S63TU failures - M5, M6 & M6 GC
Discussion
BM Man said:
I wouldn’t dream of running mine without a BMW warranty. Only 2 weeks ago the engine light come on (yellow), turned out to be a high-pressure fuel pump and low-pressure fuel sensor. All fixed, £1800 invoice to the warranty company.
The car I have had for 6 years, on cold starts in the morning there was slight shakiness to the engine now it starts up and no shakes or vibrations. Mine is on 57k miles now and I often think about if the engine goes, I brought it for 24k in 2018 (private seller), does that mean my warranty claim is valid for 24k to cover any potential replacement engine?
Mine does that as well and has done since I got it in January 2022.The car I have had for 6 years, on cold starts in the morning there was slight shakiness to the engine now it starts up and no shakes or vibrations. Mine is on 57k miles now and I often think about if the engine goes, I brought it for 24k in 2018 (private seller), does that mean my warranty claim is valid for 24k to cover any potential replacement engine?
It's always when the engine's cold and it's running on the fast idle that it does for about 20 seconds after you start it. It's like there are occasional, random missfires. I don't move off till it comes back to the normal idle, at which point it's fine. There are no issues on the move and once it's warmed through it'll take full throttle and maximum acceleration without any problem, never had a warning light either.
I just assumed it was a quirk of the car and normal.
Thankfully I've also got the comprehensive warranty if it throws a warning light and an 1,800 quid bill.
Harry Rule said:
Mine does that as well and has done since I got it in January 2022.
It's always when the engine's cold and it's running on the fast idle that it does for about 20 seconds after you start it. It's like there are occasional, random missfires. I don't move off till it comes back to the normal idle, at which point it's fine. There are no issues on the move and once it's warmed through it'll take full throttle and maximum acceleration without any problem, never had a warning light either.
I just assumed it was a quirk of the car and normal.
Thankfully I've also got the comprehensive warranty if it throws a warning light and an 1,800 quid bill.
Yup owned the car for 5-6 years now. Always on startup on my drive way it will shake a tiny bit, for around 45 secs. Now ever since the replacement sensor and fuel pump it starts with the same fierece noise but without the shakes to be fair.It's always when the engine's cold and it's running on the fast idle that it does for about 20 seconds after you start it. It's like there are occasional, random missfires. I don't move off till it comes back to the normal idle, at which point it's fine. There are no issues on the move and once it's warmed through it'll take full throttle and maximum acceleration without any problem, never had a warning light either.
I just assumed it was a quirk of the car and normal.
Thankfully I've also got the comprehensive warranty if it throws a warning light and an 1,800 quid bill.
Edited by BM Man on Wednesday 13th September 14:45
Same for our 2018 X5M from cold (or after standing for 10mins+), sounds rough and metallic for about 15 secs with an idle of 1500rpm. Been like that since we have owned it. Full BMW warranty as well here just in case! Although it only covers to the purchase price value of the vehicle, read stories on the US forums of $40k+ engine and turbo replacements when a spun bearing happens... 
Z4MCSL said:
Bumping this thread in case PI55 Flaps has an update on their warranty claim???
I am very close to pulling the trigger on an f10 M5 and was feeling comforted by Comprehensive BMW Warranty but now I feel less so. Cars I am looking at are between £25-30k so looking at 6-16k bill if enginge goes from look of this thread?
Sorry I didn’t get a notification…I am very close to pulling the trigger on an f10 M5 and was feeling comforted by Comprehensive BMW Warranty but now I feel less so. Cars I am looking at are between £25-30k so looking at 6-16k bill if enginge goes from look of this thread?
So I only got to point where I got small contribution from bmw and would have still have to paid ~£7k myself.
So the car was fitted with the set of old winter wheels and 10 year old tyres and taken to WBAC. Car drove fine and no engine lights….
They purchased it for £19.5k and I sold the other wheels and tyres for £1.85k and got a pro rata refund on warranty.
So I ended up a few £k down but better than sinking more into car.
Shame as was mint and a history file as long as your arm / over serviced.
The car never did appear for sale again and MoT check shows it was not MOTd again so it’s obv dead now :-(
P155flaps said:
Sorry I didn’t get a notification…
So I only got to point where I got small contribution from bmw and would have still have to paid ~£7k myself.
So the car was fitted with the set of old winter wheels and 10 year old tyres and taken to WBAC. Car drove fine and no engine lights….
They purchased it for £19.5k and I sold the other wheels and tyres for £1.85k and got a pro rata refund on warranty.
So I ended up a few £k down but better than sinking more into car.
Shame as was mint and a history file as long as your arm / over serviced.
The car never did appear for sale again and MoT check shows it was not MOTd again so it’s obv dead now :-(
Wow, that's concerning. Sorry to hear that.So I only got to point where I got small contribution from bmw and would have still have to paid ~£7k myself.
So the car was fitted with the set of old winter wheels and 10 year old tyres and taken to WBAC. Car drove fine and no engine lights….
They purchased it for £19.5k and I sold the other wheels and tyres for £1.85k and got a pro rata refund on warranty.
So I ended up a few £k down but better than sinking more into car.
Shame as was mint and a history file as long as your arm / over serviced.
