Engine blew up at 42k miles.

Stainless 45 wrote

BMW markets this car as 'Born on the racetrack' or something to that effect. They boast about their Nurburgring times, post all kinds of track videos on their youtube channel, and if you take Performance Center delivery you are encouraged to run your car around on a track. Furthermore they teach HPDE using M cars from time to time and give exhibition laps at places like Lime Rock. But if you track your car your warranty is voided? I believe this only applies if it's being used in a competition event. Otherwise false advertising.

+1. My SA keeps asking me, everytime I go in for service, if I take the car to the track. I don't but out of curiosity I asked him once if BMW condone tracking the car and he gave me a "are you kidding me" look and said yeah that's what it was designed for. I took that to mean the warranty is not void if the car is tracked, but who know if they would honor the warranty if/when shit hits the fan.

javarithms wrote  

Stainless 45 wrote

BMW markets this car as 'Born on the racetrack' or something to that effect. They boast about their Nurburgring times, post all kinds of track videos on their youtube channel, and if you take Performance Center delivery you are encouraged to run your car around on a track. Furthermore they teach HPDE using M cars from time to time and give exhibition laps at places like Lime Rock. But if you track your car your warranty is voided? I believe this only applies if it's being used in a competition event. Otherwise false advertising.

+1. My SA keeps asking me, everytime I go in for service, if I take the car to the track. I don't but out of curiosity I asked him once if BMW condone tracking the car and he gave me a "are you kidding me" look and said yeah that's what it was designed for. I took that to mean the warranty is not void if the car is tracked, but who know if they would honor the warranty if/when shit hits the fan.

I hope they do, as I don't think any human error caused that rod bearing to fail. I'm trying to ask my dealer get someone from BMW NA to come inspect my car rather than mechanics at the dealer.

How did you blow a motor with DCT? Bad tune? Increase rev limiter?

Physics wrote  

How did you blow a motor with DCT? Bad tune? Increase rev limiter?

Did you read thread at all?

OP, let us know what happens, but you should change the original post and not say where you're located incase BMW wants to void your warranty based on this thread.
MANY manufacturers have searched the net and found customers talking about their cars on track and used it to void the warranty.
Good luck and I'm hoping I don't have to add you to the registry.

Also, do you know why your friend's care blew in China?
.

aus wrote  

OP, let us know what happens, but you should change the original post and not say where you're located incase BMW wants to void your warranty based on this thread.
MANY manufacturers have searched the net and found customers talking about their cars on track and used it to void the warranty.
Good luck and I'm hoping I don't have to add you to the registry.

Also, do you know why your friend's care blew in China?
.

His car blew due to a bad rod bearing, and I also have a friend that his engine shut off while driving on high way 80mph, BMW replaced his engine, and it took a month. I don't think tracking the car would cause the issue, and they should not void my warranty based on this.

ive actually uninstalled my tune a while ago in case something like this happened. my engine is only 34k miles but i have safeguard platinum warranty now. if mine blows it better be before 86k or 6 yrs.

good luck, keep us posted, change the title of thread NOW.

Dealer is still waiting on BMW NA rep to tell them what to do next, they told me the case will totally up to BMW NA. Only thing dealer told me is there is a hole in my engine block, which I already knew.

Agh man sorry to hear. What was the engine temp at the time it died?

Im guessing the rod bearings were never swapped out.

Andrew@ActiveAutowerke wrote  

Agh man sorry to hear. What was the engine temp at the time it died?

Im guessing the rod bearings were never swapped out.

Oil temp is in the middle, that was my 3rd lap in that session, and 6th lap on that day. No rod bearing was never changed.

Sorry to hear OP about your engine. I guess none of us will ever know why these thing happen as some of them do get tracked. I know people with S65 tracked regularly at almost 80k with original rod bearing doing ok, yet we've seen some with lass than 20k also blow. I'm uber paranoid and change my oil after every 3-4 track days or 2K miles It's also hard for OP not to post where it happened as I guarantee that would be the first question he would be asked, and he was already doubted. It's tough when we ask try to understand why they break without knowing the circumstances. Members have been encouraged to post their rod bearing failures on previous threads. We've all seen some of the greatest machines break on TV when raced hard. Even the best Ferrari and Mercedes F1 engineers can't stop their machines from braking at times. I just hope OP gets a good resolution out of this so he can get pride and joy back, and the rest of us can keep out S65 safe as well. I 'd also like to start seeing data soon with 20-60K on upgraded bearings.

