Rod Bearing Showcase Thread

[Thoglan]

Wow, hard to believe one didn't let go. Owner is very lucky.

Although it is lucky one didn't spin, I would still be seriously concerned about the condition of the crank with the shells looking like that. Not necessarily away laughing.

[sapote]

Saw these posted on Reddit. 170k mile rod bearings

He squeezed out every mile of the bearings -- what's a timing. Once the copper layer is worn through then the crank will hit the steel layer and be damged.
The bearings/crank journals matched perfectly for this engine: look at how the red copper worn down uniformly around 360* instead of just a short arc at the middle of the bearing shell curve. This means the bearings have a very small clearance -- minimum side on the spec.

[Andrew 06M3Cab]

Wow, hard to believe one didn't let go. Owner is very lucky.

[stephen]

Saw these posted on Reddit. 170k mile rod bearings.

https://www.reddit.com/r/E46M3/comments/oj40mm/170000_miles_on_original_rod_bearings/

[sapote]

Had Rod Bearing Recall done at 15,509 and these done at 208,426. So 193,000 on these…

Too dark to tell if copper shown or not, but they seem to be in good shape for 193K miles.
Why changed now and not when it's around 100K?

[old///MFanatic]

Had Rod Bearing Recall done at 15,509 and these done at 208,426. So 193,000 on these…

[sapote]

Had the rod bearing recall done around 25k and then these done at 145k. Mostly highway miles, but still, they were ready to change out. Glad i did it now and didnt wait any longer. Blackstone wasnt showing much copper

Low resolution pic -- I couldn't see much of detail.

[sapote]

Don’t know when the previous owner changed them. But glad I got it done.

Not too bad at all.

[sapote]

Funny, my oil analysis consistently looked fine. Blackstone's report stated "Your original rod bearings still look good with lead (the primary bearing element) at a perfectly average 6 ppm". I'm glad I replaced them anyway.

I agree that the oil analysis is matching with the bearings condition. At 133K miles they looks fine with #3 just showing copper. You could easily get another 5K but it's good time to change.

[cobra]

Interesting to see the lack of correlation between mileage and wear...

Also the lack of correlation between blackstone oil reports and wear...

[Andrew 06M3Cab]

216,500 km (133,000 miles). Top of number #3 was worst - copper just starting to show through. Funny, my oil analysis consistently looked fine. Blackstone's report stated "Your original rod bearings still look good with lead (the primary bearing element) at a perfectly average 6 ppm". I'm glad I replaced them anyway.

[Mattn1192]

The 160k miles. Don’t know when the previous owner changed them. But glad I got it done.

[Kcalhoun27]

Had the rod bearing recall done around 25k and then these done at 145k. Mostly highway miles, but still, they were ready to change out. Glad i did it now and didnt wait any longer. Blackstone wasnt showing much copper

[Nuclear Rabbit]

2003.1 120k miles, cyl 1 at top
Unknown maintenance history (recently acquired)

[m3nt0s]

Bearings changed at 97,658 based on the trend in lead in multiple reports.