[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by vespa

P.S. Googling the most generic of terms "BMW spun bearing" returns a million N55 (not S65) results, but not a single indication of a spun bearing on any model BMW since the beginning of time as far I could tell. Only a handful of worn S65 bearings and endless conjecture about N55 bearings.

This. LOL. There are 5 threads on this forum talking about rod bearing failure and they are all just full of the same 5 people arguing about it (myself included but this is what I do to kill time at work lol).

I literally see an N54 posted up on Facebook almost daily with spun rod bearings. Yet, no one will say N54 has rod bearing issues. It's only the N55, apparently. Oh and it's only 2011 apparently because a handful of 2011's on this specific forum have posted up talking about rod bearing failure. You can literally google any engine imaginable and find a thread full of rod bearings failures. You're right that even the S65 and S85 "failure" threads are just full of people who pulled what looks like normal worn bearings out of their engines. Not many actual failures. It might be excessive wear to some but that also seems to be the reality of just about any modern high performance engine.

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by rich_mane

Here's mine, I just pulled the pan last week and started disassembling.



That's cylinder 5. No bueno.

Also removed the cap on cylinder 2 but that bearing looked fine aside from a bit of wear. Can't get any others off because the motor is still seized and bolts are too close to the crankcase to get a socket on them. Waiting on some offset etorx wrenches that I ordered to come in.

You might need to take the bed-plate off to get at them. A spun bearing pretty much means the crank will need to come out though. Start looking for a used engine.

[rich_mane]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

You might need to take the bed-plate off to get at them. A spun bearing pretty much means the crank will need to come out though. Start looking for a used engine.

Yeahhhhh we will see. Released the main carrier bolts for the crank and it still is seized up solid. After looking at it again this morning it seems like cylinder 4 is the other rod bearing with a problem, all the others have some free wiggle and that one is just tight. So I'll get it off this weekend when I get those wrenches. Depending how bad that one looks, I'll probably just try to clean up the crank a little bit and slap new rod bearings in it. If it needs a motor anyways, maybe I can delay it for a few miles lol. I'll just beat the shit outta this til it really goes bad. Never really beat on it before, might as well start.

[Pladi]

Originally Posted by rich_mane

Yeahhhhh we will see. Released the main carrier bolts for the crank and it still is seized up solid. After looking at it again this morning it seems like cylinder 4 is the other rod bearing with a problem, all the others have some free wiggle and that one is just tight. So I'll get it off this weekend when I get those wrenches. Depending how bad that one looks, I'll probably just try to clean up the crank a little bit and slap new rod bearings in it. If it needs a motor anyways, maybe I can delay it for a few miles lol. I'll just beat the shit outta this til it really goes bad. Never really beat on it before, might as well start.

Its interesting that these things happen to cars that are babied sometimes.

i drive her pretty hard when up to temp.

[rich_mane]

Originally Posted by Pladi

Its interesting that these things happen to cars that are babied sometimes.

i drive her pretty hard when up to temp.

I would give it some full throttle pulls every once in a while, always at operating temp though. Never lugged it, always was careful not to stress it too much. Treated it real nicely hoping to get a lot of life out of it. If I thought it was gonna die at 100k miles I woulda just bought an N54 lol. Oh well.

Out of curiosity, would anyone recommend replacing the oil spray nozzles? Not sure if maybe there was a clog in them or what that caused this failure. Seems like just an Allen bolt to to take off. Figured I'd change them if there wasn't much to it.

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by rich_mane

I would give it some full throttle pulls every once in a while, always at operating temp though. Never lugged it, always was careful not to stress it too much. Treated it real nicely hoping to get a lot of life out of it. If I thought it was gonna die at 100k miles I woulda just bought an N54 lol. Oh well.

Out of curiosity, would anyone recommend replacing the oil spray nozzles? Not sure if maybe there was a clog in them or what that caused this failure. Seems like just an Allen bolt to to take off. Figured I'd change them if there wasn't much to it.

You can take them off and spray some brake clean through them... They are there to cool the pistons though so it wouldn't have anything to do with an oiling failure. I highly doubt you'll find one clogged and I managed to break 2 bolts when re-torquing them to spec so I'd leave them alone in my opinion.

[rich_mane]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

You can take them off and spray some brake clean through them... They are there to cool the pistons though so it wouldn't have anything to do with an oiling failure. I highly doubt you'll find one clogged and I managed to break 2 bolts when re-torquing them to spec so I'd leave them alone in my opinion.

Thanks man, exactly the input I was looking for. I'll be leaving them alone.

[TZANIDO777]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

The power steering part makes sense. The oil pump part doesnt though. Are you saying the sprocket is larger? Or that the pump sits in a slightly different place?

