A new one for me, 03 525i Wagon engine hydro locked after car wash.

[DigitalCafe]

Hello all,

New member here, I have been a long time BMW owner but all of my experience has been with E34 5 Series cars mainly 1992-1995

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The other day a rather clean 03 525i Black on Black wagon popped up and I thought why not.

After buying I drove it to my favorite local pull through car wash for a quick wash.

Here is where things changed for the worse quickly.

After exiting the wash the car lost power to the brakes and I noticed white steam coming out the tail pipe. Before I could shut the car off I heard a loud POP and the engine shut off. I could smell oil via the AC vents and I knew it was over.

I checked under the car to find a hole in the oil pan and a huge mess to clean up.

After getting the car towed back I pulled the (Stock) air intake out of the car and noticed the silencer had a little water in it so I pulled the pipe from the back of the MAF to the TB and a ton of colorful water dumped out of the engine.

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So the car wash somehow hydro locked the engine, I never knew you could not wash a 525 without killing the engine.

What I need to know, after I replace the engine can these cars never be power wash or perhaps I'm missing something under the car that should be reinstalled after I put the new engine in.

Next I'm already going to have the engine out, I'm thinking a 3.0L swap would be well timed. Dose anyone know a good link for a write up on that swap? Chances are I'll be buying a full parts car for the swap and or buying the engine, intake setup, keys, Locks, computer as a complete set so it can all be swapped together.

Worse comes to worse use my factory stuff and re flash the computer from 2.5 to 3.0l

Thanks for any help.

[seagreen323i]

Brake booster drain under the cabin air filter is clogged willing to bet, same thing happened to my dad, causes the booster to suck up water and throw it in the intake.

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[DigitalCafe]

Thanks, I'll pull that tomorrow and give it all a good look over. You live and learn.

[seagreen323i]

From what I know a 3.0 swap is a direct drop in, factory 2.5 ecu will run it without a tune with a slight loss of power from a true 3.0 tune.

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[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Yep, I was thinking the area where the brake booster fill up with water too. The compartment has a hole about 3/8” in diameter that gets debris in there and gets clogged up. Then the compartment fills up. If the car was always parked next to a tree, or beneath it, that’s what did it. But really, I still find all kinds of crap down there, and I definitely never park anywhere near trees. The trees in this country are what I call garbage puking trees. I come from the Philippines, over there, you get all kinds of crazy crap, out f trees, snakes, ridiculously large ants that sting like you got pinched with a pair of vice grips when they get you, these crazy little millipedes that fall off on windy days, and those suckers sting like centipedes, but the trees never spew garbage like the stupid trees in the US do. You can have a crazy typhoon, similar to a category 5 hurricane, and when you come out the next day to surveil the carnage, most of the trees still have all the leaves and branches that they had before the stupid storm hit, once in a while, a branch from a coconut flew off, now coconut’s! Those you have to watch out for on windy days! But nothing like all the crap that gets into the cars over here. On the E39, make sure you pull the cabin filter compartment out at least three times a year, inspect the bottom of the brake booster cavity for debris, also, on the side of the cabin filter areas, next to the fender aprons on each side, there is a gutter with a rubber flap that opens up when you get caught in a rain storm, debris gets bunched up there too, I always check all those whenever I pop the hood open. Welcome to the forum, and sorry for your engine.

[effduration]

Loss of brakes in your description leads me to also think your brake booster filled with water and some got sucked into intake.

All you have to do is keep that cavity under brakes and the other one under DME clear

3.0 engine is straightforward:

Use your 525i's wiring & DME
Use the 3.0 Intake, TB, MAF, Intake boots. injectors and coils and valve cover (if coils are same type as 525i)
Take the opportunity to refresh 3.0 with new seals, gaskes, coolant pipes, CCV etc.

the car will start and run okay on the 2.5 tune...After you get it running well..flash the 2.5 DME with a 3.0 tune, but only after working out other issues.

You might consider a manual swap while your at it.

[SW530]

I don't know about how BMW's lock up.. but I had a 4.6 DOHC V8 from a Cobra Mustang hydro-lock.. What happened is I was diagnosing why it wouldn't start which required me to turn the ignition all the way off, then on. Many times. Suddenly it started fired very briefly and there was.. the only way to describe it is violent, more violent than a collision, it rocked me back in the seat, hurt my ears, and the vibration shot up my back.

A hydro-lock on a spinning engine.. it will sit you back and you know it happened because you've never felt anything like it. I almost cried then and there. I turned the key to the off position, closed the garage, and didn't go back inside for a few weeks.

After two weeks I'd come up with the funds to send the engine off and have a supercharger friendly bottom end built. But something told me and was screaming in my ear "try starting it just for the heck of it.."s My other ear was hearing "no way the bottom end survived that, rods are bent, valves are bent, you're fiuc*ed!" But I put the key in, turned it, and it fired right up into a smooth idle and ran perfect! What the heck. Canceled the new engine plan.

What happened is on that engine, and most fuel injected engine, is when you first turn the key to the start position it puts a healthy squirt of fuel into the manifold. I'd turned the key all the way off and then on so many times it filled the top end with fuel. A massive brain fart, should have known better. It was a very strong engine, forged billet rods, forged pistons, titanium valves.. it survived my stupidity. But the point to take way from this, is if your engine hydro-locks.. it's very violent. Like nothing else.

[seagreen323i]

Wanna see what happens when you chuck a rod in a m54 after it was hydrolocked?
Looks like thishttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220512/1933085121b9c83122e1945f9a6db402.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220512/5cfba520cf51e19cbd7e4c39f886ca09.jpg

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[DigitalCafe]

That is a bad day right there, the transmission was just added insult.






Wanna see what happens when you chuck a rod in a m54 after it was hydrolocked?
Looks like thishttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220512/1933085121b9c83122e1945f9a6db402.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220512/5cfba520cf51e19cbd7e4c39f886ca09.jpg

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[DigitalCafe]

Cool, thanks for that. I'll get them all cleaned out when I have everything apart, most of the time I really only wash my daily Honda at the pull wash but I had a pass for one free wash for another car and was thinking cool I'll get this new car washed. I guess I got it washed inside and outside the engine.

After the new engine this car will probably go in the garage next to my favorite 92 so hopefully that will help keep the stuff out with double checks a few times a year.