BMW E90 E92 E93 M3 Conrod Bearings

We stock the ACL Race Conrod Bearings (commonly known as 'uprated').
We also stock Genuine BMW Conrod Bearings (commonly know as 702/703).
We also offer ARP Bolts *, as an option to the BMW Bolts

BMW E9x M3 S65 Conrod Bearing Prices:
ACL Race / BMW Bolts
ACL Race / ARP Bolts *
BMW Genuine / BMW Bolts
BMW Genuine / ARP Bolts *


Our prices include:

  • Bearings & Bolts
  • Labour
  • Castrol 10w60 M-Power Engine Oil
  • Genuine BMW Sump Gasket
  • Genuine BMW Oil Filter Kit
  • Genuine BMW Oil Pump Suction Tube O-rings
  • Genuine BMW Power Steering CHF 11S Fluid
  • Genuine BMW Power Steering Sealing Rings
  • Consumables
  • New bearing clearances measure with Genuine BMW-supplied Plastigauge
  • Digital Pictures
  • Printed Clearance Measurement Report
  • VAT.


Engine Mounts can be added.


To make a booking with us for this job, we require a £200 deposit at the point of booking.
Please contact us and ask to speak with General Manager Simon Edwards


* It's worth noting that the Genuine BMW Bolts are more than adequate for 98% of vehicles.
Owners tend to opt for ARP Bolts if they are frequent track users or have forced induction.


As the E9x M3 platform ages, there are increasingly more items which are deteriorating.
Here's an example video of some of the common items we find:




Example video of our workmanship:



Further technical info, videos, and pictures can be found below:







The BMW 088/089 Conrod Bearing Shells are known to wear at an unusually quicker rate when compared to BMW's previous M-power engines like the S50 S54 M3, and S62 M5.

This is due to the non-industry-standard tighter clearance specified by BMW to their bearing manufacturer Clevite during the development stages in 2006.
BMW also used a high viscosity engine oil in this engine (against Clevite's recommendations) which is Castrol 10w60 (aka Edge, Supercar, FST, TenWeightSixty).
These 2 issues (tighter than usual clearances coupled with a thick oil) results in premature Conrod Bearing wear on the S65 V8 engine.

We have a company E90 M3, 2008 model, with 79,000 miles which we have fine-tuned a repair procedure for methodical but affordable replacement of the S65 Conrod Bearing Shells.

We are one of the only companies happy to share our measurement data and process of measurements of the Conrod Bearing clearance.
We have measured every single BMW M-power engine that we've ever replaced Conrod Bearing Shells on since our company's inception in 2009.
Over the years we were starting to wonder if our mandatory measurement process was excessive as we were finding no great problems. Then in 2015 we found one bearing shell showed a clearance of over 0.076mm which is outside of BMW's tolerance, yet visually the shell and crank journal was 'OK'. This made our relentless clearance measurements worth while as otherwise just 'replacing bearing shells' would have never have shown the problem. 

So it's very important to measure the clearance of the new bearing shells.
When in situ the human eye can't see the difference between 0.050mm and 0.080mm but yet the difference in terms of engine reliability would be massive.


This is a 10 hour labour process due to our due diligence of measuring the clearances of all the new Conrod Bearing Shells to Crankshaft Journal, and recording the measurement data for you. Along with each time following the correct BMW 3-stage torque process 3x times for each BMW Conrod Bolt.

When considering this complex repair for your E9x M3, make sure you know whether you are simply having your bearing shells/bolts replaced, or whether you're having your bearing shells/bolts replaced, along with comprehensive analysis of clearance measurements backed up with recorded data, plus digital media of the repair.
Otherwise you will not know if the clearances are suitable and it will purely be an assumption that none of the new bearing shells were defective, incorrectly packaged or manufactured, or even microscopically scratched in the packaging for example (it's rare but it can happen).