BREAK MY WALLET! (Engine Swap Gone Wrong - BMW X5 Turbo) 

I want to thank Ivan for his incredible help in finding the final issue with my vehicle. To everyone I fully knew the scope of work needling done in swapping the motor. The shop in question did not do any work to the motor regarding the spun rods. The motor was sent to a shop that specialize in rebuilding BMW motors and was fully rebuilt. The shop in hand was ask to just R&R the motor. Remove motor from chassis, remove components and wiring, Send motor to rebuild shop, And to reinstall components to and motor to chassis. I would be paying for such labor at the shops rate. I did not send to shop trying to be cheap. I sent to shop as it was a extended family members shop, and I want to support their small business. So I figured I would let them do the swap as the motor work was being preformed by a very well reputable shop BMW rebuild shop. I asked a million question regarding if they were knowingly and able to preform such work. They said they were fully capable of such task and handle the work. Fast forward from me dropping off a running vehicle to flat bedding it out. The car ran fine outside the valve tap when I initially dropped it off, and had only two DTC codes referencing to the Vanos solenoids. Fast forward a year. When the motor is swapped. The car would not Start or Crank just the instrument cluster was responsive. When scanning the car for codes I got over 80 DTCs. I ended up having to flat bed the car from the shop as they now said they don't fully understand the BMW's. Upon getting the car back The first main issues was wiring to the main harness hooked up incorrectly. After correcting this issues the car then cranked, However the fuel injectors were not seated correctly and the high pressure fuel rail was not torqued causing gas to flood exterior of 5and6 cylinder. This cause me to have to replace all the ignition coils, Spark plugs, and Injectors in question. Also the Valvetronic was shorted when it received the wrong voltage so that had to be replaced as well. Transmission issues from the shop damaging transmission pan during swap, and a few other issues. I Manage to fix and correct all theses issues. Too be left with one last nightmare that I would have never figured out. But it was really neat to see Ivan not only fix but located this issues in honestly no time at all. I spend days on it. he spent less then a hour. What I learned, Always go with your gut. Just because someone has a shop and say they can do a job don't mean they can. Always do you do due diligence even if you know the person for business. Apologies on the long comment.

Makes you appreciate Japanese poka-yoke. I worked for a Japanese company and we had to always design so connectors couldn't get confused. Often we used connectors with different pin counts even though we left pins unused just to make sure someone (mostly the factory) couldn't get confused and swap the plugs. In design reviews we always addressed how we had done poka-yoke.

I've done engine swaps. I've always captured the before and after codes. Told them these are the current codes. It's up to the owner for me to continue a diag. I tell them my rate. No estimate on $ figure. I don't want to get stuck with a 4 hour diag and I quoted him a low number. If they start arguing. My diag is over. If the code was my cause. Such as a sensor not plugged in. I will owe that up. Only wish I had a pico on my tool list. But crap. I'm getting to old for this. Anyhow. I've learned from Ivan. Mr. O and others.

If the shop that did that swap had any pride or ethics they'd just eat it. They'll live.. I ran an air conditioning and heating company in Houston for 25 years and every once in a blue moon we'd blow it beyond recovery and I would just step up and eat it... I think there were 4 instances of that over the 25 years. It sucked and it hurt,, hurt the pride and the wallet,,, but I would eat it..

A sign we have in our shop says "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional, just wait until you hire an amateur". This shop clearly got in over their heads and although it hurts, make it right

Marking connectors is a must when doing an engine swap as demonstrated by the multiple wrong connections made. That BMW uses many of the same connectors for multiple sensor and computer applications further complicates the situation . Absolutely OUTSTANDING! case study your patience always amazes me. Bravo !

I followed this guy over from SMA, I'm glad I did, they both do a heck of a job!

Nice job Ivan! All the problems are totally on the shop! Sounds like this was the shop's first BMW swap anyone with half a brain would have turned it away!

