Worst Nightmare- 37,000mi M6 engine seized

[Lcssmu]

Hello all- I'm new here and posting just in the hopes that anyone has any good advice for me. I purchased a 36k mile 2014 M6 from a private seller. Car had clean Carfax record and 49 service records, so it appeared to be well taken care of its entire life. When I received the car, I took it to the local dealership and had them check it top to bottom. They recommended and charged me $3k for work, including new brakes, coolant pump replacement, and fluids.

Car seemed to run fine for six weeks and 1,000 miles. At a stop light, I put the car for the first time into "M2" (Sport Plus) mode just to try it. I did NOT floor it or even try to accelerate quickly. Car got to about 10mph then it felt like the car just disengaged- RPMs shot to redline in an instant and engine stopped. No warning. There were no fluids on the ground or evidence of what happened.

BMW dealership is still confirming but tells me they think the engine has "seized" and will need to be completely replaced. I fail to understand how a 37k mile engine, with recent service, and a long history of maintenance can just die like that. I haven't gotten the quote yet, but I'm sure an M6 engine replacement is more than I paid for it.

Needless to say, I'm sick to my stomach. Any suggestions or explanations of what happened? Really appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.

[Lcssmu]

I would add that the car is completely stock with no modifications or tuning.

[TinCanSailor]

Terribly sorry to hear you had this happen to you. It is likely the rod bearings and will likely need to be rebuilt. I experienced a similar issue with my car shortly after acquiring it. I had recently been to BMW for service, it was a locally owned and dealer maintained car, and shortly after the service which included an oil change my engine seized. I ended up sending my car to @RKAutowerks for a stock rebuild. The did use aftermarket rod bearings with better clearance.

Did you purchase a warranty with the car?

[Lcssmu]

Thanks. I unfortunately did not buy a warranty. I spoke with RK today based on previous message posts here. Can I ask- how long since your rebuild? Any issues? I just don’t want to throw “good money after bad” here…

[jporter396]

Was going to buy a 2013 with 60k miles but the bearings blew on the seller during negotiations. Bought it as is and sent to rk auto. They do great work and have great customer service . Anyone buying these needs upgraded acl bearings this is common all over the forums . Car has been flawless ever since.
Terribly sorry to hear but for the small sum of 10k you can have a working s63tu with proper bearings lol. Bmw oughta be held to a recall for such a catastrophic flaw

Best of luck !

[Lcssmu]

Thanks. Really appreciate the responses. I keeping telling my wife “but they were a glorious 1,000 miles!”. She doesn’t seem to find the humor in that….

[TinCanSailor]

My engine seized while taking my wife out for a birthday dinner with friends and the car came to a stop right at the garage exit/entrance, it was a hard night.

I sent the car to the dealer first for diag and they declared the engine dead and gave an estimate of nearly 60k for the work, just absurd. So I had the car towed home and began searching for an alternative solution. I eventually found RK after looking at other builders and have not had one day of regret since then and I am 3 years and tons of road trips into this stock rebuild. I let my car sit for nearly5 or 6 months as I was very concerned about throwing money away. RK has always done right by me, he has a great relationship with a lot of indy shops. I have spent more than a few hours chatting with folks person to person that I never met before and during my research phase spent a lot of time on the phone with RK. He has always been there via text or phone well after my engine swap. None of the folks I have spoken with be it here in the States, Europe and recently Australia, not one person has texted/called or DM'd me with bad news after buying an RK engine.

[danielgmanm6]

Originally Posted by Lcssmu

Hello all- I'm new here and posting just in the hopes that anyone has any good advice for me. I purchased a 36k mile 2014 M6 from a private seller. Car had clean Carfax record and 49 service records, so it appeared to be well taken care of its entire life. When I received the car, I took it to the local dealership and had them check it top to bottom. They recommended and charged me $3k for work, including new brakes, coolant pump replacement, and fluids.

Car seemed to run fine for six weeks and 1,000 miles. At a stop light, I put the car for the first time into "M2" (Sport Plus) mode just to try it. I did NOT floor it or even try to accelerate quickly. Car got to about 10mph then it felt like the car just disengaged- RPMs shot to redline in an instant and engine stopped. No warning. There were no fluids on the ground or evidence of what happened.

BMW dealership is still confirming but tells me they think the engine has "seized" and will need to be completely replaced. I fail to understand how a 37k mile engine, with recent service, and a long history of maintenance can just die like that. I haven't gotten the quote yet, but I'm sure an M6 engine replacement is more than I paid for it.