Sorry for late reply, hard to explain without photos (have not had a chance to take any) the oil pump for the M2 has a larger diameter shoulder where the pump bolts onto the sprocket. Because of that larger diameter it does not fit past the guide rail so you can not mate the two flats on the oil pump with the two flats on the sprocket.

Everything else lines up with the bolts and guide pins. I immediately noticed it when I tried to put the old pump back on and slid in through the guide rail and was basically touching the sprocket. All you had to do was lift (in my case since I had the engine on a stand) the sprocket a little to seat it onto the pump where it bolts together with the sprocket.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

This. LOL. There are 5 threads on this forum talking about rod bearing failure and they are all just full of the same 5 people arguing about it (myself included but this is what I do to kill time at work lol).

I literally see an N54 posted up on Facebook almost daily with spun rod bearings. Yet, no one will say N54 has rod bearing issues. It's only the N55, apparently. .

Because it doesn't! I'm also in FB groups and never once saw a bearing go bad because of OFHG job. But then I make a poll about it and only people with N55 had the issue.

Yeah bearings go bad because of stupidly high amount of power but that's normal and not really what people are complaining about.

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by TheMidnightNarwhal

Because it doesn't! I'm also in FB groups and never once saw a bearing go bad because of OFHG job. But then I make a poll about it and only people with N55 had the issue.

Yeah bearings go bad because of stupidly high amount of power but that's normal and not really what people are complaining about.

I've already asked you this question but... how are you making the leap from OFHG work to N55 rod bearing issues? You would not say "n55 have rod bearing issues" because of these OFHG failures... I think you need to distinguish what you're talking about more because these are two different things (in my opinion).

For you to say N55's have rod bearing issues and N54's don't is just plain ignorant. I literally linked you to more N54 failures than N55 from a 2 second google search. In circles we go... So, with N54's you just want to make the excuse that "oh all those failures were high whp so they don't count." That just sounds to me like you're only seeing what you want to see. I even linked you to an N54 that had an engine seize after an OFHG job. It's likely the issue is just as prevalent on N54s. and It's also just as likely that it's caused by shoddy mechanic work like dropping debris down into the main oil galley.

[9krpmrx8]

Originally Posted by 9krpmrx8

Yeah well, it doesn't take much, to convince a noob of much.

This.

[rich_mane]

I can only speak on my behalf but I know I didn't get any debris down into any of the oil ports. Was very careful about keeping it clean and free of gasket material or anything like that. And yet here I am! So maybe some others caused failures due to shoddy work but I don't think that's the only factor here.

I think I'm starting to believe this whole vapor lock thing. I already found cylinder 5 bearing spun, I'm expecting cylinder 4 as another one. All others have a slight free wiggle in the rods, cylinder 4 is locked solid. Getting it off soon to verify. I'm guessing an air pocket wound up somewhere in between the two and stopped flow? Idk.

I also have done nothing but short trips for the last 3,000 miles. Never more than a 30 minute drive really. All of the cold starts may have taken a toll on the bearings as well. I also bought it used at 50k and while it had dealer records of service, I don't know how the car was treated before I owned it. Lots of factors, no concrete answers.

[S4NoMore]

Originally Posted by rich_mane

Thanks man, exactly the input I was looking for. I'll be leaving them alone.

If they're cheap, I'd replace them.

FWIW I had an S50 in my E30 a few years ago and the hydraulic lifters wouldn't shut up for more than a few miles at a time. Very annoying. What causes that noise? Excess clearance to the cam lobes, due most likely to insufficient oil pressure. The engine was totally rebuilt top and bottom before my swap too. I went as far as replacing the lifters and the oil pump after that, no change. Eventually got rid of the engine and went to an S54.

There is a ball check valve inside the squirters (on that engine anyway) that should close below a certain threshold. My suspicion is that one or more of the oil squirters was stuck open and bled out oil pressure at low rpm, particularly at idle, where I was 5-10 psi short of where I believe the engine should have been. Lesson learned - don't go that deep into an engine and not replace something so trivial when it could really cause some damage or a lot of frustration.

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by S4NoMore

If they're cheap, I'd replace them.

FWIW I had an S50 in my E30 a few years ago and the hydraulic lifters wouldn't shut up for more than a few miles at a time. Very annoying. What causes that noise? Excess clearance to the cam lobes, due most likely to insufficient oil pressure. The engine was totally rebuilt top and bottom before my swap too. I went as far as replacing the lifters and the oil pump after that, no change. Eventually got rid of the engine and went to an S54.

