Bearing failure was not the root cause. If the bearing indeed failed, it would've been due to sudden lack of oil pressure. If the bearing was the root cause, you would've heard knocking (and definitely would've noticed it) well before this happend. They simply don't fail that quickly (ie. without any prior warning) on their own. Did the oil pressure warning light turn on before all this happend?

If the secondary cause was bearing failure (as a result of no oil pressure), the rod would've siezed and then broken before leaving the engine. Any chance any (or all) of the rod is still there?

If there was no oil pressure problem, there are only two things that could've happend. 1. Rod bolt wasn't tightened properly and/or failed. 2. The rod failed.

If the rod is still in one piece, it's def a rod bolt failure. If not, it's one of the other two.

No, the oil pressure warning light came on right after this happened, never before. The service rep says he'll give me more details tomorrow, so I'll ask him what happened to the connecting rod.

My sympathies SpeedTriple,

No one wants this to happen to a new car - but obviously it does. I was concerned when I first read your post, because there is only one way an engine can leak oil when it is not running, and that is having a hole in it!

I have had similar experiences with two leading brands of machinery, one dropped two valves and the other seized the transmission. All fixed now, but still leaves a nasty taste in your mouth.

Make sure they fix it right and start your warranty again.

That give one pause to think about BMW.

I haven't heard of a new engine throwing a rod in a normal street car for years... that sort of failure just doesn't happen to engines any more with modern manufacturing techniques and QA.

Thanks for the tip on restarting the warranty. This problem hasn't affected me as much because my wife drives the X5, but it has made her more nervous (it doesn't help that she's pregnant too). I tried to get the service rep to tell me the exact cause of the problem, but he wasn't very forthcoming. He would only verify that they've sent pictures back to engineering and have started the engine replacement process. I guess he doesn't want to say anything that could later by false.

Any car can have a defect and even though I'm an Audi diehard, I still believe in BMW. So Penguin, until we hear more of these cases, I wouldn't sweat it.

anybody who knows anything about operations management knows that in the extreme case (japanese manuf) in regards to defects they use the 6 sigma approach which means, they will have 3.4 defects in every million products.

In US/Europe manufacturing defects are a little more dont remember the exact figure but things like these are statically bound to happen.

We won't ever know what happened to that motor, but it doesn't cause me any more pause than any other defect. Sh*t happens as they say. How many motors did Porsche replace because of block problems with the 986/996 variants...tons.

Trust me, no manfacturer wants this to happen...they're out big bux.

The e46 M had a bearing recall. I believe it covered 02-certain dates of 03. It does happen.

But it could just be a freak thing. One little shard of metal from the machining finds its way into the rod journal's bearing lube hole, clogs it up, then spins the bearing on a high rev uphill climb. Sounds reasonable to me. Sucks...but reasonable...

> they use the 6 sigma approach which means, they will have 3.4 defects in every million products.


Six Sigma sound quite impressive. But one can do better. Did you realize that if the aircraft industry settled for six sigma there would be one plane crash every 3.4 days in the United States?

Seriously, when is the last time you heard of an engine throwing a rod under warranty for any manufacturer?

E46 M3 :dunno:
All first of the run engines go through their shakedowns. Granted, throwing rods through the block is a nasty slap in the nuts. But is also why alot the consumers aids whatchmacallits, recommend not buying the first year of productions.

This is the first one that I've read about. It does happen. I know there is no way that there are more airliners being punched out of the production line, than e70 X5's. :cool: