Broken Valve Spring @ 2,700 Miles

[Carl L]

Originally Posted by SGM3forME

Update: Picked upmy car last week, repair completed in 11 days. Car seems to be running fine, keeping my fingers crossed that I won't have any more issues. Thanksto everyone for your advice/input.

You won't. This happened on my S85 V10 too and once fixed there were no other issues.

[SGM3forME]

Originally Posted by Carl L

You won't. This happened on my S85 V10 too and once fixed there were no other issues.

Thanks, good to know.

[mdosu]

check your invoice, it looked like for the other person with the same issue, after the fix, they also changed their oil and power steering fluid too.

[GRY2013E92DGR]

I have a 2013 M3 with 4,000 miles. Three weeks ago I filled up with gas at Q-trip, 20 minutes later the engine started running extremely rough and misfiring like the timing was off, and the service engine code came on(sorry dont remember exact code). Luckily this happened one house above mine so I pushed in the clutch and costed into my driveway. Next day after calling BMW, drove the 3.5 miles to the dealership never going over 25 mph. They pulled the engine codes and it showed a misfire on all 8 cylinders so they took a gas sample and sure enough the gas was bad. A week later after they drained the tank, replaced the filter, blew out the lines, injectors and fuel rail, they reported it was still misfiring on one cylinder. Another week passes and they tell me they spoke to the factory and they suspected a bent valve. Now into the third week after removing the head, they have determined the valve spring broke and the bent valve was obviously due the piston slapping it. The bad new is that it destroyed the valve bowl on the cylinder head so it will have to be replaced. After calling the U.S. distributor and Germany, no one has a replacement head in stock. Currently their engine assembly plant in Germany is milling a new one and it will be another 3 weeks before they ship it to the U.S. I don't see how bad gas could have caused a broke valve spring. My only experience with a broken valve spring was due to using the wrong ratio of rocker arms on a high lift, solid lifter cam. Since the M3 is a overhead cam this wouldn't be an issue. Someone help get my head around this.

[MilehighM3]

Coincidence. Low mileage broken springs are not common, but not uncommon either. The gas would have no effect on the spring breaking, it's just some sort of manufacturing defect.

[12mpgm3]

Q-trip??

[fuddman]

Originally Posted by GRY2013E92DGR

I have a 2013 M3 with 4,000 miles. Three weeks ago I filled up with gas at Q-trip, 20 minutes later the engine started running extremely rough and misfiring like the timing was off, and the service engine code came on(sorry dont remember exact code). Luckily this happened one house above mine so I pushed in the clutch and costed into my driveway. Next day after calling BMW, drove the 3.5 miles to the dealership never going over 25 mph. They pulled the engine codes and it showed a misfire on all 8 cylinders so they took a gas sample and sure enough the gas was bad. A week later after they drained the tank, replaced the filter, blew out the lines, injectors and fuel rail, they reported it was still misfiring on one cylinder. Another week passes and they tell me they spoke to the factory and they suspected a bent valve. Now into the third week after removing the head, they have determined the valve spring broke and the bent valve was obviously due the piston slapping it. The bad new is that it destroyed the valve bowl on the cylinder head so it will have to be replaced. After calling the U.S. distributor and Germany, no one has a replacement head in stock. Currently their engine assembly plant in Germany is milling a new one and it will be another 3 weeks before they ship it to the U.S. I don't see how bad gas could have caused a broke valve spring. My only experience with a broken valve spring was due to using the wrong ratio of rocker arms on a high lift, solid lifter cam. Since the M3 is a overhead cam this wouldn't be an issue. Someone help get my head around this.

You need to ask a lot more questions (unless it's a lease).
The piston just "slapped the valve?" That is not supposed to happen. The engine is designed to prevent the valve from going anywhere near the piston when a spring breaks. Besides that, what happens to a piston when it "slaps" the valve at the hellacious speeds it travels. Could the piston have been dented an eensie weensie bit? And what's the deal with all the other valve springs? Are some of them just waiting for the right moment to break? If you can, take a look at each part they remove. Inspect them and ask yourself if what they say jives with what you see.
If this is a lease, I suppose you could let them fix it and forget about it. If it's not, I suggest you ask them to provide you, at minimum, with an extended warranty on the car. Oh, and start reviewing the lemon law criteria in your state.

[White 13]

I had not thought about it much but I wonder how much longer they will be milling heads for the V8?

