[gsfent]

:sad3: Motor ate a rod bearing this week at just over 99k miles. It was very sudden.

I had the car on the dyno 3 weeks ago and not a peep. Car had maybe 500 miles on her since then.

Same mech who did the dyno run has the car. One bad bearing and one con rod. Crank has some minor damage, but not salvagable. Mech said it did not have a lot of miles on it with a bad bearing, but just enough to nick up the crank. Interestingly, BMW sells a "crank kit" (have to get it from Germany) which includes matched bearings. Not cheap, expect a week to 10 days once order is placed.

Of course, rest of the motor looks great (other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play)? Most disappointed about the down time of the car more than having to spend some $$$ on her.

We are looking at simply replacing the motor if I can find one with some known lineage at a reasonable price. I know the folks here always know what is available, so shoot me a pm or use my handle here "at" bellsouth.net to shoot me an email.

As I get more info about possible causes, I will post up so we have additional data for others here.

Regards,
Jerry

 

[russap5]

Argh! So sorry to hear Jerry. Looks like I better get mine changed asap :/

What is the price on the crank kit? If you are looking at another motor I assume the kit plus labor is >$6k ?

Ok, so RealOEM shows BMW sells the crank with rod bearings. That must be the kit you mean.
<table border="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td class="r10">01</td><td class="r11">AT-CRANKSHAFT WITH BEARING SHELLS</td><td class="r10 p1">
</td><td class="r11">1</td><td class="r10">
</td><td class="r11">
</td><td class="r10" nowrap="nowrap">11211407796</td><td class="r11" align="right" nowrap="nowrap">--- $3,364.70</td></tr></tbody></table>
Yikes!! However, Jerry, on getbmwparts.com they list the kit at $2k. That is not too bad..

I would hate for you to go the used engine route and end up right back here within a couple thousand miles.

 

[Vector57]

My condolences

Jerry,

Wow! Sorry to hear of your bad news. :eek7:
A hearty "get-well-soon" to your beast.

Regards,
Alan

 

[Chris_M5]

Sorry to hear about it. What were the symtoms that made you aware of the issue? Good luck with finding a solution.

Chris

 

[E55AMG2]

Sorry to hear Jerry

 

[nightkrawler]

what kind of use did the motor see, track use? high rpms? or just a regular daily driver?

 

[Lscman]

Jerry, you're another disturbing chip stat. A disproportionate percentage of chipped M5's prematurely fail rod bearings and this has become glaringly apparent to me since 2006. The sky continues to fall, as I predicted. I'd say 100K mi lifecycle is par or better, based upon dozens of frantic PM's I've gotten over 6 yrs. Early adopters of chips invariably wanted to remove them before requesting BMW warranty or goodwill coverage. They were wise to avoid posting on discussion forums. Few have warranty anymore. The brand of chip is not relevant.

Chips with elevated RPM limit are safe with fresh/young bearings only. A bolt-on supercharger with elevated torque will test worn bearings well below the factory RPM limit.

However sorry to hear the crank and rod got damaged. At least it didn't throw a rod and destroy the motor. I hope you find a way to affordably rebuild, rick

 

[herrubermensch]

Very sorry to hear this, Jerry. Best of luck with the rebuild. I know how you feel!

Best,

Peter

 

[E55AMG2]

You are another chipped M5 statistic. A disproportionate percentage of chipped M5's prematurely fail rod bearings and this has become glaringly apparent since 2006. I'd say 100K mi lifecycle is about par.

However sorry to hear the crank got scored & hope you find a way to affordably rebuild, rick

You've compiled stats?

 

[wilsodh]

Oh nooo!!

Sorry to hear Jerry. :crying:

To Rick's point, I have a feeling that, as a highly informed senior member of the community, you are probably not the type to regularly bounce off a raised rev limiter. Any precipitating event, or did the bottom just start making some noise?

Dave

 

[cab]

And because inquiring minds want to know...which oil have you been running?