You sir are making mechanics that can’t do anything without a scan tool look like amateurs. Great diagnoses

Mechanic 1 "we got an extra connector here" Mechanic 2 Stares at if for 5 seconds. Pushes it out of sight. Exclaims "that's lunch"

I have done BMW engine swaps. 6 cylinder even the new turbo N20 4 cylinder engine. They are not that hard to do and get right, But you have to have the right mind set to do them because they get complicated real fast cause of the wiring and connectors.. The shop owner saw dollar signs $$$ and thought his 10 $ per hour guy could do it.. that is where he made his mistake🤣. All of the damages is 100% on the shop owner. If the car drove in and wouldn't start, they damaged the parts, Simple easy, the shop owner is actually responsible for this diag charge and repair as well..

I used to hate BMW/Mercedes/Audi/Volkswagen….but i’ve made so much money working on them i’m beginning to like them a lot more. I’d just never own one.

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

To paraphrase H.L. Mencken: Every problem has a solution that is neat, simple, and incomplete...

That was quite a challenge! After 2 bad diagrams, and that much aggravation. It really takes a deep understanding of electrical diagnostics. No way I would have pulled that off, on my own.

Paying the experienced technician is always cheaper than the cheap mechanic!

Crazy! I agree greatly on quoting more than book time. Everyone often forgets that book time is based of performing the procedure on a brand new car with no miles. Things do not always go as planned.

When working on a BMW, you really need to get ISTA (diagnosis scanner with inbuilt wiring diagrams) ISTA is the OEM diagnostics program. I can give you a slightly outdated version free if you like. (of cause you will need a Enet or Dcan cable to connect fra OBD to laptop)

My comment is everything that all the other people commenting stated. In other words GREAT JOB IVAN !!!!! 👍👍👍👍

Unfortunately the shop was at fault in this case. But hey shout-out to the owner for doing his home work and "unscrewing some of the screw-ups" to get the car running again🚙💨💨💨

This is the very reason I sent all the Euro customers packing. I was going crazier.

I would have eaten the cost of engine swap if I was that shop. Also if I would do a job on a vehicle I am not familiar with, I research the crap out of it first before I would even quote it. Second I learned along time ago label all connectors when I take them apart. Also I baggie all nuts and bolts with labels where they came from. Makes things a lot easier when reassembling.

Ivan for the win!!!! He can fix anything.

The greatest demonstration of a mid amp bulb for diagnosis. When i worked on AC devices back a while ago, TV, VCR, etc, i had a 300 watt bulb cord with switch setup in series with the load on anything blowing fuses.

Should of called Scotty to remove all that plastic crap!! 🤣🤣

Sounds like the owner has been to hell and back with that. I'd say the other shop should swallow the cost but will mean completely burning your bridge with them. I swear I've got PTSD from that BMW bong sound 😁

Freaking amazing Ivan! You did it again, victory!

As a primary Euro tech myself I've seen a lot of screw-ups by other shops who end up bringing it to us to fix. Sad that shop did such a botched job that it cost this guy probably way more then the cars worth. I'm sure this owner won't go there again. Great diagnosis and finding the problem at hand. For future reference, pop that air box off it's super easy. Remove the hose clamp and pulled upward it comes right out just on some rubber holders over plastic pegs. Gives you more room. You can also pull the intake manifold back a good bit to access under neither for starters and what not.. super easy, 11mm on the intake nuts/bolts and Remove intake piping and the wiring retainers.

any engine swap i do i use good masking tape to label all wires hoses and brackets and write down the order things come off

Ivan you Certainly make it look Easy! Love the videos & hope to pick up a Fraction of what you Know!

Mmmmm........... Electrical work. My faaavvvvorite. (Rolling eyes) Solid work Sir!! Bonus comment, bet they're not "friends" anymore. ALWAYS be nervous about friends and family automotive work. It always seems to get F'ed up. It's very rare I've heard of those situations with a happy ending.

Ivan a very thorough investigation on this issue, great job.

Love to see the way you find the problems and best of all fix them !

