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Hello Forum. My M5 and I are at a major crossroad and I’m asking my forum brethren for some advice. It’s a Imperial Blue 2014 model with every option except night vision, ceramic brakes and the rear entertainment screens. The interior is full merino Amaro n Brown leather and I purchased it in December of 2016 with roughly 20K miles on it from a 1 owner Doctor out of Phoenix Arizona. The car checked every box for me and was not tracked or tuned and came with all the service records including a detailed history of the break-in period.
For the first 2 years, the only mods were a front splitter and a set of HRE 300’s or classics (can’t really see the difference in the two). Also, during these first 2 years, I religiously changed the oil every 5k miles using BMW 0W-30 oil and DCT Fluid changes once a year. After the 2nd year the car was sitting at about 60,000 miles, I decided to put a tune on her and went with a stage 1 BPM tune. I dropped the oil change intervals to 3500 miles and continued drive daily. Spark plugs were replaced every 25-30k miles after the tune. I later added a Eisenmann full race exhaust with mid-pipes and exhaust meister to open and close the flaps remotely, but kept the stock downpipes.
The following year is when I began to transform the car into something different and more exciting. On the 3rd year of ownership (2019), she went through a full make-over. Mike Benvo built a stage 2 tune for catless downpipes and full after market exhaust. I went with a full Eisenmann Exhaust system with Race Mufflers and Fabworks Catless Downpipes. The wheels I ended up going with were a set of 21 inch BC-Forged HCS21’s, brushed gold with a polished lip (21 x 9.5 and 21 x 11). Wrapped in Michelin PS4S 275/30/21 front and 325/25/21 (later moved down to 305/25/21). For the suspension I went with KWV4 coilovers and lowered the car to the perfect height just above the rubber. The car also received the very best PSM Carbon fiber side skirts, rear spoiler and rear diffuser. The front splitter was damaged early and I just went back with a basic one. I continued to perform oil changes every 3500 miles and even with all the mods listed above, my biggest repair bill was when I needed rotors and pads.
So here’s where I need your help….
Last year, the check engine light would come on and go off intermittently. Also, during that time, I began to see some blueish smoke coming out of the exhaust every so often. When I was able to catch the code, it came back as a crankcase ventilation issue and fuel mixture too rich. We changed out the PCV hoses but that didn’t stop the smoke. One day the check engine light went off and it passed emissions. The very next day, the check engine light came back on and never went off. Fast forward to today… The smoke began to occur almost all the time. I took the car in and found it was misfiring and needed plugs and coils. This was despite changing out both about 10,000 miles ago. The shop then found the driver’s side turbo to be completely shot and it needed a valve cover gasket job. We thought the turbo or the valve cover could be the reason for the smoke so both were replaced. The fuel is still too rich and now the shop believes the piston seals could be compromised causing oil to seep into the combustion chamber. I own the car outright but my goal was to holdout for a 2016 ish 911 turbo S in a few years. Should I invest in tearing the motor down to find the root cause, rebuild a forged motor or move on to something else?
I also forgot to mention, she’s sitting on roughly 185K miles. Rebuild or move on?
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