Mobil's million-mile 325i

Originally Posted by zhp43867

It'd be fine. The rod bearings are okay once recalled. The Vanos hub failures seem larger than life because everyone who has a failure posts online. Everyone who doesn't have a failure- doesn't say anything. It's true with the subframe issue as well.

Recent threads on M3F suggest otherwise. Even after the recall, the bearings seem to be wearing more so than ever thought before. Some engines are worse than others depending on how the car is used. At any rate the recall was not a permanent solution.

Originally Posted by sammk

I was just kidding.. But wait a sec, I thought the cooling system gremlins are somehow intrinsically built into the DNA of the 3 series, no..?

So there's some differences there, but it's still a pretty awesome feat nevertheless..

Not sure if you're joking. AFAIK the E30 was the last 3 Series made without extensive use of CAD, and as such it was still overbuilt. I have two E30s with over 150k miles- and none of the cooling components on either one have been replaced.

yeah zhp, it's much better than it was

your point?


eh , nevermind, you only pipe up when your lips are sour

thats impressive.

now they need to do a real life driving test. give it to an employee that has the longest commute, and tell them they must drive it to the office everyday.

Originally Posted by wasp9166

yeah zhp, it's much better than it was

your point?


eh , nevermind, you only pipe up when your lips are sour

What's much better than it was? What your mechanic said 25 years ago probably does not hold true today.

Originally Posted by alphawhiskey

Maybe you missed the part where it ran for 4 years straight besides for servicing, and the equivalent of 1 MILLION miles (or the equivalent of it on a dyno).

Exactly. It ran continuously at a steady state. I bet it would easily run 2 million miles without a problem if they kept it going like that. It's acceleration, deceleration, redline runs, cold starts, contaminants, etc. that wear out an engine.

Originally Posted by bimmerfan08

Recent threads on M3F suggest otherwise. Even after the recall, the bearings seem to be wearing more so than ever thought before. Some engines are worse than others depending on how the car is used. At any rate the recall was not a permanent solution.

The forums aren't an accurate indication of what's going on in the "real world".

Everyone in this thread should watch this video.



The car wasn't at a constant 85 mph. The speed was varied. and all of the BMW service intervals were followed so the car had to be taken off of the dyno and worked on at least every 15,000 miles, which would require a heat cycle. yeah, its far fewer heat cycles than a car would normally see, but still.

Meh, real world would be impressive, but on a treadmill it isn't.