OP, any update on your situation? Did they determine the cause of failure? Any hope for a new engine from BMW?

Once BMW NA comes back and says no, which is most likely, write a convincing letter telling them how your respect for the brand is based on them standing behind the product. And that you will probably avoid buying BMWs in the future if they do not support their customers and their product.
Seriously, this is a known issue. Does not matter where it happened.

Killerfish2012 wrote  

OP, any update on your situation? Did they determine the cause of failure? Any hope for a new engine from BMW?

Saw the OP's car in the dealer today. The mechanics took the engine apart and found a hole in the engine block.He said it was the rod bearings. They are still in talks with BMW. Looks like it's gonna take a while.

///S65 wrote

Saw the OP's car in the dealer today. The mechanics took the engine apart and found a hole in the engine block.He said it was the rod bearings. They are still in talks with BMW. Looks like it's gonna take a while.

Thanks for the update. Hoping for the best for OP.

Zzhou wrote

His car blew due to a bad rod bearing, and I also have a friend that his engine shut off while driving on high way 80mph, BMW replaced his engine, and it took a month. I don't think tracking the car would cause the issue, and they should not void my warranty based on this.

Prolonged high rpm over and over is what causes more stress and imbalances in the engines are more pronounced near redline.
An engine is more likely to overheat at the track than on the freeway cruising at 80 mph in 7th gear bc of the constant wot.

That is true, but BMW sells the car with an 8400 rpm redline and advertises it as track ready. I think it would be a shame if the only way the high performance car you bought was reliable long term was if you drove it only on the freeway at 80 mph in top gear. You can do that with a Prius.

V1.47fan wrote

Prolonged high rpm over and over is what causes more stress and imbalances in the engines are more pronounced near redline.
An engine is more likely to overheat at the track than on the freeway cruising at 80 mph in 7th gear bc of the constant wot.

Engine tear downs on young motors have revealed spotty build issues. This motor looks to have been assembled by hand where each guy along the line is torquing the bolts a certain number of times. The rod bolts are either under, or over torqued. There was even a bolt for the engine block that was drilled in at a slightly off angle, and the small crack that developed slowly leaked coolant, and the engine was done. So over time the miss-assembled engine will fail, irregardless of how it was used. We are seeing no correlation between track use and engine failure, since the majority of failures have occurred in daily driven vehicles.

Killerfish2012 wrote

Engine tear downs on young motors have revealed spotty build issues. This motor looks to have been assembled by hand where each guy along the line is torquing the bolts a certain number of times. The rod bolts are either under, or over torqued. There was even a bolt for the engine block that was drilled in at a slightly off angle, and the small crack that developed slowly leaked coolant, and the engine was done. So over time the miss-assembled engine will fail, irregardless of how it was used. We are seeing no correlation between track use and engine failure, since the majority of failures have occurred in daily driven vehicles.

Do you have some data to back that up?

Prolonged track use with wot in turns for example is harder on rod bearings than doing 80 mph on the freeway in 7th gear.

Most manufacturers not just BMW doesnt want you to take your car to the track. It's not a race car, it's a compromise.

V1.47fan wrote

Do you have some data to back that up

read the forum. Look at the forums. Check out the track section. No one is even talking about bearing failure. From day 1, loads of track data footage, maybe 1 failure.

Killerfish2012 wrote

read the forum. Look at the forums. Check out the track section. No one is even talking about bearing failure. From day 1, loads of track data footage, maybe 1 failure.

Maybe that's because most people don't advertise when they have an engine failure at the track or a money shift in general( not pertaining to you).

Killerfish2012 wrote

HPDE is not competitive motorsports. Either way, no matter what the literature sez, if you let them know you were at a track when this happened, that warranty is voided.

BMW NA thinks it is. When my engine blew they denied my warranty claim because of my HPDE videos on youtube. They called it "racing".