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Another Rod Bearing Story

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Polarbert

Member
As my car trotted over 100k I'd always pondered swapping the bearings out. The guy I regularly take my car to can be a bit funny about certain things and he told me that it wasn't really something I should worry about. But obviously reading all the bad stories got me worried as I'm hoping to hold on to the car and not sell it.

So at 116,000 and due for an oil change I booked my 2006 M Roadster in for rod bearings, oil change, valve adjustment, and vanos exhaust hub upgrade.

I just got the car back this morning after dropping it off on Monday and for one am very glad I decided to upgrade the vanos part, as one of the tabs had snapped off on my OEM original piece. Its probably some sort of a miracle it never took out the timing chain. I religiously warm the car up properly before giving it the message but I must say I drive the car as intended when conditions allow.

I'm hoping the photos of my bearings attach okay. I've been doing oil analysis reports since 70k and they never really picked up any copper in the oil. I bought the car on 42k so perhaps this wear could have occurred before my ownership? I somehow doubt it.

I went with the WPC treated OEM bearings which should hopefully see me good for another 100k at least. I figured if these are better that the OEM ones they should last longer. But I admit I don't know too much behind the science.

Upper bearings are on the right, lower bearings on the left. And a close up of the worst one.
 

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After seeing your photos you must be relieved you got those shells replaced!

Enjoy the next 100,000+ miles. :driving:
 
Make sure you show those bearings to your to regular guy, he needs to stop saying that about s54's. Looks like you got them just in time.
 
grannyknot said:
Make sure you show those bearings to your to regular guy, he needs to stop saying that about s54's. Looks like you got them just in time.
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Bloody good idea.

All in all I feel very glad I spent the dosh. I'm just taking it easy for the first 500 miles or so. Not entirely sure its necessary with the WPC treatment but it can't hurt.
 
TBH ive seen much worse at half the milage!

They've done pretty well, im worried about mine at 73. Good to see that these lasted another 40k!
 
If you don’t change them

Price up the cost of a new crank and a set of rods as a minimum because if the bearing goes and the rod rattles around the crank it will be hard to recover the crank with a regrind and undersize bearings

Then you may as well change the mains as well

Then do you strip the rest of the engine to check for any other damage?

Is it worth the risk?
 
tomscott said:
TBH ive seen much worse at half the milage!

They've done pretty well, im worried about mine at 73. Good to see that these lasted another 40k!
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That's not a risk I was willing to take, for the reasons outlined by PDJ. :o

Leaving them could prove expensive so I had mine replaced at 78K and when I saw the old ones was glad I did - although they weren't as worn as these!
 
Its certainly interesting seeing how worn they were. I've always used 10w60 oil changed every 5k and always wait until the cars at operating oil temperature before driving aggressively.
 
PDJ said:
Price up the cost of a new crank and a set of rods as a minimum because if the bearing goes and the rod rattles around the crank it will be hard to recover the crank with a regrind and undersize bearings
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Plus the extra work.
And you have to have your car transported from wherever you are when it happens to a quality garage.

PDJ said:
Then you may as well change the mains as well
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And your head gasket (head has to come off if you want to change a rod)
So suddenly a day's work has turned in a weeks work with at least 6 times the parts cost.
 
grannyknot said:
Make sure you show those bearings to your to regular guy, he needs to stop saying that about s54's. Looks like you got them just in time.
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Meh, he’s right. They are not as much an issue for S54’s than they are for other M engines such as the S65.

Also, food for thought but a new engine from Munich is cheaper than doing preventative maintenance on rod bearings, vanos and headgasket. It also comes with warranty and in theory should last longer than a rebuilt engine.

I did the rod bearings on mine ~3 months into M ownership. I also get a compression test done every year to ensure the headgasket is healthy and get the vanos hubs checked at every inspection service (which works out as every 2 years for me). However if anything happens touch wood I will be going down the Munich route as most of these so-called issues whilst apparent are also blown out of proportion.

OP make sure you drop your oil after 1,200 miles, and just enjoy the car!
 
R60BBA said:
Also, food for thought but a new engine from Munich is cheaper than doing preventative maintenance on rod bearings, vanos and headgasket. It also comes with warranty and in theory should last longer than a rebuilt engine.
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A new engine from Munich (and that is I think a rebuild engine, new engine is no longer available) costs about £13K! (current dealerprice is €14.874,81 incl. VAT)
And that is the bare engine, so all the ancilaries and sensors have to be carried over, and of course it's an engine swap.
So you're probably looking at at least £16k total with all the work, if not more.

So rodbearings is little over £1k, vanos probably also, including new pump disk or exhausthub, so an upgrade, and headgasket about 1,5k (don't know why you want to change the headgasket, but anyway...)
That's 3,5k. Not £16k
If you do just the rodbearings, vanos and valve clearance, it's probably around £2k. In my book that's considerably less than £16k
 
GuidoK said:
R60BBA said:
Also, food for thought but a new engine from Munich is cheaper than doing preventative maintenance on rod bearings, vanos and headgasket. It also comes with warranty and in theory should last longer than a rebuilt engine.
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A new engine from Munich (and that is I think a rebuild engine, new engine is no longer available) costs about £13K! (current dealerprice is €14.874,81 incl. VAT)
And that is the bare engine, so all the ancilaries and sensors have to be carried over, and of course it's an engine swap.
So you're probably looking at at least £16k total with all the work, if not more.

So rodbearings is little over £1k, vanos probably also, including new pump disk or exhausthub, so an upgrade, and headgasket about 1,5k (don't know why you want to change the headgasket, but anyway...)
That's 3,5k. Not £16k
If you do just the rodbearings, vanos and valve clearance, it's probably around £2k. In my book that's considerably less than £16k
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New engine can be had for £6k mate.
 
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Nice as that is, has anyone checked the price recently? Bet it's not 6k anymore (that was last year IIRC, pic from BRM). I just got quoted £40 for the steel VANOS gasket which was more like £10-15 not long ago! :lol:
 
AndyBeech said:
Nice as that is, has anyone checked the price recently? Bet it's not 6k anymore (that was last year IIRC, pic from BRM).
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Yes, I have.
That price I mentioned is from a dealer portal. (there's a dealer in the netherlands that has the current ETK price list linked to his website, you can order all the parts online.)
It's the price for partnumber 11000431515
Of course it could be that prices in the UK are £10k less but I think that's not very likely.
Schmiedmann also has it online and the price is even 1k higher...

That's why I'd like to know where for 6k....might be a very very good investment to order 10pcs.....
 
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