Spun Bearing s63 Engine

[Elimentsdanny]

On the 7th June I was traveling at a steady at 60mph and suddenly the car felt like somebody had just dabbed the brakes while I was driving after the incident the car seemed fine and I didn’t notice anything else strange until I pulled up at the next set of traffic lights. i had the window slightly open and noticed a rattling/knocking noise coming from the engine so I pulled over and rung for a break down truck and had the car recovered to the garage.

The garage could not find anything obvious and suspected it was something internal in the engine so pulled the sump off only to fine metal shavings in the oil in the sump pan.

The garage under my instruction removed the engine commenced stripping it down to diagnose it what had failed.

It turned out to be rod bearing No 2 that had failed but all of the other bearings were fine ?.

The garage did say he could regrind the crank and use it again but he didn't recommend it on a engine so finely balanced as the s63. So i opted for a brand new crank and all new bearings.

The cars history is its a 2015 grand coupe M6 LCI with 38k miles

I have owned the car for 2.5 years now and it came to me with BMW service pack left on the car. It has had 3 owners including me i am the only owner that didn't buy it from BMW them selves i bought it privately from the last owner who bought it from BMW and paid for 3 years service pack.

Full BMW Service history all of its services has come up to be done due to time lapse not miles covered and all of its services have been done within the time specified by the on board computer no of the service's have been late.

my question is why did this car do this ??? in my opinion this should not have happened i could not of done anything further to prevent something like this.

I am 53 years old i have owned powerful cars for years. i understand engines i would never push it until the oil was up to normal temp i never pushed the car hard never raced the car on any tracks so its not had a hard life ?? so why did it fail ???

Has anybody had similar experience with these engines ??

[JDMSteven]

Sorry to hear this, but BMW M engines are notorious for spinning rod bearings. S85 V10 M5/M6, S65 V8 M3, S54 E46 M3, etc etc. This is one of those stories that again instills my fears of owning such an incredible machine. My 2013 has 42k miles stock powertrain owned by a mature couple but it could still spin a bearing any day now for no reason.

[Elimentsdanny]

I agree i had heard about the v10 being notorious for bearing and i had heard that n63 was a little better (pre LCI) but i was lead to believe the s63 (LCI) was even better.
so you think your getting a pedigree you should get some reliability from it ?? i have seen some guys messing about with there's and getting 800bhp out of them and treat them really hard and everything hangs in for them. me i treat it with respect and i it spins a bearing why.

the mechanic claims you just never know if or when it can happen he feels BMW dont use a good enough grade of bearing in to start with ?? you would think BMW would invest more into RnD with this issue being common in all there M cars ...??? i love the car mind i am looking at 7k bill to put it right i think i am going to take this up with BMW its not right

[TinCanSailor]

Welcome to therapy Elimentsdanny this to happened to me 2 years ago even after the dealer shop had replaced the bearings once. Sorry to hear ya had to go through this.

It is my understanding that they clearances of the OEM bearings are a tad too tight. Once the oil heats and begins shearing the wear picks up. Most folks opt for aftermarket king or acl bearings when confronted with this.

I spent about 11k USD when my engine spun. The dealer quoted 54k USD.

[Elimentsdanny]

Thank you TinCanSailor love this site very helpful. i have heard a few people claim there is a issue with these BMW bearings and i was going to install ACL or KING but i could get any in the UK all the ones i could find was in Lithuania or US and i thought knowing my luck this car will be in the garage for months waiting for them to arrive and if there is something not quite right with them then i have to wait for the to be returned and replace mean while my car is sat waiting. so i ended up putting BMW ones back in :-(

Its the labour what is the killer the parts are not too bad ... well i say that but the crank was 2.8k ££ but all the other parts and small amounts in comparison.

[jporter396]

The clearances are tight coupled with premature wear on oem. I bought my m6 with a blown engine from rod bearing at 65k miles. Would recommend any new owner the replace and upgrade ad maintenance it's this cars biggest and most expensive flaw.

[TinCanSailor]

Originally Posted by Elimentsdanny

Thank you TinCanSailor love this site very helpful. i have heard a few people claim there is a issue with these BMW bearings and i was going to install ACL or KING but i could get any in the UK all the ones i could find was in Lithuania or US and i thought knowing my luck this car will be in the garage for months waiting for them to arrive and if there is something not quite right with them then i have to wait for the to be returned and replace mean while my car is sat waiting. so i ended up putting BMW ones back in :-(

Its the labour what is the killer the parts are not too bad ... well i say that but the crank was 2.8k ££ but all the other parts and small amounts in comparison.

