Is it ok to track on stock Rod bearings?

[Matt Fojtik]

Hello,
My dad and I signed up for a track day a while back on the 29th of this month. He's just worried if we should still go or not since the car is on oem rod bearings (unknown if they're switched or not). The car has 70k miles and is dct, looks to have been very well taken car of. I've only put about 700mi since taken ownership.
Does anyone have any experience with tracking the car without upgrading the rod bearings? Will they fail or should I be good? Car is 2012 so it's lci with the updated ones.
Thanks!
Matt

[tdott]

It's okay until it's not okay.

Unfortunately no one can tell you if/when something will go wrong.
Doing the RBs can reduce the risk.

Goodluck with the German Lottery!

[TheM3Chase]

I've tracked my E92 a couple times on stock bearings and I got a little spooked because I would hear some noises on startup. It didn't turn out to be too bad and they didn't look any different from the photos I've seen of other people's bearings. 6 and 7 upper bearings had some wear starting but nothing crazy

[torrque]

I tracked my car the last 2 years extensively... 52k miles. Everything is stock... No problems. I just changed the oil every 3 - 4 track days.

I might change bearings when I hit 60k or so; if it dies before that... it was meant to be.

[Davisca455]

2008 Coupe
55k miles.
4 track days.
Always garaged.
Always in a mild climate.
Always warmed up prior to hard accelerations.
Over serviced with the BMW oil or LM 10w60.
2 excellent oil analysis reports, with below average lead and copper content.

I was certain the rod bearings were going to look perfectly fine, that I was just succumbing to the pressure of an internet hoax so I could sleep better.

(Full disclosure: I took the picture, then adjusted the exposure to show the damage better)

[timothy2001]

Tic, tic BOOM!!

Sorry, couldn't help myself. It's a calculated risk and the degree of which is wildly speculated upon. The chance of ruining the engine is low but the chance exists on or off track. I did mine at 60k and they looked great and have seen others at 50k that looked near failure.

[Longboarder]

Bearings be changed every 40k-50k miles by a reputable shop/person. Use liquid moly and change oil every 5k miles or 1 year. And more importantly, wait until normal operating temp before hammer time. But once up to full op temp, you can hammer time all day long. This engine was made to be at redline/WOT. Just asks for these small things in return.

[kyrix1st]

My '07 6MT's rod bearings looked crap after 100,000km. Fingers crossed for my low mileage DCT, haven't done it yet.

[radiognome]

Change oil and send sample to Blackstone right away. If you owned the car for just 700 miles you are not going to get history, but at least you will know how much metals you have in the oil. If it’s too high, still can be normal, but if that’s the case I would definitely replace them. Blackstone results turn out pretty quick, you should be able to get it before the event.

And if this is your first event you are not going to be pushing the car very hard, so it might be ok anyways.

[kawstik]

Do not use my info to inform your decision, but my first M3 was a naturally aspirated '08 that I sold with 112,000 miles and around 40 track days on it. Still ran strong as hell.

It was all on original bearings with 5k mile oil change increments.

[besiktas]

Similarly, 2010 E92 with 96k miles with 10 track days ~1100 miles on track on original bearings. Riding hard often too but first owner so i have tried to warm up the car fully before pushing it. Throttle actuations is another story...