[SenorFunkyPants]

Originally Posted by fuddman

The piston just "slapped the valve?" That is not supposed to happen. The engine is designed to prevent the valve from going anywhere near the piston when a spring breaks..

Are you sure about that?
The spring breaks - the valve hangs down and gets whacked by the piston - bends the valve stem which then leads to the valve seat getting damaged.

[Nuke818]

Originally Posted by GRY2013E92DGR

I have a 2013 M3 with 4,000 miles. Three weeks ago I filled up with gas at Q-trip, 20 minutes later the engine started running extremely rough and misfiring like the timing was off, and the service engine code came on(sorry dont remember exact code). Luckily this happened one house above mine so I pushed in the clutch and costed into my driveway. Next day after calling BMW, drove the 3.5 miles to the dealership never going over 25 mph. They pulled the engine codes and it showed a misfire on all 8 cylinders so they took a gas sample and sure enough the gas was bad. A week later after they drained the tank, replaced the filter, blew out the lines, injectors and fuel rail, they reported it was still misfiring on one cylinder. Another week passes and they tell me they spoke to the factory and they suspected a bent valve. Now into the third week after removing the head, they have determined the valve spring broke and the bent valve was obviously due the piston slapping it. The bad new is that it destroyed the valve bowl on the cylinder head so it will have to be replaced. After calling the U.S. distributor and Germany, no one has a replacement head in stock. Currently their engine assembly plant in Germany is milling a new one and it will be another 3 weeks before they ship it to the U.S. I don't see how bad gas could have caused a broke valve spring. My only experience with a broken valve spring was due to using the wrong ratio of rocker arms on a high lift, solid lifter cam. Since the M3 is a overhead cam this wouldn't be an issue. Someone help get my head around this.

I had my engine replaced on my 2013 M3 with 4,800 miles on the car. I message on the iDrive were engine malfunction, which put the car in limp mode and increased emissions. I also had the problem in the # 8 cylinder as well as # 7 misfiring and low compression. Initially they thought it was a bad fuel injector so they replace the two on the above listed cylinders. When that didn't work they thought it was a problem with carbon build up and a bad valve seal. This was about three weeks into my care being at the dealer. So I finally said either give me a new engine or I want a new car. You should do the same. Making you wait for three more weeks to get a new block is unacceptable. The lemon law varies from state to state but most states conditions to pursue the lemon law are either your vehicle is in being repaired for more than 30 days or you have taken the vehicle in for the same mechanical issue more than a reasonable number of times. Also ask yourself this do you want someone who probably hasn't ever torn down an engine before rebuilding yours?

[fuddman]

Originally Posted by SenorFunkyPants

Are you sure about that?
The spring breaks - the valve hangs down and gets whacked by the piston - bends the valve stem which then leads to the valve seat getting damaged.

I had a problem with my M3 which had symptoms similar to those described by the OP. The tech working on it told me they (BMW tech & himself) thought it might have been a broken valve spring. When he said that, all kinds of red flags started flying because the last time I encountered a broken valve spring (not a BMW), the valve dropped into the cylinder and was quickly driven through the cylinder wall by the piston. When I mentioned that to the BMW tech, he told me that, because of its design, it would never happen in the S65.
I believe that if BMW, indeed, designed it to prevent the valve from dropping into the cylinder then they would also want to make sure it didn't come into contact with the piston at all since any contact, however slight, could be just as catastrophic.
Maybe I'm a bit uptight about it, but I would ask for an explanation if a tech said there was inconsequential contact between a piston a valve.

[BigApple]

Originally Posted by fuddman

I had a problem with my M3 which had symptoms similar to those described by the OP. The tech working on it told me they (BMW tech & himself) thought it might have been a broken valve spring. When he said that, all kinds of red flags started flying because the last time I encountered a broken valve spring (not a BMW), the valve dropped into the cylinder and was quickly driven through the cylinder wall by the piston. When I mentioned that to the BMW tech, he told me that, because of its design, it would never happen in the S65.
I believe that if BMW, indeed, designed it to prevent the valve from dropping into the cylinder then they would also want to make sure it didn't come into contact with the piston at all since any contact, however slight, could be just as catastrophic.
Maybe I'm a bit uptight about it, but I would ask for an explanation if a tech said there was inconsequential contact between a piston a valve.