It was hard watching my car sit motionless in my drive way for nearly 4 months so I know the struggle but this was the early days of covid and although I was missing some great low traffic driving time the process of figuring out where to send my car allowed me to meet some really great folks.

Agreed the labor is a big part of the process. It is terribly unfortunate that the bearings require so much hassle to replace. I love the car enough that I'd be willing to replace them every two years just to keep it on the road.

[Cincinnatus]

Are we sure we're talking about the S63Tu here, and not the S85 from the E63? My understanding is that the S63Tu is highly reliable and doesn't suffer from the rod bearing issues that plagued the previous generation.

[jporter396]

Originally Posted by TinCanSailor

It was hard watching my car sit motionless in my drive way for nearly 4 months so I know the struggle but this was the early days of covid and although I was missing some great low traffic driving time the process of figuring out where to send my car allowed me to meet some really great folks.

Agreed the labor is a big part of the process. It is terribly unfortunate that the bearings require so much hassle to replace. I love the car enough that I'd be willing to replace them every two years just to keep it on the road.

Having to walk by mine for months as it sat there dead was depressing. Hope to never go through that again plan to replace my acl bearings every 60k as the oem ones should be done every 60k at the latest. Not letting car warmup and going balls out or tuning seems to hurt as well. My previous owner abused this one with tubes and mods it was definitely long overdue and a well known weak point.

[TinCanSailor]

Originally Posted by Cincinnatus

Are we sure we're talking about the S63Tu here, and not the S85 from the E63? My understanding is that the S63Tu is highly reliable and doesn't suffer from the rod bearing issues that plagued the previous generation.

It is enough of an issue that shops across the US and UK are doing pretty consistent business rebuilding these.

[Cincinnatus]

Originally Posted by TinCanSailor

It is enough of an issue that shops across the US and UK are doing pretty consistent business rebuilding these.

Hmmmm... . iis there any test we can do or forewarning that we should be mindful of? IOW, bearing wear show show up in a Blackstone test, no?

[Elimentsdanny]

Originally Posted by jporter396

The clearances are tight coupled with premature wear on oem. I bought my m6 with a blown engine from rod bearing at 65k miles. Would recommend any new owner the replace and upgrade ad maintenance it's this cars biggest and most expensive flaw.

I agree but at 38k it really shouldn't be doing this don't you think ?? not enough reliability make the car very expansive to maintain

[Elimentsdanny]

Originally Posted by TinCanSailor

It was hard watching my car sit motionless in my drive way for nearly 4 months so I know the struggle but this was the early days of covid and although I was missing some great low traffic driving time the process of figuring out where to send my car allowed me to meet some really great folks.

Agreed the labor is a big part of the process. It is terribly unfortunate that the bearings require so much hassle to replace. I love the car enough that I'd be willing to replace them every two years just to keep it on the road.

Its a massive extra expense to keep up with that i have never had a car like it BMW seem to have missed some design fault here it should need all the preventatives measures.. i just don't feel its right it should be made better i feel

[Elimentsdanny]

Originally Posted by Cincinnatus

Are we sure we're talking about the S63Tu here, and not the S85 from the E63? My understanding is that the S63Tu is highly reliable and doesn't suffer from the rod bearing issues that plagued the previous generation.

that is exactly what i thought... but it has happened on the s63Tu sadly no warning at all and i don't drive it hard i do push it now and again but that it why we buy such a car ?? i am really disappointed

[Elimentsdanny]

Originally Posted by jporter396

Having to walk by mine for months as it sat there dead was depressing. Hope to never go through that again plan to replace my acl bearings every 60k as the oem ones should be done every 60k at the latest. Not letting car warmup and going balls out or tuning seems to hurt as well. My previous owner abused this one with tubes and mods it was definitely long overdue and a well known weak point.

I agree if you are to tune it and drive it hard then you should up your maintenance schedules keeping every thing in tip top shape but this car has done 38k and full service history and i have had it 2.5 years so i know how its been driven while i have had it and i really dont think it should of let go. only one journal damaged all the other 7 was in fine fettle ... why ?? i feel its wrong and it shouldn't be doing that

[Elimentsdanny]

Originally Posted by Cincinnatus

Hmmmm... . iis there any test we can do or forewarning that we should be mindful of? IOW, bearing wear show show up in a Blackstone test, no?

