Rod Bearing Preventative Maintenance

[danielgmanm6]

What mileage would be a good time for a Rod bearing service? I was thinking no later than 50k miles but I've heard of bearings going much earlier. I haven't done any blackstone sampling since I've just recently got the car. Also, not sure if that's even 100% indicator of failure. Plan on owning forever and don't need a catastrophic failure lol. Thanks guys

[ruben356]

Originally Posted by danielgmanm6

What mileage would be a good time for a Rod bearing service? I was thinking no later than 50k miles but I've heard of bearings going much earlier. I haven't done any blackstone sampling since I've just recently got the car. Also, not sure if that's even 100% indicator of failure. Plan on owning forever and don't need a catastrophic failure lol. Thanks guys

It's not rare, but it's also not common either on these engines, unless you're super paranoid about it, shouldn't need to change them. It can happen in different ways. The biggest thing is maintenance on items that can contribute to premature failure, and keep up with your maintenance at shorter intervals.

Here's what I have done with my past and current vehicles, just a suggestion, its not anything that will certainly prevent a failure, but I have done this for years with good results.

Use higher oil grade, 5W40 or 5W50, I personally use 5W50 Redline Synthetic oil. I also use Motorkote additive on all my engines, some people will say to never do that, but these are high friction engines, and I haven't had any issue adding it. Also shorten your oil change intervals, the longest I would go without changing my oil is 5-6k miles. As opposed to the suggested 7-10k. I also like to use a fuel system cleaner, at least every 1k miles to keep things clean. If you have an early year S63TU, I would go the extra step and replace all injectors as preventative. Some people leave them to fail as the time goes, I would rather have them all new with some peace of mind, instead of a heart drop moment each time one fails.

These are just my personal practices and suggestions, good luck.

[KMP259]

Use Blackstone Labs to really see what is going on with a motor.....

[mikerx5]

Many, including myself, change the oil at earlier intervals. I do every 2500, easy for me to remember and since its not my DD - happens 2x a year just about.

[danielgmanm6]

Originally Posted by KMP259

Use Blackstone Labs to really see what is going on with a motor.....

Like I stated, I just recently got the car so I haven't done a blackstone yet....

[danielgmanm6]

Originally Posted by ruben356

It's not rare, but it's also not common either on these engines, unless you're super paranoid about it, shouldn't need to change them. It can happen in different ways. The biggest thing is maintenance on items that can contribute to premature failure, and keep up with your maintenance at shorter intervals.

Here's what I have done with my past and current vehicles, just a suggestion, its not anything that will certainly prevent a failure, but I have done this for years with good results.



Use higher oil grade, 5W40 or 5W50, I personally use 5W50 Redline Synthetic oil. I also use Motorkote additive on all my engines, some people will say to never do that, but these are high friction engines, and I haven't had any issue adding it. Also shorten your oil change intervals, the longest I would go without changing my oil is 5-6k miles. As opposed to the suggested 7-10k. I also like to use a fuel system cleaner, at least every 1k miles to keep things clean. If you have an early year S63TU, I would go the extra step and replace all injectors as preventative. Some people leave them to fail as the time goes, I would rather have them all new with some peace of mind, instead of a heart drop moment each time one fails.

These are just my personal practices and suggestions, good luck.

I would consider 5w40 but would prob side with 0w40 for the cold start benefits. I don't have the balls to run a non approved oil like 5w 50. From my understanding, 5w50 was used on the s85 instead of the even thicker 10w 60. Some ppl do report massive oil consumption in our motors so maybe thicker is better for that reason. Im running 0w30 now and plan on changes at 5k miles regardless. My car takes forever to warm up as it is , so I couldn't imagine 5w 50. The car only has 17k miles and saw that plugs were already changed and I used oem fuel cleaner 1k ish miles ago. I think I will side on caution and replace the bearings, could def use the peace of mind. I feel like im doing the most i can do at the moment! Nowhere could I find any info on revisions for the s63tu through the model years. I know they changed the airbox so always wondered. Any links would be awesome!! Thank you for the reply my friend