Big Job Preventative Maintenance Worth It?

[Craig]

This is my first post on this board and what I am trying to get is mainly an opinion response.

I have a BMW E39 M5 2002, it’s covered about 112k now and to be honest is in excellent condition. There are no mechanical issues other than a few ‘tidy up’ jobs. It’s going to have some spray work done and a full detail later this year to bring it up like new.

Anyway, back to the reason for this post was just giving you some background there. If you do a bit of digging around you find that for the S62 engine there are some cases where these engines have thrown rod bearings, and also their chain guides have deteriorated and failed. It’s generally a bit hit and miss, some engines last 150k some 200k some have had issues as low as 50k. I imagine it’s got a lot to do with how the car is driven and I am.. well… almost religious regarding how it’s treated.. oil changes every 6k.. with filters.. no expense spared maintenance.. car is always allowed to heat up properly before going much over 2.5k rpm.. I think a lot of these failures are due to lack of mechanical sympathy from the owners.. reving high when the oil has not heated etc..

Anyway! I shall carry on.. basically I am contemplating giving the car some major preventative ‘heart surgery’ namely:

– Rod Bearings
– Chain Guides (already done tensioner, and the chain will be checked to see if that’s needed once we’ve got it apart, in the garage’s experience this is rare).
– Vanos Overhaul (hydraulic variable valve timing system used in BMW engines.. can develop rattles with age, mine is ok at the moment and running well, if you’re interested read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VANOS)

Additions later:

– Diff seals
– Clutch (might do this as it’ll be easy to get to at the time).

The car is not going to be a daily driver, and it’s a keeper for sure.. I have already selected the garage to do the work. One of the most trusted garages near me (Reading, England), the owner would do the work and he’s done several of these jobs before (to be honest he’s the only person I’d trust as you need to know these engines inside out).

Here’s the gulp part… the Rod Bearings and Chain Guides are going to be about £2000 ($3700?) to do and should take about 3 days. In the process obviously it’ll be re-timed and the Vanos components re-conditioned.

I want the car perfect and just right.. I’m probably a technicians worst nightmare customer as I want everything perfect. I do most jobs myself as I am finatical about how they are done, services are all DIY’s and if I can do it at home I tend to.

I wanted to see what you guys thought of doing this sort of work it’s all about opinions, and any experience you have had doing jobs like this.

Cheers

Craig

Topic

[chevyaz]

Check out You Tube channel bullshit korner he has BMW videos.And hes a real cool guy he will answer some of your Questions too. Hes got good stuff. Hope this helps you.

[Scott]

Old saying; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

If the engine isn’t having any problems, why spend all the money to repair something that isn’t broken?

What type of oil are you using in the engine? BMW requires special oil for that engine. Here is the note from my Online Product Application Guide – 2002 BMW M5 Product Application Guide

[i]Castrol high performance synthetic oils, Castrol Formula RS SAE 10W-60 also called Castrol TWS Motorsport SAE 10W-60 Synthetic oil part no. 07 51 0 009 420 are the only BMW
approved products for a complete engine oil change. If in between oil changes these Castrol high performance synthetic oils with a viscosity of 10W-60 should be unavailable,
engine oil with an API rating of SJ/CF or better and a viscosity of SAE 10W-60, SAE 10W-40, SAE 5W-50 or SAE 10W-50 may be used in small amounts for top-up only.

[/i]

I also strongly recommend you stick with original quality Mann oil filters. My product application guide lists the Mann oil filter part number as –> HU9384x

If you really want to check the internal condition of the engine, the best way to do this is by having a laboratory oil analysis done. This will tell you what’s really going on and can save you scads of money!

I hope this helps you out.

[drthrift035]

Prevention is always better than the cure. If you have the money to cover these repairs go right ahead. I am also a car fanatic. I am so precise on everything that will not let anyone work on my own vehicle because it is more serious than ” Open heart surgery “. It is my opinion that you should not wait for things to break down. Man is greater than machine always. So be proactive and solve the Vehicle before it solves you.

[Author]

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