Yea I agree. I just got done reading about 200 posts on multiple forums about these damn bolts. I'll take care to torque to spec, but not add the extra 90° of yield rotation. I remember working on my lifted Jeep Wrangler Rubicon years ago, and just blast home all the skid plate and cross-member bolts with an impact wrench! E53 is a different beast, but TTY bolts spec'd in this application does seem a bit ridiculous. All this fuss just to change a leaking transmission selector shaft seal! And now an oil change and oil level sensor seal while I got the plate off!

I basically agree, but you can probably safely go tighter than that.

These are M10 - 1.5 x 55mm, class 10.9 bolts and nuts.

The torque spec per Bentley is 56 Nm + 90*.

For fasteners with unspecified torque values, the Bentley, p020-4 says that you can go to 66 Nm for a M10 class 10.9 bolt.

So if you're going to skip on the 90*, you can safely go to 66 Nm with no fear of breaking anything. The Bentley gives these numbers with no specs on surface prep, so there is probably some leeway above that in most cases.

When the bolts were first installed, they probably were TTA'ed. If that did yield them (it should have), that process would have strain hardened them, meaning they can now go even tighter without further yield.

Put all that together, and you should feel very safe going to 66 Nm.

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... and on the ever-inflating pricing on these, I really think they passed a tipping point where most people who think rationally will decide it is too much $$ and will find a workaround as we are discussing here. Beyond that point, you're left with people who would pay virtually any price BMW names because they want to go by BMW's spec. Period. No matter the price, if it's "required." And once you're in that inflation zone, there is not much to hold it back and the price just goes.

Anticipating disagreement on this from some, what if BMW said you needed new bolts every time the plate came off and they cost $1000 per bolt, and for that you got a nut at half price, so only $200? Yes, each. And yes, they are regular M10 class 10.9 nuts and bolts, but these are specially handled and distributed from the BMW dealer. Help yourself to some free coffee while we get them for you. Oh sorry, we'll need to special order those, we don't actually stock them, since of course we just re-use the old ones. Not to worry, we'll waive the special order markup fee, but don't tell people we gave you such a good deal. :stickpoke

Much appreciated, makes sense to me!