Yaaayy.. or not

[DatUtahGuy]

So, last year I broke a rocker arm, didn't know jack sh*t on how to fix it so I ended up researching and found out how to replace it, with the help of a friend I got it up and running.

After that, I had a problem with my idle surging, after 2 weeks of looking for vacuum leaks and cleaning the ICV and AFM, ended up buying a new AFM and picked it up yesterday and bingo, my car purrs like a freshly shaven kitten once again. Idle fixed.

Great. Tonight, I'm driving back home from a girl's house, there's black ice all over the roads here in Salt Lake, so trying to beat the traffic, I pull out of a parking lot and punch it.. tires spin in 1st up to 6000rpm, then I shift to 2nd and they keep spinning until 5500rpm, when I feel a slight yerk and immediately let off the gas and pull over. Sounds like a broken arm, we all know that sound.

Driving home, cussing up a storm and praying to the BMW gods that is not what I know it is.

Get home, take off the valve cover and find this...


doo doo came out my butt. relief doo doo

nothing else is broken. Except I can't find the broken leg-piece anywhere

[dashboardmonkey]

That broken piece is probably in your crankcase

[Knockenwelle]

Baaaahhh, it's prolly bouncing around in the bottom of the oil pan. Some of the drainback holes in the head are big enough for that chunk. Retrieve it if you bash the pan or do a rack swap... Shouldn't hurt anything as long as the oil pump screen is intact.

[lennon]

personally i couldnt run the motor without retrieving that piece of metal. pull the pan to see if its in there... its not THAT hard. or if your motor isnt that important to you, drain the oil and try and find the piece in the pan through the drain hole.

[SpecM]

personally i couldnt run the motor without retrieving that piece of metal. pull the pan to see if its in there... its not THAT hard. or if your motor isnt that important to you, drain the oil and try and find the piece in the pan through the drain hole.

magnet-on-a-stick will be your friend here

[DatUtahGuy]

thx peeps. I've drained the oil, couldn't find it. Will remove the pan tomorrow. I really hate working in freezing weather (no garage ftl)

my question is how does one even break one of these?? seriously

[Red88]

With a lot of skill and precision, duh.

[Chells_88ix]

I have a broken rocker arm on mine that I am fixing by swapping the head on but we were able to find 99% of the arm bits that shattered and after pulling the head the cylinder looks clean thank heavens. I am hoping this will be the end of this kind of bad luck.

[DatUtahGuy]

With a lot of skill and precision, duh.