Horrible news about my ti

[djcamera]

Hey everybody. Pardon me for not being a frequent poster, but I do lurk around and read this forum when I can and enjoy the 318ti chatter.

Dealer handed me the keys to my '98 November 4th, 1997 in Kaiserslautern, Germany. In those 14 years, only service technicians and my father has driven that car, and that was only for about an hour since he wanted to open it up on the Autobahn. Zero accidents. Oil stays fresh. Leaves do not settle on this car. Big jobs are a catalytic converter, and a crank seal. That's it. She's perfect. She's my baby. Just over 198,000 miles. Solid as a steel ball. Now I live in Atlanta, she jumps to life in the morning, and has Never Let Me Down Once.

Four days ago, a high-pitched whine started under the hood. Intermittent for two days, then constant, then louder. Noise sounded like a slipping belt, but did not change in pitch/tone with the RPM's. Weird. Mechanic today (not my regular guy) just called and said the main bearing was shot, and the worst-case scenario is that the motor needs replacing.

I'm heartbroken. He started to give me some possible dollar amount situations, but I stopped him and said I had to digest things first.

Somebody weigh in with some input here, if only to tell me that this isn't the end of this amazing car. What do I do now? My regular guy is out of the picture for awhile. Anybody had this happen before? How bad was the damage? Oh, man...this sucks.