2011.75 E92 with 35k miles - when should I do the Rod Bearings?

[timothy2001]

You folks who think the contributors on here are just trying to induce you into doing repairs on your car probably believe we never landed on the moon. Seriously, not everyone is out for your wallet.

[BOOF-M3]

Originally Posted by timothy2001

You folks who think the contributors on here are just trying to induce you into doing repairs on your car probably believe we never landed on the moon. Seriously, not everyone is out for your wallet.

Especially when one of them has made a donation to the Tail of the Dragon run and logs on most every day taking time out of his busy schedule to "help" others, not solicit anything from them.

[Richbot]

Do it now

Get to the choppa

[6ixSpd]

Why the hell are there threads even entertained? There is plenty of hard data on this topic that anyone who has the financial means to afford this car should be mentally functional enough to make an informed decision, or so you'd think... JFC...

[PKL]

Originally Posted by 6ixSpd

Why the hell are there threads even entertained?

For fun!

[CarPoor]

Do the bearings. MRF and Malek did mine last Monday. I will post more detail shortly, but short of it is I was at 37k miles and mine were not good. The experience with MRF was superb.

[PKL]

Originally Posted by CarPoor

Do the bearings. MRF and Malek did mine last Monday. I will post more detail shortly, but short of it is I was at 37k miles and mine were not good. The experience with MRF was superb.

Almost the same mileage as me! Good info

[timothy2001]

Originally Posted by Richbot

Do it now

Get to the choppa

Had to Google it. Good stuff.

[PKL]

Appointment scheduled for Saturday November 3rd. I will have less than 36k miles at the time they get replaced

[serranot]

👍

Good decision.

[kyippee]

Originally Posted by deansbimmer

Replace the bearings. It's cheap insurance. Or gamble and potentially be on the hook for $10k+ and lots of heartache.

In all the hundreds (thousands?) of original bearings we've seen come out of these engines, none were acceptable according to industry standards. Why would you risk it?

FYI to those suggesting oil analyses: 2010+ MY cars don't have copper/lead bearings. It's good to have done to establish trends but you're not going to be alerted to abnormal bearing wear like you are with the earlier cars. All the more reason to replace the bearings preventatively.

Let's not call it insurance... replacing bearings does not pay out like an insurance policy does. The motor can still blow and we wouldn't get a payout for the value of a replacement motor.

"a practice or arrangement by which a company or government agency provides a guarantee of compensation for specified loss, damage, illness, or death in return for payment of a premium"

Definitely aligned on it being preventative maintenance though.

[kyippee]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

It's really that, it's a question of how comfortable you are with risk.

You do not amortize the existing rod bearings. If you ever plan on changing them you might as well do it now. The increased clearance rod bearings will be fine.

I changed rod bearings on both my E92 M3s and also on my E46M before then. All three cases were beat to crap.
I choose to gamble and not replace the main bearings although that is a much, much smaller likelihood than the rod bearing failure.
In other words, I was uncomfortable with a 2% probability of failure but comfortable with a 0.2%. There is also a risk and cost factor.
Rod bearings: 2% failure rate, 2500 to replace in a shop
Main bearings: 0.2% failure rate, 5000 to replace in a shop

Well guess what, my main bearings failed. Do you know how much it will cost to get the car working again? A lot.


Personal finances also play a role in this. I have friends with Ferraris that use liability-only insurance as they prefer to save the money over full coverage and they have the means to pay for a new Ferrari if it blows.
So if you have 15k just sitting around and can pay that for a new engine, definitely gamble!

If you're like most people who would need to sell their children into slavery to get 15k for an engine replacement, well, you're probably better off keeping the stock exhaust instead of whatever aftermarket junk people buy and taking care of your rod bearings

this guy fucks. spot on.

[BimmerRules!]

Originally Posted by TheRussski

I recently changed my bearings on my 2013 with 50k miles...I’m happy I believed in all of this hysteria

Hi- thanks for the feedback. Curious why you were happy - were the bearings in a bad shape and you think you were lucky to have caught this on time? Or just peace of mind?

EDIT - Disregard; I was unable to view the pictures you posted when I viewed this from my work computer and hence this query; I am now able to see them from my home computer.

Originally Posted by CarPoor

Do the bearings. MRF and Malek did mine last Monday. I will post more detail shortly, but short of it is I was at 37k miles and mine were not good. The experience with MRF was superb.

May I know which year is your car please?


Btw, I am glad that this thread was created -- thank you OP!

I was under the impression that the rod bearing issues were more common for the 2008/9 cars and were dealt with for the late 2010 and from 2011 builds.

