S54 oil analysis

[XMetal]

Ok, I stand corrected on the Liquid Moly oil. My comments on the MOS2 additive still stands and I had always just assumed that if MOS2 was such a good additive for bearing wear then the people mentioning that an amount was already in the oil made sense.

I know most people like the MOS2 additive - but if you look at my report posted above, MOS2 additive didn't do anything for me. However, Liqui Moly's Ceratec did dramatically lowered my lead level and it appeared from my experiment that it's the only additive that's worthwhile to try, at least on my car. I don't like using oil additives in general. But after seeing some positive results from my own experiments, I will probably use a treatment of Ceratec every 30k miles or so in the future.

[R60BBA]

Regardless of your oil report, as the car has done 100,000 miles I would book it in for a rod bearing service.

[philipw]

So the shells are now replaced, bill came in at just over £2000, £1414 including inspection 2 and the rest on replacing other parts that showed wear. Vanos and differential were fine so that was a bonus. Pictures of the shells below, wear was mainly contained to the top shell with cylinders 4 and 6 being the worst.

Happy to have had this done as now I can chill and enjoy the car:)

[XMetal]

Good grief - those bearings looked horrible! I'm still stumped as why copper are not showing on these reports as expected.

Glad to see you had it done (just in time too) so you can really go enjoy it without worrying about bearings now

[Truth]

So the shells are now replaced, bill came in at just over £2000, £1414 including inspection 2 and the rest on replacing other parts that showed wear. Vanos and differential were fine so that was a bonus. Pictures of the shells below, wear was mainly contained to the top shell with cylinders 4 and 6 being the worst.

Happy to have had this done as now I can chill and enjoy the car:)

What’s the going rate for rod shell replacement??

[Angelus666]

What's the typical cost at a good specialist of just getting these shells replaced as a one-off job?

[philipw]

Good grief - those bearings looked horrible! I'm still stumped as why copper are not showing on these reports as expected.

Glad to see you had it done (just in time too) so you can really go enjoy it without worrying about bearings now

Thanks for linking to your thread, good source of information. Have to agree, shells 4/6 have wore well into the copper and way worse than yours. Hard to know how long they could have lasted before causing damage however I imagine a trackway would have shortened their life massively. This car has done 50K miles in the past 2.5 years so clearly low stress motorway mileage doesn't prevent shell wear, I imagine its all down to the way its driven until oil temp reaches 80 degrees and the fact that the conrod shells are a consumable item.

I too am confused why copper wasn't observed. I enquired with the lab and they stated that the method they used (inductive coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy) is accurate for quantitative analysis on a particulate scale but not for particles. If you look at shells 4/6, you will see pitting evident in the copper surface where tiny chunks of copper have been removed. It will always be very difficult to pick up these up as there will be very few of them in the oil and they won't be spread uniformly. Fourier transform Infra-Red spectroscopy is more suited to the detection of larger particles but it is limited to qualitative not quantitative so no use here.

[philipw]

So the shells are now replaced, bill came in at just over £2000, £1414 including inspection 2 and the rest on replacing other parts that showed wear. Vanos and differential were fine so that was a bonus. Pictures of the shells below, wear was mainly contained to the top shell with cylinders 4 and 6 being the worst.

Happy to have had this done as now I can chill and enjoy the car:)

What’s the going rate for rod shell replacement??

What's the typical cost at a good specialist of just getting these shells replaced as a one-off job?

Shells inc bolts as a one-off is £1070 including an oil change which for the specialist I used was £134. Parts cost is £420 for OE shells/bolts and 6 hours labour makes up the rest.

[Truth]

So the shells are now replaced, bill came in at just over £2000, £1414 including inspection 2 and the rest on replacing other parts that showed wear. Vanos and differential were fine so that was a bonus. Pictures of the shells below, wear was mainly contained to the top shell with cylinders 4 and 6 being the worst.

Happy to have had this done as now I can chill and enjoy the car:)

What’s the going rate for rod shell replacement??

What's the typical cost at a good specialist of just getting these shells replaced as a one-off job?

Shells inc bolts as a one-off is £1070 including an oil change which for the specialist I used was £134. Parts cost is £420 for OE shells/bolts and 6 hours labour makes up the rest.

Where abouts did you have this done and would you recommend them?

[griffnut]

Was the crankshaft measured for wear and ovality of bearing surface, whilst the shells where changed.

[R60BBA]

So the shells are now replaced, bill came in at just over £2000, £1414 including inspection 2 and the rest on replacing other parts that showed wear. Vanos and differential were fine so that was a bonus. Pictures of the shells below, wear was mainly contained to the top shell with cylinders 4 and 6 being the worst.

Happy to have had this done as now I can chill and enjoy the car:)

I’d say you just got there in time.

Another 3,000 miles of hard driving and shells 4 and 6 could have spun.

As proven you cannot take oil analysis reports as face value.

Happy you’ve got it done and can now enjoy the car for the course of your ownership.

What's the typical cost at a good specialist of just getting these shells replaced as a one-off job?

£800 - £1200 depending on which shells and bolts you go for. The job is about 7 hours labour.

What’s the going rate for rod shell replacement??

What's the typical cost at a good specialist of just getting these shells replaced as a one-off job?

Shells inc bolts as a one-off is £1070 including an oil change which for the specialist I used was £134. Parts cost is £420 for OE shells/bolts and 6 hours labour makes up the rest.

Where abouts did you have this done and would you recommend them?

Most BMW specialists can do this job. As long as the bolts are torqued correctly there’s not much to fear.

Any of the following indies are fully competent in carrying out this job:

Munich Legends / Haywards Heath
BMS Surrey / Leatherhead
Evolve Automotive / Luton
Redish Motorsport / Bristol
ETA Motorsport / Sevenoaks, Brands Hatch
BMR Performance / Crawley
Deutsh Tech / Milton Keynes
Mr Vanos / Darlington

[BMWZ4MC]

Any of the following indies are fully competent in carrying out this job:

Munich Legends / Haywards Heath
BMS Surrey / Leatherhead
Evolve Automotive / Luton
Redish Motorsport / Bristol
ETA Motorsport / Sevenoaks, Brands Hatch
BMR Performance / Crawley
Deutsh Tech / Milton Keynes
Mr Vanos / Darlington

Phil at CPC Performance Engineering in Amersham changed mine at 50k miles. The peace of mind was worth the small expense and I’ll change them again at 100k miles even though there was no visible wear at 50k.

[Angelus666]

Wonder if there is a potential group buy here with one of those specialists. There’s a lot of Ms up at 70k + miles and I’d imagine a few of us would be looking to get this done over the next year.

[Truth]

Any recommendations for Yorkshire based specialists?

[philipw]

What’s the going rate for rod shell replacement??

What's the typical cost at a good specialist of just getting these shells replaced as a one-off job?

Shells inc bolts as a one-off is £1070 including an oil change which for the specialist I used was £134. Parts cost is £420 for OE shells/bolts and 6 hours labour makes up the rest.

Where abouts did you have this done and would you recommend them?

Forza GB carried out the work, I have used them in the past on previous Z4's and have always had a good experience.
I was going to use Mill Lane Automotive in Bristol but they were booked up for the next three weeks and currently had two E46 M3s in the shop with bottom end knock. I have also used Clayton Cars in Bristol on other BMW's and have found their service to be good. As previously mentioned Redish Motorsport is another good option but they are always booked up due to their reputation of specialising in motorsport applications.

Was the crankshaft measured for wear and ovality of bearing surface, whilst the shells where changed.

Yes the crank was checked, it aligned to OE specs and did not show any wear.