Dont bother doing this on an N55 unless you really plan on tracking the car and beating the crap out of it. Ive owned 3 N55 cars all with over 150k miles original rod bearings. Change your oil every 5k with Liqui Moly 5w-40, drive gingerly until your engine warms up, and you will literally never have to even think about rod bearings on an N55.
I'm inclined to agree with you. There is a lot of discussion out there about rod bearing failures on N55's. This 135i belongs to one of our retail center employees and it had a really bad oil pan gasket leak. He asked while we were in there if we could also do the rod bearings. This car has been tuned for over 100K miles and has a large turbo and as everyone can see these rod bearings were in great shape. Oil changes are the EASIEST and most cost effective maintenance you can ever do. Combine that with a little bit of mechanical sympathy when the engine is not up to temp and you have a much better shot of keeping your car running better longer.
This is completely false. Unlike the n54 the n55 is known to have significantly poor lubrication. As a matter of fact you can see oil pressures drop from bends in the road. To add, most of these cars are older than a decade and have been modified and are high mileage now that they have come down in price. This is cheap insurance to have rather than to re/re an engine. N55 rod bearings fail prematurely due to their tight tolerances and poor lubrication plain and simple.
On a scale of 1-10, how bad was the job? I'll have to do the same thing soon , gasket is leaking and the pan is warped since BMW thought it'd be cool to give the N20 a plastic pan smh
@@user-ki8zf1rp1e I’m a BMW tech so anything at this point is whatever to me but my E92 is definitely on the easier side of pans to do. Plus I use the lift at work, I couldn’t imagine dealing with that shit on the floor with Jack stands.
@@user-ki8zf1rp1e you can get away with cranking away the engine all the way up to the max it’ll let you so you don’t have to drop the subframe but it’s definitely sketchy
@@Rockardo_ Yea it's already a nightmare getting anything intrusive done on jack stands. I don't have access to a lift so I might invest in a Quickjack 7000. Doing a suspension arm refresh is not fun when the car is barely two feet above you
It’s simple. Let the engines warm up and you’ll be fine. People beat up on these cars on a cold motor. Hence the issues on the E9X M3 and E60 M5. 100% preventable by properly letting that 10W-60!!!! Warm up.
Yup that is they key here im at 175k on the original rod bearings and for the N55 engine its 5w-40 every 5k miles. Mind you my car is tuned and i drive it HARD but only once its warmed up.
im abt to do my rod bearings on my e71 x6 , can you tell me what abt the xdrive made it more difficult , im trying to piece stuff together before i go in there
Just sent my oil analysis in to Blackstone, we'll see what they say but yeah, I'm a little concerned! Nice timing for this video, maybe, hopefully not.
Thanks for a great video, how do you know the condition of the crankshaft bearings? I have an F30 with N20 engine at 285000km and I am also worried about the piston rings.
The fact your N20 has 285k means you're probably going to be fine. Rod bearings wear because of the start/stop technology. The oil bleeds off the rods and they take a split second to get oil to the rods. Also if you are working on the oil filter housings gasket, it is extremely important to prime the system. BMW wanted to fix the issues with the VANOS and simplified the oil circuit. This means that if you work on the oil system, there is a bigger chance of running the engine dry. Lack of lubrication is always shown on the rod bearings. Changing your oil often will greatly extend the life of your engine. Consider using a 5W40 rather than a 0W in summer months and. 0W30 in winter. A tight range with a GTL formulation is really going to work well. 14,000 kilometers for an oil change is too long. I have no problem doing it at half those intervals with the same oil filter.
just remove the 20A LP fuel pump fuse behind the glove box; run car until dies; and so much easier to use this as way to prime your N55. No need to mess with plugs or injectors!!
I agree that there’s a better way, and to leave the plugs, coils, and injectors all plugged in - doing this will let the DME “see” everything (won’t throw faults) when you power on the ignition. Pulling the pump fuse is one way to go, but you’re asking for trouble because it would still allow the car to fire and turn over (with whatever line pressure is available after the pump) before building a complete prime throughout the whole motor. I’d highly recommend you don’t do it this way. The whole point of removing spark and fuel for this is to allow the oil circuit to build full oil pressure, *without compression*, to avoid bearing surface starvation (of any kind) at startup. The recommended way, straight out of the shop software, is to leave everything plugged in, power up the ignition (system check - make sure you’re code free), and then before priming, pull the ONE red power cable from the battery distribution box, in the trunk. This will cut power to the junction box under the hood (coils and injectors), allowing you to safely build oil pressure. The last time I primed, I didn’t have full pressure until about the third cycle (they build on each other) - and this is why it really does matter. Hope this helps - Cheers!
No. In general I don't believe rod bearings are an issue on N55's or S55's as long as the car is treated correctly (good regular oil change intervals + mechanical sympathy before the engine reaches operating temperature).