[deansbimmer]

I was under the impression that the rod bearing issues were more common for the 2008/9 cars and were dealt with for the late 2010 and from 2011 builds.

Yes, unfortunately many people who only give a shallow look at the issue still believe that. However if anyone investigates further they'd notice just as many 2010 engines with failing rod bearings, if not more.

[PKL]

Originally Posted by BimmerRules!

Btw, I am glad that this thread was created -- thank you OP!

My pleasure! I intend to keep my car FOREVER, so I want to keep it in as best shape as I can, forever.

[BimmerRules!]

Originally Posted by deansbimmer

Yes, unfortunately many people who only give a shallow look at the issue still believe that. However if anyone investigates further they'd notice just as many 2010 engines with failing rod bearings, if not more.

Thanks for that background!

When I did my research, this was among the videos that gave me confidence:

My car (2011.75) is running so well (touchwood!) that I am nervous to do anything outside of Mike Miller's recommended maintenance for fear of ruining it.

[wfdeacon88]

Just got a 2009 with 96K miles. Cars in great shape. Did a pre-buy inspection, but due to the condition of the car inside and out, and the price, I went ahead and bought it. Day 1 I did the oil sample. Waiting on the results. However, I tried to find out if the car had ever had the RB replaced. Since it was in great shape, I think there is a chance, but obviously not fair to assume this. Is there any way at all to find this out?

[pbonsalb]

Yes, get proof from the previous owner or spend $1000 on labor to inspect.

[wfdeacon88]

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

Yes, get proof from the previous owner or spend $1000 on labor to inspect.

Bought it from a reputable dealer in my home town, but I am not sure who is the previous owner. My BMW shop, which is a good one, did every inspection except RB.. Just didn't know if there are any creative ways to find out from past shops, or anything about prior service. Probably impossible but just making sure...

[cjm41]

Originally Posted by wfdeacon88

Bought it from a reputable dealer in my home town, but I am not sure who is the previous owner. My BMW shop, which is a good one, did every inspection except RB.. Just didn't know if there are any creative ways to find out from past shops, or anything about prior service. Probably impossible but just making sure...

I just bought a 2010 with 75k miles from a reputable higher-end local dealer. I'm the third owner with no maintenance records. Luckily, between getting the previous owner's first name out of the Bluetooth settings (Tom's iPhone), a geographic location of where it was traded in to from a cached web search, and a more rare color and aftermarket exhaust, I was able to find the car's previous owner on M3forums dot net. Now I just have to reach out to him like a total creeper.

HOWEVER... I plan to do the rod bearings in the next few months. I want to keep this car. I don't commute for work, this is a couple times a week toy for me.

With regard to people's reaction to the OP... car had 36k miles on it. People are like "DO IT NOW" so... how often should people do it, every 30k Miles? 10k Miles, 1k Miles?

There's no doubt the rod bearings will need to be dealt with but the people freaking the OP out with the doom and gloom on a 36k mile ride is the reason others think a real issue is blown out of proportion. Let the dude enjoy his purchase.

Honestly... how often should they be done? 36k mile car needing it, for real? Once you do it, how soon before you start worrying about it again? Are the new aftermarket bearings really perfect? Should you do it every x miles?

I'm sure there are a million threads on this, and I'm just the new shmuck around here, but... it seems like scaring a dude with a 36k mile car seems unnecessary.

[CarPoor]

May I know which year is your car please?


2011 with the bimetal bearings.

[deansbimmer]

Originally Posted by BimmerRules!

When I did my research, this was among the videos that gave me confidence:

My car (2011.75) is running so well (touchwood!) that I am nervous to do anything outside of Mike Miller's recommended maintenance for fear of ruining it.

At least he noted in that video that failures are the luck of the draw (tolerance stacking, technically). But really it's just another limited perspective from a non-technical owner. To date I believe the community has observed more engines failing at over 30k miles than under. I've had customers with failures at 13k miles to 130k miles. Mileage has no real play here, nor does model year/bearing type, maintenance history, or whether your engine "sounds" healthy or not. These engines always sound great until they knock or seize and by then it's too late. Your engine can run and sound great on bearings that are on the verge of failure.

There are thousands of pictures of bearings removed from S65's with abnormally poor wear. That's a lot of evidence that there's an issue. It's such a popular preventative service because we've yet to really see a string of normally worn bearings coming out of these engines. When they'll fail really is the luck of the draw. Many owners haven't had to deal with a failed engine yet so they'll assume it's a fabricated theory to keep shops busy. Those who have experienced a failure wish they did the service. It's even more painful when they knew of the failure potential but didn't act on it.