BMW 318i E46 M43 engine failure

Mike Romain > wrote in message >...
> I would recommend you first find out who 'really' doesn't like you
> before you go getting a new engine or they will likely just empty the
> thing out on you again.
>
> Faking out all the gauges takes a real artist too..... Nice touch, look
> for the resistors spliced into the sensor wires likely tagging them to
> ground. Probably one near the temp sender and one for the oil sender.

I have to agree. For the engine and cooling systems to have emptied
themselves so completely, just after a service, and with no warning
from the car, someone must have tampered with it. Get an
*independent* (no BMW garage, an independent) garage to inspect it.
Write to the dealer that serviced your car, and tell them that you are
having the car inspected and will be calling Trading Standards and BMW
(GB). If your independent garage finds anything amiss (and surely
they well), write to the dealer again (copy BMW GB) advising them that
you are reporting them, and will be contacting both the national
motoring press and the police. Note that if it comes to it, you can
easily claim for the cost of a replacement engine in the Small Claims
Court.

Since your dealer has already seen the car, the person or people who
rigged it to fail without warning (no engine oil light? No coolant
light? No over-temperature reading? No "check engine" light? No
nothing?) may have removed their "handiwork". Being in the UK, you
have little comeback, as the law is increasingly designed to protect
suppliers and companies, not customers (just ask Mario Monti). Your
only hope, if you take the dealer to the Small Claims Court, is that
the judge isn't a BMW-hating leftie .