Quote:
Originally Posted by rhyary
It would be very helpful if pictures of WPC treated OEM bearings to GTS specifications, with ARP hardened rod bolts are posted after 30,000 miles or more.
What seems to be missing is the comparison.
While the "problem" is well documented....
And the process has been discussed ad nauseam....
the solution seems to be somewhat less documented...
So what we all need is pictured of either BE or WPC after equal amount of mileage.
Without that, for all we know, the WPC and BE RB looks exactly like the OEM ones. And if so, what would that mean?
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Sorry for the delayed response...Short staffed over here in the shop so we've been a little jammed up.
Yes, you raise good points! There is so much coverage of the factory removals and you have to consider we have only started documenting these more thoroughly the last couple of years, but have been doing them long before that!
We agree that we'd like to document more bearings after tens(x4,5,6) of thousands of miles after the upgrade. We have pulled only a handful over the years with the upgraded bearings in them, but that was long ago. The fact that they were in excellent condition in a duration of approximately a 30,000 mile average was a very good sign, but it was still on the lower end of the mileage spectrum. Out of the thousands and thousands of S65's out on the road, we knew it was not a large enough sample size to rely on for data gathering. However, compared to the stock bearings we pull at that range of mileage, we saw the difference and felt that there was validity to upgrading and kept moving forward providing the service for the community.
There are issues in accurately gathering post bearing data too though. Aside from aligning all of the exact variables from each car (because all bearings show wear differently from each car we pull), we also have to consider the most realistic issue that 99% of customers do not want to spend the money again on the service.
Strengthening internal components with proper care should ultimately increase longevity in that specific area. With all of the awareness around the rod bearing issue, current owners that do this are now on the zero mile rod bearing. In theory, the majority of current owners should be treating the initial warm ups and oil changes differently than original owners did back when these were new and the issue was not surfaced fully. Hopefully this care after the upgraded bearings will ensure that we'll see these M3's on the road decades from now.