335i Rod Bearings

[msb1973]

Anyone running an n54 335i will know what a great car these are for the money and the potential power that’s available for relatively little money. Owners will also know the motors are meant to be fairly bulletproof, the usual problems cropping up being the stuff attached to the engine like turbos, water pumps, hpfp to name but a few.
One issue people may not be aware of now these cars are aging, including myself is rod bearings. I’d always heard about bmw M Cars having these issues but never as a rule non m ones.
Anyway I’ve been using Pmp cars at Nuneaton for a few jobs now and last week when having the oil filter housing gasket done the mentioned said bearings, trusting their judgment and my car currently sitting at 122k and tuned to stage 2 I decided to go ahead with the work, last night they sent me pictures of my old bearings which were indeed ready for changing due to light wear marks and pitting, has anyone else running an n54 had these done or indeed fail? Just curious and want to make potential owners aware of this s potentially catastrophic issue if it’s not dealt with😁

[g3org3y]

Did you have any symptoms associated with the rod bearing wear? Or is it a case or totally asymptomatic until epic failure?

[msb1973]

No symptoms at all the car was running spot on.

[wax lyrical]

My 2008 E93 335i is at 180k miles at the moment. Not driven that hard and not tuned. So hopefully the rod bearings will be in good shape.

Fortunately I have the BMW insured warranty going still (since I bought it 8 yrs ago), so hopefully any such issue would be covered?

Thanks for the heads-up though. Appreciated!

[msb1973]

Not sure the tuned or not bit makes much of a difference, guess it’s a he game of chance that you have to decide weather you want to play or not.

[MikeM6]

Never heard of N54 rod bearings being an issue, probably as they use normal oil instead of 10w60 that M engines use. It was the highly strung S engines with really small clearances, combined with the heavy oils and hard use when cold knackered them.

My old 2009 (N54)335i was fine in the 40k I drove it for, well the engine was, the rest of the car cost loads to maintain.

[msb1973]

How long ago did you have your 335i though?

[MikeM6]

msb1973 said:

How long ago did you have your 335i though?

Had mine between July 2016 and November 2019.

[msb1973]

Maybe a bit early for the issue to be raising its head, picked my car up from Pmp today and they showed me the old bearings, they were definatley ready!