Interesting question that.. in my past i have spotted issues with my cars and stripped them down myself and rebuilt the engine on a few occasions. so you would think i would have spotted this coming as i always listen to the engine making sure its running sweet with no rattles/knocks ... this car sounded sweet i had no warning it just spun a bearing and when i pulled up it sounded to me like the bearings had gone it the alternator or some other auxiliary item it wasn't a knocking sound after it was more a metal on metal screeching but intermittent as it got to cylinder 2 never heard anything like it before. but i still say it shouldn't of happened if it had been built better in the first place ... i have been told that mercs don't do this.. not sure how true that is but if it is true then how come merc can get more power and still keep the reliability in it ???

[M6Roar]

Car manufactures makes most of their money not by selling cars but more of maintenance and solving the issues that comes along. They calculate the timeline/duration where each part would fail and that is mostly by the end time of the warranty, sometime they miscalculate which explains the recalls lol. So if they made a solid engine with no failures at all they will start losing money lol.

[Elimentsdanny]

Originally Posted by M6Roar

Car manufactures makes most of their money not by selling cars but more of maintenance and solving the issues that comes along. They calculate the timeline/duration where each part would fail and that is mostly by the end time of the warranty, sometime they miscalculate which explains the recalls lol. So if they made a solid engine with no failures at all they will start losing money lol.

But if they did they would sell more cars ... There ratings would go up and everybody would want there cars sales go up and what a saving on the marketing budget .... more profit i am in the wrong job

[M6Roar]

Yes they will sell more cars for a short period of time lol then there will be no demand (If a car lasted for 10 years or more) so their will be no supply and we will all end up driving X kind of model and we will all look like the Simpsons looooool

Just like the story of the light bulbs built to last for a life time and the company lost profit.

[Taheemr]

Originally Posted by Elimentsdanny

On the 7th June I was traveling at a steady at 60mph and suddenly the car felt like somebody had just dabbed the brakes while I was driving after the incident the car seemed fine and I didn’t notice anything else strange until I pulled up at the next set of traffic lights. i had the window slightly open and noticed a rattling/knocking noise coming from the engine so I pulled over and rung for a break down truck and had the car recovered to the garage.

The garage could not find anything obvious and suspected it was something internal in the engine so pulled the sump off only to fine metal shavings in the oil in the sump pan.

The garage under my instruction removed the engine commenced stripping it down to diagnose it what had failed.

It turned out to be rod bearing No 2 that had failed but all of the other bearings were fine ?.

The garage did say he could regrind the crank and use it again but he didn't recommend it on a engine so finely balanced as the s63. So i opted for a brand new crank and all new bearings.

The cars history is its a 2015 grand coupe M6 LCI with 38k miles

I have owned the car for 2.5 years now and it came to me with BMW service pack left on the car. It has had 3 owners including me i am the only owner that didn't buy it from BMW them selves i bought it privately from the last owner who bought it from BMW and paid for 3 years service pack.

Full BMW Service history all of its services has come up to be done due to time lapse not miles covered and all of its services have been done within the time specified by the on board computer no of the service's have been late.

my question is why did this car do this ??? in my opinion this should not have happened i could not of done anything further to prevent something like this.

I am 53 years old i have owned powerful cars for years. i understand engines i would never push it until the oil was up to normal temp i never pushed the car hard never raced the car on any tracks so its not had a hard life ?? so why did it fail ???

Has anybody had similar experience with these engines ??

Get BMW GB involved especially if its got a full dealer history, they should be sympathetic

[Elimentsdanny]

Originally Posted by Taheemr

Get BMW GB involved especially if its got a full dealer history, they should be sympathetic

I have emailed them twice for there opinion, all i have received is acknowledgement that they have received my email. i think i am going to get a solicitor involved i don't feel this car should have done this. i would like a explanation to why its spun one bearing and what i could have done to prevent it. i really feel that BMW have not made the engine robust enough. i feel the bearings are not good enough for the job.

[Mr. M6]

sorry to hear this, this is normal for S63,
it is from BMW engine oil 0w30 or 5w30, this what you used correct?

use 5w40 or better 5w50.