My M3 E92 Blown Motor Story

[boost3dx]

So who here was at M Fest 2013 and remembers seeing a space gray E92 M3 being towed off the track sometime early afternoon? I know it's been a while since M Fest, but I finally just got my car back last week.

I looked forward to this track day for like 2 months, I was so excited. One reason was because I finally got my dad to join me in his new '13 M5, I wanted to see how he did and I also wanted a chance to take it out . Another was I just LOVE driving this car on the track. Not to mention I just bought a brand new set of track wheels specifically for this day.

I took my car out for the first session in the morning and it ran good for the 3 or 4 laps I got in, then my oil temp seemed to suddenly go over 75% of the way to the last tick on the gauge. The car also lost a lot of power, it felt like it just fell on its face. Took it into the pits and there was a knocking sound coming from the motor, I've never heard engine knock before but this is what I imagined it would sound like.

Suddenly I got a warning from the car that my oil was low - not just a quart low but catastrophically low. Low as in damage to engine might occur soon. I turned it off immediately, and was somewhat freaking out. I at max oil earlier in the morning, no way I could be low on oil. This car has 6,300 miles on it. WTF? Btw I really hate that BMW didn't add a manual dipstick to this car.

Few friends knowledgeable (much more than me) came over, and we thought maybe the car was just very hot and it was acting weird so it let cool down and we'll start it up in a while to see how it is doing. 30 minutes come and go, we start it up and the sound is gone, oil reads normal so I thought all was good.

Two hours or so later my next session is up so I go on the track, first lap within 30 seconds (not driving hard, just seeing how the car feels) it fell on its face again and the sound was back - just a lot worse than before. I got it around one more corner and I came to the side of the track and the car just died. Couldn't turn it on for more than a few seconds and it was extremely rough. Got it towed back to the pits, called BMW roadside and the car got sent back to my dealer. Sucks that it was a long weekend, I had to wait 3-4 more days to actually talk to someone about it.

I spent the next few days worried that this is all going to be on me and BMW isn't covering this since it was on the track. Great, I need to spent $25k on a possible engine replacement.

Got a call Tuesday from my service adviser and he said they have sent off some info to BMW and are just waiting to hear back from them. Later in the day he called me to tell me he has a loaner from me and that BMW has asked them to drop the oil pan.

Calls me the next day to tell me that BMW is giving me a new motor and rod # 1 & 2 spun a bearing and BMW has some engines in the US, it should be there within 2 days. I had it back the next Friday, all in all from when I first spoke to them it was less than 2 weeks until I got it back - I was satisfied and very happy that BMW took care of me.

After I got it back the car had another issue, vibration under decel. Not braking, just foot off the throttle and the whole car vibrated when in gear. Clutch in or in neutral, it would go away. This took a while to diagnose, about 3 weeks. Turns out they needed to replace the drive shaft and pilot bearing.

Anyway, I just got it back now and I am very happy with the service and support I received from BMW. My sales adviser at Henderson BMW has been great to me. I'm used to people not calling you when your car is in the shop and you need to bug them, but he called me everytime he had something worthwhile to tell me. No complaints ever, no fighting about having to get this done under warranty - they did it no questions asked. I guess it doesn't hurt that we have 4 BMW's in my family, with 2 more coming within the year. I know for sure what my next car will be when my lease is up.

They never did give me an explanation as to why it happened, they just chalked it up to a defective motor.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to share my experienced with BMW and to let anyone know who was at M Fest the outcome of my car. A few people came up to me and asked about it.

Few pics of one a part of a rod they let me keep..








Few pics of the car (before motor blew)..

[1M_@teewhybs]

You are very lucky that they took care of you. Interesting, I wonder what the cause was..

[boost3dx]

Originally Posted by 1M_@teewhybs

You are very lucky that they took care of you. Interesting, I wonder what the cause was..

Why am I lucky?

This is an M3. This car was designed to be driven hard on a race track.

BMW invites me to HPDE's all the time. There is nothing in the warranty that says you cannot do a HPDE. Trust me, I read through the whole thing multiple times. The only thing you CAN'T do is do a competitive event. This was not competitive, strictly for fun.

[1M_@teewhybs]

Originally Posted by Canadian ///M

Why am I lucky?

This is an M3. This car was designed to be driven hard on a race track.

BMW invites me to HPDE's all the time. There is nothing in the warranty that says you cannot do a HPDE. Trust me, I read through the whole thing multiple times. The only thing you CAN'T do is do a competitive event. This was not competitive, strictly for fun.

Blown motor on a racetrack just sounds iffy to me.

Unlike you I did not just read over the contract. Either way I am pleased that bmw took care of you so take it down a notch bud.

[boost3dx]

Originally Posted by 1M_@teewhybs

Blown motor on a racetrack just sounds iffy to me.

Unlike you I did not just read over the contract. Either way I am pleased that bmw took care of you so take it down a notch bud.

Not upset, I just don't see myself as lucky. Sorry, didn't mean to come off snarky.

They looked over all the info that was sent to them and as long as it was not driver error, there's no reason they shouldn't take care of it. I'm just happy it went as smooth as it did.

[1astigM3]

glad bmw henderson took care of you...i usually have sucky service there thats why i've been going to the one in sahara for 4yrs now even if im closer to henderson. see you around

[boost3dx]

Originally Posted by 1astigM3

glad bmw henderson took care of you...i usually have sucky service there thats why i've been going to the one in sahara for 4yrs now even if im closer to henderson. see you around

Who is your service guy there?

[1astigM3]

Originally Posted by Canadian ///M

Who is your service guy there?

when i had my 07 e60 and my wife's 07 x5, evan levy took care of me. unfortunately he left and a guy name joe(forgot his last name) took his spot. He has serviced the x5 but not the m3 yet..i bought my m3 at the sahara location back in april. so far he's been good and thorough, i havent tried him with the m3.

