Rod bearing failures on 2004+ M3's?

[GoSlow2GoFast]

Anybody out there had rod bearing failures on cars that were not part of the 2001 to 2003 rod bearing recalls? My 2004 M3 has a failed rod bearing at 82,000 miles, never abused or tracked. Trying to get a sense if the rod bearing problems continued after the initial problems, or if I'm just very unlikely. Anyone get BMW to pick up the repair of this failure - technically I'm over 6 years with the car so not covered.

~gs2gf

[Patrón]

sorry to hear, i've not heard too many cases.
out of curiousity, do you know the oil change history? do you have a aftermarket software program?

[GoSlow2GoFast]

sorry to hear, i've not heard too many cases.
out of curiousity, do you know the oil change history? do you have a aftermarket software program?

I do have a full service history on the car, I'm the original owner. Oil changes were all done based on the programmed in service interval on board, at a BMW dealer for the first 50,000 miles, and then by me (OEM oil) after that, always on schedule.

~gs2gf

[Patrón]

I do have a full service history on the car, I'm the original owner. Oil changes were all done based on the programmed in service interval on board, at a BMW dealer for the first 50,000 miles, and then by me (OEM oil) after that, always on schedule.

~gs2gf

hopefully you used the TWS 10-60 but the 15k mile intervals is really stretching it. i'm on 6k now (on this oil change) and worried about the oil and will change it soon.

[GoSlow2GoFast]

hopefully you used the TWS 10-60 but the 15k mile intervals is really stretching it. i'm on 6k now (on this oil change) and worried about the oil and will change it soon.

Yes, always used that oil, and I agree with you, 15,000 is a long time IMHO. Not sure it "caused" this problem, really looks like an issue with the bearing to me (see attached photo), but we'll never know...

~gs2gf

[Patrón]

Yes, always used that oil, and I agree with you, 15,000 is a long time IMHO. Not sure it "caused" this problem, really looks like an issue with the bearing to me (see attached photo), but we'll never know...

~gs2gf

that does not look good, are you going to pursue any legal action?

i would think that something as major as a recall campaign on a defective part, should not be voided for cars manuf. after the 'date' because they supposedly fixed the problem.

Have you tried contacting BMWNA?
Good luck to you, I hope you get it resolved without having to pay.

[GoSlow2GoFast]

that does not look good, are you going to pursue any legal action?

i would think that something as major as a recall campaign on a defective part, should not be voided for cars manuf. after the 'date' because they supposedly fixed the problem.

Have you tried contacting BMWNA?
Good luck to you, I hope you get it resolved without having to pay.

My dealer is discussing the case with BMW NA currently, I honestly don't expect much based on other situations I've seen online, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

~gs2gf

[MauiM3Mania]

Good luck and I mean it. That sucks.

[ZeroG]

I hear good things about the bearings from Vac if you end up having to do it for yourself. I'm at 120K miles not and have a service contract to 100K miles. I pretty much stuck to the factory intervals while I was under factory maintenance. I started to send oil samples off to Blackstone when the service contract expired and due to copper and lead (bearing wear) being found in the oil I reduced my last change to 5K miles and wear improved dramatically. I'm on 7K miles on the current oil and plan on changing it out in the next couple of days.

Good luck working with the dealer. If they turn you down, a call to BMWNA Customer Service wouldn't hurt.

[Efterlyst27]

BMWNA should take care of you.

[Kaiv]

I have a 2001 M3.

Oil/filter changes every 5k, with TWS 10w60. Always warm it up gently. Oil temp never went over 250-260ish on the track. Rod bearings failed and a rod shot through the passenger side of the block. 137k miles.

Now the kicker is that my car had the rod bearing recall performed in 2007, just 51k miles ago. (44k of which was under my ownership)

I have gotten no help whatsoever, not even partial. My car is too old, too high mileage they say. And I bought it from a third party.

When I say that it's absolutely abnormal for those things to fail only 50k miles after being replaced they have nothing better to say than "we're sorry there's nothing we can do".

Disappointing really. So I'm scrapping up cash to purchase a used engine.

