Has anyone here ever had their rod bearings checked on a healthy motor? Given the ridiculous RPM the CFSA can achieve I’m curious how the bearings hold up over time and if we should replace them at a certain mileage. Mine has 45k miles on it and I plan to have it for a long time.
Hi,
I don’t know much about the bearings lifespan on a RS5 but a good indicator usually is to measure oil pressure. That is one of several indicators that is common to all type of engines, may that be a V8, V10, a testastretta evo from Ducati…
I can say both failed motors that I’ve pulled apart have had rod bearing failure but…One was a 99k motor that I believe good Mx procedures were no longer followed and either had poor quality oil (seized when I bought it and I never had an oil analysis done), long change intervals, possible oil contamination (dirt/dust).
The second motor had 26.5K miles and was from a car that was in a front end collision. Motor was at a wrecker in CA for 2yrs. Could have been condensation during that period of sitting for so long? Damage from the collision as the motor came to an abrupt stop?? Loss of oil pressure during the collision??
First motor had crankshaft damage to rod journals 4/8 (shared journal), second motor had damage to 3/7. On both motors the other journals looked ok but the second low mileage motor did show a fair amount of wear for the mileage? Could be the same culprit that caused the damage to the bad journal though.
I do believe as RS5 said, due to the high RPM’s that the motor is hard on the oil. Anyone who follows the Audi Mx procedure and doesn’t change their oil until 10k mileage is going to see wear. Lambourghini (An Audi subsidiary) calls for 9k oil changes for the V10 which our engine is based on but they are still under the Audi Corporate green world umbrella. Lambo guys say 5~6k should be the change. And by saying based on I mean things such as the Rod & Crank bearings are identical part numbers.
I always change my oil at 5k never anymore and I’m using Ester Synthetic oil.
Audi’s MX Procedure is way to long and without doubt will cause wear over time. But if you think about it they want you to buy there new up and coming models so it works in there advantage in the long run !
BMW had their 15k oil change in the late 2000’s and they didn’t care. By the time it blew up the cars were out of warranty. Castrol 0w-40 has treated me very well for my turbo cars so I’ve continued to use it in my RS5. I changed my oil recently and have a Blackstone analysis heading in. Fingers crossed that I’ve got a good one!