Soooooo. It finally happened; you always hear about that guy who had his engine eat itself. Well here I am! Connecting rod bushing disintegrated into two large parts and many shavings and circulated through the oil system. (@49650 miles and Dinan S package by Chris Welch) Car is now at Irvine BMW awaiting an after-market rep to 'o.k.' or 'decline' the recommendation to replace the motor after conducting a 'investigation'. (Millenium warranty- Platinum Plan) Total estimated cost of repair= $35K. Needless to say, Millenium is attempting to find any reason to not perform this claim. Does anyone else have any experience with Millenium or any other warranty company and/or info on failed connecting rods, such as, how many E39/S62 engines have experienced this? :grrrrr::1zhelp:cherrsagaiMaybe after I drink myself to sleep, I'll wake up and find one of you has everything figured out on this... or has a f'ing magic wand!
No experience with the warranty company and hope that it works out for you. Curious how the car was driven over its 50K life. I suspect there are a lot of members with well over 50K miles without a warranty and are thinking, how did this happen? Any input you can offer would be cool. If you are not comfortable due to the open warranty claim, I understand. Either way, good luck!!
Rob bearing failures are the most common catastrophic issue with the engine. As has been written about fairly extensively here, one culprit is excessive rpm from an elevated engne speed limiter with a chipped engine, but other members have experienced spun bearings for no apparent reason. Of course one can always destroy an engine from an unintended downshift during 10/10's operation.
What the investigation will entail is interrogating the ECU for engine speed data. They will probably try to nail you on this if they don't nail you for the chip.
Sorry to hear about your motor being toast, I have less than 100% faith in warranties but good luck with yours. If you get a new motor out of the deal, don't mess around with mods, just go straight forced induction!
Well, a long block from Tischer is US$18,217.20 and they're probably the least expensive place to get a new motor. MSRP on the long block is US$22,700. Plus, the labor to do the swap (unless you're Raza) is going to be quite high.
If the warranty doesn't pay up, then I think the best solution would be to find a good used motor and do the swap yourself or find an indy to do it.
pay me 15k, ill bring a motor to you, and install it in a day.
dead serious
would you guys say im qualified enough for a swap yet? i just went on a 4k mile road trip and have tacked on 5k miles, only issue has been bald set of rear tires...:cool2:
Wow! Thanks for all the support from everyone. It's like we have a common best friend that is sick. More info on the situation may help. I am the second owner when I picked up the car at Irvine BMW on Mar 10th, 2007 after their inspection-for-sale @ 23660 miles. The previous original owner was an elderly gentleman that special ordered the car from BMW of Hollywood. It came with all options except park-distance. He did have the complete leather package on it which is what I was waiting for along with low mileage to finally purchase my dream car. I had previously owned two 540i's and my wife a X5 (4.4i) so I was familiar with the N/S62 issues which is why I got the warranty at purchase for $4000. The car has run perfectly except for a replacement of steering box (warranty covered it). I drive the car very conservatively except for the occasional butt-kicking of local SoCal 'Fast and the Furious, Orange County Drift' wanna-be's. The Dinan software allows the engine to top out RPM's at 7200, then the limiter kicks in. I have followed the recommended oil service/inspection schedule and have documention of that submitted to Millenium. The car has run strong and flawlessly, even moreso after the Dinan tuning (CAI, ECU flash, free-flow exhaust, strut braces and Rogue short-shifter as well) The cost quoted by Irvine BMW was obviously a crate S62 and their $150/hr labor. I am appalled also but this is a dealership that has treated me very well. (probably because my family has bought so many cars there of course...) Can someone that is knowledgable in the world of mechanics explain to me in laymen's terms why this bushing has destroyed a whole engine?! It seems ridiculous, but then again I'm a financial planner so I'm obviously I'm a glutton for punishment...
Wow! Thanks for all the support from everyone. It's like we have a common best friend that is sick. More info on the situation may help. I am the second owner when I picked up the car at Irvine BMW on Mar 10th, 2007 after their inspection-for-sale @ 23660 miles. .
was the car not eligible for the bmw cpo warranty? Just curious why the dealership sold you an aftermarket warranty. Did they (the dealership) do the dinan mods? Good luck with the warranty.
I'n certainly not a guru, and I'm pretty sure Rick (LSCMAN) will be happy to chime in here, but one of the issues you would face with a connecting rod bearing failure is the possibility that you've now pounded your crankshaft journal out of round. That's where the connecting rod connects to the crankshaft. Usually that means getting a new crank or having the old one welded and re-machined. Re-machining is probably not recommended with these engines, I would imagine.
Another thing would be the debris in the oiling system. That could lead to failure of other bearings in the future, or failures of any number of mechanical assemblies in the motor (e.g. cams, vanos, valves, etc.) Basically anything that gets oiled could now fail due to trash in the oiling system.
I'm pretty sure Rick (LSCMAN) will be happy to chime in here, but one of the issues you would face with a connecting rod bearing failure is the possibility that you've now pounded your crankshaft journal out of round. That's where the connecting rod connects to the crankshaft.
Lscman posted above- he has written extensively on this exact issue on many occasions. LETS NOT ask for a repeat! (You wind up not getting the full measure of the topic that has been extensively discussed before..)
There is a search button- go to "advanced search". Do a search for his posts on the topic:
Enter "LSCMAN" as the member ID, and "rod bearing" or "bearings" as the search term.
Read.
As I said above, your warranty may have been fatally flawed the second the Dinan mods went on.... people need to read the fine print in the policy..
its a cheap five dollar part (?) but its connected to the piston. Kind of a critical thing. You have to take the engine completely apart to get to it. Not to mention the damage that may have occured when it let go.
If the warranty has a clause that 'excludes damage due to mods' then you will be SOL. The S package purportedly increases power, hence that will be their argument. Has someone told Millenium about the mods???
Dinan claims their packages don't affect the BMW warranty, but they are silent on the aftermarket warranty. I suspect that Dinan will not back an aftermarket warranty denial... Have you spoken to them?
I'd get it away from the BMW dealer unless the warranty pays. They are bending you over with a $35k figure.
sorry about your misfortunes, this same issue has soured my s62 experience... i replaced my bearing before it grenaded my motor, but certainly reduced my confidence in the long term durability of this motor. its just the nature of the "beast" with this high revving v8's
Sorry to hear. As stated previously the $35K figure is ridiculous and is more than the value of the whole car. If you end up footing the bill, find a decent used S62 and bring it to an Indy for replacement.
As you will find out when you search, the two most common factors reading to rod failure are amount of time at (or beyond) redline and condition of your oil.
Once you get this straightened out, I strongly recommend bringing your redline back to 7000 rpm and changing your oil at a maximum interval of 7500 miles or yearly.
I seem to recall the engine being alot cheaper than that in the UK and Germany. Its still loads (like $16,000) but it shouldn't cost more than $2k to fit it and your old engine may not be worth nothing.
Paying $35k to BMW is obviously not an option at all. Better to break the car and buy another one.
Drive it/push it into a nearby river and report it stolen. Even if they find it it'll be totalled. If you get "caught" in the act just say you lost control of the car and drove in the water.
terrible ideal... I knew a guy who did this with his Avenger. He's serving 18 months now.
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