Anyways OP, if some rod bearings installed in 2007 can fail I'd say it's totally possible for them to fail on any production year E46 M3.

I know another guy in SoCal who has an 04 and had the failure. His car too is not even part of the recall and obviously no warranty/no help with BMW NA.

[GoSlow2GoFast]

My dealer is discussing the case with BMW NA currently, I honestly don't expect much based on other situations I've seen online, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.
~gs2gf

For what it's worth, my dealer, and BMW NA each picked up 1/3 of the repair cost, and asked me to pick up 1/3. Didn't seem like an unfair approach, considering that my car is quite a bit out of warranty. We never identified root cause of the failure.

The crank had slight wear indication, but was deemed in spec. So the repair was basically all new rod bearings, new rod cap bolts, and we decided to swap out the oil pump while we were at it.

The other 5 rod bearings had normal appearing wear, although slightly more than I might have expected, but I'm no expert. I'll try and post up some pics of those.

~gs2gf

[MauiM3Mania]

The crank journal was clean?

This is what my number six bearing looked like from the euro motor....



And the journal.... this is why I am curious what your crank looked like.



Edit: Congrats on getting the help from the dealer and BMWNA.

[GoSlow2GoFast]

Yes, the journal was deemed usable. They mic'ed it to make sure it was round, and not worn. Then they polished it a bit on the car with fine emery cloth. They also did Plastiguage with the new bearings and said the #2 journal showed bearing clearance within tolerance.

I didn't get to take pictures myself, but these are a couple of snaps of the journal before any polishing. I don't think my wear was as bad as yours, which is interesting since my bearing looks quite a bit worse than yours. Might yours have gone dry?

~gs2gf

[MauiM3Mania]

Look closely at mine and you can see the shell spun.

Apparently, antifreeze had entered the crankcase before I purchased the engine.

[GoSlow2GoFast]

Ah, missed that, I was lucky, didn't spin. How are you going to handle the crank?

~gs2gf

[MauiM3Mania]

Taken care of 18 months ago. That nightmare hopefully is over. I still have engine management issues, so the car isn't driven much.

Doing rod bearings, oil pump on the e30 tomorrow!

[4getr34]

hope it works out. i got a 2004 with about 65k on the clock. no issues yet. knock on wood

[Patrón]

For what it's worth, my dealer, and BMW NA each picked up 1/3 of the repair cost, and asked me to pick up 1/3. Didn't seem like an unfair approach, considering that my car is quite a bit out of warranty. We never identified root cause of the failure.

The crank had slight wear indication, but was deemed in spec. So the repair was basically all new rod bearings, new rod cap bolts, and we decided to swap out the oil pump while we were at it.

The other 5 rod bearings had normal appearing wear, although slightly more than I might have expected, but I'm no expert. I'll try and post up some pics of those.

~gs2gf

good for you. what do you think was the reason they helped you? hopefully this info can help others in your situation. what was your final bill (1/3)?

[GoSlow2GoFast]

good for you. what do you think was the reason they helped you? hopefully this info can help others in your situation. what was your final bill (1/3)?

With regard to why they helped that's hard to say. A few factors that come to mind:

• I'm a regular customer, with all service on my M3 done there (since original purchase), and all service since the purchase of our second car, and E46 330xi, done there.
• I did make sure the service manager was involved, and I did make it clear (but not in a rude manner) that I was disappointed in having a rod bearing fail like this at 80,000 miles. I think they did have some feeling that it wasn't "normal" even though they weren't going to say exactly that.
• I went in and talked to them several times, right after the bearing was removed, and after they discussed with BMW NA. I talked to the tech on the job, and also looked things over for myself and tried to have a reasonable discussion with them about this not being normal.
• I did produce a full record of maintenance on the car, although to be fair, they had already pretty much taken my word that regular and responsible maintenance had always been performed.
• And I guess to be totally fair, while their prices are not the cheapest in town, on the few things like this where I asked them to "do the right thing", this dealer has for me.

Total cost to me was on the order of $800, which could have been a bit less but I decided to make the judgment call of replacing the oil pump for good measure while we were in there.

~gs2gf