▀▄ eas | S65 Rod Bearing Replacement: An ongoing "Journal"

[pbonsalb]

Look up their website and see what city they are in.

[sharkbite]

Originally Posted by C|3R1C

I wouldn't say excessive. I just heard something I didn't like coming from the engine. I couldnt tell if it was valve train or bearings, but it sounded lower on the engine and louder than usual so I figured I might as well pull them and replace them. I sent in another sample to see what the last report has to say for the last oil change.

Thanks - glad to hear you caught it in time .

[SenorFunkyPants]

Given how incredibly thin the lead layer is, there is no copper showing and that this motor has already covered 80K miles - do they look that bad? I see that a couple show a little more wear than the others but this is not an engine that is going to expire any time soon.
Not that the bearing change is not a good piece of preventative maintenance, it is, but this set doesn't suggest everyone should run around in circles wailing that the end is nigh for their M3.

[aussiem3]

Everyone here wants perfect looking bearing even if you have 100k kms. No one is factoring in these things do wear.

[pbonsalb]

The fear is that after the soft stuff is sacrificed the crank is at risk and then you have a much more expensive job to pull and grind it. Hopefully that would be the next step, but there are also reports of much worse -- entire engines requiring replacement. It is a fear thing. Certainly some of these bearings show premature wear based on the rest of the respective upper or lower bearings. How comfortable are you running your engine to 8400 let alone tracking it or supercharging it if there is a possibility some of the rod bearings have premature wear? Many of us do not like potentially very expensive unknowns and try to prevent them or hedge against them.

[Rupes]

Am I the only one that thinks those bearings looked pretty ok for 80k miles? Have you guys seen what the bearings looks like when an engine fails? It's a lot worse than that...

[pbonsalb]

Either the top or bottom shell (but not both) for every single bearing shows premature wear. Mine showed premature wear for only 4 maybe 5 of the uppers. But you are correct that we do not know how much longer these bearings would have lasted without causing any issues. Probably a while. Another 40k? However, it would not be unreasonable to expect no premature wear on any bearings at 100k miles.

[C|3R1C]

Heres the latest report. I want to add that I wasnt so careful for the first 35k miles of my cars life. Running it hard when it was cold, 15k mi oil change intervals, not letting it warm properly, etc etc. After I learned more I let the engine warm up for a good 3-5 minutes and follow the SOP the forum has established with regards to maintenance, etc etc. for the last 45k miles or so.

[squartus]

Just had a ESS supercharger installed, 2010 6speed manual. Oil changed every 7,500 miles never tracked 31,000 miles on car. Had bearings and rod bolts upgraded when got supercharger installed.
Bearings are in terrible shape for such a low milage car, this is not something people are making up or blowing out of proportion.

[chris719]

Are those arranged in top / bottom pairs? Typically the wear is seen on the upper shell.

[squartus]

No order to them in this picture, the worst one is marked #8. Not sure if it was top or bottom shell though.

[C|3R1C]

Originally Posted by squartus

No order to them in this picture, the worst one is marked #8. Not sure if it was top or bottom shell though.

What bearings did you upgrade to?

[squartus]

I went with the wpc treated bearings, not a coating so doesn't add any more thickness to the bearing.

[SenorFunkyPants]

Originally Posted by squartus

No order to them in this picture, the worst one is marked #8. Not sure if it was top or bottom shell though.

Its a shame that a lot of pulled bearing sets are not carefully arranged in the right order and numbered correctly. Not being able to accurately track the cylinder positions of the worst affected bearings means that its difficult to spot any trend over time in this respect....maybe the worst affected bearings are in the cylinders at the end of the oil feed?
Edit: certainly cylinders #4 and #8 seem to feature more than the others - numbered correctly (and this is far from certain) these would be the cylinders at the back of the engine at the bulkhead furthest from the oil pump. (Cylinders 1-4 on the RHS, 5-8 on the LHS of the engine bay with 1 & 5 at the front IIUC).

[tom @ eas]

Another report from a very clean MY08 that was recently in for PPI inspection:



We'll get another report at next oil service to see if results are different.

[4corners]

Has anyone considered using a video scope of some kind to look inside the engine for signs of wear? It could provide an additional method of detection to oil analysis and just listening for it to make noises.

[m3ray]

Originally Posted by 4corners

Has anyone considered using a video scope of some kind to look inside the engine for signs of wear? It could provide an additional method of detection to oil analysis and just listening for it to make noises.

How would that work if the bearings wear material are hidden by the crankshaft inside the journals

[4corners]

Originally Posted by m3ray

How would that work if the bearings wear material are hidden by the crankshaft inside the journals

I don't know..... Just putting it out there...

[pbonsalb]

Originally Posted by 4corners

Has anyone considered using a video scope of some kind to look inside the engine for signs of wear? It could provide an additional method of detection to oil analysis and just listening for it to make noises.

Nothing visible. Look at some of the pictures of people doing the job and study connecting rods and bearings. The clearance is about 0.001. No way to see inside there even if you could get to the side, which you cannot because the crank counterweights and neighboring connecting rod are in the way.

[chris719]

I bet you could see it with some kind of radiological imaging, but that would be it.

[mtecnic]

Took me a while but I made it all the way through this thread. I have some questions below.

My motor blew up a few weeks ago. So i'm very aware of the topic currently. Out of all the bearings taken out of cars in this thread 80%+ of them showed excessive wear. Even though i'm getting a brand new engine (without additional warranty), this makes me super nervous.

It doesn't appear any of these are the newer non-lead bearings?

It doesn't appear that tracking the car has any effect on wear problems?

If I don't/can't replace bearings every 50k I shouldn't own this car?

We've not seen any photos of bearings from the WPC treated ones after use?

[pbonsalb]

I just replaced the bearings on my 08M3 with 60k using WPC treated bearings and am using Mobil 1 0W40 oil for street use. My 60k mile stock bearings had some premature wear but I think they still had life left in them. I do not plan to worry for another 60k or 6 years at the rate I drive. By then hopefully there will be some reports of WPC bearings being inspected after accumulating some miles and we will have an idea how they are working. Based on that, I will decide to change them again or leave them. Might also be higher clearance bearings available then.

If changing bearings as preventative maintenance is not something you want to consider, sell the car and buy a car that does not have this concern.