 

[Lscman]

You've compiled stats?

Racers seeing elevated RPM quantified the need to proactively change rod bearings 50 years ago & the physics has not changed. Few M5 owners with chips proactively change bearings as a preventive measure. Chips enable & encourage elevated RPM use. Higher RPM use leads to greatly accelerated rod bearing wear and premature failure. Owners with chips try to suppress that fact in an effort to obtain warranty support.

Subjective reasoning and common sense combined with general knowledge about bearing lubricity serves me better than a modest collection of spurious datapoints. Compiled stats could convince you to run celis tail lights or KW struts to avoid rod bearing failure. :hihi:

1+1+1+1+1 = 5

 

[Lscman]

Oh nooo!!

Sorry to hear Jerry. :crying:

To Rick's point, I have a feeling that, as a highly informed senior member of the community, you are probably not the type to regularly bounce off a raised rev limiter. Any precipitating event, or did the bottom just start making some noise?

Dave

Dave,

Are you aware this car had headers for a long while, Dinan and then Powerchip DME mods, & more recently, an ESS supercharger? It was built to flog. The car likely didn't see elevated RPM with the ESS, but it saw elevated torque on worn bearings with marginal clearances. You sell, rebuild or demote it to pedestrian duty (yea, right), when it reaches the point that it can't be driven hard or you're afraid to do it. Wear is cumulative, so risk rises with mileage. Babying it like a paranoid "senior member" after reading posts like mine isn't an option, imo. Some folks have gotten lucky and caught rod bearings in the process of failing. However it's a potshoot and frankly more difficult with a supercharger attached due to added NVH and loading. This is the cost of having fun and it's worth it to most folks. I personally prefer a proactive bearing replacement approach for this application, but the just-in-time bearing rehab deadline is a real guess. This is why competition racers throw bearings in the garbage after each season that look almost like new. They don't push their luck because it's too expensive and leads to poor results (DNF).

 

[agentZERO]

Hey jerry...real sorry to hear the news :crying: Too bad there aren't a lot of worthy internal upgrades for the S62 powerplant or else this would be a opportune time to go for it.

 

[lugnuts]

boy that sucks. did the dyno run contribute to the failure?

Sorry to hear about it. What were the symtoms that made you aware of the issue? Good luck with finding a solution.

Chris

yes please share, I would like to know what to be aware of in case I ever have this issue.

 

[dantedorazio]

I know there are tons of posts on this, but what is an expected cost (parts + labor) (or at least hours of labor) for preemptive rod bearing replacement? I'd be interested in current market rates (rather than the old numbers posted on some older posts). Thanks!

 

[Lscman]

I know there are tons of posts on this, but what is an expected cost (parts + labor) (or at least hours of labor) for preemptive rod bearing replacement? I'd be interested in current market rates (rather than the old numbers posted on some older posts). Thanks!

Older posts are surely accurate as you can get. Pricing varies wildly based upon the shop chosen and labor rate. Hours of labor varies depending upon skill and experience. Therefore a guesstimate could be off by 2-3x for any given shop. A good total price would be under $2K with some crank measuring and plastigage checks. A bad job with shortcuts or improper tools or methods is not cheap because the motor can be easily destroyed. I'd rather pay too much than too little.

 

[Clemster]

Bummer, Jerry. I hate hearing about these type of things. Unfortunately we all end up there at some point. Hopefully you'll get her mended soon and go for another 100K.

 

[Lscman]

.........did the dyno run contribute to the failure?

Yes. The car would have lasted another month or two if it was resting in the garge lol.

 

[RickM5X3]

Chips enable & encourage elevated RPM use. Higher RPM use leads to greatly accelerated rod bearing wear and premature failure. Owners with chips try to suppress that fact in an effort to obtain warranty support.

What exactly is the purpose of raised rev limiters for the S62? Is there a bunch of power right beyond the factory limit? Is it about time in gear for the track?