Serpentine belt Sucked into engine!(N55)
 

Hello first time poster here
I have a 2011 335XI
Yesterday my serpentine belt got sucked into my engine I was wondering how hard it would be to do it myself I haven’t done much work on the car but some I’ve changed the starter and inter cooler and charge pipe but that’s about it just want to know how hard it would be for me to try to do the job myself replace the oil pan gasket, OFHG, valve cover gasket and crankshaft seal and clean all the pieces of belt out and out of the oil pump .... also how much would this cost at a shop in California?
Any help is much appreciated!

Valve cover and oil filter housing gasket you can do yourself.

As for the oil pan and crank shaft seal, it’s a bit more involved when it comes to x drive cars.
Although still doable, dealing with this on jack stands is a pain in the ass.

You’ll have to see how much your time is worth, because you’ll be at it for hours.
This is not a job for a basic diy person, not saying you are, but be honest with yourself when deciding.

For ofhg use original bmw gasket. Suppliers have been changed. Elring is no good.

How much would a job like this cost at a shop?

Not sure how much you would be considering you’re in California. However I can tell you that here in Toronto, Canada at an experienced independent BMW mechanic, the cost for an oil filter housing gasket is around $300-$500 (Labor and gasket) same goes for the valve cover gasket, and to do the oil pan gasket‘s With crank seal it’s about $800-$1000.

Gaskets are cheap for all these jobs it’s the labour that carries the amount

The thing is you still need to take off the OIl Pan .
This is not and in the driveway job and its not a first time
mechanics job either it's a big job and the Input Seal has
to replaced to .

Look at all of these

broken belt
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho....php?t=1231881
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showpo...3&postcount=23
https://www.oxwerkzperformance.com/
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1477111
https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1305990

I would say it's a 3k plus job at any shop probably more.

Wow that expensive ? 1 shop told me 1100$ another 1500$ and I thought that was a lot lol

If you are not taking it to a BMW specialist shop good chance these
guys don't know what there doing.
VCG Gasket change alone when you have a leak is 1k plus at and Indy
more at a dealership.
This is not a job for pep boys or some place like that.
This is at almost the Engine replacement level .
After they clean it and replace the seal and all the gaskets there
is no guarantee that there is still not pieces of the belt in some of the
oil feed holes.
If you drove on it with the Red Light on there may be more damage.
If you did not take it to a BMW shop pretty good chance they won't understand
the gravity of the problem.

Before you hand it over to anybody you better be sure they understand what
must be done and you must understand it to. And I would take to somebody that has done this before.

This all sounds right to me as well. Maybe where you're located things are vastly cheaper? There is some forensics involved in this one, and there's a decent chance your motor is lunched. Hate to say it :-/

Can you share some info regarding the cause of the belt braking and getting sucked inside?

Don't feel bad, you're not the first to have this happen, but any info would be helpful to keep anyone else from having this happen.

I believe it happened from a leak from my OFHG and leaked onto my belt causing it to slip off that's just a guess but I think I'm going to take it to a shop as I do not have a lift for the vehicle

This subject has plenty of thread's on it here and across the e9x boards.
The cause is either oil leaking on the belt or the tensioner getting weak over
time in probably 90 percent or more of the cases.

This has also known to have been caused by the (P/S?) pulley hitting the subframe (low clearance), dislodging the belt. This is a known defect, though I don't know whether it's limited to specific years, and may be different for xDrive. Worn engine mounts can contribute to the problem. People smarter than me can chime in.

This can be confirmed with an inspection of the subframe, though I'm not sure if that can be done effectively without dropping the subframe.

BMW engineering at its best.. Self destruct button. Might be cheaper to get a donor engine and throw that is...

Has anyone installed the cover they make to keep the belt out of the engine?

NGEE, it's an N55. No worry about the pulley hitting the subframe. Mochoa mentioned that he had the OFHG oil leak on the belt. That'll add a lot to the bottom line.

I replaced four oil pan gaskets in E90, and I can say AWD oil pan takes for time than RWD. You also need engine support bar and front seal removal/installer tool kit.

> Need to remove both front axles.
> support the engine and drop the subframe (I used the engine support bar as primary and cherry picker as a backup). If you're not comfortable working under the car, take it to the shop.
> Remove the front differential
> Remove the oil pan. (always use new oil pan bolts, old bolts can break)
> Remove the windage tray, clean out the oil pickup tube and inspect the oil pump.

For the front seal, you need to buy a special tool to get the seal out and put a new one in.

I would say, it'll take you a full weekend to complete this job. if you do it yourself, I would say it costs you about $100 for parts. Stealer would charge you at least $2,000. Good luck man!

Engine won't turn on would it still turn on usually even if it got sucked in ?

Does it crank over ?
If not, it may have seized.

I doesn't turn on but it cranks when it happened I lost throttle response and had to get it towed home so I never drove it when I'm the belt got ripped off pull over because the car shut off and wouldn't let me turn it back on

update?

Not sure if you're based out of Socal or not but theres always SSR performance, 412 motorsport, and precision dynamics who really know what they're doing with these OFHG causing the belt to getting sucked into the engines.

Super late update but my mechanic did the job for 3,000$ replaced all the gaskets and cleaned all the pieces from valve cover oil pan oil pick up tube vanos engine etc. did a few oil flushes and fixed the timing and things running great still definitely always checking my OFHG now and belt for oil all the time lol but yes you guys were correct 3,000$ to get it all done