Official S65 Rod Bearing Condition Example Thread

[jvictormp]

Originally Posted by RomanK

If you replaced the engine, what the system do you mean? If you have new engine so, all inside new as well, correct?

How long did you see such craps? How many oil changing were?

I don't know what to do) I am afraid to drive. )) But I have BE + ARP.

I mean the oil filter housing and the oil cooler and its hoses. All of them received oil contaminated with pieces of the broken engine during the first seconds of engine running after break down.

I washed them with like 30L of gasoline passing through, and changed the oil and filter in the following schedule:
- after first run and warm up of the new engine; (did not check filter)
- after first drive of about 1 km; (filter showed contaminants)
- after 1.000km; (filter showed less contaminants than previously)
- after 3.000km; (did not check the filter, sorry )

I'll show you the post I did here about that.

[jvictormp]

Originally Posted by RomanK

If you replaced the engine, what the system do you mean? If you have new engine so, all inside new as well, correct?

How long did you see such craps? How many oil changing were?

I don't know what to do) I am afraid to drive. )) But I have BE + ARP.

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showpo...&postcount=331

[Assimilator1]

Originally Posted by RomanK

Does anyone check own oil filter after the oil changing?

I have BE bearings already 60k km with ARP bolts. Last oil changing I tried to disassemble the oil filter and noticed some craps there. Picture attached.

Should I worry?

Crap isn't plural
Is the crap metallic?

[martyzb]

For whatever it is worth

My new to m3 2011 MT 49k miles. Stock. 5th owner.

RB + Bolts replaced 1,000 miles after purchase. BE Bearings V2 and ARP 625 bolts by AUTOcouture Motoring

regards,
marty

[MechEngineer408]

2013 with 53k miles. Third owner.
Replaced with BE + ARP

[Assimilator1]

Originally Posted by MechEngineer408

2013 with 53k miles. Third owner.
Replaced with BE + ARP

Fancy carrying out a little experiment on 1 or 2 of your most worn shells?

[timelyfinch]

2011 E92 M3 with 88,000km (~54,600mi). Basically stock.

Replaced OE bearings with BE/ARP combo in September 2023.

Old bearings look mostly fine, except where something clearly ran through one of them. Can feel the scratch with a fingernail. Crank was fine, apparently (although didn't see it myself unfortunately.)

[Assimilator1]

Originally Posted by timelyfinch

2011 E92 M3 with 88,000km (~54,600mi). Basically stock.

Replaced OE bearings with BE/ARP combo in September 2023.

Old bearings look mostly fine, except where something clearly ran through one of them. Can feel the scratch with a fingernail. Crank was fine, apparently (although didn't see it myself unfortunately.)

Not too bad, typical wear for the later bearings.
Care to run a little experiment on 1-2 of your old shells?

[killakill]

Original bearings never changed. Glad I got them changed.

[DrFerry]

Originally Posted by killakill

Original bearings never changed. Glad I got them changed.

Wow original bearings changed at 215926 miles. I can see delamination on #6 top and one or two others. You came close.... Yes, I bet you are glad you got them changed just in the nick of time. Are you the original owner? If so you should visit Las Vegas more often...

[IamFODI]

Originally Posted by killakill

Original bearings never changed. Glad I got them changed.

Was going to point out they look oily, but they look pretty rekt regardless.

Did the shop inspect the crank? (hopefully they did...)

[Assimilator1]

Wow! Yea, talk about dodging a bullet!!

Any chances of having a pic without them covered in oil?

[S65Hunter]

Purchased car at 78K miles, RBs were replaced at ~76K miles.

*The bearings are not in anyways organized/paired up properly. When I purchased the car the RB's were just thrown together in a box mixed up*

[studntdrivr]

2011 E90 M3, 48K miles rod bearings, replaced right after purchase of the vehicle. Put BE bearings / rod bolts as replacement.

[Assimilator1]

AplineE93
For the S65 lead/copper bearings, these aren't too terrible! No copper showing (that I can see), that's fairly rare for these bearings, lol.

Originally Posted by henrylun

2011 E90 M3, 48K miles rod bearings, replaced right after purchase of the vehicle. Put BE bearings / rod bolts as replacement.

Pretty typical wear for the tin/alu/copper bearings, not great, but no copper showing either.
Fancy carrying a simple little experiment on 1 or 2 of your worst shells?

[studntdrivr]

Originally Posted by Assimilator1

AplineE93
For the S65 lead/copper bearings, these aren't too terrible! No copper showing (that I can see), that's fairly rare for these bearings, lol.