Wow, very interesting to watch. That diagnosis wasn't so trivial. Excellent outcome as always 👍👍👍

Ivan you are one of the best if not thee best gremlin chaser on the tubes! Your process is really amazing.

Ivan is a master mechanic. Amazing he fixes everything.

I always liked the trouble shooting end of automotive repairs, the problem with this is the Jobs that come in, is either screwed up by the customer or by friends of friend garage. As book time !!! THROW the book out, that's for factory assembly where everything is new. Great diagnostic think before action.

Great job hope you enjoyed fixing it.

Amazing as always Ivan

Ivan is a great mechanic. I wish he could fix my cars.

Stuff like this is why I do my own work. Nice job 👍

I diagnosed one of those same year and make. It had a bad timing chain and the engine was knocking. Pulled the valve cover and it was seriously sludged up. Vehicle only had 120,000 miles on it. Those engines must be maintained properly at all costs. Thank you PHAD Great video

That was great ! Super skilled step by step electrical diagnostic procedure ! Incredible instructional skills as well ! Thanks for letting us learn from you !! 🙌🏼

Ivan the car whisperer performs his Magic again. The shop should eat the cost of there carelessness

Here is an idea how about labeling all the connectors you are unplugging so you can reinstall them back properly.

Excellent presentation and diagnosis as always

once again, Ivan is amazing!

excellent troubleshooting as usual

Enjoying your videos Ivan.

Watching you has caused an upgrade in my electrical test equipment, and made my life easier. Thanks. And prevented me from even thinking of modern eurotrash as a DD.

Love watching your approach to these issues. I’ve been a German tech in the past and having faulty diagrams wasted a lot of time. Shop should eat the repair unfortunately.

Wow Nice Job Dude

I started watching your RU-vid because my truck is not wanting to stay running. Then I just kept watching your videos to learn more about the wiring and electric side of cars. It'll be nice to learn from your videos seeing how you do an amazing job of braking it down. Just saying thanks for taking your time to make these videos I know I am learning from the right person again thanks.

"It spun the rod bearings, apparently that's what happens..." German engineering! 4 months later... I didn't realize I had commented on this before. The "like button" wasn't pressed, which led me to believe that I hadn't seen it before. Still stand behind my original comment!

Ivan. Another great diag and fix, NPR. :-) You, sir, are untouchable. I'll be following you for more adventures.

Great job Ivan.

Just remember folks not all shops have a Mechanic in them... Great work like always IVAN👍👍.

great content as always , nice fix Ivan,

nice job Ivan .

Cluster. Thanks Ivan!

You are great at what you do.... Love these videos....

You do a supper good job brother keep it up...I love watching and learning Thank You.

Excellent video Ivan to the rescue again

Great job!

Great job, Ivan

Brilliant job 👍

Very smart diagnosis thanx alot

Extraordinarily interesting. Awesome diagnosis. I wonder how many mechanics could even figure this out??? Great work man.

Another great video, thanks for sharing!

So the 7.5 amp fuse was stopping the mistake becoming a bonfire, lucky the owner only used the correct fuse. The small repair shop man should have known better not to take on a job he knew nothing about :-(. An apology and no charging the car owner would be the honorable thing to do. Ivan, if you screwed up (Fiction) you would have done the right thing, i know you would.

great case study my friend!!!!!! i watched the whole way excited ........ lol

Excellent as usual.

Excellent job Ivan. I love your channel.

Ivan the BMW owner is as patient as you! Having a car in the shop for a year would be hair pulling for most people coupled with the original engine swappers getting so much wrong would make most of us want to scream! Hope the engine swapper takes a hit to make up for all their mixups.

"It spun the rod bearings, apparently that just happens" cool cool

Great job 👍!!

Obviously, the shop should take responsibility for the damage they caused. The fairest solution would be to refund the cost of the work they did. At least that way the customer would be left with pretty much what the total cost would have been had the job been done correctly. It is a compromise.

Great video. Definitely the shops fault. Over a year.... that's crazy! Projects like that happen in body shops all the time when cars are in the shop on the back burner for years even though the owner has already paid.

