E53 Engine Issue - Goodbye

[zaw]

Hi was looking for some advice my E53 recently went in for an alternator change at an AA approved garage I use , it has gone there for many years for work all fine but in last few years a lot of the staff and the mechanics have changed and the quality of service has dropped a lot.
Anyway the same garage had fitted a crankshaft pulley to the car a few years earlier, they said to me that looks like they fitted the wrong one ie the one for preface lift did not match with alternator ribs. So that would need changing, and they would at their cost.

The car was driving absolutely fine, no issues at all, apart from alternator, having owned the car 13 years as soon as I drove out of the garage like within 20-30 yards something felt wrong, a little further and I knew there was a problem severe loss of power so rang them and returned the car ie within 15 mins of picking up

They had a look at car and told me they are not sure what is wrong but noticed smoke from oil filler cap quite a bit so I asked them to change the vortex crank breather see if it made a difference. After which they told me it still had smoke but engine is banging. So my question is if the car drove in perfect no noises any power loss issues what is the likelihood of it developing a serious engine problem upon leaving the garage and could the work on the crankshaft pulley have caused it?

Thanks

[X5Sport]

Very unlikely unless they mishandled the engine when changing the pulley - and that would take some doing, like hitting things with a hammer! It’s a little too co-incidental and I’d be suspicious too! You will get some fumes in the crankcase as that’s how these engines work and why they need positive crankcase ventilation. Smoke sand fumes are two different things.

Needs a code read asap, change the oil filter cartridge and inspect for metal shavings. I’m assuming there’s no sign of oil leaks at the front of the engine behind the crank pulley (such as front seal going)?

My E53 suddenly lost power and started making nasty noises when it was just over three years old. It wasn’t the engine, but proved to be the autobox had failed. The noises were from the torque converter as the hydraulic pump failed due to a broken ‘sprag clutch’ part. It might be transmission rather than power unit. There were no initial warning lights or messages either.

[zaw]

Thanks for the response, yes its strange a car under zero load ie driving in and out of garage should suddenly have such serious issue, although they are an AA garage and 'German Auto Specialist' what' s worrying was the response as they said they are not sure what's wrong when it went back after issue and I said have you read codes and they said ok will do that and then said not much has come up. So it does not fill one with confidence. He mentioned smoke from the oil filler cap that was all.
They did not drive the car after they did the work, I queried that after this issue to which he mentioned one prop shaft bolt was missing and maybe a bake clip as being the reason, so I said well why did you not mention that to me before I drove out and they did not have an answer as I imagine they spotted these things after the issue occurred and tried to use it as an excuse, or at very least did not bother to raise them to me when I attempted to leave with car.
Financially its perhaps not viable option, but my only recourse may be an independent inspection, but I would like to know if it was a random coincidence or something related to the work, one thing is clear whatever happened to the car happened in the garage. It is 8 miles from where I live on A roads , and driving up a hill all was fine. The distance the car drives into the garage is only 30 ft and as soon as i pull away from garage it does not feel right. Having had the car 13 years and have had quite a few things done , diff recon, gearbox recon, manifolds, starter etc.. to it to keep it going its a shame. If I could trust the garage and they had a more decisive response as to what they think went wrong I would be more accepting btw there is 8 mechanics with some exp in there and maybe additional 4 with 15 years on cars, so if they have no idea what's wrong , or even a speculative answer its a little concerning.