Pretty typical wear for the tin/alu/copper bearings, not great, but no copper showing either.
Fancy carrying a simple little experiment on 1 or 2 of your worst shells?

i don't mind experimenting, they're useless to me now anyways!

[Assimilator1]

Originally Posted by studntdrivr

i don't mind experimenting, they're useless to me now anyways!

Cool! Check out this thread of mine for details then

[BimmerRob08]

So over time I've read through the 100+ pages of posts and talked to my BMW tech (not dealership, private performance BMW shop) and I'm still not sure which bearings to go with. My M3 is a 2008 early model with copper bearings. I'm the original owner. Oil samples come back very promising but at 98,000 miles, I think it's time to get the bearings done. With that, my tech said to stick with OEM bearings, and they've done a good deal of them over the years.

I've read here that some of the larger clearance aftermarket bearings seem to perform fine, so it seems so far. So, what do I go with? I plan on keeping my M3, so I'd like to not have to have a bad surprise 50K miles down the road or need to re-due them for preventative maintenance someday down the road. Probably something I can't avoid on this engine but if aftermarket might allow more duration, that would be good. What do you all suggest with experience with the aftermarket bearing kits?

Cheers,
RB

[timelyfinch]

If you’ve decided that you do need/want to change them after 90k original miles, and you choose use OE bearings, you’re also deciding that this is a maintenance item you’re going to do every 90k miles.

I went with BE bearings, and sleep well at night knowing I won’t have to worry about it. Until the #1 main bearing spins.

[BimmerRob08]

Originally Posted by timelyfinch

If you’ve decided that you do need/want to change them after 90k original miles, and you choose use OE bearings, you’re also deciding that this is a maintenance item you’re going to do every 90k miles.

I went with BE bearings, and sleep well at night knowing I won’t have to worry about it. Until the #1 main bearing spins.

Wait, so after you got the bearings done, you spun one? Damn.

[spammysammich]

That’s not what he said… at all.

[IamFODI]

Originally Posted by BimmerRob08

So over time I've read through the 100+ pages of posts and talked to my BMW tech (not dealership, private performance BMW shop) and I'm still not sure which bearings to go with. My M3 is a 2008 early model with copper bearings. I'm the original owner. Oil samples come back very promising but at 98,000 miles, I think it's time to get the bearings done. With that, my tech said to stick with OEM bearings, and they've done a good deal of them over the years.

I've read here that some of the larger clearance aftermarket bearings seem to perform fine, so it seems so far. So, what do I go with? I plan on keeping my M3, so I'd like to not have to have a bad surprise 50K miles down the road or need to re-due them for preventative maintenance someday down the road. Probably something I can't avoid on this engine but if aftermarket might allow more duration, that would be good. What do you all suggest with experience with the aftermarket bearing kits?

Cheers,
RB

Not many here will break with the "consensus" that OE rod bearings suck. For the longest time, everyone blindly accepted that narrative and anyone who questioned it got mobbed (sometimes understandably; some of the questioners behaved very badly).

Thankfully, that's starting to change now. Long past time in my opinion, but better late than never. Some points in the "OE rod bearings suck" narrative have been cast into serious doubt; a few have been outright debunked. At this point so many people have done BE and other aftermarket bearings that the confirmation bias will be hard to overcome. But at least the shout-downs and condescension are less common.

I went with new OE bearings 74k miles ago and I lose exactly zero sleep over them. My thinking back then was that I hadn't seen hard evidence showing that engines with other bearings lasted any longer than ones with the updated OE bearings. That's still true, as far as I can tell. People have posted some good-looking pics of used BE bearings, but that means nothing to me. What I care about are engine failure rates, and no one's gathering those stats in a way I'm comfortable with. In fact, every time an engine fails with aftermarket rod bearings, people blow it off as "the main bearings failed first" and assume it has nothing to do with the rod bearings. That scares me TBH. What we should do is count all failures with all bearing types and let the overall numbers speak.

We've also seen evidence that the updated OE bearings don't seem to wear nearly as much as people had assumed. What a lot of us had assumed was critical wear actually seems to be superficial discoloration of the top layer. I have yet to see a single updated OE rod bearing that has definitely worn down to the actual copper layer in anything like normal use. And, barring a few early failures, engines with these bearings seem to be holding up just fine after tons of street miles and track use. I had originally planned on replacing my rod bearings again after 60k-80k miles; now, I suspect I won't touch them for the rest of the time I own the car.

Happy to go into this more over PM if you want.