I got 27k on mine and this is my 2nd time this happened to me on my 2013 M3

[kb9uwu]

crap bmws

[Edward]

Originally Posted by MilehighM3

Coincidence. Low mileage broken springs are not common, but not uncommon either. The gas would have no effect on the spring breaking, it's just some sort of manufacturing defect.

I love old thread bumps. I was going to say that the owner should sell his car if he only has 2700 miles on a 2013 he got new. Then saw it's a 3 year old thread.

So I had to find something else to make fun of which is this classically politician/portfolio manager like descriptor. "not common but not uncommon"........

So sort of common but also sort of uncommon? I feel like there's an a linguistic asymptote we are reaching here.

[MCFilmWerks]

Mine cracked 4 months after I bought my car, had 50k miles on an 08 and I had no warranty

After getting the valve spring, throttle actuators (1 was bad, so I replaced both), and the valve Spring my repair was just shy of 11k, which was paid out of pocket. I couldn't imagine having to go through that twice, but since repairing both of those issues I've been pretty good as of late, driven about 20k since.

[mharris2007]

Originally Posted by MCFilmWerks

Mine cracked 4 months after I bought my car, had 50k miles on an 08 and I had no warranty

After getting the valve spring, throttle actuators (1 was bad, so I replaced both), and the valve Spring my repair was just shy of 11k, which was paid out of pocket. I couldn't imagine having to go through that twice, but since repairing both of those issues I've been pretty good as of late, driven about 20k since.

Oh god don't tell me that!! I have an 08 E90 with 42,000 miles on it that I just bought with 39,500 miles on it.

[Mimmer]

where is this valve spring located? sorry newb question.... i know we arent talking car spring of tires,,,,

[wyatth]

Big bump... They’re in the engine’s cylinder head.

[E9T.two]

Bumping again... this may be happening to me right now with 85K miles on my pampered 2013 M3. Completely random, wasn't driving the car hard, just stretching her out of after sitting for a while during quarantine... waiting for final results on diagnostics. New engine at this point, prob not... hope she pulls through. 😢

At first I thought it was bad gasoline, but not sure now. The valve spring is def broken based on the pic include, you can see where it's broken. Waiting to hear more from the tech on Monday. Today was a crappy day.

*UPDATE* added a pic of the broken valve spring the tech just sent me.

[djsilverjohnson]

Originally Posted by E9T.two

Bumping again... this may be happening to me right now with 85K miles on my pampered 2013 M3. Completely random, wasn't driving the car hard, just stretching her out of after sitting for a while during quarantine... waiting for final results on diagnostics. New engine at this point, prob not... hope she pulls through. 😢

At first I thought it was bad gasoline, but not sure now. The valve spring is def broken based on the pic include, you can see where it's broken. Waiting to hear more from the tech on Monday. Today was a crappy day.

*UPDATE* added a pic of the broken valve spring the tech just sent me.

How did this work out for you?

I see several possible outcomes in the event of a broken valve spring;

1. The engine runs rough, but the valve spring retainer stays in place and the valve doesn't drop far into the combustion chamber. In this case, depending on the engine design, the piston may strike the valve without major damage, or it may break the head off the valve and cause major collateral damage.

2. The release of spring pressure takes tension off the spring retainer and the vibration causes the collars to fall out and release the spring retainer. If that happens, the valve falls into the combustion chamber and causes major collateral damage.

[NeverL8]

Originally Posted by E9T.two

Bumping again... this may be happening to me right now with 85K miles on my pampered 2013 M3. Completely random, wasn't driving the car hard, just stretching her out of after sitting for a while during quarantine... waiting for final results on diagnostics. New engine at this point, prob not... hope she pulls through. 😢

At first I thought it was bad gasoline, but not sure now. The valve spring is def broken based on the pic include, you can see where it's broken. Waiting to hear more from the tech on Monday. Today was a crappy day.

*UPDATE* added a pic of the broken valve spring the tech just sent me.

Did you hear any kind of rattling prior? Or just the dash lights?

[delta0401]

I am unfortunate enough to be going through my 2nd valve spring failure. First was on cylinder #5 which was fixed under aftermarket warranty in April 2020 at a grand total of over $10K. Fast forward, four months in August 2020 and a second valve spring in Cylinder #8 brakes just after warranty expires. Dealer quotes over $8K for this to be fixed.