There is a ball check valve inside the squirters (on that engine anyway) that should close below a certain threshold. My suspicion is that one or more of the oil squirters was stuck open and bled out oil pressure at low rpm, particularly at idle, where I was 5-10 psi short of where I believe the engine should have been. Lesson learned - don't go that deep into an engine and not replace something so trivial when it could really cause some damage or a lot of frustration.

Pretty sure "check valves" are in place to actually hold oil in when oil pressure is below a certain pressure (to keep the rail full of oil when the car is shut-off). I don't see how they could cause low oil pressure unless they break off entirely. Maybe the S50 is different though lol

[S4NoMore]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

Pretty sure "check valves" are in place to actually hold oil in when oil pressure is below a certain pressure (to keep the rail full of oil when the car is shut-off). I don't see how they could cause low oil pressure unless they break off entirely. Maybe the S50 is different though lol

That's one use of a check valve, yes. Likewise, the piston cooling oil squirters were designed to open at about 20 psi, holding in oil pressure to the main arteries until there was enough pump output to supply everything. On the old M50 family of engines, there was a basic spring-controlled ball valve. The spring pushed the ball against a seat, and could keep it there until enough oil pressure pushed it out of the seat by compressing the spring. It's likely that this technology has been replaced 15+ years later, but maybe not

Here's an example with some people discussing it: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...irter-info-plz

[bbnks2]

Here are some n54 bearings at 103K... just got posted on facebook.



Oh right I forgot these examples dont count because every n54 just makes so much power and all that other nonsense... 2011 n55s only...

[Ozzie335i]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

Here are some n54 bearings at 103K... just got posted on facebook.



Oh right I forgot these examples dont count because every n54 just makes so much power and all that other nonsense... 2011 n55s only...

There you have it, I guess I wasted my mechanic's time and effort, and my money on swapping the bearings in my ride. Everyone can now rest assured that their rod bearings are just fine though since the guy with superior knowledge of all things BMW has proved his case once again.

It's Black Jack and you've got a King showing and a 7 in hand. The dealer has 16 showing. Are you going to stay with what you've got?

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

Here are some n54 bearings at 103K... just got posted on facebook.



Oh right I forgot these examples dont count because every n54 just makes so much power and all that other nonsense... 2011 n55s only...

Ok but what is the story behind the car/bearings.

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

There you have it, I guess I wasted my mechanic's time and effort, and my money on swapping the bearings in my ride. Everyone can now rest assured that their rod bearings are just fine though since the guy with superior knowledge of all things BMW has proved his case once again.

It's Black Jack and you've got a King showing and a 7 in hand. The dealer has 16 showing. Are you going to stay with what you've got?

Wow people have 0 reading comprehension skills these days.

Where did I say it's a waste of time to inspect n55 bearings for wear? How did you even get that as being implied in my post lol???? I've literally been telling people to go pull their bearings.

Clearly I posted those n54 bearings purely in response to those saying that n54 dont see wear and that this is a "2011 n55 only" issue. They are wrong. Apparently you'd rather see people making fictitious outlandish statements than see people put those comments in check so that actual progress can be made instead of perpetuating myths.

[Ozzie335i]

bbnks, you and 9kwhatever have pretty much thrashed anyone that has said that this is a 2011 N55 issue. I guess I just haven't gotten the joke yet, as you come across as a smart ass when anyone points out the reality that there seems to be a big clump of failures on this particular model year. Sorry, but I didn't get the joke on the N54 thread. The N54 guys have known fuel injector problems thinning out oil. Regardless, all anybody cares about over here is N55s. Specifically 2011s. I could care less about Honda, Lexus or Prius reliability issues. That argument makes it seem that since they have their issues as well that you are cool with it and just want to look at more pictures of N55 rod bearings swapped out in order to further weigh your risk. It is my specific car that matters. And yours. I asked for one more card and got dealt a 4. So are you going to continue to play both angles on this issue, and continue to piss on any further debate? Are you going to continue to wait and see if the dealer gets a 2 of Hearts? Looking at the photos of the rod bearings taken out of my car. Even if they looked ok on inspection, would you have swapped them, or put them back in?

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

Clearly I posted those n54 bearings purely in response to those saying that n54 dont see wear and that this is a "2011 n55 only" issue. They are wrong. Apparently you'd rather see people making fictitious outlandish statements than see people put those comments in check so that actual progress can be made instead of perpetuating myths.

Once again what's the story of the car you posted?

Those bearing yeah don't look super but do those bearings could last at least 200k KM?

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by TheMidnightNarwhal

Once again what's the story of the car you posted?

Those bearing yeah don't look super but do those bearings could last at least 200k KM?

This was my point. There is no story. Just a regular n54 that the owner pulled the bearings on. But of course for the n54 you'll make excuses but the n55 you'll blame the engine.