The parts are metal so they should last a long time, except the plastic chain guides. I would say the guide failed then if the new chain noise ignored then chain jumped over sprocket and bent valves or more damage.

 

it's not that something fails in a spectacular way and explodes ,its a gradual degradation.For example ,oil rings , rod bearings , lifters and mating surfaces . by increased tolerances due to wear compression will go down , power will degrease .Also , bigger tolerances will lead to increased oil consumption , lower oil pressure , which inevitably will result to cams scoring , bearings wearing exponentially ,etc.These may sound scary ,but bmw engines have really tight tolerances , so they usually last really long. the plastic bits and the sensors though ,thats a different story

 

it's not that something fails in a spectacular way and explodes ,its a gradual degradation.For example ,oil rings , rod bearings , lifters and mating surfaces . by increased tolerances due to wear compression will go down

+1 on this.

Kburger from this forum has 700k on his M54 engine, I have 410k on my M54 (E39 '03 530i) which I am driving daily. I have also pulled apart 6-8 M54 engines to fix head gaskets or replace piston rings, etc.

A well maintained, well-used M54 can go a very long time. Compression on my 410k engine has declined and is close to the bottom of the BMW min specs of 10 to 11 bar (145 to 160 psi). But it runs fine and has plenty of power for me. Oil consumption is not outrageous.

When I pull engines apart I typically see very little wear - surprisingly little in the bottom rotating assembly including crank and connecting rod journals and bearings. This is so consistent, that I rarely pull a crank cap off any more. 50's kid did some nice youtube video's of blue printing his engine - measuring wear in piston bores, etc. which you might like.

we have seen failures of the oil pump nut in high stress (racing situations), and recently saw a 6 cyl m54 jump a timing chain, but those are rare and not necessarily found in high mileage engines.

keep driving it.

 

The chain tensioner spring shrinks and is a fairly easy thing to replace

 

I took apart 2 (and rebuilt 1) M54 engines with both +- 300k km (190k miles). Only things that really showed signs of wear were the bearing caps and chain guides. (didn't measure the piston rings as I replaced them anyways for the small extra cost)

 

It depends on which country you are from. If you are from Germany, rod bearings will eventually be shot and people usually replace them before hitting 200k miles. In the US there isn't really much that will go wrong even beyond that mileage.

 

Why might that be? Different fuel or oil? Sustained high rpm in top gear Autobahn running?

 

Based on my limited experience, I'd say timing chain guides and VANOS seals.

 

All the plastics, and that includes
chain guides, coolant plastics and o- rings in the Vanos, etc.

BMW pistons traditionally wear at the ring lands, and then the rings get looser and
looser, eventually breaking and destroying the pistons.

But ALL metal wear is based on oil change interval and use patterns.
If the engine's had fresh oil every 7500 and was warmed up thoroughly
EVERY time before redline, and spent most of its life at 50% or less of redline,
it may NEVER wear anything out.

Or the oil pump drive chain may finally scream 'enough' and wrap itself around the crank
as the engine runs it's millionth hour. But there's nothing that will inherently 'give up'.

Cams wear. Rings wear. But oil bearings can last for almost ever.

t
wearing it out faster is always more fun.

 

From my observations lurking and contributing to this board for many years
-I can't recall any story of a bearing / piston / rod /crank failure on a factory original engine. On E60//M5 v10 boards you will find plenty of stories of rod bearing failure. It had something to do with the material they were made from failed prematurely
-I cant' recall any story of engine failures from 'money shifts' - mechanical over speeds that can be found on other manufacturers boards.
-There have been countless stories that start with an overheat that subsequently leads to a warped head - blown head gasket / engine rebuild / stripped threads in the block nightmares.
-My conclusion is don't overheat your engine and it will outlive the body around it. But this isn't unique to BMW. I can't find the doc anymore but in the early 2000's Ford communicated to its dealers the majority of engine failures were caused by lack of cooling system maintenance and resulting overheats.

My BMW's are daily drivers - not hobby cars. They aren't driven hard and for maintenance its just routine fluid changes on schedule. Everything else is as needed. I just wish BMW could make gaskets that lasted longer than 5 years and PCV systems that worked. That would reduce my 'time under the hood' considerably.

 

From my observations lurking and contributing to this board for many years
-I can't recall any story of a bearing / piston / rod /crank failure on a factory original engine. On E60//M5 v10 boards you will find plenty of stories of rod bearing failure. It had something to do with the material they were made from failed prematurely
-I cant' recall any story of engine failures from 'money shifts' - mechanical over speeds that can be found on other manufacturers boards.
-There have been countless stories that start with an overheat that subsequently leads to a warped head - blown head gasket / engine rebuild / stripped threads in the block nightmares.
-My conclusion is don't overheat your engine and it will outlive the body around it. But this isn't unique to BMW. I can't find the doc anymore but in the early 2000's Ford communicated to its dealers the majority of engine failures were caused by lack of cooling system maintenance and resulting overheats.

My BMW's are daily drivers - not hobby cars. They aren't driven hard and for maintenance its just routine fluid changes on schedule. Everything else is as needed. I just wish BMW could make gaskets that lasted longer than 5 years and PCV systems that worked. That would reduce my 'time under the hood' considerably.