Awesome video

I've worked at BMW manufacturing in 2011 so this baby slipped by me on the production line for sure. There's 5300 spot welds in that car. It also has rivets, MIG welds, glue and hand brazing holding it together. I am particularly proud of the sides body panels since that was my section to watch over day in, day out... B-pilar and door braces have armor crash protection. It is one hell of a fine made car.

I don't want be married to this thing, if only I'd said that 2 marriages ago. Nice work Ivan ! Very entertaining to watch.

Nice teaching thank you for the video👍

Very nice setup using the Power Probe and the lamp.

Agree 100%! Great troubleshooting!

Another great video👍

👍👍👍👍 well done sir great work as usual

Geez , all those problems the owner is exceeding the value of the car worth . He must really love that car !

The initial code, 3162 and 3157 are the BMW decimal codes... It does not translate directly to "P" code by just adding a "P" before the numbers... There is tables online that shows a "translation" or a match if you will, from the decimal code to a "P" code... Hope that has not been covered later in the video, otherwise this is a pointless comment... 😋🤣🤣🤣 Now back to the video... 👍👍👍

Good Ivan 👍

Nice detective work Ivan.

Good job

i all ways when working on a bmw and have to disconnect wire's put a bit of tape with a number on to both side's of the connector save's a lot of time in the end,nice job on finding that 1

You fixed that problem. The shop that changed the engines is responsible for their work. When my Dad had his automotive repair business, a guy came in with a problem in his vehicle. He proceeds to tell my Dad about what this shop and that shop did to the vehicle. My Dad closed the hood and told the guy to take it to someone else! You don't have to take a problem vehicle like that that others have worked on. When I worked for the L.A. Dept of Water and Power, I saw vehicles like that. Other DWP shops worked on them, then we got the problem! There were several of us in the shop and we helped each other. We got it fixed!

It's a BMW ahhhhh ruuuunnnn! Another great one and great diagnostics. Yep the shop should buy the parts they caused to go bad by not connecting the connectors to the right connector. I also agree on charging more shop time for a job you've never done before, that only makes sense. Thanks for sharing Ivan. Best Wishes & Blessings. Keith Noneya

You are a crafty dude!

A family friend says: A: "BMW engine swap? No problem!" B: "BMW engine swap? That is a pain in the ass!" C: "BMW engine swap? It's gonna cost you!" Guess which one you should avoid!

Thanks Ivan! This was really good case study being that I love to try and repair Bmws every now and again. The shop should’ve known to at least take pictures of any components/connectors as a reference to where things went so that reinstallation would go smoothe! They pretty much dropped the ball and should be thankful that they didn’t end up in court over this one! Post some more crazy Bmw vids should you run across anymore! 😎

Remember the Twilight Zone? This is the automotive version of it! Nice work Ivan.

90% of shops are not honest or stand behind their work like Ivan would. Every Dealership experience I have had was full of excuses and overcharges, sad since I have zero confidence in any shop now. I wish I lived closer to Ivan!

Definitely on the shop, I am a Mechanic at my Stepdad's shop, the first time I dropped an engine out the bottom the craddle stand wasn't setup right...I had the stand rotated 180deg, dropped it to the floor, the shop bought a new oilpan, oil pickup tube, cradle got bent and a couple other items that were mainly just a cya...the customer was sitting in the shop at the time b.s.ing with my stepdad...they both shook their heads laughed and came over to help me get the engine up off the floor. Thank God they both are laid back old timers...all said and done the shop spent $800 on parts and an extra 5hrs labor...I was so pissed about it yet had to suppress it and maintain what little professionalism I had left...I don't even remember why I was dropping the engine in the 1st place...lol good times as a new mech. Now I'm getting into the more deep diag's and finding things learned watching you, Scanner Danner, South Main Auto and the one ford guy that I can never remember the name of...seems to be the only ford guy that comes up with ford in the channel name...I digress! Thank you for all the great video's and thank God my Stepdad stands behind our work. He would have paid you for your time fixing this if it was our mistake!