Rod Bearing Showcase Thread

[Go3go]

Good wear patterns; Could run another 30K miles.
How often redline? Track? Hard acceleration?

Good to know! I just got the car last year so I can’t speak to the previous owner’s driving habits. I’ve put about 6k miles on it but they’ve been pretty tame since the car needed quite a bit of preventative maintenance (vanos, cooling system, bunch of bushings, diff reseal etc). No track time, maybe a couple redline pulls a week (which will change now that I’ve got the car more sorted). Otherwise just freeway cruising to work at 3k.

[sapote]

Unknown mileage on bearings, 95k mile odometer 2001 spec.

Must be a second set bearings as they still have plenty of life.

[bavarian3]

Unknown mileage on bearings, 95k mile odometer 2001 spec.

[sapote]

Out of my 2003.5 6 speed, 75k miles. Cylinders 1-6 left to right, uppers on the top row. Not terrible but glad I went ahead and did them.

Good wear patterns; Could run another 30K miles.
How often redline? Track? Hard acceleration?

[Go3go]

Out of my 2003.5 6 speed, 75k miles. Cylinders 1-6 left to right, uppers on the top row. Not terrible but glad I went ahead and did them.

[heinzboehmer]

wow, they look not bad for 183K miles! What was the mileage when you bought it and what makes you to inspect/change them now instead of around 100K?

Mileage when I bought it was 183,968 mi lol. Didn't even drive it home after buying. Had it towed cause I knew the bearings were original.

If I had owned it when it had 100k mi, I would have changed them then.

[sapote]

These came out of a late production car (04/25/06 build date) with 183,968 mi on it:
I was told that they had never been changed. Not bad for the mileage!

wow, they look not bad for 183K miles! What was the mileage when you bought it and what makes you to inspect/change them now instead of around 100K?

[heinzboehmer]

These came out of a late production car (04/25/06 build date) with 183,968 mi on it:



I was told that they had never been changed. Not bad for the mileage!

[stephen]

Not M3 bearings but these are the bearings that came out of my 2000 M5. 130,500 miles.

[R1pilot]

2004 with 95k miles. Tracked on r compounds, not sure it makes a difference.

Looks like we are doing this again at 151k miles 🤬

I will update once I get my report back from Blackstone, but last one was showing copper high at 16 ppm while lead was at 2 ppm. Might do BE and ARP this time instead of BMW bearings (these are WPC treated)

Car runs fine, no noises or anything weird ... just did an oil change and found this:

[MathewM3]

just to follow up here. The dealer network was searched. There is no evidence that these rod bearings were ever done by the dealer. And fwiw, the pics don’t really show how worn they were. There was copper of some sort on every top and bottom. The tops showed guide a bit, but never did the copper cross all the way across the bearing like you see in spun bearings or bearings that are about to spin.

Recall service bulletin for the Rod Bearings at the BMW dealership is: 11 04 04 / LBL code 422 if that helps you trying to track down the recall history and performed maintenance.

I have attached the PDF from BMW's recall.

[tlow98]

Ok, here we go.

211k miles. 2002 SMG convertible. I’m doing a full engine rebuild and just dropped the block, heads, pistons, and crank off at the machine shop. The piston and cylinder wear are well within spec so intend to re-ring, hone and go. The main bearings looked nearly new save for #7 that has slight wear.

I have decent maintenance history and all
major jobs were done at the dealer and show on the carfax. For non major jobs I also have Midas receipts for oil changes and a drain plug that was stripped and replaced at some point. So, yeah it was treated ok, but never looked after with an open checkbook.

I believe these to be original. Not bad I thought?

Every rod bearing, save for two, does show some sort of copper, however.

https://imgur.com/a/KjjGweU

just to follow up here. The dealer network was searched. There is no evidence that these rod bearings were ever done by the dealer. And fwiw, the pics don’t really show how worn they were. There was copper of some sort on every top and bottom. The tops showed guide a bit, but never did the copper cross all the way across the bearing like you see in spun bearings or bearings that are about to spin.

[MTiz]

When I first got my car with 143k miles. The seller said the rod bearings had been done before he bought the car and "couldn't find the receipts". I didn't believe him and had them done anyway, but these didn't look bad. My car was an EAG car back in 2015~ so I'm wondering if they did them.

[Sprp85]

2006 M3, 100.7 k Miles.

Blackstone reports showed clean health (3 consecutive submissions, last one being about 2,000 miles ago)

Overall looked pretty good except for cylinder 4 and 5?

[stephen]

Well, I have no proof they were replaced, if they were. Several other major services (SMG, clutch, etc.) do show up on the carfax.

The first few years of the car’s life only saw 15k miles total, so I would assume if they were replaced that they were replaced in that timeframe.

so 195k-ish miles. Does anyone know for how long the rod bearing service was offered?

PM me the VIN and I can look up the repair history on TIS on Monday