Major Cost to Repair - Is it Worth It?

[wled788]

I have a BMW 318d M Sport 2011. Broke down couple of weeks ago. Engine lost power whilst driving. Towed car to first garage and they had the car for 4 days and advised me that they thought the timing chain had failed. They couldn't deal with the repair and recommended a garage that specialises in BMWs. So got the car towed over to the other garage. They had it for a day and got a call to confirm that the timing chain had snapped and they would need to investigate the damage this has caused to the engine before advising on cost of repair. They told me that due to this they would need to charge me for the investigation works. They had the car for a week and I had to call them a few times just to see what was going on. Advised that they were working on it and they had also sent the cylinder head away to another garage to assess the valves and the head. Finally got a call from them end of last week to say that they've done all the investigation works and the cylinder head is fine but to do the chain replacement and get the car up and running would be a circa £3800. The guy said that there is also a 20% chance the lobes on the camshaft may jump but they would only find out once the engine is back together again. If there was an issue with the lobes then the entire camshaft would need to be replaced and that would cost a further £2000 to do. Asked him how much I owed for what they've done to investigate the engine and he said £850. Had a shock with the cost of repair and even the cost that I owed to date. I haven't confirmed anything yet but I'm seriously thinking of cutting my losses and just get the car back and sell it as it is. It's an 8 year old BMW so why spend £3800 on a repair that could potentially need a further £2000 if the camshaft needs replacing. My question is does the cost the garage has quoted sound reasonable? And is there a chance the camshaft needs replacing at a cost of £2000. Just sounds unbelievable. Also I'm not happy that they are asking for £850 for the works they've done to date. I had to call them a few times over the course of the week to get an update. You would think that if things were starting to rack up they would have at least called to say where things were going cost wise. Any recommendations on what I should do?

[jclausen]

Selling it certainly might be the best course of action. I don't know what the value of the car is if it was in good condition. We don't have that engine in the u.s. The big problem when the timing chain lets go all sorts of bad things happen if the engine is an interference engine, pistons hit valves, etc. and may be the camshaft is damaged. So always add up the worst case in dollars to repair it. The only other option is a complete used engine with good mileage on it. I would not recommend going in and repairing the damaged engine.