Rod Bearing Showcase Thread

[DropTopKingM3]

Those look great. You’ve got piece of mind for many more years and miles.

my 7/2001 M3 is currently having the rod bearings done as well. 72k miles and the bearings were redone around d 15k.

[sapote]

These bearings look in great shape.

[DJAM3]

07/2001 production with 112k miles. Bought the car with 48k miles. No record of previous rod bearing service.

[Samsonite79]

Plenty of life left. So they had about 60K miles total and I think they can last another 20 to 30K miles for a total 80 to 90K, even a track queen. What do you think?

I agree, could had gone further with these bearings, but you know how it goes, just throw good money at a problem that doesn't exist. 😄 BTW, I gone with WPC Coated BMW bearings and new oil pump for track longevity

[sapote]

2003.5 with 102k miles. Not 100% sure if they were changed before but I'm leaning toward no.

Excellent condition. I wish mine look like those when I remove them. Currently it has around 70K miles if I remember.

[Sid_E46]

2003.5 with 102k miles. Not 100% sure if they were changed before but I'm leaning toward no.

[old///MFanatic]

5/22/2003 was the cutoff date from the SIB I have.

[jet_dogg]

My car is a 7/03 production and fell short of the cutoff by 4 months.

[old///MFanatic]

2003 M3 production date 10/02' w/ 110k (had the bearing recall done prior by previous owner at some point mileage unknown best guess was about 50-60k).

I would be surprised if the previous owner drove 25,000-30,000 miles a year for the first two years to make it 50-60k mileage when recalled bearings done. The ‘03 model addition notice recall mailed around mid 2004 iirc. So I would guess those have a bit more mileage on them while still looking so good.

[sapote]

2003 M3 production date 10/02' w/ 110k (had the bearing recall done prior by previous owner at some point mileage unknown best guess was about 50-60k). I've been doing only track only miles, only a track queen.

Plenty of life left. So they had about 60K miles total and I think they can last another 20 to 30K miles for a total 80 to 90K, even a track queen. What do you think?

[Icecream]

I had nightmares that looked like this the night before my rod bearings were done!

bet that car was babied.


Eh, nm, he just posted he redlines all the time.

[m3nt0s]

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

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

I had nightmares that looked like this the night before my rod bearings were done!

[Samsonite79]

2003 M3 production date 10/02' w/ 110k (had the bearing recall done prior by previous owner at some point mileage unknown best guess was about 50-60k). I've been doing only track only miles, only a track queen.

[cobra]

What do we define as "bad"? I see varying levels of wear but nothing outright alarming, except for that Reddit post which has me think it was assembled wrong or starved of oil or something.

Do we have enough data to say "you should replace your bearings at X miles regardless of oil analysis" yet?

[Icecream]

These came out of my first S54 that spun a bearing. 180kish on them, always proper warm up and then redline every chance I get. Spun one not shown. Kinda messed up that all these could look so good and one still decided to spin. If I really want to stretch my imagination the new bmw turbo oil was in it at the time, with how good these bearings look, maybe that shell stuff wasn’t up to the task. Ran castrol up until the last couple of oil changes. Like I said a stretch and we will never know, but I probably won’t be using the shell stuff again. Ran it on the new motor that blew up too but that was a unique circumstance.



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