[boost3dx]

Originally Posted by 1astigM3

when i had my 07 e60 and my wife's 07 x5, evan levy took care of me. unfortunately he left and a guy name joe(forgot his last name) took his spot. He has serviced the x5 but not the m3 yet..i bought my m3 at the sahara location back in april. so far he's been good and thorough, i havent tried him with the m3.

Ask for Scott next time, he's great.

[Stainless 45]

Originally Posted by Dashman

So another track abused car, covered under warranty? Good job.

Car was built to be used on a track. At least that's what all the ad's say.......

[boost3dx]

Originally Posted by Stainless 45

Car was built to be used on a track. At least that's what all the ad's say.......

If I couldn't track it, I would've got a 335i

[Detroit M3]

Glad she's ok.

[Transfer]

Originally Posted by Dashman

So another track abused car covered under warranty? Good job.

Don't be stupid.

OP, glad it's all better now. Those bearings look like crap!



Edit: I mean rod ends or whatever.

[mdosu]

I don't agree with the comments regarding "racetrack" abuse. It's only abuse if he didn't properly maintain the car before and after.

The car was meant to be driven up to 8400 rpms. It that wasn't the case, why would BMW market this car as a "track-inspired car", or even use it at the performance center? If it wasn't intended for the track they would have just slapped the S65 into a E90 body and called it a day. (like what MB did with the C32, C55)

A bad bearing is a bad bearing, it has nothing to do with him driving it on that track. Based on what I've seen, bad bearings are just manufacturing defects that effect a small percentage of S85 and S65 engines. That's all, nothing more nothing less, it's just the luck of your draw whether you got a good engine or not from the factory.

So those of you who see bad headlines like this and think "phew, at least I don't track, I don't have to worry", think again buddy, it's just the luck of the draw you can have a S65 with bad bearings or rods and it won't even show until 5 years later.


Moral of the story: get your oil analysis check at EVERY oil change, even if your car is new. They need to establish a thrend to track these issues.

[mdosu]

so before you jump all over OP, for those who are new to this concept, there's a wealth of information in this thread and an ongoing technical discussion on suspected tolerance levels of the clearance and other possible premptive measures:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=856441

At the end of the day, there's nothing you can do but to aggressively check your oil samples at every change. If there was a sure thing about preventing this, BMW would have mandated that fix by now. (be it running thinner oil, swap out parts) I suspect there's no recall simply b/c they attribute it to certain manufacturing defects that can happen when the those pieces are casted from the mold OR there may have been some assembly issues, but it's likely these engines are in the VAST minority, and as such, they will fix it as they pop up with no quarrels.

[jwaggen]

Somewhat related:

I found this story on FatWallet a few days ago. This is truly scary. There is no resolution from the OP on what the damage was to the engine.

2008 M3, engine failed at 72k miles. OP claims damage occurred during street use, and regular maintenance was performed. Of course car is past warranty point and BMW so far has refused to help out OP. She has an extended maintenance plan -- which I thought would have garnered some goodwill from BMW NA, but apparently not.

OP has not been very active on that thread, so details are few, so its tough to jump to any conclusions.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/fina...83276/?start=0

[mdosu]

Originally Posted by jwaggen

Somewhat related:

I found this story on FatWallet a few days ago. This is truly scary. There is no resolution from the OP on what the damage was to the engine.

2008 M3, engine failed at 72k miles. OP claims damage occurred during street use, and regular maintenance was performed. Of course car is past warranty point and BMW so far has refused to help out OP. She has an extended maintenance plan -- which I thought would have garnered some goodwill from BMW NA, but apparently not.

OP has not been very active on that thread, so details are few, so its tough to jump to any conclusions.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/fina...83276/?start=0

interesting...would like to check up on that over time to see further development. If she was able to negotiate a free replacement or even a discounted replacement, then that sets precedence for the rest of us.

[mkPOTO]

wow this is crazy, there seems to be more and more people having issues with rod bearing. I wonder if this is going to turn out like the fuel pump like the 335i.

[MTrezzz]

What year was your car?

[1MOREMOD]

Originally Posted by mdosu

did you even read that thread? The whole point was to check the metal contents in the oil. There are two metal levels you need to be aware of that are signals for either bearings or other internal engine issues. The ONLY concensus conclusion that the group developed was to check the oil for signs, then others opined on possible preventative measures.

Are you advising the group that NOT checking the oil is preferred? So we should all just sit back and wait for a spun bearing? You think Blackstone is selling oil analysis kits just to scam us out of money?


So how do you explain that other person who spun the bearing at 75k?! Good thing she didn't check her oil since day 1, less dont' want to worry her pretty head!



Let me guess, are you they type that hasn't been to a doctor for an annual checkup just b/c you might be afraid of bad news? are you also going to advise men of certain age not to check for colon cancer so they can "not worry too much" and if they haven't had colon cancer by age 55 then they're "good to go?" B/c that's the whole premise of your argument here.

There is no easy answer here. Oil analysis may not show out of range lead and copper and bearings could still be bad. As mdosu said doing early and often may help but analysis is best at showing service life of the oil mostly. My e46 had the rod bearings done under recall twice at 19 and 40K. My thinking is I will do an analysis next oil change but will probably do new rod bearings regardless for peace of mind. My car is track only and don't want past wear to cause an issue now without me being aware.

[OilPatch]

That's great that BMW took care of you man, it is always reassuring that they actually stand behind their product from time to time. I already have my sample kit from Blackstone labs and my car won't be here for another couple of weeks.

[jwaggen]

Forgive me for asking an obvious question - do you guys simply ask for a small sample from the dealer when taking it in for an oil change, or do you DIY from the plug (I assume not...)?