The car never did appear for sale again and MoT check shows it was not MOTd again so it’s obv dead now :-(
What year M5 was it? I've read this was more common with the pre-facelift / 2011-2013 models, not sure how true that is
A44RON said:
Wow, that's concerning. Sorry to hear that.
What year M5 was it? I've read this was more common with the pre-facelift / 2011-2013 models, not sure how true that is
It was a Nov 2013 M6… 13 bmw services and 59k miles, had always lived its life under warranty also.What year M5 was it? I've read this was more common with the pre-facelift / 2011-2013 models, not sure how true that is
I read about all the issues before buying it and thought nah can’t be that common, turns out it’s a ticking time bomb and more common than I realised.
Anyone buying these in the Mid 20s is likely in for an expensive bill at some point even with warranty in place. A full engine with turbos is £35k fitted from BMW.
Will be the last BMW M Car I ever buy. Back in a 718 GT4 now and enjoying driving again
I’ve been through a bunch of M cars and seen and heard it all over and over again.
Bought a S50B32 equipped M3 with 150k on the clock… it’d had a new gearbox(same box as the E46 M3 I believe?) due to synchros being worn which was a common issue but nothing else. Apparently rod bearings were an issue on that engine… well they were still in pretty good shape when I had them done as preventative maintenance around 160k and probably could have taken the track miles I then put on the rebuilt engine.
Bought an E39 M5 and would you guess it? The internet was full of stories of them costing a fortune to run, spinning bottom end bearings, wrecking diffs etc etc
The M5 board(keep in mind it’s worldwide) had threads on bottom end bearing failures/mileages and there were a fair few people who had engines under warranty or had expensive rebuilds on cars without crazy mileage, it was a supposed ‘issue’ and time bomb.
I look back now and it’s not considered an issue any more mine was on nearly 140k when I sold it and the oil analysis came back good. And the previous owner was a plum.
There were a few people comfortably over 200k on originals and plenty that had built in mid 100s with nothing too much to complain about noted.
Generally the early phase is when the kind of people buy these cars that don’t care for them or even understand mechanical sympathy - something that’s changed a lot over the generations anyway! And lots go wrong. Then the weak/abused ones have already blown and been repaired or the engines probably ok.
From what I’ve gathered on the S63 which is the same as my previous N54(which again had tonnes of horror stories on forums and Facebook groups):
Injectors: get them changed, just do it.
Plugs and coils: do the plugs every few years and coils every 4-5
Oil: change it regularly
The rest is more or less standard ongoing and preventative maintenance. And to be fair the above applies to any turbo engine.
Back in the 80s and 90s performance engines in road cars were so detuned to prevent misuse or poor maintenance etc from causing issues. You could abuse them pretty bad. Yes they had inherent issues but they were generally good on the whole.
The push for more performance has cut out a lot of the allowance for abuse - especially in boosted applications.
2013 on 92k.
Original engine to my knowledge, had a bunch of injectors and ancillary stuff done.
Oil analysis done on the oil change when I got it said ‘no evidence of wear associated with the rod bearing wear commonly seen on this engine’
It’s a brute of a lump and should be respected!
Bought a S50B32 equipped M3 with 150k on the clock… it’d had a new gearbox(same box as the E46 M3 I believe?) due to synchros being worn which was a common issue but nothing else. Apparently rod bearings were an issue on that engine… well they were still in pretty good shape when I had them done as preventative maintenance around 160k and probably could have taken the track miles I then put on the rebuilt engine.
Bought an E39 M5 and would you guess it? The internet was full of stories of them costing a fortune to run, spinning bottom end bearings, wrecking diffs etc etc
The M5 board(keep in mind it’s worldwide) had threads on bottom end bearing failures/mileages and there were a fair few people who had engines under warranty or had expensive rebuilds on cars without crazy mileage, it was a supposed ‘issue’ and time bomb.
I look back now and it’s not considered an issue any more mine was on nearly 140k when I sold it and the oil analysis came back good. And the previous owner was a plum.
There were a few people comfortably over 200k on originals and plenty that had built in mid 100s with nothing too much to complain about noted.
Generally the early phase is when the kind of people buy these cars that don’t care for them or even understand mechanical sympathy - something that’s changed a lot over the generations anyway! And lots go wrong. Then the weak/abused ones have already blown and been repaired or the engines probably ok.
From what I’ve gathered on the S63 which is the same as my previous N54(which again had tonnes of horror stories on forums and Facebook groups):
Injectors: get them changed, just do it.
Plugs and coils: do the plugs every few years and coils every 4-5
Oil: change it regularly
The rest is more or less standard ongoing and preventative maintenance. And to be fair the above applies to any turbo engine.
Back in the 80s and 90s performance engines in road cars were so detuned to prevent misuse or poor maintenance etc from causing issues. You could abuse them pretty bad. Yes they had inherent issues but they were generally good on the whole.
The push for more performance has cut out a lot of the allowance for abuse - especially in boosted applications.
2013 on 92k.
Original engine to my knowledge, had a bunch of injectors and ancillary stuff done.
Oil analysis done on the oil change when I got it said ‘no evidence of wear associated with the rod bearing wear commonly seen on this engine’
It’s a brute of a lump and should be respected!
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