the oil change? If that's the case, then the cluster would have told the OP that. The OP does not say the oil light was on. At this point it's all speculation, especially since the car is no longer in OP's possession.

[doru]

There were a few identical scenarios like that on the e9x platform. All inline 6 engines, n/a or turbo. Seems like this happens after someone who performs the OFHG replacement drops by mistake some debris inside the oil housing canister.
here is one example.

[BIG_KID]

I plan on changing mine this summer.
Now you got me worried.

[doru]

Originally Posted by BIG_KID

I plan on changing mine this summer.
Now you got me worried.

Just be super careful so that no debris gets inside. Best thing is to clean really well - you can use a washgun real quick to get rid of all the crud surrounding, then wipe off with rags. Once all is clean, you can change the OFHG. I did it on 2 N52 and one N54 this way. No issues. That oil filter canister has some tiny orifices and these can get clogged really easy really fast, apparently. And no mechanic will tell you they dropped stuff in there. Truth is they earn their $$ by being fast. No time to clean stuff and if you have a leaky OFHG, there is a bunch of crud around. At best they will wipe it off. Problem is, usually it's done after the oil filter is out. When moving all those parts, quite a bit of nastiness can drop in there by mistake.

[x3sm]

Originally Posted by Opie55

Maybe, but proving the something else will be impossible. What are the possibilities if the mechanic actually caused it, as opposed to coincidental timing on a fairly high-mileage engine? He put no oil in it at the oil change? If that's the case, then the cluster would have told the OP that. The OP does not say the oil light was on. At this point it's all speculation, especially since the car is no longer in OP's possession.

What if some rookie did the oil change or OFHG replacement and started the car with no oil in it.

Originally Posted by doru

Just be super careful so that no debris gets inside. Best thing is to clean really well - you can use a washgun real quick to get rid of all the crud surrounding, then wipe off with rags. Once all is clean, you can change the OFHG. I did it on 2 N52 and one N54 this way. No issues. That oil filter canister has some tiny orifices and these can get clogged really easy really fast, apparently. And no mechanic will tell you they dropped stuff in there. Truth is they earn their $$ by being fast. No time to clean stuff and if you have a leaky OFHG, there is a bunch of crud around. At best they will wipe it off. Problem is, usually it's done after the oil filter is out. When moving all those parts, quite a bit of nastiness can drop in there by mistake.

I have never seen anyone ruin an engine after an OFHG replacement, could it be that coolant got into oil tract and hydro locked the engine?

[subieworx]

I've done a couple hundred OFHG replacements on N54/55 engines and never had an issue. Most of the time I do them without changing oil. You'd really have to do something stupid to kill an engine in the process of changing out this gasket.

[Bufalo]

Originally Posted by x3sm

I have never seen anyone ruin an engine after an OFHG replacement, could it be that coolant got into oil tract and hydro locked the engine?

It's oddly common on early N55's for some reason. Read the E90 post forum and there are numerous cases. Never heard of it with an N52 or 54 though - always 55.

[Opie55]

Originally Posted by x3sm

What if some rookie did the oil change or OFHG replacement and started the car with no oil in it.

To me this seems like the most likely scenario, although I would not think that just starting it would do it because there would be some oil left on the bearings. It must have run a while. But the posts below indicate changing housing can do it, but that sure seems weird. How is some crud getting into the bearings w/o having to go back through the filter?

[doru]

Originally Posted by Opie55

To me this seems like the most likely scenario, although I would not think that just starting it would do it because there would be some oil left on the bearings. It must have run a while. But the posts below indicate changing housing can do it, but that sure seems weird. How is some crud getting into the bearings w/o having to go back through the filter?

When you open the oil filter housing, and take out the oil filter, you expose an oil passage that is supposed to be filtered. Once the oil filter is out, that passage is exposed. If the OFHG is bust, you have lots of hardened crud on the oil filter housing and below it. That crud usually is hardened oil mixed with sand/dust. When breaking it loose, that crud can make it's way in the exposed "filtered" oil passage just by lifting it up. You don't even notice. Now that oil passage is clogged.
Now you perform the gasket change, button her up and start the engine. All looks fine, but there is no lubrication in the cam bearings (or very little). The engine is idling, no problem yet.
Now you go for a spin (or customer). You drive that thing a few minutes. Without proper lubrication for cam bearings. best thing that can happen is a CEL, but it won't happen. Now you drive and end up with a spun bearing (best case scenario). The engine will stop and will not start up again. If you didn't drive very hard, there are no shavings, or minimal. If this happened during a spirited driving or while accelerating to pass someone (as an example), you will notice shavings as well. The N52, N54 and N55 have all the same identical oil filter and I suppose same oil housing design or very close. Reason why there were numerous reports of engine seizing after OFHG change. Numerous posts on numerous BMW platforms that use the above mentioned engines. I posted one example in a previous post above.

[x3sm]

Originally Posted by doru

When you open the oil filter housing, and take out the oil filter, you expose an oil passage that is supposed to be filtered. Once the oil filter is out, that passage is exposed. If the OFHG is bust, you have lots of hardened crud on the oil filter housing and below it. That crud usually is hardened oil mixed with sand/dust. When breaking it loose, that crud can make it's way in the exposed "filtered" oil passage just by lifting it up. You don't even notice. Now that oil passage is clogged.
Now you perform the gasket change, button her up and start the engine. All looks fine, but there is no lubrication in the cam bearings (or very little). The engine is idling, no problem yet.
Now you go for a spin (or customer). You drive that thing a few minutes. Without proper lubrication for cam bearings. best thing that can happen is a CEL, but it won't happen. Now you drive and end up with a spun bearing (best case scenario). The engine will stop and will not start up again. If you didn't drive very hard, there are no shavings, or minimal. If this happened during a spirited driving or while accelerating to pass someone (as an example), you will notice shavings as well. The N52, N54 and N55 have all the same identical oil filter and I suppose same oil housing design or very close. Reason why there were numerous reports of engine seizing after OFHG change. Numerous posts on numerous BMW platforms that use the above mentioned engines. I posted one example in a previous post above.

So how do you do the OFHG replacement without clogging the filter passage? Would it a better solution to drain the oil completely, open the oil filter cap, remove the filter and than stuff a soft small cloth into the filtered oil track?

[doru]

Originally Posted by x3sm

So how do you do the OFHG replacement without clogging the filter passage? Would it a better solution to drain the oil completely, open the oil filter cap, remove the filter and than stuff a soft small cloth into the filtered oil track?

Clean everything BEFORE taking apart.
I use a washgun to clean well that area, than I wipe off with a rag. As soon as I disassemble, I stuff clean paper towel, then I take my time. Never had a problem. Did 2 N52 and a N54. In the past did 2 M54's as well.
All that crud WILL fall off when taking the oil filter housing off. And the way it's positioned, you don't even see what's going on behind it, where most the stuff is piled up. Very easy to miss and screw up a perfectly fine engine.