Needless to say, I'm sick to my stomach. Any suggestions or explanations of what happened? Really appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.

Man, what terrible news. Really sorry to hear it. Hopefully you're in a good financial position to either fix it or move on. Keep us updated friend.

[Lcssmu]

Thanks- fortunately I’ll be fine but just a buzzkill when you’re excited about a new car. But the RK rebuild solution sounds a lot better than the $49k quote that the dealership gave me!

I also really appreciated the fact that these darn things won’t go into neutral for the tow truck (like your parking garage nightmare). Sat in the middle of a busy street for 2.5hrs until the third tow truck finally came with a dolly system. Brutal

[jporter396]

Originally Posted by Lcssmu

Thanks- fortunately I’ll be fine but just a buzzkill when you’re excited about a new car. But the RK rebuild solution sounds a lot better than the $49k quote that the dealership gave me!

I also really appreciated the fact that these darn things won’t go into neutral for the tow truck (like your parking garage nightmare). Sat in the middle of a busy street for 2.5hrs until the third tow truck finally came with a dolly system. Brutal

The neutral thing had me so pissed. Had to have mine towed 100 miles in a dolly scraping god knows what . Luckily I started it once with the blown rods from the previous seller to get it into neutral to load up to ship to Texas . Would agree with tinsailor, rk responds well after the rebuild . I believe these engines built by rk with the upgraded bearings can be the best bang for the buck and , knock on wood, reliable high hp engines out there. Every s63tu should get new rod bearings , it's just unfortunately not common knowledge unless you're browsing forums and researching like an internet sleuth. Not many people have the time or knowledge to do so unfortunately.

Good to hear you haven't given up ! A rebuild comes with a 2 year warranty and this I believe is one of the best modern day cars in al aspects still.

[JFWM3]

I can certainly empathize.

I had a modified E92 M3 violently fail due to rod bearings - no warranty, had to get a donor motor. The failure was so violent the connecting rods sawed the block in half and sawed into the rack and pinion housing. I was going slow, but this could have resulted in injury. The repairs cost me around $20k all in.


And I had my super rare 30k F06 M6 6MT Individual Series seize during a BMW Dealer oil change service. They were bringing the car around to me when it seized. Fortunately it was 6 months prior to original warranty expiry. At first I was upset, then just said “well, I’m just glad it happened in your hands”. It cost BMW $60k to change the engine. After my M3 failure I did buy the extended warranty on this car. I will say they did a great job on the new engine install, not a leak, all wires and vacuum hoses connected and they went above and beyond to look after me. The car drives great now and has an additional 2 year warranty on the engine. The Dealer treats me like royalty after this experience.

Couple take aways from all this:
- BMW Engineering either doesn’t know how to spec a bearing, or BMW Purchasing buys the cheapest bearing out there. Either way, they have a major issue, and they should pony up for their loyal M car buyers.
- I learned the hard way, after my first failure I bought the extended warranty
- Service your car at the Dealer if it’s in warranty, it just takes an excuse away if there’s a problem.
- Escalate to a BMW Area Rep if you do have a failure. It is not unreasonable to have them participate in the repair. Particularly if the car had all service records and no mods. BMW should stand behind their product.
- Having had two failures, and reading about the frequency of the failures, it can give owners a sense of anxiety. Sometimes it can put a dark cloud over the whole M car experience It makes you feel like - ok, I have a 200 mile drive tomorrow for a business meeting, will I get there?


Thoughts are with you, hopefully you can get to the other side without destroying your pocket book or faith in BMW.

[Lcssmu]

Thanks everyone. Car gets picked up Tuesday to head to RK for a stock rebuild. I’ll start a new thread with my results once I get the car back in six or seven weeks.

[TinCanSailor]

Again sorry this happened to you but it is absolutely going to the right person for the job. Looking forward to following the good news from here forward.

[Lcssmu]

Sorry not trying to beat a dead horse with this thread, but heard back from BMW on my complaint today. According to the rep “they have no record at all of rod bearing failures being a common issue on this vehicle.”

Would not offer any assistance in any way.

[TinCanSailor]

Originally Posted by Lcssmu

Sorry not trying to beat a dead horse with this thread, but heard back from BMW on my complaint today. According to the rep “they have no record at all of rod bearing failures being a common issue on this vehicle.”

Would not offer any assistance in any way.

Wow, that is infuriating!