Exactly. The lower end bearings on the M54 engines are old school composition.
The newer generation ones are bereft of the softer (ground water impacting) metals. So they're very hard and often seize to the crank with a catastrophic failure.
We endeavor to replace such with traditional bearings of standard materials/clearances. Usually sourced from King Bearings or BE Bearings.

 

+1

One more reason, there are several, why I will likely never buy a BMW with an engine newer than the M54..

 

I always say things like that, too.

but then a deal shows up
(like the xit that we found, or the E39 'for my mother- in- law')
that doesn't let you say no.

And then it starts all over again.

t
the 'new' one series is starting to catch my eye....

 

Continuous high RPM is enough to wear out M54 rod bearings but like I said nobody in the US does that.

 

I had 236K on my E46 330i when it was totaled by an old lady. Zero mechanical internal anything wrong, ever with that M54. Zero. It was all the bolted on accessories and gaskets that turned to bacon with the heat being generated. Stout engine if you are good about changing the oil and maintaining the rest of it, especially the cooling system. I wrung that car out on the daily, every single day I drove it.

The only major downfall is the piston rings and oil blow by. Once that starts to happen to an M54, there's your life, adding oil religiously, often, always. If that bothers you in any way and you don't mind a little less power, get an M52B28, they are close to the power of the M54M30 but leak zero oil in comparison.

 

Well maybe I should have mentioned that one of those 2 M54's I did was very poorly maintained. And I also have my doubts about the other.

 

I would not even say Autobahn driving has everything to do with it as much as the driver of the car. I used to regularly hit the governor cutoff on my 323ci which was around 136 MPH on the Autobahn. The RPMs were fairly close to maxed out in fifth gear and it was probably quite hard on the engine for prolonged periods, so I usually avoided this for periods more than 10 minutes. The only times this was even possible was late at night or on a Sunday morning. Every other time I was annoyed by cruising along at 3 digit speeds just to have to slow down to 90kmh for a truck passing another truck or a Renault Twingo passing a camper. Most of the time you can only cruise anywhere from approx 60-120 MPH during the work week anyways and around 80 MPH (130kmh) is what most people do. Not to mention the German gas prices were enough of a deterrent to even keep some people with Porsches driving in the slow lanes at times.

Despite all this at 190,000 miles my engine still runs healthy. The past three years I'm back stateside probably has prolonged the life of the engine since I don't dare going over 80 MPH in Virginia.

 

If Russia doesn't have this problem either, maybe it has to do with oil and oil change culture. Like I said, most Germans (especially non-enthusiasts) will change oil every 20k miles or once every two years. Some might do 15k miles or once a year. A stark contrast to US culture, which dictates 5k miles or twice a year.

 

It is possible, although truth about oil is that even very dirty oil still lubes enough to keep engine safe.
There are forum members who continuously changes oil on long intervals, based on their trust to Blackstone lab reports. I doubt they gonna face bearing replacement any soon.
Problem with old oil is that combustion product contaminate oil bad enough that it starts dropping them in engine, and possibly clog passways and restrict oil flow in critical areas. At that case you could get catastrophical events. But it takes serious neglecting, and 20K km recommended by BMW aren't the case, not for M54.Those long intervals imminently lead to oil consumption because of oil rings baking, but not to bearing damages.

 

What's the most likely cause in your opinion then? Not all M54s in Germany suffer the bearing problem, but there are enough that it's an issue that everyone is aware of. It might also be an issue of definition/culture, since it's not uncommon for regular commuter cars there to get engine rebuilds for relatively cheap due to wear (even if it's not actually that worn), whereas nobody in the US who isn't an enthusiast would do that unless their engine is literally toast.

Also most M54s in Germany are gonna be the b22 or b25, so smaller displacement (which doesn't last as long) and due to shorter drive ratio, operating at higher RPM across the board. The 320i for example comes with a 5 speed and 3.38 diff from factory. So RPMs are crazy high all the time. Although the issue persists on the b30 as well so I'm not sure.

 

I had no idea of such problem existing with m54 in Germany , unless you mentioned it couple of month ago.
Let me assume you have it form German bmw enthusiasts you are in contact with. I cannot judge how reliable that info is, meaning if there is actual statistics, but it seems problem happening often enough to be noticed, so I have no reason to doubt it (unlike things like ''fun clutch jams and fan explodes'' - everyone heard those scary stories, but does anyone actually saw it?)
Since such problem seem doesn't exist in USA and rest of the world, only difference I could see as is speed regime on the roads of the country. Oil isn't the reason. Weather is not.
One more thing we possibly could take into consideration - amount of qualified mechanics able to deal with BMW - and probably general car culture. What I mean is: if some problem appears, proper diagnostic and right measures to fix the problem - rather than ''good noise always shows itself, so just drive and lets see''.
You are right, not every bimmer in Germany suffers such problem - but, clearly, not every one uses left line on authoban. So it would be interesting to hear from guys who faces bearing replacement about their driving patterns.